President, CIA Under Attack Over Secret Terrorist Prisons
Jim Kouri, CPP
November 03, 2005
It looks like the mainstream news media has given up on their concerns over the leaking of classified information -- at least for the moment. Last week, reporters and commentators were up in arms over the allegations that Bush Administration staffers outed a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame. Allegations of gross misconduct were leveled as high up as the Vice President because of an indictment against the VP's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby last Friday.
All Americans heard and read for the next five days was about how serious it is to divulge classified information and that President Bush should fire anyone involved in exposing Valerie Plame. But that was then, this is now.
On Wednesday The Washington Post broke the story that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe. The secret camp is part of what the newspaper said was a "covert prison system" set up by the CIA after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Washington Post -- and later the New York Times -- at times has included sites in eight other countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several countries in Eastern Europe. The news reporters also alleged that a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is part of this secret prison system, which isn't so secret anymore thanks to the patriots in the mainstream media.
These secret detention centers are believed to house more than 100 terror suspects, 30 of them among the top al Qaeda members captured during the ongoing war on terrorism.
The CIA's unconventional war on terrorism depends greatly on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services as well as keeping even the most basic information about the jails a secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions -- especially keeping information about them away from the likes of Senator Patrick "Leaky" Leahy and other partisans who put political party and personal power ahead of national security.
Supposedly, the existence and locations of these "black sites" are known to only a handful of US officials. The mainstream media also decided to bombard Americans with the term "black sites" or, as one reporter called them, "black holes," thereby giving their comrades in the Democrat Party and left-wing groups such as MoveOn.Org the propaganda boost they need to turn Americans against the war, the president and the CIA.
Citing national security concerns and the value of the program, both the CIA and the White House have tried to dissuade Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions at the camps. But this is not likely to occur since the left-wing of the Democrat Party will jump on this latest "outrage" and the news media will back them up by making the secret detention centers sound like sinister dungeons of torture.
Almost nothing is known about who is in the facilities, which interrogation methods are being used on them or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long, says the Washington Post. What is it about the word "secret" that these media geniuses don't understand?
Immediately after the story broke, National Security Adviser Steve Hadley explained the president's directive banning the torture of terror suspects applies to all prisoners, even those held in a secret prison. Hadley would not confirm or deny the existence of the Soviet-era location in Eastern Europe described in the Post story and said that "while we have to do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorist attacks and to win the war on terror, the president has been very clear that we're going to do that in a way that is consistent with our values. And that is why he's been very clear that the United States will not torture. The United States will conduct its activities in compliance with law and international obligations."
Hadley told reporters that "the fact that they are secret, assuming there are such sites, does not mean" torture would be tolerated. The president has insisted that whether it is in the public or it is in the private, the same principles will apply and the same principles will be respected."
The CIA continues their refusal to acknowledge the existence of its black sites, probably because they don't run black sites. They may run secret, high-security detention facilities, but the reasons for those centers should be obvious -- national security.
The revelations in the Washington Post and New York Times -- depending on who actually believes reporters from those newspapers -- leaves the US government open to legal challenges in foreign courts and a backlash both at home and abroad, according to the Post. The leftists are already pounding the drums for a special investigation of these CIA operations. Without even a shred of evidence they have begun talking about CIA torture at these facilities.
The fact that the news media and the comrades in the Democrat Party believe the worst about US military, intelligence and law enforcement personnel speaks volumes about how they truly feel men and women protecting all Americans here and abroad. They will always claim they support our troops but -- like Senator Dick Durbin -- they're ready to label them Nazis or worse.
So last week, the mainstream news media -- when it could hurt President Bush -- loved the CIA and wanted to protect their secrecy and the secrecy of their operations. This week the news media dislike CIA operations because -- surprise -- it can be used to hurt President Bush. And so they leaked classified information to the whole world. Why should the terrorists employ intelligence operatives when they have the Washington Post and New York Times to do their intelligence gathering for them?
All Americans heard and read for the next five days was about how serious it is to divulge classified information and that President Bush should fire anyone involved in exposing Valerie Plame. But that was then, this is now.
On Wednesday The Washington Post broke the story that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe. The secret camp is part of what the newspaper said was a "covert prison system" set up by the CIA after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Washington Post -- and later the New York Times -- at times has included sites in eight other countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several countries in Eastern Europe. The news reporters also alleged that a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is part of this secret prison system, which isn't so secret anymore thanks to the patriots in the mainstream media.
These secret detention centers are believed to house more than 100 terror suspects, 30 of them among the top al Qaeda members captured during the ongoing war on terrorism.
The CIA's unconventional war on terrorism depends greatly on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services as well as keeping even the most basic information about the jails a secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions -- especially keeping information about them away from the likes of Senator Patrick "Leaky" Leahy and other partisans who put political party and personal power ahead of national security.
Supposedly, the existence and locations of these "black sites" are known to only a handful of US officials. The mainstream media also decided to bombard Americans with the term "black sites" or, as one reporter called them, "black holes," thereby giving their comrades in the Democrat Party and left-wing groups such as MoveOn.Org the propaganda boost they need to turn Americans against the war, the president and the CIA.
Citing national security concerns and the value of the program, both the CIA and the White House have tried to dissuade Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions at the camps. But this is not likely to occur since the left-wing of the Democrat Party will jump on this latest "outrage" and the news media will back them up by making the secret detention centers sound like sinister dungeons of torture.
Almost nothing is known about who is in the facilities, which interrogation methods are being used on them or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long, says the Washington Post. What is it about the word "secret" that these media geniuses don't understand?
Immediately after the story broke, National Security Adviser Steve Hadley explained the president's directive banning the torture of terror suspects applies to all prisoners, even those held in a secret prison. Hadley would not confirm or deny the existence of the Soviet-era location in Eastern Europe described in the Post story and said that "while we have to do what is necessary to defend the country against terrorist attacks and to win the war on terror, the president has been very clear that we're going to do that in a way that is consistent with our values. And that is why he's been very clear that the United States will not torture. The United States will conduct its activities in compliance with law and international obligations."
Hadley told reporters that "the fact that they are secret, assuming there are such sites, does not mean" torture would be tolerated. The president has insisted that whether it is in the public or it is in the private, the same principles will apply and the same principles will be respected."
The CIA continues their refusal to acknowledge the existence of its black sites, probably because they don't run black sites. They may run secret, high-security detention facilities, but the reasons for those centers should be obvious -- national security.
The revelations in the Washington Post and New York Times -- depending on who actually believes reporters from those newspapers -- leaves the US government open to legal challenges in foreign courts and a backlash both at home and abroad, according to the Post. The leftists are already pounding the drums for a special investigation of these CIA operations. Without even a shred of evidence they have begun talking about CIA torture at these facilities.
The fact that the news media and the comrades in the Democrat Party believe the worst about US military, intelligence and law enforcement personnel speaks volumes about how they truly feel men and women protecting all Americans here and abroad. They will always claim they support our troops but -- like Senator Dick Durbin -- they're ready to label them Nazis or worse.
So last week, the mainstream news media -- when it could hurt President Bush -- loved the CIA and wanted to protect their secrecy and the secrecy of their operations. This week the news media dislike CIA operations because -- surprise -- it can be used to hurt President Bush. And so they leaked classified information to the whole world. Why should the terrorists employ intelligence operatives when they have the Washington Post and New York Times to do their intelligence gathering for them?
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