"big-swing in anti-Bush sentiment at Langley" (Haper's)

[katty]

cont'd: http://www.harpers.org/sb-cia-wehrmacht.html

The CIA “Wehrmacht”

Posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.

Sources With the war in Iraq an utter debacle and public opinion turned against the White House, anger within the armed forces towards Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Administration is growing, and the Pentagon is fighting back (see “Pentagon Memo Aims to Counter Rumsfeld Critics” in the April 16 New York Times). But what's been little noted thus far is what looks to be a similar revolt brewing at the CIA. An ex-senior agency officer who keeps in contact with his former peers told me that there is a “a big swing” in anti-Bush sentiment at Langley. “I've been stunned by what I'm hearing,” he said. “There are people who fear that indictments and subpoenas could be coming down, and they don't want to get caught up in it.”

This former senior officer said there “seems to be a quiet conspiracy by rational people” at the agency to avoid involvement in some of the particularly nasty tactics being employed by the administration, especially “renditions”—the practice whereby the CIA sends terrorist suspects abroad to be questioned in Egypt, Syria, Uzbekistan, and other nations where the regimes are not squeamish about torturing detainees. My source, hardly a softie on the topic of terrorism, said of the split at the CIA: “There's an SS group within the agency that's willing to do anything and there's a Wehrmacht group that is saying, 'I'm not gonna touch this stuff'.”

Scott Horton, a human rights activist who has become a principal spokesman for the New York City Bar Association in evaluating the Bush Administration's tactics, said that he's also hearing stories of growing dissent at the CIA. “When the shit hits the fan,” he explained, “the administration scapegoats lower-level people. It doesn't do a lot in terms of inspiring confidence.”

[Canuckistanian]

1. I thought this would happen

The Chimp has been alternately hammering and ignoring the intelligence agencies for years.

The payback is going to be big.

[MADem]

2. Well, KATRINA was the event where everyone woke up and said

"Hey, that asshole emperor really IS butt-nekkid!!!!" Before that event, everyone was afraid to cross the bastard; from the politicians, to the military, to the intelligence professionals and career civil servants.

Once the floodgates opened, though, there was no holding THAT water back.

At long last, the Monkey is swimming against the tide. Pity so many of our young had to die before the country got the spirit, but better late than never.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Yes, but if the CIA hits him with something

Nobody will ever know it came from the CIA....

[MADem]

6. I'd prefer they hit him with testimony in open court--like say, a court

convened in the SENATE, after impeachment proceedings in the House...

[paparush]

8. Dude, Bush**'s dad RAN the fucking CIA. They will not turn on him. No way

[Canuckistanian]

10. Yes. And Poppy's not happy with what's going on.

And Poppy's friends are livid. Remember, Poppy and his gang are very old-school on intelligence and like the establishment.

The neocons see the intelligence establishment as a potential problem. Good intelligence will destroy the neocon's propaganda, so it must be supressed.

And so, you have the Plame scandal as the flashpoint between these two groups.

Shrub's world vs. Poppy's world.

[Captain Hilts]

11. Bush is not like his dad and the folks at Langley...

don't change their culture to suit political appointees.

That's why the White House doesn't trust CIA, because they don't go along.

[stillcool]

3. With my faith in humanity

at an all time low, I am glad to hear there are more 'quiet conspiracies by rational people', than are apparent on the surface. Thanks for the link.

Today's “Wehrmacht” officers at the CIA are right to be worried about subpoenas: a legal analysis prepared by a senior FBI attorney in 2002 deemed that renditions to countries that torture detainees were illegal. The attorney concluded that such actions were designed to circumvent American laws against torture and that anyone even discussing such a plan could be found criminally liable. If the political winds shift, some “bad apples” in the CIA could find themselves indicted for torture.

[wakeme2008]

4. And I would bet that same is happening at NSA

People used to be proud to work at the NSA.... IMHO there is evil in what * is having them do now.

[acmavm]

7. More of WHY these people (the bush** admin) can't let go

of control in 2008. Or 2006 for that matter.

[JPZenger]

9. Rice's "Tactical Errors" Remark Spurred Criticism

Condi Rice said a couple months ago that the US had made thousands of "tactical errors" in Iraq. She then said she didn't mean "literally" thousands of errors.

One commentator said that remark spurred military and intelligence people speaking out. They viewed her remark as saying that the military made thousands of tactical errors in carrying out policies of the administration, but that in effect she was saying that the administration had not made any "strategic" errors.

Her remark was viewed as passing the blame down the line and not taking any herself.