OK, maybe just Russ Feingold.  My point being that everybody has things in their life regarding which they should have a reasonable expectation of privacy.  And for those in public life, even trivial personal quirks can be enough to destroy their career - especially in this nasty political environment in which blowjobs are seen as an impeachable offense.  And this is the true danger of the upcoming FISA vote in the Senate.  If bu$h's illegal spying is given a pass then we will have lost any semblance of control of the political direction of the country.

Come across the fold to see why.

Michael Hayden was pitched by Bush/Cheney as the ideal CIA director, with his years of experience directing the NSA and his military credentials. He was approved by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 78:15 in May 2006 with scarcely any inquiry into his position on warrantless spying or other relevant issues.

This week General Hayden has revealed his true colors. In an interview published in today's WaPo and referenced  here, Hayden claims that Al-Quaida is "near defeat". The most casually informed observers of the international scene, not to mention the CIA itself, know that this is a load of horseshit. Follow me.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell (center) is almost done with significant (but unnecessary) revisions for the US Intelligence Community

In an attempt to complete the total overhaul of the US Intelligence Community (IC) prescribed by the 9/11 Commission, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is putting the finishing touches on a revamped Reagan-era executive order that incorporates his position within that system and gives that office (the ODNI) the 'power of the purse' in determining the strategic priorities of the community's members.   Executive Order 12333,  entitled United States Intelligence Activities,  was originally adopted in 1981 to further delineate the relationships among the various intelligence agencies and organizations that had evolved since the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in 1947.  

Scott Ritter hasn't been wrong about too many things regarding U.S. intentions in the Middle East.  He was one of the few who called "bullsh*t" on Bushco's claims of WMD's in Iraq.  A former Marine and former Republican, he's not exactly a partisan player, he seems to be a guy who just doesn't like being lied to.  And now he's telling us there's a "virtual guarantee" of a strike against Iran:

Ritter: US will target Iran next

We take a look at the military buildup, we take a look at the rhetoric, we take a look at the diplomatic posturing, and I would say that it’s a virtual guarantee that there will be a limited aerial strike against Iran in the not-so-near future—or not-so-distant future, that focuses on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command. And if this situation spins further out of control, you would see these aerial strikes expanding to include Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and some significant command and control targets.

It was a rather peculiar diatribeby the Secretary of Defense, especially considering that, oh so many ages ago, he'd been a member of the Air Force himself.  Even more puzzling, considering that the Air Force is running at least four mega bases in Iraq, including the Balad Air Field, which rivals O'Hare in traffic, was Robert Gates' assertion that the Air Force is not pulling its weight in the Iraq and Afghanistan endeavors.

What was he thinking?

Original article via Agence France-Presse.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - CIA chief Michael Hayden expressed his personal belief Sunday that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program, but also stood by the agency's assessment that the program was suspended in 2003.

CIA Director Michael Hayden says there's a new breed of al Qaeda terrorists.

Their western-style looks make them indistinguishable from your typical CIA officer.  They're not bald, they don't wear glasses or Air Force uniforms, but otherwise look just like us.

They are all highly trained civil rights lawyers so you can't detain, torture or try them illegally (for more than 72 hours).  They communicate telepathically so you can't illegally wiretap them.  You can't bomb them in violation of international treaties because they're here.

It gets worse ..

Current Central Intelligence Agency Director General Michael Hayden appeared on Meet the Press with Tim Russert this morning, in his first Sunday morning interview since taking office.  He made a number of statements worth further examination.

He discussed the situation in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan, interrogation techniques, and our intelligence on Saddam Hussein.

What we learned after the jump...

Well, one thing is for sure; according to the United Nations, the use of waterboarding for any reason is unacceptable and unlawful. So says Manfred Nowak, the UN torture investigator in this Associated Press news release.

"This is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law," Nowak said. "Time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."

In response to the outcry in response to recent statments made by DNI Mike McConnell, O'Reilly decided to do a little torture backfilling...

In this discussion BillO makes the arguement that comes right out of Richard Nixon's playbook.

"If the President does it, it's legal."

Being the big tough guy that he is, he's repeatedly calls anyone who thinks that the 8th Amendment,  Human Rights and the Geneva Convention ought to actually mean something "Crazy" and "Insane".  

Why are they so insane about this? It’s not fatal. It doesn’t leave a lasting physical injury. Why are they so crazy? ... I think the President has to have the authority...in extraordinary circumstances, as these three were. And the far left is putting us all in danger.

Project much do you Bill?

THANK YOU!

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Michael Hayden cast doubt on the legality of waterboarding on Thursday, a day after the White House said the harsh interrogation tactic has saved American lives and could be used in the future.

Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee that he officially prohibited CIA operatives from using waterboarding in 2006 in the wake of a Supreme Court decision and new laws on the treatment of U.S. detainees.

In other news the sky is blue, babies are cute and gravity exists.

By Michael German, Policy Counsel on National Security, Immigration and Privacy. Cross-posted at the ACLU blog.

On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA director Michael Hayden and told the Senate Intelligence Committee they believe the United States is still at great risk — even as they claimed their policies of torture and warrantless wiretapping are making us safer.

Hayden finally admitted the CIA has used waterboarding as one of its "enhanced" interrogation techniques, but he claimed it has only been used on three people. What Hayden failed to mention (but is well documented) is that the CIA has used other illegal torture techniques against countless detainees, including several who died while in U.S. custody.

Crossposted from ePluribus Media. Check the bottom for the update.

Gee, for a nation that doesn't torture, this shouldn't be happening:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CIA director on Tuesday publicly named for the first time the three suspected al Qaeda detainees who were subjected to the harsh interrogation technique of waterboarding.

"It was used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was used on Abu Zubayda, and it was used on [Abd al-Rahim] al-Nashiri," CIA Director Michael Hayden told a Senate hearing.

[...snip...]

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, who also testified at the hearing, said waterboarding remains a technique in the CIA's arsenal, according to The Associated Press. He said it would require the president's consent and legal approval from the attorney general, the AP reported.

[Emphasis mine.]

America-hating, troop-hating, Bush-basher (and Sweet Baby Jesus(tm)  defiler) Tom Ridge shows that he wants all Americans to die at the hands of the Terrorists(tm).

Two breaking stories on Wednesday once again highlighted the Bush administration's unprecedented cloak of secrecy and its perpetual quest for plausible deniability.  First, the White House acknowledged that it haphazardly recycled computer backup tapes, likely ensuring that crucial emails before October 2003 are lost forever.  Then, Americans learned that the retiring CIA station chief in Thailand asked for and received permission in 2005 to destroy videotapes of Al Qaeda detainee interrogations.  Together, these latest episodes of disappearing data might be called the Tales of the Tape.

CIA Director Michael Hayden leaves a closed senate session late this afternoon


Washington, DC (APE) - Stunned Congressmen listened in disbelief today as CIA director Michael Hayden revealed that lawyers for the CIA had authorized the destruction of all tapes and materials relevant to the Mitchell Report on drug use in Major League Baseball which was scheduled for release tomorrow. Hayden revealed that there was considerable conversation between the CIA and the White House in regards to the investigation over the past year and insisted that White House lawyers had not said, "Hell no, don't destroy them."

Another day, another, what did they know and when did they know it?  Today's New York Times reports that CIA lawyers gave written approval for the destruction of videotaped interrogations of alleged Al Qaeda  prisoners, approval given by some unnamed lawyers, not then General Counsel, John Rizzo.  In fact, although Rizzo had been involved in the discussions about the tapes for two years, he was not involved in giving the final approval.  And according to a former intelligence official:

...there had been nearly two years of debate among government agencies about what to do with the tapes, and that lawyers within the White House and the Justice Department had in 2003 advised against a plan to destroy them. But the official said that C.I.A. officials had continued to press the White House for a firm decision, and that the C.I.A. was never given a direct order not to destroy the tapes.

"They never told us, ‘Hell, no,’" he said. "If somebody had said, ‘You cannot destroy them,’ we would not have destroyed them."

And if the White House had been pressed for two years on a decision, when did George Bush become involved in the process?  According to Dana Perino, Bush:

...has no recollection of being made aware of the tapes or their destruction before yesterday.

Well, it seems that the Decider is seriously out of the loop these days.  This eleventh-hour awareness is reminiscent of when Bush found out that Iran had suspended their nuclear weapons program:

And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.

Reminiscent and just as believable.

So, who in the White House was involved in this two year back and forth?

As I said -- I already said that I asked about the President -- look, if we can get you answers on other people, I will.

Don't hold your breath waiting for those answers.  

It's a shame the Washington Post doesn't let Joby Warrick follow his nose more often. Today's story by Warrick and  Dan Eggen homes in on the most disturbing aspect of the CIA waterboarding/tape destruction story:  the failure of Congress to exercise any meaningful oversight of this administration's practice of abusing prisoners who had been proven guilty of nothing.

The waterboarding story has enormous implications for the country.  Our system of government presumes that Congress will act as a check on executive branch abuses of power. But, per Warrick's investigation (and Warrick is as thorough an investigative reporter as one will find these days), both Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders shrank from blowing the whistle on torture - a crime against humanity.