Obama’s Intelligence Agenda: More of the Same from the “Change Administration”

Tom Burghardt
Dissident Voice
Sunday, Nov 16, 2008

While expectations may be high that the incoming Obama administration will reverse many of the worst features of the Bush regime–from warrantless wiretapping, illegal detention, torture, “targeted assassinations” and preemptive war–now that the cheering has stopped, expect more of the same.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that is almost certain to create tension within the Democratic Party.”

With hyperbolic “change” rhetoric in the air, Obama is relying on a gaggle of former intelligence insiders, warmed-over Clinton administration officials and “moderate” Republicans, many of whom helped Bush craft his administration’s illegal policies.

With U.S. street cred at an all-time low, due in no small measure to Washington’s hubristic fantasies that it really is an empire and not a rapidly decaying failed state, ruling elites have literally banked on Obama to deliver the goods.

During his run for the White House, the Illinois senator may have mildly criticized some of the administration’s so-called “counterterrorism” policies including the Bushist penchant for secrecy, the disappearance of “terrorist” suspects, driftnet surveillance of American citizens and legal residents, CIA “black site” gulags and the crushing of domestic dissent.

(Article continues below)

But in the few scant days since the November 4 general election, the contours of what Democratic party corporatist grifters will roll-out come January 20 are taking shape. Citing Obama’s carefully-crafted public relations blitz on the campaign trail opposing illegal spying, the Journal reports:

Yet he … voted for a White House-backed law to expand eavesdropping powers for the National Security Agency. Mr. Obama said he opposed providing legal immunity to telecommunications companies that aided warrantless surveillance, but ultimately voted for the bill, which included an immunity provision.

The new president could take a similar approach to revising the rules for CIA interrogations, said one current government official familiar with the transition. Upon review, Mr. Obama may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military, but with much greater oversight. (Siobhan Gorman, “Intelligence Policy to Stay Largely Intact,” The Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2008)

The “current government official” cited by the Journal fails to specify precisely what it means to “keep the road open” when it comes to torturing prisoners of war in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Considering that top Bush administration officials “repeatedly discussed and approved specific details of exactly how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency,” as ABC News reported back in April, and that “high-level discussions about these ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were so detailed … some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed–down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic,” one is left to ponder what “much greater oversight” would actually mean.Perhaps such “oversight” entails a cosmetic shake-up at the top rungs of U.S. intelligence agencies? The Washington Post reports that “The nation’s top two intelligence officers expect to be replaced by President-elect Barack Obama early in his administration, according to senior intelligence officials.”

But would the replacement of Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, a former admiral who oversaw spooky Booz Allen Hamilton corporate contracts with the “intelligence community,” and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, an Air Force general who implemented Bushist warrantless wiretapping programs while NSA Director, represent “change” or continuity?

While some Democrats may oppose retaining America’s top spooks because of their public support of Bushist policies, “other Democrats and many intelligence experts,” according to the Post “give high marks to the current cadre of intelligence leaders, crediting them with restoring stability and professionalism to a community rocked by multiple scandals in recent years.”

With a subtext arguing in favor of retaining McConnell and Hayden, Post journalists Walter Pincus (who has a dubious history of collaboration with the CIA as researchers Daniel Brandt and Steve Badrich note) and Karen DeYoung, cite unnamed “intelligence officials” who think their early departure “could be seen as politicizing their offices and setting a precedent for automatic turnover when the White House changes hands.”

Full article here

Prison Planet.tv Members Can Watch Fall Of The Republic Right Now Online - Don't Miss Out! Get Your Subscription Today!

CANCER CONSPIRACY? Are "they" suppressing the cure? Will YOU be the next victim? Learn the Secret Truth! - READ FULL STORY

Comment Terms Of Use

8 Responses to “Obama’s Intelligence Agenda: More of the Same from the “Change Administration””

Alex Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 6:05 am
No politician willingly gives up power. The neo-cons granted themselves all these dictatorial powers then Democrats will use these powers to further their own agenda.
I’m sure the “conservatives” who cheered and supported Bush over the powers will quake in their boots now, but they are getting exacrly what is coming to them.
For me, they will never get or even find my guns, gold or stored food. I dare anyone to try.
I’ll weather it out then when the time is right we will strike back on our terms and send the NWO back under their rocks for the next 10 generations.
birgit Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 9:22 am
The only change we’ll get is the color of th P**** pounding us
grub Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
#2, well said. That and now there might be watermelon rhines on the white house lawn.
mmmhmm Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Grub, you are the perfect example of the garden-variety racist. You use a tiresome racial put-down and then mispell your putdown! It watermelon “rind”, not “rhine”. It’s always the ones with a below-average IQ who use race to put others down. Even if it were the case that whites were superior it would be no thanks to you, you illiterate fuck!
Darth Chaos Says:
November 16th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
#4, these racists are probably agents trying to get this site branded a hate/racist site.
rlilewis Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 6:19 am
This site is being increasingly overrun by racists, this is a blatant ploy to get the site either shutdown or banned from major networks.

Hell if I was in the CIA and wanted to suppress sites like these, I would pay someone to come along and post racists / hate messages. They did that on YouTube by copying well known truth movement authors and using it to post racist messages, YouTube banned the *REAL* authors though, hehe.
Patriot Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 8:25 am
The change only I can believe in is Obama getting paid 750k a year instead of 170k.
Robert Ken Francis Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Got a great link for you!

http://www.ballot-access.org/2.....igibility/

If the question of Obama being “natural born” is even considered, he is sunk. He has no vault birth certificate, and his own relatives in Africa have already said he was born in Kenya.

Obama is therefore ineligible to be President.