"Black" operations against Syria, Iran, and Lebanon by both CIA and Pentagon

larisa does her usual in-depth and thorough investigative reporting...

[T]he Pentagon is continuing to conduct more aggressive “black” operations, approved by the National Security Council and the Office of the Vice President.

Current and former intelligence officials would not identify new specific covert programs running out of the Pentagon, though sources stressed these are far riskier and more truly covert operational activities against Iran than the activities of the CIA.

These operations started almost immediately after the Iraq war and have continued for several years. Because they can be considered part of a military operation, they are not subjects to the same requirements for Congressional authorization as the activities of the CIA.

The majority of these efforts to destabilize Iran through a covert war of aggression have been carried out by the Department of Defense, largely steered by the Office of the Vice President and by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

but we can rest assured, at least on the cia side... (ya, right...)

“The CIA does not, as a matter of course, publicly discuss allegations of covert action, whether the assertions are wrong, right, or somewhere in-between,” [CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano] said. “That's one reason why the term ‘covert action’ still exists.”

“But it's important to remember that, through the Congress, there is vigorous oversight of secret intelligence activities,” he added.

given the obsession with stonewalling, secrecy, and lawlessness in the bush administration, the almost complete abdication of congressional oversight responsibility during the republican-led years, and the lack of spine being shown by the dems today, i think "vigorous oversight" is nothing but a line of crap... you can be sure, if larisa has managed to uncover this much, there's a ton more going on we know nothing about... you only need to read something like the following to feel the certainty of that assumption...

Intelligence sources interviewed for this article all expressed concern over the lack of attention to the Pentagon’s covert activities. Some believe illegal activities like those of the Iran-Contra days are now being hidden under the loophole of “traditional military activities” to avoid Congressional oversight.

so, even if there was "vigorous oversight" being conducted - which there isn't - the blackest of the "black" ops are exempt anyway... someday, maybe it'll be all out on the table and we can collectively gasp at the brazen and illegal deeds of our government...

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Send Scooter to the slam

fitz thinks it would be a good idea that the courts send a "message" about obstruction of justice and lying... i agree...

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby betrayed the public's trust and deserves to spend 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and an assistant to President Bush, is the highest-ranking White House official convicted since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.

"Particularly in a case such as this, where Mr. Libby was a high-ranking government official whose falsehoods were central to issues in a significant criminal investigation, it is important that this court impose a sentence that accurately reflects the value the judicial system places on truth-telling in criminal investigations," Fitzgerald wrote in court documents.

yes, i know scooter's attorneys are going to ask for no jail time and, yes, i know that sentencing may be deferred until the appeals run out, but, as airtight a case as i believe fitz has, he wouldn't be calling for 2-3 years unless he thought the verdict would be upheld... his argument that the sentence should reflect the seriousness of the crime, while certainly cogent, wouldn't have much weight if it wasn't already in the cards...

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Claiming executive privilege might lead the American public to suspect a cover-up

but, given the outrages perpetrated by bushco for over 6 years and the collective yawns elicited from the american public in response, i'm not so damn sure... yeah, for those who are paying attention, claiming executive privilege in the justice department scandal stinks to high heaven, but, for my esteemed fellow citizens...? unfortunately, most of them are still watching american idol and praying to win the lottery...

President Bush is not only taking on legal precedents, but historical ones as well. When Congress has pressed for testimony, presidents have generally agreed, however reluctantly. Bruce Fein, the conservative legal commentator, urged Mr. Bush to cooperate, noting that President Ronald Reagan waived executive privilege in the Iran-contra inquiry and let national security advisers and cabinet secretaries testify.

This administration could try to delay by challenging the subpoenas in court, a step that could be a drawn-out process. But it would then have another court to worry about: the court of public opinion. Monica Goodling, the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House, has already invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination. If top advisers start to claim executive privilege, the American public is likely to suspect a cover-up.

if the "court of public opinion" wasn't asleep at the switch, bush and his criminal posse would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail a long time ago...

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"If you're looking at legacy..."

but, if you're looking at accountability...? if you're looking at ethics...? if you're looking at criminal offense...?

"This has been a huge cloud over the White House," said Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist close to the Bush team. "It caused a lot of intellectual, emotional and political energy to be expended when it should have been expended on the agenda. They're never going to fully recover from this. If you're looking at legacy, this episode gets prominently mentioned in every recap of the Bush administration, much like Iran-contra and Monica Lewinsky."

what the libby case revealed as much or more than anything else, was how much "intellectual, emotional and political energy" was expended on trying to smear your critics to protect yourselves from having the lies you told from being exposed...

of course, leave it to cheney's vicious she-wolf, mary matalin, to put things in their proper context, namely, that the clinton administration was worse...

"Scooter didn't do anything," said former Cheney counselor Mary Matalin. "And his personal record and service are impeccable. How do you make sense of a system where a security principal [former Clinton national security adviser Samuel R. Berger] admits to stuffing classified docs in his pants and says, 'I'm sorry,' and a guy who is rebutting a demonstrable partisan liar is going through this madness?"

i just love the way she characterizes joseph wilson as a "demonstrable partisan liar" and the act of smearing him and outing his covert CIA operative wife as mere "rebuttal..."

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