CIA Lying to Congress?

The CIA has been lying to Congress about somethingoranother for years now, sources tell NYT. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said. In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing ...

Vietnam Not Winnable

Gary Farber continues his look at the latest document release from President Nixon's archives and finds corroboration for his long held belief that Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed the war in Vietnam was unwinnable and "simply wanted to punt the issue until after the 1972 elections, after which they expected South Vietnam to collapse."  And, of course, we learned not ...

Robert McNamara Dead at 93

Breaking news from CNN: "Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, architect of U.S. war in Vietnam, has died at 93, according to his family." I click the link and get: Seriously? AP has a more fitting obituary: [caption id="attachment_39010" align="alignright" width="318" caption="In a Nov. 17, 1961 file photo, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara holds a news conference at the Pentagon. Former Defense Secretary Robert S. ...

Scheuer: Only Osama Can Save Us

Imperial Hubris and Through Our Enemies' Eyes author Michael Scheuer, a former senior CIA official, tells Glenn Beck that the America's only hope is for Osama bin Laden to detonate "a major weapon" here to get a "grass roots movement" going. Words fail me.

US Hands Baghdad to Iraqis

Given how much of the early years of OTB was devoted to writing about the war in Iraq, it wouldn't do to fail to mention the fact that we have formally handed over control of Baghdad to the Iraqis, withdrawing our combat troops.  It was not at all long ago that the headline currently topping YahooNews, "Iraq takes control of ...

How the FBI Broke Saddam

James Gordon Meek has a very interesting two-part story on how FBI Special Agent George Piro successfully interrogated Saddam Hussein.  Shockingly, it does not involve waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, nudity, or German shephards. The FBI prides itself on “rapport-based” interrogations that have a high success rate for yielding confessions from the likes of 1993 World trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef ...

Obama Wants Indefinite Detention Power

Once again, President Obama is adopting a policy of the Bush administration that Candidate Obama ran against. This time, it's indefinite detention.   Dafna Linzer and Peter Finn for WaPo: Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority ...

Manus eBay Auction Ends, USA Lucky Bidder

Until yesterday, it seemed a fait accompli that the vital NATO supply base in Krygyzstan was closing, owing to a combination of geopolitics and a strong bid by Russia.  Thanks to an eleventh hour deal, Manus Air Base will stay open after all. I analyze this in some detail at the link.  The short story, though, is that Dave Schuler's February ...

Reagan on the Soviet Union vs. Obama on Iran

Daniel Larison makes an excellent point against those critics on the right who feel that Obama's rhetoric on the current Iranian revolt should be more reminiscient of Reagan's comments to "tear down this wall" etc. While we’re at it, let’s remember Reagan had leverage against the Soviets and the Polish government in 1981 because of all that dastardly detente, arms negotiations ...

Boxer to General: It’s “Senator” Not “Ma’am”

Senator Barbara Boxer upbraids a polite general for addressing her as "Ma'am." "Do me a favor," she said. "Could say senator instead of Ma'am It's just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it, thank you." It may be a pet peeve of hers but a rather unclassy exchange.  Subordinates tend to address generals as "general" ...

McCain: I Would Have Ordered DADT Review

Ana Marie Cox interviewed John McCain this afternoon and reports via Twitter that "if he were POTUS, he would have already ordered Joint Chiefs of staff to investigate efficacy of DADT." DADT is, of course, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military that has been in place since the early days of the Clinton administration, replacing the ...

Stephen Colbert in Iraq

Stephen Colbert takes a lot of grief from my side of the aisle for his partisanship but his USO trip to Camp Victory in Iraq deserves nothing but praise. Here's Campbell Robertson's NYT writeup from a couple days back: War, as things go, is a fairly unironic exercise. Sure, there are endless incongruities to be found and parodied in the ...

Overstatement of the Day - Torture Edition

"It appears that waterboarding - a torture technique popularized by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney - has been picked up overseas." -  Andrew Sullivan Now, look, I'm opposed to torturing suspected terrorists.  But the United States Government waterboarded a grand total of three of them during the Bush-Cheney tenure.  So let's not pretend it was somehow a favorite pastime of ...

Cutting the Defense Budget

"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get ...

Palau Takes Uighur Detainees

Remember those 17 Uighar captives at Gitmo being held in a state of limbo because nobody would take them?  Palau has come to our rescue. The tropical Pacific island nation of Palau announced Wednesday it will accept up to 17 Chinese Muslims who have languished in legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay despite a Pentagon determination that they are not "enemy combatants." China's ...