Oh. The explanation for Congress' closed session surfaces.

[icarus]

Today's Washington Post article about CIA secret prisons scattered around the world.

I guess we now know what Tuesday's closed session in the Senate was about.

The Washington Post would have informed them that this article was coming out on Wednesday: "Do you have anything to add?" I bet the Democrats were pissed.

The two unidentified European countries that have CIA prisons are Poland and Romania. WG just informed me that Poland and Romania are both desperate for US weapons and have been given weapons deals in exchange for their participation in the Iraq war.

Comments

[byandby.livejournal.com]

Do you think that this is in retaliation for the Valerie Wilson leak? The Bush administration has been dissing the CIA, and the CIA just said, "Enough."

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I thought her name was Valerie Plume, but yes, I suspect that had a lot to do with it. There's more to it than just the Plume issue however.

The White House decided that the CIA's job should be done by the Pentagon, and within the last year Rumsfeld was named to the head of a new military intelligence operation that is completely under White House control. It's not subject to the same scrutiny as the CIA, as they can hide behind national security in a way the CIA cannot.

They do not have the training, mindset, equipment, or anything else to do the CIA's job. But once they do they will replace the CIA.

Why replace the CIA? The White House was upset, you see, when several high-ranking CIA officials refused to toe the line and "find" evidence of WMDs that didn't exist. Several high-ranking CIA officials were fired or quit over this.

Then once the case for WMDs turned out to be bogus, the White House attempted to blame the CIA. One of the former CIA head honchos went on the record, wrote a book, appeared on news shows (including 60 Minutes) to say this was bullshit. He exposed a five-man political team working for the president whose jobs were to create/find evidence of WMDs.

He said that Bush was focused on Iraq long before 9/11, to the exclusion of CIA concerns about Al Quaida (President Clinton bombed Al Quaida facilities in 1998-9).

Yeah, the bad blood between Bush and the CIA goes waaaay back to 2001. Bush ignored them, then tried to blame them for 9/11, then tried to bully them, and is now trying to replace them.

Icarus

[byandby.livejournal.com]

Aaahhhh. That makes sense. And since the CIA wouldn't create evidence, he and the rest of the team have been badmouthing the CIA - trying to discredit and replace. (Wilson is her married name.)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yep. The CIA is too professional to just obey like puppies. They know that the president's influence was limited to his time in office. Beyond that, if they engage in behaviour that's against the standards of their field they would have mud on their faces.

(Wilson is her married name.)

Ah, that's why it sounded so familiar.

Icarus