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ONE MAN’S OPINION: The CIA – Who Would Have Guessed They Have Secrets
Here’s a shocker, the CIA has been involved in secret covert affairs. Imagine! Who would have guessed that an organization called the Central Intelligence Agency would be involved in such shenanigans? Secret prisons for terrorists, secret plots to assassinate senior al Qaeda officials, secret unidentified tactical anti-terrorists programs. What has happened to our once beloved, docile agency of information gatherers? They are out of control! How long will it be before the CIA starts stoning young girls, beheading innocence people and flying jumbo jets into buildings? And who is the man responsible for all this dastardly behavior? Who else:, the nefarious Richard “Dick” Cheney our former Veep and the #1 man on the DNC Most Wanted’ list.
Just for the record, before Pelosi and company form another committee and squander tens of millions of dollars to bring Dick to justice, please know, the law requires the president to make sure the intelligence committees “are kept fully and currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States, including any significant anticipated intelligence activity.” But the language of the statute, the amended National Security Act of 1947, leaves some leeway for judgment, saying such briefings should be done “to the extent consistent with due regard for the protection from unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to sensitive intelligence sources and methods or other exceptionally sensitive matters.” Now, I don’t know what any of that means, but it sounds like a loophole.
I’m not a constitutional scholar, so I can’t accurately tell you who was right or wrong, Was the CIA obligated to brief the intelligence committees? Was the rush to judgment after 9-11 misguided? Probably yes, but honestly, I don’t care what the CIA does in the name of anti-terrorism, if it protects you and me. Could it somehow spiral out of control? Yes, absolutely, but I think that is a chance worth taking. Secret plots to assassinate baddies is o.k. with me. What is the alternative? The endless lobbing of bombs, some that kill the right target, others that accidentally kill innocent school kids? Let’s get some logic and perspective into this argument. I mean, it’s not like a President and his kid brother the Attorney General authorizing a deal with the Mob to have the leader of a small neighboring Communist country assassinated, is it?
If POTUS and Pelosi are looking for ways to distract us from the main issues, namely the economy, the escalation of troops into Afghanistan, out of control budgets, and a 1200 page health care plan no one has read, then ok. Politics of distraction is the main tool of POTUS and company. If they want to vilify Cheney, go after him for wartime profiteering. Prove to me he diverted billions of U.S. dollars to Haliburton illegally, and then I’ll be the first one to slam the prison doors behind him. But if all you’re going to do is smear the ex-Vice President with allegations that his probably legal actions were probably questionable, then I’ll know you’re not really after the truth – you’re probably using events from the last administration to divert my attention from what’s going on today. And I’ll probably be in Cheney’s corner.
