Obama’s order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence “finding,” broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad.
This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad’s armed opponents - a shift that intensified following last month’s failure of the U.N. Security Council to agree on tougher sanctions against the Damascus government.
The order stops just short of having the U.S. give rebels weapons.
He has 20 days to appeal under Iranian law: Amir Hekmati, a 28-year-old former U.S. Marine who holds dual Iranian and American citizenship, was sentenced to death ”for cooperating with the hostile country … and spying for the CIA,” according to Iran’s Fars news agency. His family disputes the claims, saying they believe the verdict wasn’t fair. ”Amir is not a criminal,” they said in a statement. “His life is being exploited for political gain.” source
The oldest bottle in his friend’s restaurant? an 1870 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Years ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made a bet with a restaurateur around his CIA-led mission to find Osama Bin Laden: If Panetta’s team caught Bin Laden, Ted Balestreri would open up a bottle of wine that predates the first automobile. Now that time’s come. With Bin Laden dead, Balestreri will uncork that 141-year-old bottle around New Year’s Eve. Did we mention the bottle costs between $10,000 and $15,000? Careful to walk a line, though, one of Panetta’s spokespeople notes that this gesture isn’t meant to celebrate Bin Laden’s death. “Secretary Panetta has had New Year’s Eve gatherings with toasts with friends for years and this year there will be a special toast,” noted Douglas Wilson, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. source
In a recent newsletter called HuffPost Hill, The Huffington Post attacked U.S. government officials for their killing of radical Islamic terrorists Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, despite the fact that these to so-called Americans have tried and in some cases succeeded in killing countless… [more]
We’ve covered this story before and have made clear that there’s a balance here. But the problem that we see here is one of due process. HuffPo’s report is slanted in a way that sharply pins the story on an angle that frustrates many among the left. But it’s another thing entirely to paint HuffPo as anti-American because they disagree with something the U.S. government did. Here’s the issue, as many on the left see it: There’s this thing called due process for U.S. citizens, and they feel that Obama basically ignored it in hopes of stopping someone who was seen as greatly influential in al-Qaeda, a man who despite that had American parents who didn’t want the U.S. government to simply drop a bunch of bombs on him. “The question then is, why The Huffington Post is so eager to support a terrorist and murderer?” That’s just as slanted as HuffPo’s take. They’re not “eager to support a terrorist and murderer,” but they think that due process has a place in the war on terror, even for perceived enemies of the state. And they’re not alone. Glenn Greenwald’s been heavily against this, too.
MI6 and the CIA knew absolutely how much torture was taking place. They knew that these people would be abused in custody when they were sent back to Libya. Why else would you hand them over to the Libyans? You captured him, you have all of your black sites anyway, but you offered him to the Libyans. Of course the [CIA] letters say, ‘Please commit to us that you will respect their human rights.’ But that’s just talk.Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for Human Rights Watch • Speaking on the trove of documents he himself copied in Tripoli and released to various media. They show that following Gaddafi’s 2003 vow to give up his weapons of mass destruction, the CIA and MI6 both engaged in renditions to send political opponents of Gaddafi’s regime into Libya, presumably knowing the sort of inhumane treatment and torture would await them. One example: A current commander of rebel forces in Tripoli, Abdulhakim Belhadj, was rendered into Libya by the CIA, where he claims he was isolated and tortured. (h/t ZeitVox) source (via • follow)
Al-Rahman was killed Aug. 22 in the lawless Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, according to the official said, who insisted on anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.
The official would not say how al-Rahman was killed. But his death came on the same day that a CIA drone strike was reported in Waziristan. Such strikes by unmanned aircraft are Washington’s weapon of choice for killing terrorists in the mountainous, hard-to-reach area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Al-Rahman, believed to be in his mid-30s, was a close confidant of bin Laden and once served as bin Laden’s emissary to Iran.
airzona asks: Thoughts on the New York Observer article that almost outs the CIA operative that hunted Bin Laden down?
» SFB says: The NY Observer wasn’t in the wrong for printing it, though you need to approach these types of things with kid gloves (do you think they did?); the CIA was in the wrong for not being careful enough to make sure his identity was hidden. — Ernie @ SFB
» The big shuffle continues: With Robert Gates’ retirement, and Leon Panetta imminently poised to become the new Secretary of Defense, the Senate has voted to confirm General David Petaeus to take Panetta’s old job. Petraeus had been serving as the Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, but will be departing to become the number one man of the government agency we all think of when we think about high-level secrecy. Of note in this confirmation — ninety-four to nothing! Even in a thoroughly divided Washington, it’s clear Petraeus is still one of the most politically popular people to stand in support of, no matter the political party.
They’re way too close to the flame. They’re going to get burned this time.
Instead of going after those who helped Osama bin Laden to live in this Abbottabad compound, Pakistan arrested those who assisted in the raid that killed him.
Because obviously, they were the problem.
(Source: kateoplis)
Just a quick reminder on where the hunt for Osama Bin Laden stood prior to Democrats taking control of Congress in January 2007 and Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
Interestingly enough. the decision to shut down the CIA task force assigned to Bin Laden came more than four years after President Bush admitted not knowing where the terror mastermind was hiding and said, “I truly am not that concerned about him” on March 13, 2002.
It is really strange that Bush didn’t know where Bin Laden was located considering that he could have accepted a 2001 offer by the Taliban to turn over Bin Laden to the United States.
Credit George W. Bush all you want for this achievement. Just understand it flies in the face of ample evidence to the contrary.
interesting.
(hat tip to climateadaptation, who reminded us we wanted to reblog this)
The Central Intelligence Agency’s practice of shredding and burning classified papers—often referred to in movies and books as “burn after reading”—is one of several ways the CIA conserves energy, reduces its impact on the environment, and lowers costs through its sustainability efforts.The CIA • In an Earth Day posting to their website. The fact that the CIA actually said this is much funnier than any joke we could hope to make, so we’ll just let it stand. source (via • follow)
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