Results tagged “Pentagon” from SpyTalk

Ex-CIA Official Challenges Logic of U.S. Fight in Afghanistan

By Jeff Stein | September 16, 2009 3:19 PM | | Comments (1)

A former top CIA counterterrorism official today questioned the central tenet of the war in Afghanistan, saying a U.S. defeat and Al Qaeda's return to a safe haven there would not pose a grave threat to the United States.

Paul R. Pillar, a South Asia expert who was deputy chief of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center in the late 1990s, argued in a Washington Post Op-ed piece that Al Qaeda's haven in Afghanistan was not critical to the success of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and would be even less so today.

"How important to terrorist groups is any physical haven?"  Pillar asked.

Tags: Afghanistan, al_Qaeda, assassinations; Executive Order 12333, CIA, counterrerrorism, foreign_policy, international_relations, Osama_Bin_Laden, Pakistan, Paul_R._Pillar, Pentagon, U.S._military, war_debate

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Ex-FBI Translator Tests Justice Dept. Again

By Jeff Stein | August 4, 2009 7:27 PM | | Comments (1)

Sibel Edmonds may never get her day in court - or at least the kind she wants.

The former FBI translator has spent seven years trying to get a court to hear her allegations that foreign agents, in particular Turkish intelligence, had penetrated her unit, the State Department, the Pentagon and Congress.

This weekend she's going to try again.

Tags: Congress, counterespionage, courts, Defense_Department, espionage, FBI, influence_peddling, Justice_Department, legal_affairs, Pentagon, Saudi_Arabia, secrecy, secret_agent, security, Sibel_Edmonds, State_Department, state_secret, Turkey, whistle_blower, whistleblowers

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Spy Agencies Bump Heads Over Interrogations

By Jeff Stein | July 27, 2009 4:55 PM | | Comments (3)

The White House beat a strategic retreat last week on its ideas for a new multiagency interrogation unit, giving its task force another two months to come up with a plan everybody can live with.

But if initial reactions are any guide, the White House faces an uphill fight in creating an organization that can satisfy military, intelligence and law enforcement needs at once.

Tags: Amy_Zegart, CIA, CSIS, Defense_Department, FBI, human_rights, interrogation, military_intelligence, Pentagon, torture, White_House

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Pentagon Punditgate Not Likely to be Aired Soon

By Jeff Stein | October 15, 2008 5:01 PM | | Comments (0)

Don't hold your breath waiting for those Pentagon-coached TV commentators to come clean any time soon.

Although the Federal Communications Commission set a deadline of Nov. 3  for the military talking heads to answer questionnaires about their murky relations with Pentagon briefers, contractors and the news networks, it's not likely any further details will surface soon -- or ever.

Once the questionnaires are handed in, then FCC investigators are obliged to see if any laws were broken by the failure of CNN, Fox, MSNBC, other news programs and the commentators to disclose to viewers that their opinions on the Iraq War,  conditions at Guantamamo and other  military subjects were being piped by Pentagon briefers.

The Pentagon inspector general is also looking into the matter, spurred by Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Michigan)  and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), who demanded answers last May following a New York Times report on an alleged secret Pentagon program to manipulate public opinion.

In addition, while the commentators were, for the most part, lauding military and counterterrorism operations, they were also working or bidding on Pentagon contracts and taking free rides to Iraq, according to reports.

It's a sin of omission, Dingell and DeLauro said.  
  
"When seemingly objective television commentators are in fact highly motivated to promote the agenda of a government agency, a gross violation of the public trust occurs," they wrote to the IG. 

To encourage the IG, the FY 2009 Defense Authorization bill (S 301) also includes a requirement that it provide Congress with a report and a legal opinion on whether the program violated past law included in appropriations measures.
 
But at least one military analyst says he won't cooperate. 

Jed Babbin, editor of the conservative Human Events magazine, who has supported the Iraq War but been a frequent critic of President Bush,  told US News & World Report columnist Paul Bedard last month that,  "If they were trying to buy me for good coverage, they got a lousy deal."  

Tags: CNN, Defense Department, DeLauro, Dingell, Fox, Human Events, MSNBC, Pentagon, propaganda

Shocker: Pentagon's Secret Budget Numbers

By Jeff Stein | October 10, 2008 11:17 AM | | Comments (0)

The Pentagon has been struggling with what to spend money on in light of the coming financial squeeze, and now they have made their choice...everything!

As my CQ colleague Josh Rogin reports today, Pentagon officials have prepared a secret budget estimate that they plan to spring on the next president right before they leave town.

It's only $450 billion more than the apparently disingenuous number they put out last February.

With the economy circling the bowl, the next commander-in-chief might want to cast it aside. 

But he would have to pay a political price -- and that's the point.

"This is a political document," said one former senior budget official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

"It sets up the new administration immediately to have to make a decision of how to deal with the perception that they are either cutting defense or adding to it."

The Defense Department's comptroller's office declined to dispute the numbers. 

Cdr. Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman, said it was "premature to discuss future budgets because they were still being worked on."

Tags: budget, Josh Rogin, Pentagon

U.S. Spies Really 'Surprised' By Georgia Attacks?

By Jeff Stein | August 12, 2008 2:19 AM | | Comments (2)

If Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia took Washington by surprise, as some reports have it, then American intelligence is in far worse shape than we've even imagined. 

If the Pentagon and CIA were also caught flat-footed by Russia's response, as the  McClatchy Newspapers' crack Washington bureau is reporting, then we have to ask: Why are we spending $55 bllion a year on intelligence? What are we getting out of it?

"I wouldn't say we were blind," a State Department official told McClatchy's Jonathan Landay on Monday. 

"I would say that we mostly were focused elsewhere, unlike during the Cold War, when we'd see a single Soviet armor battalion move. So, yes, the size and scope of the Russian move has come as something of a surprise."

A "surprise."  My, oh, my.

Except I don't believe it.

Tags: Caucasus, CIA, Defense Department, Georgia, Pentagon

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