Blue Spot

Democracy Now! | Ex-CIA Officials Tied to Rendition Program and Faulty Iraq Intel Tapped to Head Obama's Intelligence Transition Team

...questions are already being raised about the people heading Obama’s transition efforts on intelligence policy. John Brennan and Jami Miscik, both former intelligence officials under George Tenet, are leading the review of intelligence agencies and helping make recommendations to the new administration. Brennan has supported warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition, and Miscik was involved with the politicized intelligence alleging weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the war on Iraq.

MELVIN GOODMAN: OK. John Brennan was deputy executive secretary to George Tenet during the worst violations during the CIA period in the run-up to the Iraq war, so he sat there at Tenet’s knee when they passed judgment on torture and abuse, on extraordinary renditions, on black sites, on secret prisons. He was part of all of that decision making.

Jami Miscik was the Deputy Director for Intelligence during the run-up to the Iraq war. So she went along with the phony intelligence estimate of October 2002, the phony white paper that was prepared by Paul Pillar in October 2002. She helped with the drafting of the speech that Colin Powell gave to the United Nations—[inaudible] 2003, which made the phony case for war to the international community.

So, when George Tenet said, "slam dunk, we can provide all the intelligence you need,” [inaudible] to the President in December of 2002, it was people like Jami Miscik and John Brennan who were part of the team who provided that phony intelligence. So what I think people at the CIA are worried about—and I’ve talked to many of them over the weekend—is that there will never be any accountability for these violations and some of the unconscionable acts committed at the CIA, which essentially amount to war crimes, when you’re talking about torture and abuse and secret prisons. So, where are we, in terms of change? This sounds like more continuity.

The left-wing is starting to show concern over Obama's recent choices for his transition team, his cabinet and what seems to many in the anti-war movement as an embrace of the militaristic policies of the 90's. Obama's foreign policy critics may soon come from many on the left-wing who may have supported Obama's campaign but now want to make sure he lives up to the promises he made for true change.

Labels: Afghanistan, anti-war movement, Congress, FISA, Foreign Policy, Gitmo, Impeachment, Intelligence, Iran, Iraq War, Liberals, Obama administration, Obama critics, Pakistan, Rahm Emanuel, WMD

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Trump: I wanted Bush impeached « - Blogs from CNN.com

(CNN) – Business mogul Donald Trump told CNN Wednesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should have sought to impeach President Bush when she had the chance.

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Trump said the president and his administration deliberately lied about the Iraq war, and congressional Democrats missed an opportunity to impeach him when the party took control of Congress in 2006.

"I was surprised that she didn't do more in terms of Bush and going after Bush," Trump said. "It was almost — it just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing."

Pressed why he feels Bush deserved the punishment faced by only two other commanders-in-chief, Trump said the president misled the country in the run-up to the Iraq war, and that his actions were considerably more objectionable than those which led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.

"He lied. He got us into the war with lies," Trump said. And I mean — look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant. And they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense. And yet Bush got us into this horrible war with lies, by lying, by saying they had weapons of mass destruction, by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true."

In the wide-ranging interview set to air on CNN's The Situation Room at 4, 5, and 6 p.m. Wednesday, Trump also praised John McCain and said the Arizona senator still has a chance to win the White House despite recent polls showing he is substantially trailing Barack Obama.

Labels: Impeachment, Iraq War, WMD

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION.

Labels: Cheney, Impeachment, Wexler

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress author Howard Zinn talks about patriotism, congress and impeachment with Walter Mosley at the Harlem Book Festival.

Labels: Congress, Grassroots, Impeachment, Zinn

Discussioln on the The McLaughlin Group regarding the testimony of Dr. Richard Carmona last week of roadblocks put up by the administration.

Labels: Anti-Science, GOP Hypocrisy, Healthcare, Impeachment

Bill Moyers discusses the idea of the impeachments of both President Bush & VP Cheney with conservative Constitutional expert Bruce Fein (who drew up an article of impeachment for Bill Clinton) and The Nation's John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. To see the rest of the interview click here.

Labels: Constitutional attacks, Impeachment

“The president says, ‘I don’t care.’ He’s not accountable anymore,” Hagel says, measuring his words by the syllable and his syllables almost by the letter. “He’s not accountable anymore, which isn’t totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don’t know. It depends how this goes.”



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Labels: Impeachment