In a sane world, this would be a bigger story than a Congressmen tweeting shirtless pictures of himself. (Edit: Sorry for the double post.)
Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.
In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful.
I’m sure this guy has a book to sell. Also too, it’s worth nothing that the AIPAC crowd seems to have stopped Yale from hiring Cole.
scav
Regret for a sane world? How retro. Takes me right back.
Pliny
Dude, the same article is already here TWO POSTS DOWN
UncertaintyVicePrincipal
I don’t know, it seems to me I’ve actually been seeing that story everywhere.
Oh wait, I haven’t left Balloon Juice. Never mind.
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
You can tell we’re in the summer reruns season.
eemom
splendiforous post title, even if it’s not a song lyric.
Chris
A comment on this:
I had a friend when studying abroad in Cairo, who was majoring in the study of modern Islamic political movements, and for his senior year capstone project, hesitated for the longest time between covering Hamas and covering the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. His counselor finally talked him into covering the MB – and her argument was that if he wrote anything remotely accurate or academically honest on an Israel-related subject, he’d end up with enough doors shut in his face to end his career before it began.
Not that either of them had any sympathy for Hamas. But on Israel/Palestine issues, anything other than the lockstep party line = you’re out (a professor at my alma mater was also denied tenure for that reason). Not surprising that it would have been enough to block Juan Cole, especially in as visible a university as Yale.
(And it throws the Republican party line, about how our universities are hotbeds of pro-Palestinian activism where professors indoctrinate us with stealth antisemitism, into laughable perspective).
bkny
there really isn’t anyone surprised by this, is there? give it up. this country is beyond recovery. the rule of law is no longer.
Studly Pantload, a full-service troll
@eemom And the juxtaposition with the title of the previous post on the top of this comments page has a nice little kismet goin’ for it, too.
LittlePig
And that distinguishes it from every other Republican party line how, exactly?
Mike Kay (True Grit)
Yet, wiener is the number one diary on DKos. So, even the vaunted reality based blogophere is not immune.
LittlePig
Bush v. Gore was the Constitution’s swan song. It’s been
mightmoney makes right ever since.John Cole
I thought my title was better.
eemom
speaking of genitally based song titles, does anyone remember “Detachable P*nis”?
Weiner sure could’ve used one of THOSE, haw haw.
LittlePig
Absolutely John. Doug needs more Elvis.
MikeJ
@Littlepig:
Pity you didn’t read the book club’s selection on Nixon. NObody really thinks this is anything new, do they?
scav
Title Fight! Title Fight!
seriously, why not add a best title of the year along side the quote of the year?
Bender
That had to be the most intentionally obtuse reading of the Weiner situation I’ve heard to date. “Shirtless!” Hah! Yeah, that was the problem, Doug. No shirt! LOL!
But to your point, a 6-year-old story with no impact on anything and no tangible result should be a bigger story than a sitting Congressman cyber-flashing unsuspecting college students. Clearly.
Because the former might impugn Republicans, while the latter resulted in a Democrat being humiliated into resignation. And that’s the real standard to which you adhere.
LittlePig
@ MikeJ
Yes, I do disagree. Nixon got his ass booted out. As Daniel Elsberg noted Tuesday (40th anniversary of the NYT publication of The Pentagon Papers) that nothing the Watergate burglars did was illegal under USAPATRIOT.
What once were vices are now habits. Big difference.
scav
Bender: Yeah, that was the earlier guy that went shirtless. “No Shirt. No Shoes. No Pants. No Service.” Operating motto of congress. No Shit Sherlock.
Ghanima Atreides
@Cole
no, DougJ’s is better. It has sex in it.
btw you got an approving link on your concern trolling of Obama from EDK.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Can you imagine the sounds coming from Glenn Beckistan if a Demo’rat administration sicced the CIA on a right-wing critic? Or if Demo’rats were indoctrinating youth with propaganda summer camps?
Villago Delenda Est
That’s when the rot set in. The blanket pardon of the vile criminal Nixon, by his successor, Gerald Ford.
It can all be traced back to that.
“Rule of Law”, my ass. Nixon should have gone to prison for what he did…obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice.
It appears that the “reply” icons have been disabled on the site…so this is a response to MikeJ’s #15.
Bender
Even if Doug was referring to Chris Lee, he’s still wrong, and still being very generous to Lee.
Zifnab
Where did the “Reply” button get to?!
Regardless, this is probably Obama’s biggest failure to date. The whole “live and let live” with the Bush Admin cronies has basically guaranteed a future crop of flunkies will behave even worse than the last guys.
Clinton knew what he was doing when he fired all 92 USAs after the Bush/Reagen Era. He played hard ball. Obama is still trying to make friends. *sigh*
Zifnab
Hahaha! Probably exactly the same as he does now. “Conspiracies! Conspiracies! Everywhere!”
licensed to kill time
♪♫ I called you on the phone, but you were not at home, No Reply ♪♫
Loneoak
Why would you want to teach at Yale anyway? Hail to the Victors!
KG
Bender: let’s see on one hand we had a guy talking about making the world safe for freedom using intelligence agencies to spy on a citizen who disagreed with his policies… on the other hand we had a guy sending naked pictures of himself on line to adult women.
Yes, I can see how the second one would be bad for America and the first one no big deal…
AAA Bonds
Well, holy shit.
Chris
Didn’t it used to be worse, in fact? The Palmer Raids, the World War Two internments, the Red Scare, COINTELPRO? And of course, Lincoln actually suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War.
Yeah, the 1970s were pretty much the high point of attempts to rein in that shit – hence Nixon’s resignation and the Church Committee hearings. But I’d say that was a pretty unusual moment, not exactly the rule. (It came on the heels of fifty years of J. Edgar Hoover’s shenanigans, after all).
Brachiator
Actually, I would vote for this one: Pakistan’s Chief of Army Fights to Keep His Job
I know that Americans of all ideologies think that only what happens in the US and to Americans is important, but this is a big deal. From the NY Times (no link since I am not sure what the deal is the with Times paysite)
Remember that Leon Panetta had recently been to Pakistan to try to smooth things over. And the US military had been leaning toward supporting the Pakistan Army over the civilian government, supposedly to ensure co-operation with the war on terror.
And here’s the part that might get some attention:
So, the US might stop killing “brown people” in Pakistan so that the Pakistan military and intelligence services can oppress “brown people” in Pakistan and kill “brown people” in India, while still getting US arms aid.
I guess some would call this a win/win situation.
Disclaimer: No nuclear weapons or suitcase nukes were discussed during the drafting of this comment.
slag
This double post has value (kind of) because DougJ puts the emphasis on the problems with our media, in general, while JC puts it on the problems with our security state. It’s hard to not see the connection between those two things.
Why is this not a bigger scandal? Seriously. It’s got intrigue, villainy, and subterfuge. Whole television shows are based on plot lines just like this one. And yet, the entire media brigade glosses over it in favor of the Weinus. The Weinus would hardly make for a mildly comedic subplot! And yet, here we are. Even The Daily Show can’t get enough of the Weinus. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
How is this espionage story not way more compelling? I don’t understand.
ppcli
Thus Spake Loneoak:
“Why would you want to teach at Yale anyway? Hail to the Victors!”
Absolutely – Go Blue! I wish AIPAC would scuttle *more* attempted raids on our faculty by those rich Ivy Leaguers.
ppcli
Reply Button’s Gone! Dammit! That is inadequate to my Hamiltonian… Hamiltonian… graph! I’m typing the rest of this comment under protest.
Anyway, it’s to Chris at 6.
Actually it’s worth remembering, in connection with Weiner, whose hagiography is being composed as we speak, that he was one of the most vocal shriekers at Columbia U. when they had some Palestinian-American prof whose lectures were judged by a couple of unhappy students to be unacceptably far from the party line. And as I recall the positions he was adopting were absolutely defensible – pointing out that Israel is an occupying power, perhaps (don’t remember the details). Weiner was demanding a Columbia University inquiry, and then (IIRC) when he got one that said “nothing here” he demanded another one.
That was a deal-breaker for me, as far as supporting Weiner was concerned.
Martin
Yeah, that’s not why we’re there. We’re there because Pakistan has about 100 nukes, and I don’t think that sovereignty issues are going to trump us making sure that those don’t fall in to the hands of the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Most of the aid was supposed to help Pakistan secure that material. Unfortunately, the Pakistani Army is paranoid about the idea that we might go in and snatch that stuff. If there’s anything in Bin Laden’s document dump that suggests that he had connections within the army, then I don’t think Panetta was just there to smooth things over.
MikeJ
@34: Which is a perfectly fine reason to not like him. What he does with his dick is irrelevant though.
I don’t see any difference between the the Republicans who shriek for his head and the “liberals” who want to take him down for the same reasons. Both are happy to have a political enemy gone. Nobody really cares about his dick. It’s just a convenient way to score points.
Stefan
But to your point, a 6-year-old story with no impact on anything and no tangible result should be a bigger story than a sitting Congressman cyber-flashing unsuspecting college students.
The college students! Won’t someone please think of the legally adult yet somehow helpless college students!
AnotherBruce
I’m sure that the only reason the CIA was trying to dig dirt on Juan Cole was to be seen as being fair and balanced after they started a similar hatchet campaign on Professor Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee.
Chris
I understand and don’t disagree, but frankly, I’ve long since given up finding anyone in Washington who does anything but that do or endorse that kind of shit.
Some are better, some are worse (Weiner was being a douche, and Mike Huckabee, who openly claps and cheers for ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, is as bad as it gets). But even those who aren’t dicks about it will do little or nothing to stop those who are. I’m at the point where by the end of this century, I don’t expect there to be a Palestinian state – maybe Gaza, but not the West Bank – or any hope of one returning.
Chris
Of course. We wouldn’t have half the interest that we do in Pakistan if it weren’t for their nuclear arsenal.
Ghanima Atreides
Droning is destabilizing the Zardari government.
Panetta needs to smack down the Taliban hard enough to headfake a powersharing arrangement with the Karzai government so we can GTFO before the Arab Spring comes to AfPak.
We have NOTHING to show for 10 years, trillions of dollars, thousands of dead soljahs, hundreds of thousands of dead muslims and millions of muslims that are going to hate America for the next 50 years.
No they aren’t. we certainly might do that. But more imperative is the fact that the droning and destabilizing Zardaris government.
Pakistanis are burning American flags over the CIA contractor too.
slag
Link?
Brachiator
@Martin:
This is not true. As I have suggested before, US aid indirectly helped Pakistan develop its nuclear program. The country is otherwise much poorer than its great enemy India,and might have reached some accommodation with India over Kashmir without the underpinning of US aid.
The best guess is that Pakistan wants its nukes to use as tactical weapons if they go to war with India. The US has absolutely no influence over Pakistan in this regard. And the US is never, never, ever going to go in and snatch up the nukes.
And of course bin Laden had connections with the army or the intelligence service. Pakistan plays elements of Al Qaeda and other groups against the US. Always has. Always will.
And oh yeah, if Pakistan loses control of its nukes, it risks immediate and punitive reaction by India, who in turn would risk immediate and punitive reaction by China. And who knows what Russia, the US or Israel might do. This is not a good situation for anyone.
The larger issues is that the US has sided with the Pakistan military over the weak civilian government. This was a dangerous game. If the Pakistan army chief is deposed, the US will have even less influence, which in a weird way might be a good thing.
The Bush Administration got outplayed by Pakistan, even though Musharraf stepped down. The Obama Administration has done somewhat better (they were able to get bin Laden), but are dealing with a people who have a strong sense of their own national interest independent of any dreams and desires that the US might have.
ppcli
@36 Well, yeah, I agree that this is a terrible reason for resigning. I’m just indicating why I am not weeping too hard about his departure.
ppcli
@42 This was snark, shoorly.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
anyone else think the fund raising potential and national exposure of special elections has gone to some folks heads?
i’m not saying weiner didn’t know the game he was playing, and perhaps dying on this hill was necessary if you are going to mount an assault on clarence thomas. you can’t have your own coke cans in your closet. it just seems like rocking out with your weiner out isn’t or shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
and brietbart wins, i still find the whole thing annoying.
Chris
@ Brachiator:
Yep. Cold War chess set, I believe: the Soviets backed India, so we backed Pakistan. (Or maybe we backed Pakistan, so the Soviets backed India? Either one).
More likely (or maybe I’m just being hopeful), they simply want the nukes as a deterrent, same as everyone else who has them. Considering their size relative to India and how well they’ve done during armed conflicts, they probably think it’s their only effective way to threaten India.
I don’t think so either, but that doesn’t mean the Pakistanis aren’t afraid of the U.S. doing so or trying to do so.
Story of our life, isn’t it? China, Cuba, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, to name only those… all countries that have a strong sense of their national identity and get jumpy whenever a foreign power starts playing games with them (even Gaullist France fits the mold to some extent). For some reason, we’re always surprised when we find out that other people have the same powerful sense of identity that we ourselves have. (Maybe it’s an American Exceptionalism thing – we see our country as so exceptional that we can’t even understand that any other people might feel the same way about their own).
Lolis
Weiner’s total capitulation to the AIPAC crowd is the main reason I was never a fan.
slag
@45 I thought it might be, but I didn’t want to assume. It’s so hard to tell these days.
AnotherBruce
Yes snark, IOKIYGR.
slag
@50 Thank you. I thought it might be [OK if you are Glenn Reynolds].
AnotherBruce
Did Tunch eat the reply app?
Ghanima Atreides
Lie. There is a classified program designed to do just that.
Brachiator
@Ghanima Atreides
RE: And the US is never, never, ever going to go in and snatch up the nukes.
Paranoid, much?
If it’s classified, how come you know about it?
But you miss my larger point. I don’t care what the US thinks it might be able to do to Pakistan. Lots of governments have plans and shit. Making it work is another thing altogether.
AnotherBruce
@53 Wait, Pakistan is our ally, we would never do that.
Man I’m getting cynical and snarky all the time. I used to be such a sweet sweet thing ’til they got ahold of me.
Brachiator
@Chris:
It’s worse than that. Even though there were (gasp) commies in the Indian government, India was officially non-aligned. But the Cold War mentality leaned toward “with us or against us.” So the US backed Pakistan, totally ignoring the entirely separate and independent game of threeway chess that Pakistan, India and China were playing with one another.
And the madness continues.
Brian
Ah, Juan Cole. I have a lot of respect for a lot of his work, but he was incredibly unfair and disrespectful to me in the midst of a discussion about one of his posts. Now, I used to agree with him at least 90% of the time, and I’m not anywhere NEAR the AIPAC crowd, but I am now one who has serious doubts whether his obvious bias really does cloud his judgment. That terribly interesting anecdote aside (sorry, its just that he was such a reactionary a$$hole), this is deeply troubling stuff. NO ONE should be subject to this treatment from the government. I can feel the hatred for our freedoms growing…
Petorado
Still can’t believe no one’s used the headline, “Congress Interuptus: Weiner Pulls Out.”
Sorry. Someone had to get it over with.