CIA admits to hacking Senate computers, Democrats demand resignations
The CIA and the Senate have been involved in a little spat in recent months: Dianne Feinstein accused the CIA of hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers back in March and the CIA countered by claiming the Senate was hacking their computers.
Well we still do not know if the CIA’s allegations are true or not but we do know now that Dianne Feinstein was correct because yesterday CIA Director John Brennan admitted (unbeknownst to him of course) the agency was spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has apologized for it.
This apology was not enough for some Democrats who are now calling for resignations in the wake of this stunning admission. And of course they are right: those who are responsible for this need to either resign or be fired for their roles in the scandal.
But still, I cannot help but wonder where the righteous indignation was when it came to Lois Lerner, who ADMITTED the IRS inappropriately targeted conservative groups, and I cannot help but wonder where the outrage was from these same Democrats when it was learned the NSA was collecting metadata on virtually every phone call made by the American people.
Oh, that’s right, Dianne Feinstein did not have a problem with that:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) offered a full-throated defense of the government’s collection of data on billions of American phone calls, saying Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s practices have safeguarded the nation without trampling on civil liberties.
“What keeps me up at night, candidly, is another attack against the United States. And I see enough of the threat stream to know that is possible,” Feinstein said at a Pacific Council on International Policy dinner in Century City.
Back then calls for resignations were just part of a witch-hunt if you are to believe what the Democrats were claiming, but now they are justified and apparently this is because of the class of people who were targeted in both instances.
It was okay when it was happening to the peons, but not so much when it happens to the elites. Apparently there are two sets of rules: one for those who govern and one for those who are governed.
Rate this:
Share this:
- Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
- Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
- Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
- Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
- Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
America's Watchtower 
I haven’t figured out where we are going with this, but I do know there is much more to this. An internal spat? Power struggle? Did the CIA get to big for its breeches and the FBI wants revenge? This is just the first chapter of this story. Obama wants this oldie moldie story of water boarding torture whatever to get re-litigated. That is why he wants this report out. But why? Why now? Whatever it is, it is big. Take down the CIA and demoralize it will be one outcome. Holder will file charges against those involved in the so called torture. Keep our eye on this one, this is the big one. IMO. Someone about to squeal I surmise.
LikeLike
Interesting and it is interesting that all of a sudden Obama started talking about torture again. You are right, none of this is by accident but I wonder what this is all about also.
LikeLike
Oldie moldy? We know that waterboarding took place, true, but there are still plenty of people out there who still think it’s on a par with a college fraternity hazing stunt. And I’m not certain, but isn’t this the first time this or any President acknowledged that in fact the US did engage in torture, in those words?
For many of us who are proud of our country, that was shameful episode that isn’t healed by sweeping it under the rug and calling it old news, but by defining it for what it was, determining how it happened, exposing the people responsible, and ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
And there really is a lot of there, there. Most of the people who were detained at GITMO have been released because it was determined they never took up arms against the US, but were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when the US started offering bounties for “enemy combatants.” How many of them were waterboarded or tortured in other ways, and why do we collectively believe it’s sufficient to tell them “Whoops, sorry, we were wrong, go home and sin no more . . .”
Let’s say it was your kid who got plucked from the streets in some random drug sweep and was kept in jail for a couple of weeks before pbeing able to post bail, and then proved beyond all doubt he was wrongly arrested. I’ll bet most of you would be screaming to high heaven for justice – but when it’s someone else’s kid swept up and unjustly incarcerated for months or years, the attitude is “They should be grateful we let them go,” or worse, the indignation some of us feel when they express resentment against the US for holding them unjustly.
Hey – I love the US, but we’re not perfect. Better than most others, but not perfect.
Take good care and may God bless us all!
TGY
LikeLike
All of the Navy Seals are/were water boarded as I understand it. The continuos need for self-flaggelation needs to end. Those involved were under the understanding that the Attorney General had formed a legal opinion that is was indeed legal. The intention is now to go after criminally those involved. Keeping after this will result in few willing to be involved with our security.
LikeLike
Obama already addressed this issue and out policies have been changed, I simply do not understand why he had to drag it out again.
There is an obvious difference between people being held at GITMO and you example and that is the fact that this happened during a time of war and did not involve US citizens.
LikeLike
My understanding is that the waterboarding of our own servicemembers, done under conditions completely unlike those likely to be encountered by prisoners of war, was performed to acclimate our troops to torture and try to give them a measure of resistance to torture. It wasn’t done to justify its use on enemy combatants, and its use to prepare our troops for torture is tacit admission that it’s torture. Here’s an interesting article: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/waterboarding-torture-article-1.227670
In addition, I haven’t heard of any credible proof that torturing prisoners results in reliable intelligence. We’re all familiar with the sneering assertion that if a suspect knows of a bomb that’s about to go off, he should be tortured if necessary to force disclosure of its location, and that particular argument actually has credibility for me. We apparently visited these techniques on those who’d been prisoners for a year or more – there was no ticking bomb to justify the abuse.
Take good care and may God bless us all!
TGY
LikeLike
Eh, so much US v THEM. There’s the Dems v the GOP, of course. Then there are the two houses of Congress – they politely refer to each other as “the other body” but frequently demonstrate disdain for each other, and jealously protect their own turf and initiatives, such as originating revenue legislation or confirming the President’s appointments.
Then the Congress as a whole has an US v THEM attitude toward both the Executive and the judiciary (and this isn’t to suggest that those two branches don’t frequently demonstrate a level of antipathy toward the Congress – and each other).
And from time to time, all the groups mentioned above – the parties, the houses of Congress, and the other branches of the government, including all their agencies and functionaries – display a level of disdain for the American people they purportedly serve that ranges from trifling to overwhelming.
Kind of disillusioning.
Take good care and may God bless us all!
TGY
LikeLike
“jealously protect their own turf and initiatives”
That is the part that is most disillusioning to me. So many times we see issues with which both sides agree yet they are unwilling to do anything about it because they are afraid it will benefit the other side. The best example I can come up with at this time is the medical device tax; both sides claim is should be repealed and have had chances to do so but have not, and this was done simply for political reasons.
LikeLike
“Oh, that’s right, Dianne Feinstein did not have a problem with that . . . .”
Have you seen Remy’s parody song about this, “Ironic”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9p1ivjT-0c
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike