Attorney General Eric Holder recently told intelligence community lawyers that he wants them to continue the Administration’s crackdown on leakers and media sources despite calls for his termination and the controversy on the attack on the free press. The message is clear: there will be no quarter given those who disclose classified information. Well not everyone. This week it was revealed that former CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed classified information to “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Mark Boal. According to an inspector general report, the disclosure of the name of the Navy SEAL unit that carried out the Osama bin Laden raid and the unit’s ground commander at a 2011 ceremony. Some of the information was marked as “top secret.”
The wonderful thing for Holder is that this leaker is known and there are witnesses. He made the disclosure in front of 1,300 people in a tent at the CIA complex on June 24, 2011. So Panetta is now being housed next to Bradley Manning, right? Not quite. The Administration leaks classified information on a regular basis. On Obama Farm, all leakers are equal but some leakers are more equal than others.
Notably, this disclosure helped a filmmaker who was developing a controversial film that seemed to herald the value of torture by CIA employees. Like many, I was surprised by the degree to which the movie made it look like it was torture that led to the killing of Obama in direct contradiction to what we know about the various sources used in the operation. Giving top secret information to a filmmaker for such a film does not appear to be a matter for prosecution. Now, the Associated Press or Fox News? That is an entirely different question. In that case, the reporters are viewed by the Administration as an possible criminal co-conspirator. In the case, of Boal, he was not a co-conspirator . . . just part of the creative enterprise.
Source: Politico
raff,
Yes. They are.
You attack people and then ask why you are attacked in kind.
Is that too hard for you to figure out on your own?
Apparently so.
You reap what you sow.
I agree with Mike S. that a large portion of the allegedly classified information is just covering up the nonsense that goes on in the military and in the intelligence world. It prevents the world from seeing just how many mistakes are made when you carry nuclear weapons or material related to nukes or other “secret” programs. I wonder if the NSA is reading this blog right now??
Then, why the constant double and triple teams? Why not just ignore me? That would be the smart thing to do if I am beneath you.
This is such a stretch it is funny! He was giving out awards for crying out loud and thought every person there was cleared. It is NOT like giving out intel to a reporter in a dark garage. Let me know when you come up with something real.
“Probably because a team always has to double and triple team the most formidable opponent.”
I laughed so hard, I snorted coffee. Narcissism run amok. The only thing formidable about you, nick, is your self-perceptual blindness. You have yet to post anything this morning that doesn’t simply prove that you are incapable of controlling your passive-aggressive behavior.
The harder you fight, the worse you look and the more the point about your bad behavior being pathological is made.
Congratulations.
Mike,
I must quibble about Bigelow. She’s skilled as a director, but as a propagandist, she’s a mixed bag at best and awful at worst. The best propaganda is practically invisible as such. That is the way with all forms of persuasive speech, the essence of the Jedi Mind Trick. ZDT on the other hand fairly screamed apologist fascist propaganda from the get go.
“I must quibble about Bigelow. She’s skilled as a director, but as a propagandist, she’s a mixed bag at best and awful at worst. The best propaganda is practically invisible as such. That is the way with all forms of persuasive speech, the essence of the Jedi Mind Trick. ZDT on the other hand fairly screamed apologist fascist propaganda from the get go.”
Gene,
I agree with your quibble because it makes sense. Had the film obviously not been propaganda I might have seen it. The trick of the great propagandist is to suck you in and inculcate the message without you even realizing it. My defense against it was as a young boy hearing my father talk back at the TV all the time when he would see BS. I have that habit now, but some of the people closest to me find it annoying, no names of course. 🙂
Refusing to see films, refusing to donate to PBS, I don’t think this as anything but being a close minded, cheapskate.
“Then, why the constant double and triple teams? Why not just ignore me? That would be the smart thing to do if I am beneath you.”
Nick,
Because with people suffering from your kind of disorders, ignoring you would just give you license to act out further. By responding to you we develop a record of your behavior for all to see, otherwise the casual observer might think that the lack of response to you means acquiescence. If it was just about you getting the last word, you would have had it long ago. After having it though and incidentally your pleading for civility the very next day you attacked gratuitously again. For some reason you have developed a hatred for me, Gene and Mespo too. It probably is because in your very first comment on this blog you came in attacking and we both shot you down, having seen this behavior before from others of your ilk in the past.
I suspect your problem here is that in your personal life the bully in you is not challenged. Even the professions, you profess to have had, are ones where bullies can get away with their meanness. As with most bullies you are most probably analingually inclined when dealing with your superiors and that inclination is the source of the scatology of your comments. You are obsessed with excrement, since you worship it in those “alphas” you cow to. In truth Nick, I get no real pleasure in deconstructing you since I actually pity your psychological state, but I’ve stood up to bullies all my life and you’re no exception. The fact that you so lack self-awareness that you see it the other way around and are thus incapable of assessing your own culpability in this, is merely a reflection of your disorder.
The reason I think that people on this blog tend to like me is that I am not into on inflicting pain on others and have proven it over the years. I even became friendly with someone who attacked me as a “Christ Killer”, but that was because he was capable of realizing by people’s reactions, that he was off base. You don’t seem to realize that. What you miss is that when you are not attacking people snidely, you actually get friendly responses here. The only “In Crowd” here is the one in your mind. The “Guest Bloggers” were asked to be by Jonathan Turley, for his own reasons, nobody got there by asking. We stay on as guest bloggers at his pleasure. We also help share the burden of this non-profit blog by helping with some of the housekeeping chores, like dealing with the WordPress spam filter. That is the extent of our being the “In Crowd” save for the years of friendship and respect built up. I’ve said it before that the “In Crowd” here is made up of people who are interesting in their comments and we welcome new ones every day and take pains to make them feel welcome. However, there are those like yourself who come in with invective and over aggression. These people like you are unable to tolerate anyone disagreeing with them and also are unable to present a logical case for their opinions, those people are not greeted with open arms.
I’ve gone beyond the my own, self-imposed, one paragraph rule to try to get you to understand the dynamics of what is going on here. Sadly, I’ve had to honestly characterize your behavior to once again, vainly I fear, to try to get you to understand what is going on here. I’ve also done it to make clear to others why these attacks of yours are disrupting threads and must be dealt with.
“Nattering nabobs of negativity.” Spiro Agnew was also a fan. And can’t you two little boys stick up for yourselves? If clutter really concerns you, why don’t you each fight your own battles? Probably because a team always has to double and triple team the most formidable opponent. A compliment from “the smartest guys in the room” who aren’t smart enough to see it. You can’t make this stuff up!
It seems that some top secret intelligence is more important to reveal than other top secret intelligence. I would guess that fully 95% of what is classified as “top secret” is basic ass covering. The “secrets” that do get leaked are “self-promotion”. It is interesting that the film maker of “Zero Dark Thirty”, previously made a film about bomb detonators in Iraq. She is said to be quite skilled although I refused to see either film. We have seen in the past many people with artistic skill use in tandem with our Defense/Intelligence Establishment. As an artist, she’s a good propagandist. A Leni Riefensteihl, who works in drama, rahter than documentary style.
“Children love alliteration, it made the curmudgeonly Dr. Suess millions.”
Nicky,
An early thread hijack attempt via an attack on Gene. You are as incapable of self restraint, as you are of self-awareness. when Gene demolishes you, you will play amnesiac and cry victim again. Poor widdle Nickyboy.
Simply simple sobriquets for the shortsighted simpleminded sojourners shown up on this spot or playful penning for perspicacious purveyors of parlance?
“… it was torture that led to the killing of Obama…” I think I’d have heard something about this. And would have been quite distraught.
Some individuals are authorized to release classified information. When they do, those individuals are not “leaking” information.
Dick Cheney is still walking around free as a bird after his role in outing Valerie Plame, and what about that weirdo, Gen. Petraeus and his adulterous “pillow talk” while CIA director … he’s still giving speeches around the country … Panetta fits right in.
Obama appointed both Panetta and Petraeus so maybe Holder should be looking up the food chain rather than down. Just sayin’ ….
Children love alliteration, it made the curmudgeonly Dr. Suess millions.
How much more evidence do we need to impeach Holder and Obama? In the past month we have learned about so many poor bush policies that were expanded upon by Obama. Yet we sail along. And with the latest phone spy operation, most of our elected representatives are supportive? It is clearly time to not vote a single one of these people back.
Why does everyone feign surprise when there are two sets of rules and double standards. They exist everywhere, and if you have a nonpartisan mind you see all of them.
Without a penchant for parody, Panetta remains a perfectly prosaic paragon portraying the Peter Principle perfectly.
There are leakers and there are leakers.
“Isn’t that special.”