CIA chief places blame for Bhutto assassination

The CIA has concluded that members of al-Qaeda and allies of Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for last month's assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and that they also stand behind a new wave of violence threatening that country's stability, the agency's director, Michael V. Hayden, said in an interview.

Offering the most definitive public assessment by a U.S. intelligence official, Hayden said Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from al-Qaeda's terrorist network. That view mirrors the Pakistani government's assertions.

Read More^

Sphere: Related Content

Judge defers hearing on CIA tapes

A US judge has deferred ruling on whether the CIA's destruction of videotapes allegedly showing the mistreatment of two al-Qaeda suspects was illegal.
Henry Kennedy, a federal district court judge, held a hearing on Friday to determine whether the intelligence agency had broken a 2005 order of his to preserve evidence of torture at the camp.
A lawyer for a group of Yemeni detainees held in Guantanamo Bay had argued that the US intelligence agency had violated the order and urged an inquiry.
However the US government said any such inquiry should wait until the US justice department finished its own investigation into the affair.
At the hearing in Washington DC, Judge Kennedy appeared to agree in part with the US government, saying at one point: "Why should the court not permit the department of Justice to do just that?"
The judge did not say when he would issue his ruling.
The hearing marked the first time the US government had been in court over the tapes since the CIA admitted earlier this month it had destroyed them.
David Remes, US Guantanamo detainee lawyer David Remes, lawyer for the Guantanamo detainees, had asked the court to call an inquiry as the tapes - made in 2002 and not actually at Guantanamo - because they reportedly show two suspects undergoing waterboarding, a process of simulated drowning widely considered torture.
Remes said the government was prohibited from destroying any evidence that could be relevant in a case, even if not directly noted in a court order.
"We have a smoking gun, as it were, with respect to the government's destruction of potentially relevant evidence," he said at the hearing.
However Joseph Hunt, the US justice department's lawyer, said a court inquiry would be "unwise and imprudent" and could damage the joint Justice Department-CIA investigation's investigation.
Hunt added that justice department officials would notify the court if they found evidence that Judge Kennedy's court order had been violated.
Remes countered that such an inquiry would be like "foxes guarding the henhouse".
In addition to the CIA-justice department investigation, both the US house and senate intelligence committees are holding inquiries into the scandal.
The CIA's admission earlier this month that the tapes had been destroyed caused widespread anger amongst human rights groups and some Democrat members of Congress.
The CIA denies torture and says the tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of the agents involved.
Source: Agencies

Sphere: Related Content

WTF! TerrorBusters?

From Jeff Herz - My view of the World

I came across a new image in the fight against terrorism. Meet the new logo from
the CIA. The Terror Busters:

One can’t help but notice the similarity to the old Ghostbusters logo:

When I first saw the TerrorBusters logo, I thought it was a joke. But the above
image comes straight from the CIA website. It is real.

Sphere: Related Content

'Scooter' Libby: NBC News Can Clear Me

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, wants a federal judge to let his lawyers question Andrea Mitchell, NBC's foreign affairs correspondent, about when she learned that the wife of an outspoken Bush administration critic worked for the CIA.
Plame was outed in a July 2003 syndicated column. Three months later, Mitchell said in a television interview that she had known Plame worked for the CIA before the column.
"It was widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community," Mitchell said.
Mitchell has since recanted those comments and has said she can't explain them.
You know this is a difficult postition for the media to be in because if they were to tell the truth (whatever this is) it is like suicide for their careers. I am interested in seeing how this finally plays out.

Sphere: Related Content

Cheney Defends Efforts to Obtain Financial Records

MARK MAZZETTI
Published: January 15, 2007
Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended efforts by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to obtain financial records of Americans suspected of terrorism or espionage, calling the practice a “perfectly legitimate activity” used partly to protect troops stationed on military bases in the United States.
Freddie Lee/Fox News Sunday
Vice President Dick Cheney said the Pentagon action “doesn’t violate people’s civil rights.”
Related
Military Expands Intelligence Role in U.S. (January 14, 2007)
Threats & Responses Go to Complete Coverage »
But the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee expressed concern over the expansion of the military’s domestic intelligence collection efforts and said his committee would investigate how the Pentagon was using its authority.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Cheney said “national security letters” issued to banks and credit agencies were an essential tool for investigating terrorism cases in the United States.
He said the Pentagon had crossed no legal boundaries in issuing the letters independent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Shades of McCarthyism?

Mc·Car·thy·ism (mə-kär'thē-ĭz'əm) n.
The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence.
The use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition.

Seems to me it is. All one has to be is "suspected of terrorism or espionage" What grounds? What evidence? Who decides? Do I get to point at my next door neighbor and say he/she MAY be a Terrorist and the CIA will come knocking? I fear things are getting way out of hand here in the name of "National Security!"

Sphere: Related Content