Obama Has Paralyzed the CIA

by Infidelesto on April 27, 2009 · Comments

I’ve banged my head against the wall enough on this issue.  Any attack on this country will be squarely on Obama’s hands.

Newsmax – Obama’s message to the intelligence community was clear: Even if techniques have been approved by the country’s elected leaders, you take your career in your hands if you engage in any operation that could be considered close to the edge. That same message would be sent to the military if the president and Congress declared war and a subsequent administration conducted witch hunts and threatened prosecutions of soldiers who killed the enemy in battle.

As former CIA Director Michael Hayden has said, the effect of the release is to “invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001.”

As Hayden points out, releasing the memos discourages foreign intelligence services from cooperating with the CIA for fear their cooperation will be exposed.

No wonder Leon Panetta, the current CIA director, four of his predecessors, and Obama’s counterterrorism advisor John Brennan opposed releasing the memos.

By disclosing the techniques, Obama made it impossible for him or his successors to authorize their use in the future in the event of an imminent future attack. That’s because, as in waterboarding, many of them were intended to create fear but not actually hurt detainees.

Read the whole thing as he details the history of the CIA 

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  • huston lee
    Have you ever been tortured?
    If you had you would know that it does not work. It is not a way to get information.
    Do the research.
    Don't say stupid things - it betrays the fact that you do not know what you are talking about.
  • um, have you read the CIA memos that were released? Have you heard the testimonies of 4 count it 4 former CIA directors? Have you even done ANY research on this topic? You left-wing losers don't pay attention to a single iota of credible information. You simply dismiss and discredit any evidence put forth. Makes me sick.

    I suggest you read my previous post and for God's sake man READ THE MEMOS before you talk.

    http://infidelsarecool.com/2009/04/20/why-we-wa...
  • SirWilhelm
    "Have you ever been tortured?" Does having an impacted molar pulled count? How about defining what you mean by torture, if you're going to criticize it. Along with presenting your reseach, if you're going to say it doesn't work. And who are you saying is saying "stupid things", the Newsmax reproter that wrote this article? Or the former and present CIA directors he quotes? And using words like stupid belittles you, especially when you don't make it clear who you're refering to.
  • SirWilhelm
    Anyone that dies or is injured in the next 911 that results from Obama's actions can take comfort that we didn't do anything unethical or immoral to try to prevent it, at least in Obama's opinion, or in the opinion of whoever may be pulling his strings. I can't believe even he would have flip flopped on this issue the way he did on his own. The way he stumbles without his teleprompter may be another very subtle hint. Could it be he can't think outside his script? Then the question is, who is writing his scripts, and does that mean he is really just an empty suit?
  • Beejj
    If ever a man needed the counsel of Sir Humphrey Appleby it's President Obama.
  • JEWHAWK
    The vast majority of the American people doesn't have a clue about
    the role of the BRITISH MI-6 inside American territory.

    Whereas the CIA CAN'T eavesdrop INSIDE America per se,the British CAN
    (with America's approval,of course).They've been doing that since the WWII.

    It's absolutely nothing to be worried about for the British are just a bunch of
    "jolly good fellas"...I think.
  • Beejj
    Torture and abortion are emotive issues without parallel. Both are philosophical matters, but philosophy, for all its cleverness, seldom seems to be capable of coming forth with anything concrete. In a perfect world peopled by the considerate and fair-minded and decent, torture would hold no place. It would be indefensible. It is an outrage to all we hold dear. It is unthinkable. But we do not live in such a world. "But we must always strive to attain the ideal," proclaims the armchair philosopher, safe in his cosy little world untouched by harsh realities. "How easy it was to tell wrong from right," said Dylan, looking back on his innocent youth. Yes, but as the wise Scots are wont to say,"Let us make haste slowly."

    Nobody in his right mind smiles upon torture, just as nobody wishes war. Filthy affairs, both. Yet, wars must be fought and, alas, torture has its place - what a sad, diabolical thing to say. Torture can NEVER be countenanced? As my father said when I used the word NEVER: "Nine years is a long time!" What a wise bloke he was! You can, at this juncture, argue until you are blue in the face, and I would support your ideals, but when reality pushes ideality aside to knock on my door I begin to listen, and suddenly a grim greyness supplants stark black and white - to my intense discomfort. Sweeping morality suddenly takes a back seat to matters of life and death. John Donne claimed that every death diminishes us all, but I tend to agree with Flashman: "It diminishes him a damned sight more than it does me!" By the same token I feel queasy to know that someone is being tortured for my sake, or that of others, but if such treatment results in the saving of lives I look upon it it as a foul-tasting medicine that must be swallowed.

    The moralist will damn me for expressing such sentiments, but I would say to him: "Suppose torture of someone would result in saving your children's lives. How would you react? Would you sacrifice your loved ones at the altar of your high-minded ideals?" Of course you wouldn't, and neither would Obama, who clearly loves his little girls. At guts level we strive to be survivors, for we are genetically programmed to do so.

    So, you who view practices at Guantanamo with distaste, try to keep in mind that your very survival might depend upon the unpleasant techniques employed there. You cannot deny this. Cry into your beer as much as you like, but you'll see another dawn. Ugly old world, isn't it?
  • Well said Beejj!

    What you said can be summed up in your one quote,

    "Would you sacrifice your loved ones at the altar of your high-minded ideals?"
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