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January 10, 2009
Gutting Security: Obama's Dangerous Anti-Terror Picks
Gutting Security: Obama's Dangerous Anti-Terror Picks
By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Published in the New York Post on January 8, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama's appointments to Homeland Security, the Justice Department and now the CIA indicate a virtual abandonment of the War on Terror.
As Homeland Security chief, he's named a governor whose only experience has been with the US-Mexican border. His attorney general pick, meanwhile, took the lead in pardoning FALN terrorists. Now he has rounded out his national-security and Justice Department teams by naming ultraliberals.
Leon Panetta, his choice for CIA chief, is as liberal as they come. Though originally a pro-Nixon congressman, he long ago embraced the left with the fervor of a convert and brings these values to the CIA.
As President Bill Clinton's chief of staff (a tenure that coincided with my own work with Clinton), he was a dedicated liberal, opposing accommodation with the Republicans who ran Congress and battling hard against a balanced-budget deal. After winning re-election, Clinton jettisoned Panetta for the more moderate Erskine Bowles in order to reach a deal with the GOP.
Plus, Panetta was a prime mover in the 1995 appointment of John Deutch to head CIA, replacing hardliner Jim Woolsey. Deutch eventually needed a presidential pardon after being caught committing a massive security breach by taking home his laptop, laden with secret files.
Choosing Panetta to head the CIA culminates liberals' 35-year crusade to take over the agency, humble its operatives and rein in its operations. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter named liberal JFK adviser Ted Sorenson to head CIA, only to have the nomination killed. In 1997, Clinton tried to name his ultraleftist National Security Adviser Tony Lake (who had quit Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's staff over Vietnam), only to have that nomination rejected as well.
Each time, the intelligence community acted to protect its own and curbed the liberal president's inclinations. But now, under Obama, the Democrats will finally have their way and appoint a liberal zealot to head the agency.
Panetta will, presumably, curb such practices as waterboarding, rendition and warrantless wiretapping. So we won't gather much intelligence - but our spies will dot all the i's and cross all the t's.
Over at Justice, Obama is naming four liberals to staff the agency, each determined to rein in effective intelligence-gathering.
Professor Dawn Johnsen of Indiana University Law School is to head the Office of Legal Counsel. She distinguished herself by writing a law-review article taking issue with President Bush's efforts to keep us safe. It was titled, "What's a President To Do: Interpreting the Constitution in the Wake of the Bush Administration Abuses." Presumably, she'll bring back the days of the wall between criminal and intelligence investigations, which led to our failure to examine the computer of "20th hijacker" Zacharias Moussaoui, which contained wire-fund-transfer information on the other hijackers.
No less an authority than Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who taught Elena Kagan, the new solicitor general, predicted that she and Johnsen would "freshly re-examine some of the positions the previous administration has taken."
Obama's other Justice appointments, David Ogden as deputy attorney general and Thomas Perrelli as associate AG, bring back Clinton/Reno Justice Department retreads. Both participated eagerly in the constraints on intelligence-gathering that left us so vulnerable on 9/11.
Bush's legacy shows one clear achievement: He kept us safe after 9/11.
Now his successor's policies are about to eradicate that singular achievement. The liberals will, of course, all cheer these appointments and the policies they'll pursue once in office, but these appointments make it frighteningly more likely that we will, indeed, be hit again.
Wild Thing's comment.......
Half of our country is totally stupid. All during Obama's campaign there were more then enough clues, facts and bits of information to let a person know what Obama stood for and does not stand for. Amazing how so many simply were not intertested. If they aren't stupid then they just plain have no love for America!!!!!!!!!!!
.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 03:50 AM
Comments
Yep, they're dumb alright. The media wanted this so badly that they mesmerized the village idiots with grandeur and almost offensive adulation of this changemeister.
I noticed that most who voted for him are already on the public dole. I guess they thought for some reason they were going to lose their government pay (food stamps, welfare, medicaid, etc.) because the media made it seem that way.
But they ain't gonna get anymore either. They were stupid for believing that he's going to give them enough to make those mortgage payments, utility bill payments, etc. They went through the election with their eyes closed.
Posted by: Lynn at January 10, 2009 07:52 AM
Try walking a FEW blocks away from the White House when the sun sets... Your photo resembles the public houses there! Same for any inner city 'HOOD'.... CHANGE my *ss!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at January 10, 2009 08:11 AM
Both stupid and no love for our country.
Posted by: James M at January 10, 2009 09:34 AM
Governor Janet Napolitano can't keep illegals out of Arizona so how is she going to keep the US safe? This woman has fought Sheriff Joe Arpaio in his efforts to combat crime and illegal immigration and now she's going to be running Homeland Security. We're in trouble folks, big trouble.
Posted by: BobF at January 10, 2009 10:18 AM
We are so fucked, it isn't even funny.
Posted by: Gothguy at January 10, 2009 11:35 AM
Every day with this guy is one more step to the edge, soon we will slip off and the end will come quick.
Posted by: Mark at January 10, 2009 12:48 PM
Nice having known ya America!
Posted by: TomR at January 10, 2009 12:50 PM
I'm reminded of a time long ago, well not so long ago. We were busy, too busy to put up proper shielding. Thinking we were safe, well within Division territory, when a 150 yard hike up the hillside to the top would reveal a scene totally otherwise, we were the freaking perimeter.
We awoke one morning around 2 AM to the sound of 9 122mm rockets slamming into our tiny piece of terra firma, not the first time but the first time we took it serious, nobody was injured but we took the day to dig in and reinforce our own area. We lost three vehicles in that attack but no personnel due to their being asleep below a 3ft high sandbag wall, a wall that went up an additional 3 ft and was 2 feet thicker by nightfall. We supplied guards for battalion as well as posting our own for the remainder of our duration. We can't afford to be lax, just because we haven't had an attack on the homeland since 9-11 doesn't mean that there isn't one imminent nor does it mean they aren't plotting another, greater disaster. Like back then, they continued their attacks, some daily, some on the ground at night, always probing for a weak spot in the defense. IMHO, PEBHO has put a supple bean counter in charge of the CIA so he can direct their daily business as he sees fit. Chiseled in stone on a wall is the quick study of LBJ's reign that define the effects of direct Whitehouse interference in foreign affairs that affect national security, jeopardize the welfare of our troops and that of our allies. The American people shouldn't have to post sentries and provide their own home defense but we have a government that finds it politically incorrect to do the right thing.
Why we just might make them mad at us if we show intolerance.
We as a nation all saw the chilling effect of the trial and incarceration of our border patrol agents, the rise in illegals and border crime, the enemy sees that too!!!
Posted by: Jack at January 10, 2009 12:54 PM
Action speaks louder than words and these appointments document why the BOGUS POTUS will be committing perjury when he takes the oath of office and swears to "...the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
http://www.suddenlyeverythingsucks.com/images/constitution.jpg
Posted by: Les at January 10, 2009 02:54 PM
Everyone who can better keep their powder dry and stock up on all things you can afford to get now!
It's only a matter of time when we will be hit, not if we will. When that does happen I fear that the idiots in charge will go after the last freedoms remaining for the American citizens and gut the rest of our Constitution or worse.
We already have many enemies living among us now just waiting for the go signal. I just pray that our Military remembers their oath along with most lawmen. The Armed American Citizen is not the enemy, they are the true Home Land Defense Agency for each State.
The American Spirit will never die but I do feel that we are on a path for another Civil War if the liberals continue unchecked and try to do a complete power grab during or shortly after a terror incident on their watch.
The big question will be how many Real Americans will stand up and how many will just roll over when that time come?
AZ-Robert
Posted by: AZRobert at January 10, 2009 04:49 PM
Lynn, yes your right they sure did.
"They went through the election with their eyes closed."
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 04:54 PM
Darth, wow now that is scary.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 04:56 PM
James M, I think so too. Maybe one day there can be a test for first time voters at least to make sure they understand how our government works. So many don't even know how many Senators there are.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 04:58 PM
BobF, sheesh and Sheriff Joe Arpaio is such an amazingi and wonderful man. He truly loves America.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 05:01 PM
Gothguy, I agree. I am so sorry your comment did not go right through, I must have had an old email address in the approved section. I made sure to add the one you have now.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 05:02 PM
Mark, I don't know if I am still fighting the flu bug I had or if all this stuff with Obama is just keeping feeling sick. Either way it is a horrible sick feeling in my stomach.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 05:08 PM
Tom yes, we really have been blessed. We had such great America. Yes there were some hard times, but all in all the majority of the citizens loved this country.
It has to be the stupid education system that has brain washed so many of them to dislike this country.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 05:10 PM
Jack thank you for sharing that, great comment about what is happening.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 05:13 PM
Les, thank you for the graphic, I am saving it.
Posted by: Wild Thing at January 10, 2009 05:19 PM
Where is PETA now? Any idea of how many chickens will be consumed in 52 hours? This a WTC - What The Cluck - travesty!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at January 11, 2009 09:25 AM
