May 05 2006
Silent Rockefeller Speaks Out On Goss
Supporting Mac Ranger’s contention that the Goss resignation is a harbinger of interesting things to come, I was surprised to see number one Senate Leak suspect Sen Jay Rockefeller trying to slam Goss on his way out.
Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a written statement: “Regrettably, Porter Goss’s tenure as director of the CIA was a tumultuous one. His chief mission was to reform the operations of the CIA and to lead the agency with foresight and vision, yet his tenure was marked by an exodus of talented and respected intelligence officers and a demoralized staff.”
As everyone knows, Bush and his pals are excellent poker players. They dangle some faux red meat in front of the panicking and desperate Democrats so they can see what happens. Fox has more Democrat reaction:
“One senior Democratic aide on the Senate Intelligence Committee told FOX News that “there were rumblings” about his departure. Committee staffers were told that the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, was “not happy” with Goss. Negroponte was named to his position in April of 2005 and took over some of Goss’ duties, such as briefing the president every morning; Goss also no longer sat atop the 16 intelligence agencies.
Look who thinks it is now safe to come out into the open!
“Sen. John Rockefeller”
Isn’t this the same guy that made a beeline to Syria to tell them we were absolutely, positively going to invade Iraq and if they have anything that needs “cleaning up” they better get busy?
From an interview of Rockefeller on Fox News Sunday November 13, 2005:
ROCKEFELLER: No. I mean, this question is asked a thousand times and I’ll be happy to answer it a thousand times. I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq, that that was a predetermined set course which had taken shape shortly after 9/11.
Larry Johnson just posted at TPMCafe with an inside scoop, claiming that Goss resigned, not because he is implicated, but because of any guilt-by-association that will come from the Wilkes scandal.
There’s going to be some crying lefties tonight.
The Goss Resignation…
The other big news of the day was the resignation of Porter Goss:
CIA chief Porter Goss resigned Friday to the surprise of many in Washington, although some sources say there have been rumblings of Goss’ departure and that his move is just anothe…
FYI: Frank Gaffney recently wrote a scathing critique of Negroponte. Just another State Department carreerist bringing in his cronies.
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/gaffney/060424
Gen. Haydon is supposedly to be announced the replacement on Monday per the Times.
*Time magazine that is.
Interesting coments are put forward that Hayden is the pick to be at another blog
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2006/05/goss-steps-down.html
On a seperate topic it is interesting to see that a member of VIPS, the founder actually was the guy playing gottcha with Rummy the other day…
Hmm guess they are having just as much trouble recruiting new recruits for the jihad as OBL and Big Z
There is some more discussion over at the Captains Quarters about possible replacements
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006918.php
Hmmmm I wonder if GW will play Hayden as a first choice so he can do a slapdown of Dems trying to probe him on stuff that would give info to the other side, could be a very interesting hearing..
Another recess appointment?
By selecting Hayden for the post, Bush may be waving a red flag at his political opponents.
Perhaps Bush is trying to stir up the NSA “domestic spying” issue again. Hayden was a big defender of the NSA program.
Most people were strongly on Bush’s side.
Should the Democrats “take the bait” and go after Hayden, this may help Bush’s ratings. Most people didn’t have a problem with the NSA program.
Some people are afraid of this supposed “domestic spying.” They distrust Bush and think it will be used against political opponents who are not connected with terrorists.
I personally think the program is about detecting terrorists and neutralizing their attacks.
Personally, I think that we have Americans who are working with foreign terrorists.
I wrote about that on my blog here, but it is just my personal unexpert opinion.
http://legendofpineridge.blogspot.com/2006/04/fbi-collars-mr-shah-and-dr_114634747707909865.html
Here is how TIME describes what Air Force General Hayden said about the NSA program that tracked terrorists:
“It was Hayden who appeared in the White House briefing room in December to defend a highly classified National Security Agency program that includes interception of domestic phone calls and e-mail messages without warrants if one of the parties has known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Hayden said at the National Press Club in January: “It is not a driftnet over Dearborn or Lackawanna or Freemont grabbing conversations that we then sort out by these alleged keyword searches or data-mining tools or other devices that so-called experts keep talking about. This is targeted and focused.” ” http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1191777,00.html
General Hayden is the highest-ranking military intelligence officer in the US. I think that this all reflects the increase in power of the military intelligence.
Well, I sure hope they can track down the terrorists that are already in our country and those who are sneaking in.
When our country is being attacked, it seems to me we need the military.