They Are Worthless

by Bryan

10 comments

1 Badtux { 08.09.13 at 2:55 am }

The mind boggles. Did everybody competent in the Zero administration bail when he won re-election? Does nobody have the balls to tell him, “Obama, that’s going to kill our sources of information”? At this point it’s past vindictiveness to pure pettiness…

2 Kryten42 { 08.09.13 at 5:52 am }

Seems people have forgotten, and most never really understood (or cared) about the disaster it was, so here:

Wiki: Plame Affair Timeline

Welcome to the *Brave New World* of US non-Security!

I think you should change the name to East-USA! LMAO

3 Kryten42 { 08.09.13 at 5:54 am }

Dammit! Accidentally cut the first part:

———————————
This is nothing new. The Obama Admin is simply continuing the plicies of the Bush Admin.

A LOT of damage was done (and people were killed) when the Bush admin outed CIA operative Valerie Plame-Wilson, not to mention destroying the good work of a very effective US Ambasidor!
———————————

Can you fix that Bryan? Sorry.

4 Kryten42 { 08.09.13 at 6:09 am }

Actually, that wiki is a long one! (And mostly tedious for most people). This is one of the most important parts:

On 18 July 2005, eleven former CIA officers backed Valerie Plame in a three page statement presented to a Congressional hearing[152] and characterized the leak of her identity as damaging “national security and threaten[ing] the ability of U.S. intelligence gathering”:

“Intelligence officers should not be used as political footballs”, the eleven said. “In the case of Valerie Plame, she still works for the CIA and is not in a position to publicly defend her reputation and honor.”[153] as reported by Fox News.[154] The former CIA officers charge specifically that comments by members of Congress reveal an astonishing ignorance of the intelligence community and the role of cover. The fact is that there are thousands of U.S. intelligence officers who “work at a desk” in the Washington, D.C. area every day who are undercover. Some have official cover, and some have non-official cover. Both classes of cover must and should be protected.

While we are pleased that the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting an investigation and that the U.S. Attorney General has recused himself, we believe that the partisan attacks against Valerie Plame are sending a deeply discouraging message to the men and women who have agreed to work undercover for their nation’s security. We are not lawyers and are not qualified to determine whether the leakers technically violated the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act. However, we are confident that Valerie Plame was working in a cover status and that our nation’s leaders, regardless of political party, have a duty to protect all intelligence officers. We believe it is appropriate for the President to move proactively to dismiss from office or administratively punish any official who participated in any way in revealing Valerie Plame’s status. Such an act by the President would send an unambiguous message that leaks of this nature will not be tolerated and would be consistent with his duties as the Commander-in-Chief.

We also believe it is important that Congress speak with one non-partisan voice on this issue. Intelligence officers should not be used as political footballs. In the case of Valerie Plame, she still works for the CIA and is not in a position to publicly defend her reputation and honor. We stand in her stead and ask that Republicans and Democrats honor her service to her country and stop the campaign of disparagement and innuendo aimed at discrediting Mrs. Wilson and her husband.

Our friends and colleagues have difficult jobs gathering the intelligence, which helps, for example, to prevent terrorist attacks against Americans at home and abroad. They sometimes face great personal risk and must spend long hours away from family and friends. They serve because they love this country and are committed to protecting it from threats from abroad and to defending the principles of liberty and freedom. They do not expect public acknowledgement for their work, but they do expect and deserve their government’s protection of their covert status.

For the good of our country, we ask you to please stand up for every man and woman who works for the U.S. intelligence community and help protect their ability to live their cover.

Former DCI George Tenet told a Senator that he was “furious” with the Bush Administration about the leak in 2003.[155]

Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA colleague of Plame’s in the late 1980s, heavily criticized the Bush Administration’s handling of the leak: “This is wrong and this is shameful. Instead of a president concerned first and foremost with protecting this country and the intelligence officers who serve it, we are confronted with a president who is willing to sit by while political operatives savage the reputations of good Americans like Valerie and Joe Wilson.”[156]

On 22 July 2005, Johnson,[157] along with former CIA case officers David MacMichael and James Marcinkowski,[158] former senior CIA analyst and senior fellow of the Center for International Policy Melvin A. Goodman,[159] and retired Army colonel and DIA officer W. Patrick Lang,[160] testified at a Senate Hearing on the consequences of the leak.

Lang emphasized his view that the Bush Administration’s action in leaking Plame’s identity had threatened vital national security interests over the long term, by sending the message to potential assets around the world that their identity will not be protected if they work with the CIA. “This says to them that if you decide to cooperate, someone will give you up, so you don’t do it”, he said. “They are not going to trust you in any way.”

So yeah, it’s really very unsurprising. I’m sure it will happen again.

I suspect that the only reason there hasn’t been another (or worse) “9/11” is because most groups that could do it are either biding their time for a perfect opportunity for max damage with minimal cost to them, or are happy to see the USA self-destruct. It’s only a matter of time.

5 JuanitaM { 08.09.13 at 8:44 am }

In other news, I noticed that the owner of Lavabit is shutting down their email service. Their selling point was the privacy of their service and since the Snowden issue, they’ve apparently been taking a lot of heat (from “they who must not be named”).

Apparently, the only thing they CAN talk about is that they CAN’T talk about it.

6 Bryan { 08.09.13 at 5:10 pm }

If it helps Zero or is bad for ‘his enemies’, Badtux, the clowns around him will do it. They have no idea of national security.

I didn’t forget about Valerie Plame, Kryten. That criminal act is the reason we aren’t sure what Iran is up to, because her network monitored weapons development around the Persian Gulf. Every new, unsubstantiated claim about Iran reminds me, that they wouldn’t being doing this if they hadn’t outed Valerie.

But that was a CIA operation, and the Libyan event and the current event are both pure NSA, and core missions that NSA is supposed to be doing. This stuff is not easy to do, and takes time. I assume that we can do it faster now than in my day, but not a lot, because Rumsfeld’s policies wiped out a lot of institutional memory when he started shedding people and using contractors at NSA.

One of the great things about dealing with Queens [GCHQ] is that they had people who remembered things that were tried in the 19th century, that were often the missing key in something we were working on. They remembered the patterns that hadn’t been used in decades. You can’t get that with contractors.

Thanks for the tip, Juanita. A second company, Silent Circle, has also shut down their e-mail service, saying that they can’t guarantee total secrecy anymore.

7 JuanitaM { 08.09.13 at 8:33 pm }

“Their”, not “they’re”. Sigh…it irritates the h*ll out of me when somebody does that. Now, I’m doing it.

Had not heard about Silent Circle yet. I have (had) a client using Lavabit, now we’ve got to change over to something else. #%!*

You know, when Bush had a brain block about what torture really, really was (yes, that’s really a puzzler there), and trampled all over our privacy rights, I considered the source. But it just seems inexplicable to me when I watch Obama following suit.

I mean, what happens to these people when they get to Washington, Bryan? Do they just insert this stuff intravenously and they all come out as philosophical identical twins? (Reminds me of the Malvina Reynolds song: “They’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.”)

8 Bryan { 08.09.13 at 9:53 pm }

No one who wins the Presidency willingly gives up power. Since many have limited or no experience in the military, intelligence, or foreign policy they gather advisors, who all come from a very limited pool of people, so they can “get up to speed quickly”.

Obama was always more interested in finance than anything else, so that’s where he spent his time.

Don’t feel alone. Edward Snowden voted for Obama and was waiting for him to fix the abuses, but it never happened because ‘conventional wisdom’ said the program was important in stopping terrorist attacks, even though it actually was worthless.

Obama has always been very good at running for office, but there is no record of his ever accomplishing much after he was in office. He makes campaign speeches, but he doesn’t actually govern.

DC corrupts people and makes them conform to the opinions of the local elite, no matter what people want.

9 Kryten42 { 08.12.13 at 12:39 pm }

Larry has a good blog post up. I couldn’t agree more.

Barack Obama’s Failed Scare Tactics

Oh, and this one.

CIA Under the Control of the Insane

And that from someone who worked there for years. Say’s it all really, though I would extend that from the CIA all the way to Prez.

10 Bryan { 08.12.13 at 2:21 pm }

I’m about ready to bring back the ‘Threat Chicken’ that I used when the Shrubbery was in office and issuing color codes every week.

Syria is simple: either you are for Iran or you are for al Qaeda. Those are the only choices in that conflict. The people who started the conflict because of real abuses by Assad don’t have the resources to stand against the extremists if Assad fails. Frankly the serious combat is between Hezbollah and al Qaeda.

By attacking the Taliban and Saddam, the Shrubbery removed the two main threats to Iran. This is what happens when you get your foreign policy from the Likud.