Happy “Dirty Your Hands” by Partnering with Bashar al-Assad Day
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As I noted last week, 12 years ago today, President Bush signed the Memorandum of Notification that governed — and as of last year, at least, still governs — our war on terror.
Part of that MON, according to Bob Woodward’s Bush at War, includes partnering with “rogue regimes” like Syria on intelligence collection.
[Tenet] called for initiating intelligence contact with some rogue states such as Libya and Syria that he said might be helpful in trying to destroy al Qaeda. For the CIA to obtain helpful information against the terrorists, they might have to get their hands dirty.
After signing that MON, Bush’s own regime sent people like Maher Arar off to be tortured by Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The same guy we almost went to war against last week because he’s so barbaric, we partnered with, in a policy set by the President, outsourcing our torture.
As of May 25, 2012, the government was still relying on this MON (probably, at a minimum, to cover the drone and other method assassinations that aren’t covered by any AUMF).
I already noted all this; I wasn’t going to otherwise call out the anniversary of the day the “Gloves Came Off.”
But then I saw this clip of Philip Mudd on Colbert. About halfway through, Mudd says we have to fight Syria because Assad is,
a tyrant who has a reckless abandon when he murders innocents. At what point do you draw a line and say we are not just US citizens, we’re global citizens?
Mudd then goes on to answer a question about whether he tortured prisoners by saying he was Deputy Director of the Counterterrorism Center, which held and tortured prisoners.
He doesn’t regret that, he says.
He then goes on to admit he signed papers to render prisoners.
Mudd: If you’re asking if I’m responsible for some of that, the answer’s yes.
Colbert: Alright, you think that was the right thing to do.
Mudd: Yes.
Colbert: And we renditioned some of those people to Syria.
Mudd: Uh, I think the answer’s yes, I don’t [shakes head]
Colbert: OK
Mudd: We rendered a lot of people.
At what point do you draw a line, says this man, who can’t even remember that Syria was indeed one of the countries we outsourced our torture to, even the torture of an innocent man. We must be global citizens, not just American citizens, he says, and doing anything else is a sign of cowardice.
And yet, this intelligence expert can’t even figure out why Assad thinks he can get away with murdering his own people.
This sounds kind of like Clapper.
“The program was too big to remember it all . . .”
“The program was too complicated for any one person to understand it all . . .”
“The lawyers inadvertently made misrepresentations . . .”
“Mistakes were made . . .”
OK, maybe not that last part. Mudd doesn’t see any mistakes.
@Peterr: Right. He’s not pretending this was an accident. Clapper (and Alexander, who is ultimately responsible for the “program too big to understand” comment are.
Now all these neocons want to make us ‘global citizens’ so we can fight their wars? I think I’d like to pass if given a choice.
Global Citizen?
In the Homeland?
Of the New World Order?
If he is an example of the Global Citizen I want no part of it. As a matter of fact, I don’t want any part of being his type of citizen anywhere! This is not an honorable citizenry being pointed out, but a sick, demented view of the world.
The arrogance of this guy is just stunning. Does he even know what Colbert did to him? I doubt it.
“Honest Abe” Lincoln “murdered” a Hell of a lot more of his citizens than Assad has and He has been damn near deified. It’s a civil war, people die unfortunately.
So Spymaster, Philip Mudd must be a high ranking official in the Secret Government. He is allowed to publicly spin spy stories. Another Spy Story is that NSA “thwarted” double agent David Headley. As recently as January, Mudd had been spinning the opposite narrative that Headley slipped through the cracks, because he was a needle, or a grain of sand, in a haystack. And Headley represented the new, more dangerous blue eyed westernized Al Qaeda.
Headley had been reported as a terrorists by so many people and ex-wives, it might be suggested he had NSA and CIA protection. The NSA claims to have stopped Headley’s plots. They, the Intelligence Community, aided and abbetted and provided material support to Headley.
Why was Mudd on Colbert? Mudd kinda reminds me of Ward Abbott in The Bourne Supremacy right when Pamela Landy goes to see him in the hotel.