Hold Obama Responsible For Dismantling American Intelligence

Barack Obama has decided to abandon the phrase, “war on terror,” and much of the strategy that kept this country safe for seven years following the most massive attack on US soil in history will similarly be set aside:

In another effort to undo the legacy of George W. Bush’s presidency, the Obama administration is searching for alternatives to the term “war on terror.

and as a result of this semantic withdrawal, a more substantial one necessarily follows:

During the past seven years, the “War Against Terror” or “War on Terror” came to represent everything the U.S. military was doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the broader effort against extremists elsewhere or those seen as aiding militants aimed at destroying the West.

The Washington Post ran a story entitled, “War on Terror Comes to Sudden End.”  This is not mere verbal game-playing.  Rather, we are deliberately returning to a pre-9/11 mentality.  And we will very likely pay dearly for it in the future.

The speed with which we are dismantling a philosophy of foreign policy that dates back to Reagan, and which Democratic President Bill Clinton likewise pursued, is astounding.  The government of Israel is reporting that Obama has quietly announced that he is dropping sanctions against Iran and other rogue nations in favor of “diplomacy”:

[Israeli Defense Minister Ehud] Barak has already signaled what the new [Israeli] government can expect, officials here said.

The United States has abandoned its policy of sanctioning companies that aid Iran’s nuclear and missile program, they said.

The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran’s missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy.

“We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of dialogue with Iran,” an official said.

Barak confirmed the new U.S. policy. In an address to the Herzliya Conference on Feb. 3, Barak said Washington did not say whether it would resume sanctions against Iran.

“We must arrive at a strategic understanding with the United States over Iran’s military nuclear program and ensure that even if at this time they opt for the diplomatic option, it will only last a short time before harsh and necessary sanctions are imposed,” Barak said.

Obama decided to end sanctions against Iran after determining that the U.S. measures had failed to block Teheran’s missile or nuclear weapons program, officials said. Under the administration of former President George Bush, the United States accelerated sanctions on Iran in 2008.

In his address, the Israeli defense minister indicated that Obama had forged an entirely new approach toward Iran. He said the Israeli government has sought a briefing from the new U.S. administration.

A U.S. defense source said the White House would no longer enforce sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. The source said the decision has already been relayed to Iran.

“The administration has abandoned sanctions entirely,” the U.S. source said. “It is a completely new ballgame.”

Similarly, Obama has decided on a new U.S. ambassador to Syria and is expected to lift sanctions against a nation charged with aiding Al Qaida in Iraq and secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance.
Diplomatic sources said Obama, in consultation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has asked Frederic Hof to become the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005. The sources said Hof, a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Middle East Policy Council, agreed to take the post.

The sources said the Obama administration was expected to suspend U.S. sanctions on Syria’s military and energy programs.

This is nothing short of a bald attempt at appeasement.  It amounts to the naive delusion that Iran will radically change its attitude if we start being nice to them and dismantling our attempts to contain their threat.  They won’t.  They will sense our weakness and redouble their efforts to spread jihadist violence and expand Islam.

Obama further signaled his intention of dismantling America’s “war on terror” in terms of both philosophy and capability when he nominated first Eric Holder for Attorney General and after that Leon Panetta for Director of Central Intelligence.  At issue is the fact that not only did Eric Holder engage in pardoning terrorists, but he “was part of a Clinton Justice Department that erected that infamous “wall” between the FBI and the CIA, preventing the exchange of vital intelligence on suspected terrorists.”  And it was that inability of our intelligence agencies to share information, more than any other factor, that allowed the 9/11 attack to be so successful.  As for Leon Panetta, “Panetta’s beltway track record can leave us all confident of one thing: he will do his absolute best to dismantle the CIA as its Director.”

Dick Morris, who worked directly under Leon Panetta in the Clinton Administration, said, “I know Leon Panetta…  I worked for for him for two years.  And Leon Panetta is as liberal as they come.”  Morris went on to explain:

that liberals have been at war with the CIA for 50 years; that Carter put Stansfield Turner in to gut the CIA, and that Clinton installed John Deutch for the same purpose.  Both Democratic former presidents had tried and failed to get even more radical candidates through the Senate Confirmation proceedings.  And Morris added that Panetta’s job will be “to decapitate the CIA, not to run it.”

Morris stated that Leon Panetta as Director of Central Intelligence and Eric Holder as Attorney General will result in “the disarmament” of the CIA and the American intelligence system that successfully protected this country for the last 7 years.

He decided to close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility (“Gitmo”) due to its perceived unpopularity in world opinion, even though the only currently available alternatives – essentially letting them go by releasing them to countries who will let them go after we hand them over, or putting them in US prisons where they will be able to avail themselves to the US justice system – are equally reprehensible.  Most of the countries who have been the most vocal in their protests against Gitmo have themselves hypocritically refused to accept their own nationals detained there.

The result will likely be a mess that will haunt and overwhelm our nation’s legal system for years to come.

Barack Obama also the same day issued an executive order banning “enhanced interrogations” and closing so-called “black sites” where CIA and foreign intelligence professionals had freer reign in their interrogations of terrorists.

Only three men were waterboarded under the Bush Administration:  Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.  Mohammed – who had previously divulged nothing – was waterboarded, and thereafter broke down when he shown the waterboard.  Thereafter he sang like a bird.  He gave up  Indonesian terrorist Riduan Isamuddin, who was responsible for the 2002 bombings of night clubs in Bali, and provided information on an Al Qaeda leader in England.

No one has yet taken me up on my challenge: you interrogate me under the Army Field Manual, and I’ll waterboard you until you grow gill slits, and we’ll see who gives up their social security number first.

Waterboarding is cruel procedure administered to cruel people who won’t tell us information that can save the lives of innocent people.  It works.  Period.

But not for the United States.  The new method is to break the suspect down by repeating the phrase, “Please tell us what we want to know?  Pretty please?” over and over.

Obama has previously stated that he would vote to repeal the Patriot Act and opposed the National Security Administration’s wiretapping of suspected terrorists by domestically monitoring international calls, and opposed granting immunity for telecommunications companies that provided assistance to US intelligence.  He altered his positions during the campaign.  Now we’ll have to see if he “alters” them back.

Now Obama has withdrawn the charges against USS Cole bomber terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.  Diane McDaniels, who lost her son James in the terrorist bombing of the U.S.S Cole in October 2000 in which 17 American sailors died, refused an invitation to the White House to meet with President Obama.   She said, “I Voted For Obama.  I Think I Made The Wrong Decision.”  She said America was sending the wrong signal to terrorists.

If that isn’t pathetic enough, now we’re beginning to learn that USS Cole terrorist al-Nashiri may well end up going free.  You see, he was waterboarded, and therefore he is a victim.  The fact that he masterminded the murders of 17 American sailors is inconsequential.  Al-Nashiri’s rights were violated.  And he hasn’t received the speedy trial he deserves.  These are the determinations being made by Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder.

I earlier bookended the two philosophies of President Bush and President Obama:

As a result of the “Blackhawk Down” incident in Somalia – after which President Clinton ordered the American presence to leave with their tails prominently displayed between their legs – Osama bin Laden said:

“You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew. The extent of your impotence and weaknesses has become very clear,” he said. “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”

Now lets look at another approach:

9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – after being hounded all over the world and then waterboarded until he spilled his guts to CIA interrogators – said that he doubted that al Qaeda would ever again dare to attack the United States again due to the massive, overwhelming response.

In the philosophical approach taken by President Bill Clinton and now embraced by President Barack Obama, our enemies perceive weakness and hesitation, and as a result they attack without mercy.  In the philosophical approach taken by President Bush, the United States responds with such massive force that our enemies are cowed and disheartened.  The American military machine is the finest in the history of the planet, and when it is unleashed, it wins – and God, or Allah, or Buddha, or place your deities’ name here – help whoever stands against it.

But that was part of “the war on terror.”  And terrorists need not fear the United States any more.  Particularly when at every single turn the United States is deliberately undermining its ability to successfully deal with terrorism and the rogue nations that sponsor it.

I predict attacks against American targets, against Americans on foreign soil, and against the United States itself.  And I demand in advance that Barack Obama be held personally responsible for his abandonment of policies that kept this country and its citizens safe.