What is going on? by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
(libertarian)
Friday, June 17, 2011
The secret CIA base being built in the Middle East to enable Predator drones to fight for the Yemeni government in the ongoing civil war is the latest example of the ongoing militarization of the Central Intelligence Agency. While the secret base may simply be a sign that the US intends to bomb Yemen for an extended period of time, the Obama administration has handed military authority to the CIA to avoid scrutiny and responsibility.
The Obama administration has utilized Predator drones four times more than Bush. Bush oversaw 42 Predator missions from 2004-2008 while there has been over 180 attacks under Obama. While technically many missions are under the military's opaque Joint Special Operations Command, the attacks are seen as covert, and there is no public discussion in eliminating the CIA responsibilities and turning over the Predator program to the Air Force.
Retired CIA general counsel John Rizzo gave an interview to Newsweek earlier this year describing how other lawyers and himself select and approved a "hit list" of targets for "neutralization." Rizzo explained that while the President did not review the individual names of people, the lawyers did sign documents to formalize the lethal attacks. The CIA has attempted to murder American citizens suspected of aiding terrorism like Anwar al-Awlaki. (Video of Predator strike here)
Perhaps the clearest sign of the CIA's continued militarization is Obama's April nominations to install the Army's General David Petraeus the new Director of the CIA, and move the current CIA Director Leon Panetta to Secretary of Defense. The leader-swapping is likely intended to pull the CIA closer to the military.
During the ongoing confirmation hearing, Panetta recently warned the Senate last week that "the next Pearl Harbor that we confront could very well be a cyberattack that cripples" America. The hacker group LulzSec then took down the cia.gov website this week with a simple DoS attack. No top secret information is stored on the public website.
Panetta went on to say, "This is a time of historic change. We are no longer in the Cold War. This is the Blizzard War a blizzard of challenges that draws on speed and intensity from rapidly developing technologies and the rising number of powers on the world stage."
Inquisitive minds might ask with all the debt problems, excessive military and intelligence budgets, and trillions spent hunting down Osama Bin Laden only to find him in a retired military officers' neighborhood close to a golf course in Pakistan, who or where exactly is this frightful boogeyman the United States fears so much? Perhaps we will find out after the spy agency finally has the firepower, expensive budget and political clout it claims it so desperately needs. Maybe the 854,000 members of the intelligence community encompassing 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies can someday convince the taxpayer that their largesse is relevant.
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