Obama picks Leon Panetta to head CIA

[JackRiddler]

On that thread, I discovered:

(snip)

4. Michael Ledeen approved of the selection of Panetta with this strange comment: "And he's going to watch Obama's back at a place that's full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none. But Italians know all about political assassination; you may remember Julius Caesar. Or Aldo Moro."

What what what? I missed that one? Link, please.

.

[chiggerbit]

stillrobertpaulsen:

2. Leon Panetta spearheaded the internal effort to find a new CIA chief that led to the selection of John Deutsch in 1995.

Yikes! Don't mean to take this thread off on a tangent, but look at what Wiki says about Deutch:

In 1961, he earned an B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and, in 1966, he earned a PhD in Chemistry, both from MIT. He holds honorary degrees from Amherst College, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and Northeastern University. From 1977 to 1980, he served in several positions for the U.S. Department of Energy: as Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary of the Department. In 1978, Deutch published two physical-chemistry papers (in, Combustion and Flame, 1,223;31,215) on the mechanism of the Fuel/Air Explosive (FAE), a thermobaric weapon. He served as the provost of MIT from 1985 - 1990. As MIT Dean of Science and Provost, Deutch both formed and disbanded the Department of Applied Biological Sciences, including its toxicology faculty.


CIA career
In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed him Director of Central Intelligence (cabinet rank in the Clinton administration). However, Deutch was initially reluctant to accept the appointment. As head of the CIA, Deutch continued the policy of his predecessor R. James Woolsey to declassify records pertaining to U.S. covert operations during the Cold War.[1] He put restraints on what he considered to be politically incorrect agent recruitment and sought to encourage more diversity at the Agency in order to include more women and minorities in its ranks.[2]

Soon after Deutch's departure from the CIA in 1996 it was revealed that classified materials were being kept on several of Deutch's laptop computers designated as unclassified. In January 1997, the CIA began a formal security investigation of the matter. Senior management at CIA declined to fully pursue the security breach. Over two years after his departure, the matter was referred to the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Janet Reno declined prosecution. She did, however, recommend an investigation to determine whether Deutch should retain his security clearance.[3] President Clinton pardoned Deutch on his last day in office.[4]

Wasn't there some other Clinton appointee who was stuffing CIA documents down his pants during the first four years of GW's administration?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

On that thread, I discovered:

(snip)

4. Michael Ledeen approved of the selection of Panetta with this strange comment: "And he's going to watch Obama's back at a place that's full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none. But Italians know all about political assassination; you may remember Julius Caesar. Or Aldo Moro."

What what what? I missed that one? Link, please.

.

Thanks for the link to jingofever:

Monday, January 05, 2009



Panetta to CIA [Michael Ledeen]


In the very early days of the Bush administration, Karl Rove asked a Washington policy wonk what personnel changes he'd recommend to newly arrived George W. The wonk said "there is one matter of life and death: he must replace Tenet at CIA and put in one of his own people, someone he absolutely trusts." Rove said "well, good luck with that one." Obama knows better, and he's putting Leon Panetta in Langley.

I always liked Panetta. He served in the Army and is openly proud of it. He seems to be a good lawyer (oxymoronic though it may seem). He's a good manager. And he's going to watch Obama's back at a place that's full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none. But Italians know all about political assassination; you may remember Julius Caesar. Or Aldo Moro. The self-proclaimed cognoscenti will deride his lack of "spycraft," and he's never worked in the intel bureaucracy or, for that matter, in foreign policy or national security. But he's been chief of staff, which involved all that stuff.

I think it's a smart move.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... M0NjI2MDY=

How's that for spooky deep political shit?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

stillrobertpaulsen:

2. Leon Panetta spearheaded the internal effort to find a new CIA chief that led to the selection of John Deutsch in 1995.

Yikes! Don't mean to take this thread off on a tangent, but look at what Wiki says about Deutch:

In 1961, he earned an B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and, in 1966, he earned a PhD in Chemistry, both from MIT. He holds honorary degrees from Amherst College, University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and Northeastern University. From 1977 to 1980, he served in several positions for the U.S. Department of Energy: as Director of Energy Research, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Technology, and Undersecretary of the Department. In 1978, Deutch published two physical-chemistry papers (in, Combustion and Flame, 1,223;31,215) on the mechanism of the Fuel/Air Explosive (FAE), a thermobaric weapon. He served as the provost of MIT from 1985 - 1990. As MIT Dean of Science and Provost, Deutch both formed and disbanded the Department of Applied Biological Sciences, including its toxicology faculty.


CIA career
In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed him Director of Central Intelligence (cabinet rank in the Clinton administration). However, Deutch was initially reluctant to accept the appointment. As head of the CIA, Deutch continued the policy of his predecessor R. James Woolsey to declassify records pertaining to U.S. covert operations during the Cold War.[1] He put restraints on what he considered to be politically incorrect agent recruitment and sought to encourage more diversity at the Agency in order to include more women and minorities in its ranks.[2]

Soon after Deutch's departure from the CIA in 1996 it was revealed that classified materials were being kept on several of Deutch's laptop computers designated as unclassified. In January 1997, the CIA began a formal security investigation of the matter. Senior management at CIA declined to fully pursue the security breach. Over two years after his departure, the matter was referred to the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Janet Reno declined prosecution. She did, however, recommend an investigation to determine whether Deutch should retain his security clearance.[3] President Clinton pardoned Deutch on his last day in office.[4]

Wasn't there some other Clinton appointee who was stuffing CIA documents down his pants during the first four years of GW's administration?

I believe that other Clinton appointee was Sandy Berger. I'll have to double check, but I seem to remember a similar incident with him.

[chiggerbit]

Don't get me wrong. If I were doing this at CIA--

continued the policy of his predecessor R. James Woolsey to declassify records pertaining to U.S. covert operations during the Cold War

--I'd be covering my back with something like---keeping evidence of wrong-doing. After all, look at what happened to Stansfield Turner, who had revealed a lot of dirt at CIA during his tenure there.

[JackRiddler]

Yikes! Don't mean to take this thread off on a tangent, but look at what Wiki says about Deutch:

Soon after Deutch's departure from the CIA in 1996 it was revealed that classified materials were being kept on several of Deutch's laptop computers designated as unclassified.

(snip)

Wasn't there some other Clinton appointee who was stuffing CIA documents down his pants during the first four years of GW's administration?

Sandy Berger, his own 9/11 related memos.

The scandal that brought down Deutch sounded like engineered bullshit with a national security paranoia twist. Sure, the sin of the CIA director is not keeping good enough security. And Bush's worst crime was the exposure of a CIA agent! And Mr. NY Federal Reserve, Timmy Geithner didn't pay taxes on a nanny!

You want some dirt on Deutch? There was his pathetic 1998 (?) appearance at the LA damage control town hall on CIA-drugs after the Webb story, where Ruppert pawned him, although the specific accusations related to operations under prior directors.

But how about this?

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19981101f ... anger.html

Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger

Ashton B. Carter, John Deutch, and Philip Zelikow

From Foreign Affairs, November/December 1998

Article preview: first 500 of 4,474 words total.

Purchase a PDF of this article

Summary: The specter of weapons of mass destruction being used against America looms larger today than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis. The World Trade Center bombing scarcely hints at the enormity of the danger. America is prepared only for conventional terrorism, not a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons catastrophe. With the right approach and organization, however, the United States can be ready. Herewith a plan to reorganize the U.S. government to ensure that it can handle the threats of the next century.

Ashton Carter is Ford Foundation Professor of Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former Assistant Secretary of Defense. John Deutch is Institute Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former Director of Central Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of Defense. Philip Zelikow, a former member of the National Security Council staff, is White Burkett Miller Professor of History and Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

You need not pay $5.95 for a damned PDF, you can read it here:

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/pub ... orism.html

IMAGINING THE TRANSFORMING EVENT

and anyway the article is based on a much longer final report, here:

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/visions/publ ... rorism.htm

Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy

By Ashton B. Carter, John M. Deutch and Philip D. Zelikow

A Report of
Visions of Governance for the Twenty-First Century
A Project of the John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University

The authors would like to thank the members of the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Group:

Graham T. Allison, Jr.

Zoe Baird

Vic DeMarines

Robert Gates

Jamie Gorelick

Robert Hermann

Philip Heyman

Fred Ikle

Elaine Kamarck

Ernest May

Matthew Meselson

Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

William J. Perry

Larry Potts

Fred Schauer

J. Terry Scott

Jack Sheehan

Malcom Sparrow

Herbert Winokur

Robert Zoellick

Though practically all of these group members are sympathetic to the conclusions in this report, and some enthusiastically endorse them, none is responsible either for particular opinions expressed here or for the way we have written this report and expressed those judgments.

We would also like to thank the staff who was responsible for organizing the Study Group in addition to assisting in the preparation of this report: Gretchen Bartlett, Lainie Dillon, Hilary Driscoll, Sarah Peterson, and Kristin Schneeman.

Finally, the Study Group is grateful for the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Herbert S. Winokur Public Policy Fund at Harvard University.

9/11 Timeline

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline. ... 1_timeline

November 1997-August 1998: Future 9/11 Commission Staff Attend Terrorism Study Group; Predict Consequences of ‘Catastrophic Terrorism’


Over a period of nine months, faculty from Harvard University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Virginia meet in a collaborative effort called the Catastrophic Terrorism Study Group. Its members include experts on terrorism, national security, intelligence, and law enforcement. The project director is Philip Zelikow, future executive director of the 9/11 Commission. Future 9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick is also a member, along with Ernest May, who will be a senior advisor to the 9/11 Commission. The culmination of the group’s efforts is a report written by Zelikow and its two co-chairs: former Assistant Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and former CIA Director John Deutch. A condensed version of the report is published in the journal Foreign Affairs in late 1998. They write: “Long part of the Hollywood and Tom Clancy repertory of nightmarish scenarios, catastrophic terrorism has moved from far-fetched horror to a contingency that could happen next month. Although the United States still takes conventional terrorism seriously… it is not yet prepared for the new threat of catastrophic terrorism.” They predict the consequences of such an event: “An act of catastrophic terrorism that killed thousands or tens of thousands of people and/or disrupted the necessities of life for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, would be a watershed event in America’s history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented for peacetime and undermine Americans’ fundamental sense of security within their own borders in a manner akin to the 1949 Soviet atomic bomb test, or perhaps even worse. Constitutional liberties would be challenged as the United States sought to protect itself from further attacks by pressing against allowable limits in surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and the use of deadly force. More violence would follow, either as other terrorists seek to imitate this great ‘success’ or as the United States strikes out at those considered responsible. Like Pearl Harbor, such an event would divide our past and future into a ‘before’ and ‘after.’” [Carter, Deutch, and Zelikow, 10/1998; Foreign Affairs, 11/1998; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. xi-xiv].

[JackRiddler]

After all, look at what happened to Stansfield Turner, who had revealed a lot of dirt at CIA during his tenure there.

What happened to Turner? He was the one who at least fired 800 covert operators. I think something bad happened to his wife, but Turner didn't reveal nearly as much dirt as Colby. That's the one who like 20 years later seems to have left breakfast uneaten so he could rush outside, get in his boat for recreation, and drown. I think these guys have a long memory.

.

[chiggerbit]

The mafia-like element of the CIA has a long memory, and I'd give odds that that same element had a hand in this plane crash:.

http://www.maebrussell.com/Stansfield%2 ... crash.html

[chiggerbit]

but Turner didn't reveal nearly as much dirt as Colby

Depends on how important you think MKUltra was.


http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/his ... ring02.htm

[chiggerbit]

This is why I'm wondering if the choice of Panetta may have been a smart move, as he's a bit ofa numbers cruncher:

...To begin, as to how we discovered these materials. The material had been sent to our Retired Records Center outside of Washington and was discovered sent to our Retired Records Center outside of Washington and was discovered there as a result of the extensive search efforts of an employee charged with responsibility for maintaining our holdings on behavioral drugs and for responding to Freedom of Information Act requests on this subject. During the Church Committee investigation in 1975, searches for MKULTRA-related material were made by examining both the active and retired records of all branches of CIA considered at all likely to have had association with MKULTRA documents. The retired records of the Budget and Fiscal Section of the Branch responsible for such work were not searched, however. This was because financial papers associated with sensitive projects such s MKULTRA were normally maintained by the Branch itself under the project file, not by the Budget and Fiscal Section. In the case at hand, however, the newly located material was sent to the Retired Records Center in 1970 by the Budget and Fiscal Section as part of its own retired holdings. The reason for this departure from normal procedure is not known. As a result of it, however, the material escaped retrieval and destruction in 1973 by the then-retiring Director of the Office as well as discovery in 1975 by CIA officials responding to Senate investigators.

The employee who located this material did so by leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to respond to FOIA requests. He reviewed all listings of material of this Branch stored at the Retired Records Center, including those of the Budget and Fiscal Section and, thus, discovered the MKULTRA-related documents which had been missed in the previous searches. In sum, the Agency failed to uncover these particular documents in 1973 in the process of attempting to destroy them; it similarly failed to locate them in 1975 in response to the Church Committee hearings.....

[DoYouEverWonder]

I posted this response on FTW Act Two:


To jhw: Thanks for that link. Haven't visited Jeff Wells' site in a while, but maybe I should more often. On that thread, I discovered:

1. Leon Panetta served as chief of operations of the intelligence section at Ford Ord, California. He was instrumental in creating CSU Monterey by converting Fort Ord into the university. While Fort Ord was supposedly closed in 1994, the facility is run and used by the FBI for urban training. The FBI subleases the area to local law enforcement agencies and military units such as the Navy Seals.

2. Leon Panetta spearheaded the internal effort to find a new CIA chief that led to the selection of John Deutsch in 1995.

3. Leon Panetta is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Bretton Woods Committee.

4. Michael Ledeen approved of the selection of Panetta with this strange comment: "And he's going to watch Obama's back at a place that's full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none. But Italians know all about political assassination; you may remember Julius Caesar. Or Aldo Moro."

5. Leon Panetta is not Norman Mineta.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogI ... 3996246134

Coming from Ledeen, Obama should take this has a serious threat. Isn't that still against the law in this country?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Coming from Ledeen, Obama should take this has a serious threat. Isn't that still against the law in this country?

Especially considering this:


Skulduggery and intrigue and the 'anti-terrorist' advisors

27 June 2003


The investigative journalist Jim Lobe has uncovered the muddy footprints of Michael Ledeen, resident scholar in the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), international affairs analyst for Karl Rove, Bush's closest advisor, and a veteran 'neo-con'. Lobe discloses that in the late 1970s Ledeen consulted for Italian military intelligence - he was a visiting professor of history at the University of Rome between 1975-1977 and also reported for the magazine 'The New Republic'. Lobe notes: "Ledeen's right-wing Italian connections - including alleged ties to the P-2 Masonic Lodge that rocked Italy in the early 1980s - have long been a source of speculation and intrigue".

P-2 - or Propaganda 2 - was a shadowy anti-communist association masterminded by Licio Gelli, who it is claimed joined the CIA after World War II on the recommendation of the Italian secret service. P-2 has been linked with the bizarre fate of Italian banker Roberto Calvi, whose body was found in London in June 1982, dangling off some scaffolding erected around Blackfriars Bridge. Calvi, recruited to P-2, may have been involved in the transfer of funds from his bank, Banco Ambrosiano, to Gelli and P2, bankrupting it in the process.

Noam Chomsky has stated that the US National Security Council supported P-2 to undermine the possibility of a left-leaning government winning elections in Italy. The kidnapping and murder of Italian PM Aldo Moro in 1978 was widely believed at the time to be the work of the 'Red brigades'. Evidence has now been uncovered to suggest that Moro's murder had little to do with left-wing 'revolutionary' groups, but was orchestrated by P-2. Other CIA backed political atrocities include the bombing of Bologna railway station in August 1980, resulting in 85 deaths - also attributed to 'left-wing terrorists' at the time.

Public concern with the power of P-2 led to a police raid on Gelli's villa in 1981, uncovering a list of members that included prominent media personalities such as the future premier Silvio Berlusconi.

The Italian website http://www.movisol.org/ulse.htm makes this reference to Michael Ledeen:
Uno dei più pericolosi di questi "cattivi maestri" è Michael Ledeen, promotore dell'idea del "Fascismo Universale." In questi giorni Ledeen non smette di minacciare guerra all'Iran, alla Siria, e al Libano ed evidentemente è stato scelto ancora una volta dall'establishment per manipolare le istituzioni e minacciare coloro che intendono opporsi alla sua pericolosa e malvagia pazzia. D'altronde, Ledeen ha una lunga storia di ingerenza nelle scelte "strategiche" in Italia: durante il caso Moro fu uno dei "grandi sospettati" del depistaggio delle indagini, con la collaborazione dei "fratelli" della P2. Ci si è chiesto e ci si chiede ancora, perché la magistratura italiana non faccia indagini adeguate sul suo conto e sul suo operato.
Translation: "One of the most dangerous of these 'bad teachers' is Michael Ledeen, promoter of the the idea of 'universal fascism'. These days he does not stop threatening war against Iran, Syria, and Lebanon, and has evidently been chosen once more by the establishment to manipulate institutions and threaten those who oppose his dangerous and wicked madness. On the other hand, Ledeen has a long history of interference in Italy's strategic choices. During the Moro case he was among those "most suspected" of having misled the enquiries, with the collaboration of the "bretheren" of the P2. It was wondered and it is still wondered why the Italian magistrates do not carry out adequate enquiries about him and his work". (emphasis added)

In 1990, Berlusconi was found guilty of perjury for denying his membership P-2. Ledeen is a keen enthusiast of Berlesconi and his 'clear eyed' government.

http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth ... 36%82%22=0

Yeah, for Ledeen to throw out the Aldo Moro reference unprompted on his own accord seems like more than a threat. It reeks of foreknowledge of something wicked this way comes.

[JackRiddler]

but Turner didn't reveal nearly as much dirt as Colby

Depends on how important you think MKUltra was.


http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/his ... ring02.htm

I'll defer. There isn't an objective way to measure this. If any of them ever tried to do something good, it was Turner. Thanks for reminding me about the plane crash that killed his wife.

Planes, planes, very frequent means.

[JackRiddler]

Yeah, for Ledeen to throw out the Aldo Moro reference unprompted on his own accord seems like more than a threat. It reeks of foreknowledge of something wicked this way comes.

Disturbing, yes. Is he foreshadowing, threatening, waging psywar? Is he recommending it to his spook friends? Does he think it's a joke, all the more so for the impunity with which he can say it? Was he drunk when he posted? I can think of a lot of contexts where someone would be rounded up for talking like this about the incumbent president.

[ninakat]

Obama CIA chief: Publishing Bush-era secret prison docs would help al Qaeda
By Associated Press

Published: June 9, 2009

It sounds like the kind of defense the Bush Administration would employ.

We can’t release this information because it would help al Qaeda.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told a federal judge Monday that releasing documents about the agency’s terror interrogations would gravely damage national security.

Panetta sent a 24-page missive to New York federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, arguing that release of agency cables describing tough interrogation methods used on al-Qaida suspects would tell the enemy far too much about U.S. counterterrorism work.

continues