#RememberKhost terror attack – CIA lives lost, heroes!?
RIP Warriors
Jennifer Matthews
Scott Michael
Roberson Darren LaBonte
Elizabeth Hanson
Harold Brown
Dane Clark
Paresi Jeremy WiseA more recent pic, one of my favorites, here–
From George H. W. Bush’s return to CIA headquarters in January 2016 pic.twitter.com/rSrTExjbjO
— David Priess (@DavidPriess) December 30, 2017
A nice photo of crippled CIA veterans George Herbert Bush and John Brennan – vouching to keep America save. <sarcasm>
John Brennan who believes he’s bigger than POTUS, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces across the globe. Unfathomable how much damage the Agency has done over the past half century. Deaths, torture, lies and propaganda … under Trump the Agency and the Pentagon once again join members of US Congress to lead an aggressie foreign policy. Watch May and the shredding of the nuclear deal with Iran. An open path to another war in the Middle East on behalf of the new Israel-KSA alliance as crown prince Mohammed bin Salman tours the West [NYT] extending a hand to confirm new military contracts. Who’s Salman fooling? Who lives by the sword will die by the sword.
○ Gina Haspel, Trump’s Choice for C.I.A., Played Role in Torture Program | NY Times |
○ What Happened at the Thailand ‘Black Site’ Run by Trump’s CIA Pick | The Atlantic |
Correction: Trump’s Pick to Head CIA Did Not Oversee Waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah | ProPublica |
The CIA did not comment further on the story after its publication and we were not aware of any further questions about its accuracy until this week.
The February 2017 ProPublica story did accurately report that Haspel later rose to a senior position at CIA headquarters, where she pushed her bosses to destroy the tapes of Zubaydah’s waterboarding. Her direct boss, the head of the agency’s Counterterrorism Center, ultimately signed the order to feed the 92 tapes into a shredder. Her actions in that instance, and in the waterboarding of al-Nashiri, are likely to be the focus of questions at her confirmation hearings.
More below the fold …
Full diary published @EuroTrib – here.
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The aim for Saudi Arabia and the US must be to find a common game plan | The National – UAE |
Mohammed bin Salman will make his first trip to the United States this week as the crown prince and heir apparent of Saudi Arabia. Although he has come to Washington times before, this trip is will have a very full agenda and is important from several standpoints.
First, the replacement of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state with Mike Pompeo may augur significant changes in the Trump administration approach to the Middle East and the crown prince should be prepared for discussions on a number of key issues. Consider, for example, that Mr Pompeo seems more tough-minded on Iran than Mr Tillerson – or at least, might be much more willing to run risks in following a path separate from our European allies. Could that mean he will be more demanding of what the Europeans must be willing to accept on the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, if the Trump administration is not to walk away from it in May?
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Apart from the nuclear deal and what the US might do, Mr Pompeo appears, on Qatar, to be more sympathetic than Mr Tillerson to the Saudi Arabian and UAE’s positions. What is that likely to mean in practice – more pressure on Qatar? A more determined effort to resolve the differences and restore GCC unity? One other significant policy difference may also exist in the approach to Syria. For his part, Mr Pompeo made it clear in a public appearance several months ago that he takes the Iranian/Shia militia presence in Syria to be a serious threat to US national security interests.
Well OK than, the alliance with Netanyahu’s Israel interests Trumps all … who has benefited the most with the “unfortunate” election of Trump by the American People Robert Mercer’s Cambridge Analytica?