CINCINNATI (TDB) -- CIA Director Michael V. Hayden delivered a major address last night before the Council on Foreign Relations about the war on terror. The complete text of his remarks are available here. And perhaps his most chilling words were about Pakistan -- Hayden left no doubt the CIA believes the gravest danger of another terrorist attack against the United States comes from Al Qaeda in Pakistan. He said Al Qaeda has "protected or regenerated" its capabilities from safe havens in that nation's tribal areas. He said "warning about foreign threats to our national security is part of my job."
Hayden did not delve deeply into or question the War in Iraq, which began in 2003 as a military invasion launched by the White House to buffer the nation against foreign terror.
Al Qaeda plotted the 9/11 attacks in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, then fled to shelter in the mountains of neighboring Pakistan when U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban. American troops were stopped from pursuing Al Qaeda at the border. Now, the CIA director is focusing upon Pakistan as the Islamic country where American intelligence services agree the gravest danger to our homeland exists, the only nation where he said Al Qaeda's "top leadership" continued to operate during the Iraq war.
Hayden said he wanted to "be clear as I can about the danger we face" and here's his summary:
1. "First, our analysts assess with high confidence that al-Qa'ida's central leadership is planning high-impact plots against the US homeland.
2. "Second, they assess -- also with high confidence -- that al'Qaida has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability. That means safe haven in the tribal areas of Pakistan, operational lieutenants and a top leadership engaged in planning. Al-Qa'ida's succes with the remaining element -- planting operatives in this country -- is less certain.
3. "Third, we assess -- again, with high confidence -- that al-Qa'ida is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction, and significant economic aftershocks."
Showing posts with label CIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CIA. Show all posts
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
CIA Klled Ohio's Antioch College? Shaken Not Stirred In Yellow Springs
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Green Party's unsuccessful 2006 gubernatorial candidate in Ohio is out with a James Bond style license-to-kill tale: The CIA could be responsible for the financial problems that are causing Ohio's Antioch University to close its doors. Bob Fitrakis puts on his Ian Fleming hat and spins a conspiracy theory that has American spooks targeting the school in Yellow Springs.
All those junior Goldfingers had to be hit. M and Q and Moneypenny, or whoever their counterparts are in the American intelligence services, must have had some hand in the Yellow Springs bloodletting. So OO7 -- or whoever it is that assassinates colleges -- was put on the case. Probably somebody whose SAT was 1600. Of course, it was double o 16.
Fitrakis doesn't mention this conspiracy involves the same CIA that is so inept it failed to notice there were not any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it missed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and somehow didn't spot the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Still, some may be glad to know the agency is suspected of having the skill to shut down a poorly managed school whose enrollment had dwindled to less than 100 freshmen.
All those junior Goldfingers had to be hit. M and Q and Moneypenny, or whoever their counterparts are in the American intelligence services, must have had some hand in the Yellow Springs bloodletting. So OO7 -- or whoever it is that assassinates colleges -- was put on the case. Probably somebody whose SAT was 1600. Of course, it was double o 16.
Fitrakis doesn't mention this conspiracy involves the same CIA that is so inept it failed to notice there were not any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it missed the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and somehow didn't spot the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Still, some may be glad to know the agency is suspected of having the skill to shut down a poorly managed school whose enrollment had dwindled to less than 100 freshmen.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
CIA's Press Release: Attacks Author Tim Weiner, But Doesn't Deny It Missed USSR's Fall
CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The full retort from the U.S. spy agency's public affairs office is posted online at the CIA's Website. And it accuses author Tim Weiner -- whose new book "Legacy of Ashes" faults the CIA for decades of ineptitude -- of presenting a false history that focuses on failure and ignores successes. One of the biggest flops: Missing the collapse of the USSR.
Weiner has covered national security for The New York Times and his 702-page book quotes Henry Kissinger telling Chinese Communist Prime Minster Chou En-lai in 1971 that he had "vastly overestimated the competence of the CIA." Weiner's writing attempts to make a case that the agency's aura of being on top of world events was largely an illusion.
Ronald Reagan, the Republican president who gets credit for caging the Soviet Bear, might have found some of the language in the CIA's news release a bit quizzical if not downright disturbing. The agency says that it sensed as early as 1948 that the likelihood of war with the Soviets was nil. Reagan built a successful political career around the idea that the U.S. had to have superior forces, in numbers and technology, to keep the Russians at bay. He believed the USSR was a totalitarian state, the "evil empire" bent on expanding across the globe. He saw it as a malevolent society that was up to no good. The CIA now says it recognized "trouble signs" that the Soviet Union was shaky during the years Reagan was in office.
But Weiner , as Evan Thomas has written, sees the CIA as Charlie Brown trying to kick the football because it muffed one of the biggest socio-political events of the 20th Century. It failed to forecast the 1989 demise of the Marxist state ruled from Moscow, an event that ended the Cold War. The CIA's news release critical of Weiner tries to take issue with him on that point. But it reads like spin, and says the agency had been warning that the Soviets were growing weaker starting sometime in the 1970s. Here's the CIA angle:
"The book suggests that the CIA didn't predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a number of prominent outside observers have noted, the agency had warned of trouble signs in the Soviet Union on regular occasions since the 1970s."
Those "trouble signs" don't equate with collapse. Reagan certainly didn't think the Evil Empire was about to disappear while he was in office. He saw it trying to expand in Central America, Afghanistan and other global hotspots. In June 1982 he spoke to the British Parliament:
"Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West. They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world, the map of Europe -- indeed, the world -- would look very different today."
Weiner has covered national security for The New York Times and his 702-page book quotes Henry Kissinger telling Chinese Communist Prime Minster Chou En-lai in 1971 that he had "vastly overestimated the competence of the CIA." Weiner's writing attempts to make a case that the agency's aura of being on top of world events was largely an illusion.
Ronald Reagan, the Republican president who gets credit for caging the Soviet Bear, might have found some of the language in the CIA's news release a bit quizzical if not downright disturbing. The agency says that it sensed as early as 1948 that the likelihood of war with the Soviets was nil. Reagan built a successful political career around the idea that the U.S. had to have superior forces, in numbers and technology, to keep the Russians at bay. He believed the USSR was a totalitarian state, the "evil empire" bent on expanding across the globe. He saw it as a malevolent society that was up to no good. The CIA now says it recognized "trouble signs" that the Soviet Union was shaky during the years Reagan was in office.
But Weiner , as Evan Thomas has written, sees the CIA as Charlie Brown trying to kick the football because it muffed one of the biggest socio-political events of the 20th Century. It failed to forecast the 1989 demise of the Marxist state ruled from Moscow, an event that ended the Cold War. The CIA's news release critical of Weiner tries to take issue with him on that point. But it reads like spin, and says the agency had been warning that the Soviets were growing weaker starting sometime in the 1970s. Here's the CIA angle:
"The book suggests that the CIA didn't predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a number of prominent outside observers have noted, the agency had warned of trouble signs in the Soviet Union on regular occasions since the 1970s."
Those "trouble signs" don't equate with collapse. Reagan certainly didn't think the Evil Empire was about to disappear while he was in office. He saw it trying to expand in Central America, Afghanistan and other global hotspots. In June 1982 he spoke to the British Parliament:
"Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West. They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world, the map of Europe -- indeed, the world -- would look very different today."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)