Michael Yon from Afghanistan

A heart wrenching report from Afghanistan.
Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit
Arghandab, Afghanistan
New Year's Eve, 2009
On this small base surrounded by a mixture of enemy and friendly territory, a memorial has been erected just next to the Chapel. Inside the tepee are 21 photos of 21 soldiers killed during the first months of a year-long tour of duty. The fallen will belong forever to the honor rolls of the 1-17th Infantry Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, and they will join the sacred list of names of those who have given their lives in service of the United States of America.
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Be sure to  pray for those who are there and those who are grieving today for the loss of the military and the CIA. Pray for our country.

Gutting the CIA

This title from an article by Jack Kelly in the Toledo Blade. He says:

A BLOATED corpse remains, but life and spirit have left the CIA. A troubled agency that can ill afford it has had a very bad week. Attorney General Eric Holder - who before his confirmation hearings told senators he wouldn't - has appointed a special prosecutor to pursue CIA interrogators who discomforted al-Qaeda bigwigs to get them to talk.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has sided with the director of national intelligence in a dispute with the CIA over who should appoint the top U.S. intelligence officer in each foreign country. Currently, the top officers are CIA station chiefs.

The Obama Administration announced the President has approved the creation of a unit, which would report directly to the National Security Council, to interrogate high-level terror suspects.

The CIA's terrible week illustrates that CIA Director Leon Panetta has as little clout with the President as he has respect from his subordinates.

According to an ABC News report, Mr. Panetta engaged in a "profanity-laced screaming match" last month over the decision to make public the 2004 CIA Inspector General report on interrogations.

Mr. Panetta lost the respect of most of his troops when he told the House Intelligence Committee in June the CIA had concealed from it a secret program to assassinate al-Qaeda terrorists. This wasn't true, as Mr. Panetta learned when he belatedly talked to his predecessors. Congress was never briefed on the plan because it was never implemented.

There's speculation Mr. Panetta will resign in protest or be fired. It may not matter much. The CIA has not been central to intelligence for quite some time.

Read it all, it is sad for the country's security, but oh so true.

We don't Hear Enough from Victoria Toensing

She has a post up in The Corner of the National Review online. She lays out what will happen next time the members of the CIA, or any other interrogator, is asked to get critical information, their hands will be tied by the implications of what can happen to them and their families. It is well worth reading.

Gunning for the CIA

That seems to be the case. I really thought there might actually be someone principled in the Obama Administration, but apparently I was wrong.
From the Wall Street Journal Online:

Liberals and the CIA - A real 'Plame-gate,' minus the outrage.
by Bret Stephens

There is nothing more important than protecting the identities of CIA officers. So I need everybody to be clear: We will protect your identities and your security as you vigorously pursue your missions.
—Barack Obama at CIA headquarters, April 2009.

Once upon a time, Valerie Plame Wilson was a hero to liberals everywhere, a covert CIA operative whose cover was blown by a vindictive Bush administration out to ruin its critics. Today, liberals within government and without are betraying covert CIA operatives as if it were the very essence of virtue. Consistency, principled or foolish, has never been a hobgoblin of the liberal mind.

Consider Attorney General Eric Holder's decision Monday to investigate and potentially prosecute about a dozen previously closed cases involving alleged detainee abuse by CIA officers or contractors. Whether those agents and contractors are innocent or guilty—or whether they were simply working within parameters they believed were necessary and permissible, and circumstances they deemed urgent, but which the Obama administration has retroactively decided were not—are matters that will be determined in due course. The 2004 CIA report on which Mr. Holder based his decision says that the most damaging allegations are "too ambiguous to reach any authoritative determination regarding the facts."

What's nearly certain, however, is that the names of the agents will soon become a part of the public record, either directly or through leaks that the liberal press will have no scruple about printing.

You will want to read the rest, go here.

Cheney Statement on release of the Interrogation Documents

Cheney Statement on CIA Documents/Investigation

Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave The Weekly Standard a statement Monday night about the CIA documents and the coming Justice Department investigation.

The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002. The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security.

This is the entire blog post by Steven Hayward on Cheney's Statement.

Someone at Time Inc. got this one right

We didn't expect to get this link in the mail, but maybe it is too important for Time Magazine to not understand why the CIA might want to keep something secret. The title of the article says it all. The CIA is keeping secrets. Hello?
Thanks to a friend for sending that on.