Aiding The Enemy – Moon of Alabama

February 10, 2006

Aiding The Enemy

[T]hose who choose to bypass the law and go straight to the press are not noble, honorable or patriotic. Nor are they whistleblowers. Instead they are committing a criminal act that potentially places American lives at risk.
…
Revelations of intelligence successes or failures, whether accurate or not, can aid Al Qaeda and its global affiliates in many ways. A leak is invaluable to them, even if it only, say, prematurely confirms whether one of their associates is dead or alive. They can gain much more: these disclosures can tip the terrorists to new technologies we use, our operational tactics, and the identities of brave men and women who risk their lives to assist us.
Loose Lips Sink Spies
NYT OpEd by Porter Goss, director of the Central Intelligence Agency
February 10, 2006

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I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, told a grand jury that he was authorized by his "superiors" to disclose classified information to reporters about Iraq’s weapons capability in June and July 2003, according to a document filed by a federal prosecutor.
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Mr. Libby was indicted on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice last October in what Mr. Fitzgerald has charged was a willful misleading of investigators about his role in exposing Valerie Wilson as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ex-Cheney Aide Testified Leak Was Ordered, Prosecutor Says
NYT report
February 10, 2006

Posted by b on February 10, 2006 at 09:36 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Fabulous juxtaposition, Bernhard!

Posted by: Dismal Science | Feb 10 2006 11:21 utc | 1

Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq

The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of “cherry-picking” intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, acknowledges the U.S. intelligence agencies’ mistakes in concluding that Hussein’s government possessed weapons of mass destruction. But he said those misjudgments did not drive the administration’s decision to invade.
“Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war,” Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration “went to war without requesting — and evidently without being influenced by — any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq.”
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Pillar was identified in a column by Robert D. Novak as having prepared the assessment and having given a speech critical of Bush’s Iraq policy at a private dinner in California. The column fed the White House’s view that the CIA was in effect working against the Bush administration, and that Pillar was part of that.

Posted by: b | Feb 10 2006 13:53 utc | 2

And pertinent to this today at : Scotter’s Choice

Posted by: Juannie | Feb 10 2006 14:22 utc | 3

project on govt oversight: Random Lie Detector Tests at CIA? Or Witch Hunt?

Posted by: b real | Feb 10 2006 15:50 utc | 4

Amazing comments by Mr. Goss. This shows the depth double standards within this administration. Its a criminal act to break the law and go to the press about an act of the Government breaking the law and wiretapping Americans?
The administration does not believe in “checks and balances”. We have to simply take their work and go on “faith” that all acts of the Government officials are honorable and within the bounds of civility.
Anyone who knows the history of the world and the fraility of human behavior can understand that absolute power leads to corruption more so if its unchecked.

Posted by: Saguni | Feb 10 2006 20:35 utc | 5

Mr. Goss’ op-ed is a very scarey story indeed. Either he is confused or he is trying to confuse us. Is he talking about “wistleblowers,” or “leakers.” I would agree with him that both can do serious damage, but the difference, and it is significant, lies in the moral and legal motiviations of the two.
If Mr. Goss is referring to the Plame affair, fine. There was no moral aspect to that leak. The revelation of Ms. Plame’s identity was a conscious and malicious act. If Mr. Goss refers to the current phone-tap issue, then he simply does not understand or is ignoring the fact that in authorizing these taps, the president is unilaterally rights that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending–rights that as Americans we are proud of. The key point here is that rights belonging to the American people, no matter how small, should not, cannot, be taken away by one man, no matter who he is.
Whoever leaked the information concerning the wire-taps is a whistleblower. His/her action was morally correct. Besides, it has in no way been established with any facts or evidence that these taps were yielding any information that was useful in the war on terror. In fact, there is data to suggest, as Reported by the Post, that 1000s of taps lead to less than ten follow-ups. I’m not an intelligence expert, but I have to wonder if the president’s authorization of these taps has allowed the Agency to skirt a system that not only kept them honest, but also efficient.
Who knows, but first things first. Let’s get to the bottom of the Plame affair then we can worry about who’s reponsible for the outing ot the taps.

Posted by: mandt | Feb 10 2006 20:47 utc | 6

POGO, the project of government oversight takes the Goss OpEd apart
Goss lies with his two main points:
– Unlike Goss asserts, whistleblowers are not protected
– Information about Bin Ladens sat-phone were not a leak or whistleblower information by the CIA, but reported in Time and going back to Taliban sources.

Posted by: b | Feb 10 2006 21:34 utc | 7

The WaPo had a preview today, linked above, on the policalization of the CIA in the runuo to the war on Iraq.
Interesting to read how an organisation, the CIA, did bend to the political will. I have seen the same pattern in several companies but never read it explained like here.
Foreign Affairs: Intelligence, Policy,and the War in Iraq
Summary: During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community’s former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community’s expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.

Posted by: b | Feb 10 2006 23:05 utc | 8

Perhaps Libby’s superiors should be charged with treason.

Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 11 2006 20:30 utc | 9

sibel edmonds, “A Proud National Security Whistleblower”, calls goss on his lies & integrity in this smoldering open letter : Dear Mr. Goss

Posted by: b real | Feb 12 2006 4:03 utc | 10

So, did Billmon wake up with a horse’s head in his bed, or what?

Posted by: ferd | Feb 12 2006 4:25 utc | 11

b. . my first real understanding of the runup to the war was listening to karen kwiatkowski’s interview at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. her wipikedia bio describes her as one of hersh’s sources. but i love her interview. i don’t know how to link it directly but it’s the 5th to the last link on this page. this is from 03. as far as i know she was the first person w/ an insider’s view to come out.
someone should give her an award. i wrote her once, and she wrote back!!

Posted by: annie | Feb 12 2006 7:04 utc | 12

I’d like to comment on the following bit of text from Mr. Gross, in this same piece:
“Today America is confronting an enemy intent on brutal murder. Without the capacity to gain intelligence on terrorist organizations through clandestine sources and methods, we and our allies are left vulnerable to the horrors of homicidal fanaticism.”
This is the exact same sort of fear-mongering we have seen from the Bush Administration since 9/11. It is the sort of thing that was used to convince the American people (and, through them, Congress) that PATRIOT was a good idea, that the war in Iraq was a good idea, that a second term for this administration was a good idea.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but it quit working on me about 10/11. I completely lost faith in this administration’s ability to accomplish anything but work on its crazed neoconservative agenda when I witnessed firsthand the aftermath of Katrina.

Posted by: Keith | Feb 14 2006 5:25 utc | 13

welcome aboard keith

Posted by: annie | Feb 14 2006 8:12 utc | 14

Thanks. 🙂

Posted by: Keith | Feb 14 2006 19:48 utc | 15

@ Keith: “…when I witnessed firsthand the aftermath of Katrina”
Do you live there? Tell us.

Posted by: beq | Feb 14 2006 19:58 utc | 16

I lived in Slidell, a northern suburb of New Orleans, from 1982 until December of last year – the vast majority of my life. After the hurricane, I stayed long enough to help my family set their affairs in order before moving away.
The town I grew up in, and the city I loved to visit, are not the same. Thanks in large part to the incompetence of this administration, they will never be the same. It honestly hurt too much to stay.

Posted by: Keith | Feb 14 2006 20:25 utc | 17

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