CIA Admits to Senate Spying

CIA Director John Brennan apologized to the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee for his agency’s spying on the Committee’s computers.

I’m sure the CIA is indeed very, very sorry — that it got caught.

Brennan Confirmed for CIA

The Senate voted to confirm John Brennan as CIA Director, 63-34.

Meanwhile, Eric Holder wrote to Sen. Rand Paul, telling him that the President has no authority to use a drone to kill an American “not engaged in combat” on American soil.

The rationale for killing someone like American Anwar al-Awlaki by drone in Yemen was that he was an enemy combatant.  You can kill an enemy combatant anywhere, on U. S. soil or abroad.

Paul Ends Filibuster

Rand Paul has ended his filibuster blocking the vote on John Brennan to be CIA Director.

Why doesn’t somebody filibuster to get stronger gun and ammunition laws?  Our kids are bazillion times more likely to be killed by a nut with a gun than Obama with a drone.

And I don’t get this obsession with drones.  On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard shot 67 rounds in 13 seconds at Kent State University.  Four students died and nine were wounded.  Some of them were peacefully protesting the Vietnam War, others were watching the demonstration from a distance, and others just happened to be walking by.

I also feel that Rand Paul and Eric Holder have been talking past each other.  Paul keeps using the example of an American sitting in a cafe in the U. S. and getting blown away by a drone.  Holder made clear that would be an inappropriate use of lethal force.  Where Holder has left the door open a teeny, tiny crack for drone strikes within our borders has been in a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 situation — so an act of war against our country on our soil.  In that case, the President as Commander in Chief would be justified in using any weapons we have to defend against such an attack.

Brennan Moves Forward

The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 12-3 in a closed-door session to approve John Brennan as CIA Director.

His nomination now goes to the full Senate.

WH Trades Drone Memos for Brennan Vote

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced that the White House has agreed to provide the Senate Intelligence Committee access to all of the Justice Department drone memos dealing with the targeting of Americans.

The fight over the drone memos has delayed the confirmation of John Brennan to be CIA Director.

The Committee will finally vote on his nomination later today.

Brennan Vote on Thursday

The Senate Intelligence Committee will vote on John Brennan’s nomination for CIA Director on Thursday.  We’ll see how many senators get pissy about wanting to see the drone memos and how many are successfully distracted by the bright shiny object of Benghazi emails.

The full Senate is expected to vote next week.

Why Obama Won’t Release Drone Memos

Interesting story up at the National Journal* explaining why the President doesn’t want to show the House and Senate Intelligence Committees all of the Justice Department drone memos.  The article says it’s because they “contain secret protocols with foreign governments, including Pakistan and Yemen, as well as ‘case-specific’ details of strikes.”

The Administration believes that even if released just to certain members of Congress, the sensitive information would become public and embarrass the governments we have protocols with, which may include additional countries like Mali and Algeria.

This would explain why the Administration is supposedly trying to get John Brennan’s nomination for CIA out of the Senate Intelligence Committee by giving up some Dem votes over the drone memos and going for GOP votes by giving them more info on Benghazi.

National security issues can create some strange bedfellows!

* “What’s in the Secret Drone Memos,” Michael Hirsh and Kristin Roberts

This Is What Happens When Crazy People Win

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is placing a hold on John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

Over at WorldNetDaily, they are “reporting” that John Brennan, Obama’s nominee for CIA Director, is a Muslim.  They say he converted when he was CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia in the 90’s.

Well, it makes sense that our Muslim president would pick a fellow Muslim to head the CIA.

I almost feel sorry for these people.  The America they think they live in is a truly terrifying place for them.  If only they could re-wire their brains and join us in the real America…

Drudge Has It

Drudge now has picked up the Petraeus/Benghazi story I posted about late last night based on the new book coming out on Tuesday.

There’s some explosive stuff in the book about Petraeus being done in by his own senior people at the CIA and about John Brennan running special ops anti-terror raids from the White House that led to the Benghazi attack against us on 9/11/12.

I’m very curious to see how much media attention/official response the book gets.