Uncommon Thought Journal: Ferreting Through News on CIA Program

July 12, 2009

Ferreting Through News on CIA Program

By Rowan Wolf

There are a number of news reports about the CIA program that was kept from the knowledge of Congress - including the Gang of 8. I decided to compare six of those reports to try and get a more complete picture of exactly what was being stated. A brief summary comparison is included in the table at the end of this article.

Point

The combined story drawn from the six news sources is as follows.

Shortly after September 11, 2001, a meeting was called where a brainstorming session was held for "radical countermeasures" to terrorism (NYT). Some sort of program that was NOT related to rendition, interrogation, domestic surveillance, or detention (Guardian, BBC, NYT, LA Times), but (Guardian):

The official characterised it as an embryonic intelligence-gathering effort, that was only sporadically active. He said it was set up to yield information that would be used to conduct a secret mission or missions in another country, but it never matured to that point.

The LA Times expands a bit::

Hayden was among the high-level CIA officials -- including Deputy Director Stephen Kappes and the head of the clandestine service, Michael J. Sulick -- who were kept apprised of the program's progress.

One former official said that Hayden, Kappes and Sulick were "very cautious" in their handling of the program and that they made decisions to narrow its focus.

The official said that the program fell on a continuum between foreign intelligence collection and covert action; the latter involves taking steps to influence events overseas, and generally falls within more stringent congressional notification rules.

The various reports range from the program (or combination of programs) never being active to "sporadically" being active.

All of the various articles but Cheney at the center of keeping the program(s) secret from Congress, and all but a handful of those included in the loop. In fact, there was apparently a direct order from Cheney to the CIA to NOT inform the Intelligence Oversight Committee or the Gang of 8 (Wa. Post). Only the Guardian article mentions Addington's role - apparently deciding who would be in the loop on the program(s). Raising some questions for me is that according to the Washington Post report, during the second Bush term, the CIA did not advise the administration (or apparently anyone else) about the program at all. This seems quite strange for a super-secret program.

This program (or programs) did not lie idle, but was pulled off the shelf from time to time and were updated or added to :

Two former agency officials who were familiar with the program said it involved a series of proposals over several years for providing the intelligence agencies with a "needed capability," one of the officials said. The latest proposal was aired in the spring of 2008 but was not carried out, the officials said. The program did not involve interrogations of detainees or surveillance of U.S.-based communications, they said.

One must also wonder, as did Rep. Eshoo : "We have to know who gave the order for this, who gave the order to conceal this, where did they draw the money for this" (Wa. Post).

Six Reports of the Secret CIA Program

Cheney ordered secrecy

Mentions Addington

Says "not operational"

specifies what it is not

sporadically active

CIA did not notify anyone (Cheney or Bush)

Bush Admin may have broken law

Links to other secrecy

"radical countermeasures)

more program details

CHENEY'S CORRUPTION MUST NOT BE TOLERATED.

CHENEY IS MENTALLY ILL AND REQUIRES PSYCHIATRIC HELP IMMEDIATELY.
_____________________
SCANDALS! SCANDALS! SCANDALS!

DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

GEORGE W. BUSH IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CRIMINAL STALKER!

"In her suit, Margie Schoedinger states that George W. Bush committed sexual crimes against her, organized harassment and moral pressure on her, her family members and close relatives and friends. As Schoedinger said, she was strongly recommended to keep her mouth shut. . . . Furthermore, she alleges that George Bush ordered to show pressure on her to the point, when she commits suicide" (go to Google, type "blog of drizzten Margie Schoedinger," and hit "Enter").

"George [Bush is personally complicit] in the death (murder to be precise) of my friend Margie Schoedinger in September of 2003. Determining the exact whereabouts and contacts of . . . George Bush on September 21 thru 22, 2003, should be entirely lacking in difficulty" (Leola McConnell--Nevada Progressive Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010).

McConnell is correct: Bush applying pressure (continuously criminally stalking Margie Schoedinger) purposefully to force Schoedinger to commit suicide does in fact constitute murder where it culminated in her death.

Bush's method of murdering Schoedinger cannot exist in a vacuum: he must have murdered other people in the same way.

During Bush's presidency, of course Bush would have desired to kill people whom he hated or get them out of his way. Insofar as Bush was clearly capable of murdering Schoedinger--even in "broad daylight"--and is clearly capable of getting away with it, in consideration of common sense and the laws of human nature, Bush of course murdered numerous people in the disgusting way he murdered Schoedinger. One can examine public information; in various situations where people who sought to oppose or disadvantage Bush ever so frighteningly ended up "committing suicide"--specifically--Bush murdered them just like he murdered Schoedinger. For example, Bush continuously criminally stalked James Howard Hatfield to the point that he could not get away from it, and he committed suicide in desperation to escape: Bush murdered Hatfield. However, the vast majority of such scandalous information will never come out (the grisly details are typically hard to substantiate). A prosecutor really can lawfully charge a former president with murdering one or more people in the disgusting way Bush murdered Schoedinger. The American people unfortunately live in a world where evil presidents can murder any number of people--figuratively--with a wave of a magic wand and get away with it.

(There are thousands of copies of the information above on the Internet. Please feel free to go to any major search engine, type "GEORGE W. BUSH IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CRIMINAL STALKER" or "George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked Margie Schoedinger to the point that she could not get away from it, and she committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered her" or "George W. Bush applying pressure (continuously criminally stalking Margie Schoedinger) purposefully to force Schoedinger to commit suicide does in fact constitute murder where it culminated in her death" or "George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked numerous people to the point that they could not get away from it, and they committed suicide in desperation to escape: he murdered them" or "George W. Bush continuously criminally stalked James Howard Hatfield to the point that he could not get away from it, and he committed suicide in desperation to escape: Bush murdered Hatfield," hit "Enter," and find hundreds of results.)

(Please feel free to see my "GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY" blog.)
_____________________
Andrew Wang
(a.k.a. "THE DISSEMINATING MACHINE")
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993

Posted by: Devoirs at July 13, 2009 7:27 PM

Excellent analysis, Rowan! Nice work! Its not many researchers that will go to the trouble of doing news story comparisons, speak nothing of doing a quick-glance-easy table like you did. Good good good.

Larry "Wingnut" Wendlandt
Anti-capitalism activist.
Bessemer MI USA

Posted by: Wingnut <label fo at July 13, 2009 8:54 AM

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