{"id":3332,"date":"2009-07-13T20:13:30","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T00:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=3332"},"modified":"2009-07-13T21:03:12","modified_gmt":"2009-07-14T01:03:12","slug":"compulsive-micromanagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/07\/13\/compulsive-micromanagement\/","title":{"rendered":"the “boss”…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Officials: CIA program targeted al-Qaida leaders<\/a>
AP <\/strong>
By PAMELA HESS <\/div>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) — A secret intelligence program canceled by CIA Director Leon Panetta in June was meant to find and then capture or kill al-Qaida leaders at close range rather than target them with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.<\/p>\n

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program, said the spy agency’s program never got off the ground.<\/p>\n

Panetta canceled the effort on June 23 after learning of its existence, its failure to yield results, and the fact that Congress had been unaware of the program since its inception in 2001, according to one official with direct knowledge of the plan.<\/p>\n

That official said former President George W. Bush authorized killing al-Qaida leaders shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and that Congress was made aware of that. However, the official said, Panetta also told members of Congress that according to notes that he had been given on the early months of the program, then-Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to inform Congress of the specifics of the secret program.<\/p>\n

Panetta told the committees there was no indication that there was anything illegal or inappropriate about the effort itself, the official said…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Okay, I know what I think. Everybody knows that even we lefties are not mad about trying to hit al Qaeda leaders wherever they are. So the program itself is another shiny object, no matter what it was. Panetta’s racing to Congress is either a CYA maneuver, or there’s something more. But the point is that, "… then-Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to inform Congress of the specifics of the secret program.<\/strong><\/em><\/font>" Whether he was right or wrong to do that, it wasn’t his to do. Dick Cheney micromanaged our government for eight years – and he did it badly.<\/div>\n


Notice who’s not hanging on every word –
David Addington [behind Mary Matalin]…<\/sup><\/p>\n

We have moved beyond a cases by case analysis of his stated reasons for screwing with the system. Dick Cheney could rationalize roasting his own mother on a spit. The question has nothing to do with "which" program, or "why" he interferred, or "who" he was telling what to do. The issue is "Why was he messing with things." He was wrong even when he was right. We have Laws for a reason. We have a system for a lot of reasons. He screwed with both because he thought he knew better. Well, the proof is in the pudding. The Bush Administration was a catastrophe – ideology aside, policies aside, and a lot of the reason is that they  [he] worked "outside the box." So, mark this up as another Cheney-ism<\/strong><\/font> we could have done without, no matter what it was. He always defends what he did<\/u> [which is often indefensible]. But the real charge is that he was "doing" when it wasn’t his place to "do"<\/strong><\/font>…<\/div>\n
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and…<\/div>\n
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Now Can We Investigate?<\/a><\/strong>
Monday 13 July 2009
by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Columnist <\/div>\n

President Obama is in the process of losing what may be the most important argument of his young administration. The argument is not about health care, bank bailouts, the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, the environment or the auto industry, though arguments on these issues are indeed ongoing and hanging in the balance. <\/p>\n

No, the Obama administration is losing the argument about the past being less important than the future. They would like his government, Congress and the American people to look forward, and to leave behind as much of the past as possible. The past, in this case, is the battery of crimes, cover-ups and tyrannies unleashed by their predecessors in the Bush administration.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration’s argument in favor of leaving the myriad abuses of the Bush administration to the dustbin of history is understandable, though hardly valid at this point. Obama and his team have a thousand and one problems to deal with in the here and now, and according to them, any attempt to quest into the past will derail all the work they have to do. They are also justifiably concerned that Republicans in Congress will try to burn down the Capitol building if Democrats even twitch in the direction of digging up the past.<\/p>\n

Understandable? Sure. Valid? Not by a long chalk…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials: CIA program targeted al-Qaida leaders AP By PAMELA HESS WASHINGTON (AP) — A secret intelligence program canceled by CIA Director Leon Panetta in June was meant to find and then capture or kill al-Qaida leaders at close range rather than target them with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}