by Oui
Tue Mar 20th, 2018 at 08:33:19 PM EST
#RememberKhost terror attack - CIA lives lost, heroes!?
RIP Warriors
Jennifer Matthews
Scott Michael
Roberson Darren LaBonte
Elizabeth Hanson
Harold Brown
Dane Clark
Paresi Jeremy Wise
A nice photo of crippled CIA veterans George Herbert Bush and John Brennan - vouching to keep America safe. <sarcasm>
John Brennan who believes he's bigger than POTUS, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces across the globe. Unfathomable how much damage the Agency has done over the past half century. Deaths, torture, lies and propaganda ... under Trump the Agency and the Pentagon once again join members of US Congress to lead an aggressie foreign policy. Watch May and the shredding of the nuclear deal with Iran. An open path to another war in the Middle East on behalf of the new Israel-KSA alliance as crown prince Mohammed bin Salman tours the West [NYT] extending a hand to confirm new military contracts. Who's Salman fooling? Who lives by the sword will die by the sword.
○ Gina Haspel, Trump's Choice for C.I.A., Played Role in Torture Program | NY Times |
○ What Happened at the Thailand 'Black Site' Run by Trump's CIA Pick | The Atlantic |
Correction: Trump's Pick to Head CIA Did Not Oversee Waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah | ProPublica |
The CIA did not comment further on the story after its publication and we were not aware of any further questions about its accuracy until this week.
The February 2017 ProPublica story did accurately report that Haspel later rose to a senior position at CIA headquarters, where she pushed her bosses to destroy the tapes of Zubaydah's waterboarding. Her direct boss, the head of the agency's Counterterrorism Center, ultimately signed the order to feed the 92 tapes into a shredder. Her actions in that instance, and in the waterboarding of al-Nashiri, are likely to be the focus of questions at her confirmation hearings.
More below the fold ...
Dean Boyd, director of the CIA's office of public affairs, praised Haspel's 30 years of public service and said Thursday in a statement that her qualifications and capabilities would be evident in the hearing process.
"It is important to note that she has spent nearly her entire CIA career undercover," Boyd said. "Much of what is in the public domain about her is inaccurate. We are pleased that ProPublica is willing to acknowledge its mistakes and correct the record regarding its claims about Ms. Haspel."
By removing Rex Tillerson as head of the US State Department, the last cover for diplomacy has been blown by the Trump admin or the NSC under leadership of
Oops ... NSC may be in transition too! Fits nicely in timeframe of Salman's visit to the States, a more robust and assertive voice in the Middle East tinderbox. Creating chaos ... and vast human suffering.
A lone man's campaign: the transition from Barack Obama to Donald Trump that never should have happened. A step into a dark hole of oblivion, destroying best relationships with foreign nations? CIA runs the Obama enhanced drone assassination program across the globe.
'Afghanistan CIA bomber' shown vowing revenge | BBC News - Jan. 2010 |
Humam Balawi is said to have been a Jordanian doctor turned double agent, having originally been recruited by the Jordanians to spy on al-Qaeda.
His father, Khalil Balawi, said that the man who appeared on the video was definitely his son. Speaking in Jordan, he blamed "American oppression against the Muslim world" for his son's act.
'Blood of our leader'
In the video clip shown on al-Jazeera, Humam Balawi says he is sending a message to the "enemies of Islam", who he names as Jordan's intelligence services and the CIA.
"We say that we will never forget the blood of our leader, Baitullah Mehsud," he says. "What remains is to avenge him inside and outside America."
The Jordanian, speaking in Arabic, says the Pakistani Taliban leader paid with his life for offering to shelter al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tortured in Jordanian prison
Mayhem in Counting Terrorism @BooMan - 2006 by Larry Johnson
Brennan and Zelikow reported [cahed] that in 2004 there were 651 attacks worldwide in which someone was killed or wounded. By comparison there were only 175 such attacks in 2003. I believe the most important statistic for assessing terrorist activity is the number for the attacks that either killed or wounded someone. In the State Department reports prior to 2005, this statistic was known as a "Significant Incident". A Significant Incident was an attack in which someone was killed, wounded, kidnapped, or there was property damage in excess of $10,000.
The following chart illustrates the difference between terrorism in general and significant acts of terrorism in particular.
CIA chart Comparison of significant terrorist attacks
« click for more info »
This chart, which is derived from the U.S. Government's statistics, clearly shows that not only has the number of terrorist attacks soared since we invaded Iraq in 2003, but that the number of Significant Incidents has quintupled. If that constitutes "winning the war on terrorism" or a record of success then we have entered an Orwellian world in which up is down and black is white.
Martin Longman on CIA's John Brennan
The aim for Saudi Arabia and the US must be to find a common game plan | The National - UAE |
Mohammed bin Salman will make his first trip to the United States this week as the crown prince and heir apparent of Saudi Arabia. Although he has come to Washington times before, this trip is will have a very full agenda and is important from several standpoints.
First, the replacement of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state with Mike Pompeo may augur significant changes in the Trump administration approach to the Middle East and the crown prince should be prepared for discussions on a number of key issues. Consider, for example, that Mr Pompeo seems more tough-minded on Iran than Mr Tillerson - or at least, might be much more willing to run risks in following a path separate from our European allies. Could that mean he will be more demanding of what the Europeans must be willing to accept on the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, if the Trump administration is not to walk away from it in May?
...
Apart from the nuclear deal and what the US might do, Mr Pompeo appears, on Qatar, to be more sympathetic than Mr Tillerson to the Saudi Arabian and UAE's positions. What is that likely to mean in practice - more pressure on Qatar? A more determined effort to resolve the differences and restore GCC unity? One other significant policy difference may also exist in the approach to Syria. For his part, Mr Pompeo made it clear in a public appearance several months ago that he takes the Iranian/Shia militia presence in Syria to be a serious threat to US national security interests.
Well OK than, the alliance with Netanyahu's Israel interests Trumps all ... who has benefited the most with the "unfortunate" election of Trump by the American People Robert Mercer's Cambridge Analytica?
