You cannot "spin" the CIA.

[Brian Sweat]

I have seen a number of threads and post on DU about how the BFEE is going to spin their way out of this. Spin is something that politicians use to sway public opinion. It is very useful when public opinion is driving the issue, but that is not the case here. Public opinion is not driving this issue. If ninety percent of the American people wanted this issue to go away, it would not. The CIA is driving this issue. The CIA is pissed and this issue will not go away until the responsible party pays.

Any posts about how the BFEE is going to wiggle its way out of this are just mental masterbation.

[Skittles]

1. WILSON

THAT GUY WILL NOT QUIT; I JUST *LOVE* HIM. :D

[politicaholic]

2. I disagree...

I think that this will be under the rug as quickly as George W's state of union address lie. They blamed all of that straight on the CIA and Tenant. Where is the issue now? What about the investigative committee? The CIA will always be the scape goat because they are uninvestigatable for reasons of national security.

The CIA will take a little more funding and won't push an inch like the good little dogs they are.

[section321]

4. The issue has now become this....

The CIA has declared war on the White House by requesting this investigation. They will spin this and keep it rolling until they get their pound of flesh.

[Brian Sweat]

5. They didn't sweep shit under the rug

This is the same damn story.

[Warren Stuart]

6. I take issue with your disagreement

For the CIA to back off now that one of their operatives has been publicly outed for political gain, would be devastating for them. How would they ever be able to establish contacts or resources in the future? This goes to the very heart of who they are, for them to drop the ball would be unthinkable.

Funding is meaningless when survival is at stake. The lives and livelyhood of people in this organization have been put in jeopardy by this treasonous action.

This game has just reached a new level, one that has never been played before so past assumptions may not apply. Don't expect this to go away anytime soon. Don't be surprised if interesting factoids that may be embarassing to the president start to appear out of nowhere.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. I think the game has been played at least twice before...

...and two of the results have been the assassination of JFK, and Nixon's removal from office. JFK made the mistake of not supporting the Bay of Pigs assault, while Nixon had become increasingly more unstable after his second inauguration.

Lots of names associated with the CIA have come up in the various investigations of the JFK assassination. For instance, Oswald had a CIA 201 personnel file, and while in the Marines at Atsugi Air Force Base in Japan was a radar operator responsible for tracking the U-2, which at that time our most ultra-secret intelligence-gathering program. DeMohrenschildt, Oswald's handler in Texas, was a contract agent for the CIA and had George H. W. Bush's name in his address book. Clay Shaw in New Orleans, one of the subjects in the movie "JFK", was also discovered to have been a contract agent for the CIA. Additionally, CIA operatives E. Howard Hunt, Bernard Barker, and Frank Sturgis appear during this period of time as well as later during the Watergate break-in.

There are some theories that support the idea that the Watergate break-in was a planned set-up to bring down the Nixon presidency. Like the current GB, he was presiding over a failed economy and a very unpopular war. When Nixon asked the CIA for help in getting the FBI to back off of the Watergate investigation, he made the statement that the CIA wouldn't want to see "that whole Bay of Pigs thing" come up again. By the way, Nixon was in Dallas in the days leading up to JFK's killing, and was leaving on a plane almost at the exact moment that JFK was killed.

[LoneStarLiberal]

3. Mixed Signals

I have several friends spread throughout different parts of the National Intelligence Community as well as several who are active members of AFIO. Of course none of the actives nor retired people talk about anything classified (as in we do not talk about most of their work) and I know better than to ask.

I do get mixed signals, however. I remember in the waning days of 2001 and early 2002 the intelligence community as a general rule really loved George Bush because he had made all the noises and begun some preliminary actions to really get behind the different NIC institutions and support a return to the "good old days." I got this impression quite a bit from general discussions with my friends.

Things slid a little further once there began to be talk of consolidating various pieces of the NIC into a Wal-Intelligence structure. Things slid even further when administration officials started to silently and publically point the collective finger at Langley and Fort Meade when Osama went uncaptured. The slide continued after the invasion of Iraq when the buck-passing over the prewar intelligence became a common Beltway recreational activity, with the buck always being deposited at the gates of Fort Meade or Langley. The slide disentegrated into a free fall once Plume was publically identified as a CIA covert operator (which could mean many different things).

I think Brian is right about the issue not going away, but I am still not convinced that even with the NIC pushing this issue that they will have any success making the responsible heads roll in this spinsulated administration. The NIC has a great deal to be angry with the Bush administration over and I don't think they will simply let this go.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. But the CIA is not alone at this point...

...because we've been seeing damaging leaks from inside the military as well. The military has come to the realization that they were swindled by the Bushies and committed to a war that can't be won. As casualties mount in Afghanistan and Iraq, the rumbling grows louder.

Additionally, the CIA would not have gone public with this particular issue unless they knew with a near 100% probability that a strong faction within the DOJ is willing to conduct a REAL investigation. Ashcroft is already facing opposition from Federal judges that are making rulings that are NOT supportive of the Patriot Act and/or his proposal that all sentencing be done at the maximum possible levels.

Getting back to the mainstream press for a moment, I think we all know at this point that they are owned...lock, stock and barrel...by very large and very conservative corporations. My sense of the current tone of reporting is that the press' conservative owners have had enough of the Bushies and their empty promises about making the economy healthy. The only way for those companies can continue to turn a profit is by laying off employees, and that is making a lot of people very unhappy. They have unleashed the hounds of journalism and stories are starting to appear on television and in print that I thought would never see the light of day.

One more point...the CIA knows where the figurative bodies are buried, and they will continue to release information until they get what they want. I personally believe at this point that their ultimate goal is to see the Bushies removed from power.

[West Coast Democrat]

12. It's very possible that Bush Sr. wants Rove gone

Bush Sr. still has his CIA contacts. Maybe they have decided that Rove needs to leave power and never come back.

[rocktivity]

13. You know people in the US intelligence community, LoneStarLiberal?

What are their names? ;)


rocknation

[Nederland]

8. Disagree, sort of

The CIA is pissed and this issue will not go away until the responsible party pays.

Any posts about how the BFEE is going to wiggle its way out of this are just mental masterbation.

These are two seperate claims. I agree with the first, but disagree with the second. Yes, the CIA is not going to let this issue go away until the responsible party pays. However, the 'responsible' party will turn out to a couple low- to mid- level staffers who will be sacked for breaking the rules. BFEE will not pay the price, their little minions will.

[Wapsie B]

10. But it would take only one

of the little minions to roll on rove. This generation's John Dean.

[Nederland]

11. Why would they?

When BFEE will probably get them a cushy job in the private sector in exchange for silence?

[dfong63]

14. rove has undoubtedly made many enemies - all it takes is one more...

... one more person with an ax to grind, or one more person with integrity, in the right place at the right time.

[Beetwasher]

15. I'm telling you, the CIA is just getting warmed up

in all of this. They would not have started it without all their ducks in a row. They know that to keep it alive the press MUST BE FED. They MUST be given a steady stream of new, fresh info to keep it alive. The CIA knows what it's doing. They are THE experts. I fully expect more bombshells to be revealed at key intervals. This is FAR from over.