Hey Obama, Laura Ling & Euna Lee been held captive since March 17th!

Hey Obama, please don't forget about Laura Ling and Euna Lee. You know, the two American Journalists that were kidnapped by North Korea back on March 17th.

I know you don't want to deal with their situation because it might force you to actually have to make a decision. That's always a problem with you because you don't want to make your position know. You are the one that votes 'present.'

Obama says he is the man, and if he is, he needs to give some direction to Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Stephen Bosworth and whoever else may be associated with his North Korean foreign policy and get things moving.

And one more thing, where is Al Gore in all of this? Ling and Lee worked for former Vice President Al Gore's media venture 'Current TV'. I haven't heard one peep from him about this. Way to use your global influence, Al.
Rees


Laura Ling, Euna Lee To Be Put On Trial June 4: North Korea
by JAE-SOON CHANG
May 13, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday that two U.S. journalists arrested nearly two months ago near the nation's border with China will stand trial on June 4.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture, were detained March 17 while reporting on North Korean refugees living across the border in China.

The brief dispatch in Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency did not say what charges they face and gave no other details. State media previously said Ling and Lee stand accused of illegal entry and unspecified "hostile" acts _ charges that could carry up to 10 years in prison.

North Korea's detention of the two Americans comes at a time of mounting tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, and there are concerns Pyongyang could use the women as bargaining chips as it seeks to position itself for talks with the Obama administration.

The announcement of the June trial date for Ling and Lee also comes on the heels of the release in Iran this week of an American journalist originally sentenced to eight years for spying. Roxana Saberi's sentence was reduced to a two-year suspended term. She was freed Monday after four months in jail and international calls for the release of all three U.S. journalists.

Pyongyang, which conducted a nuclear test and test-fired a long-range missile in 2006, had agreed as part of a 2007 pact signed with five other nations to begin dismantling its atomic program in exchange for fuel aid and other concessions.

That process came to a halt last year amid a dispute with Washington, and talks in December in Beijing failed to resolve the matter.

North Korea's move to launch a rocket early last month further heightened tensions. Pyongyang claims it put a satellite into orbit, but the U.S. and other nations believe it was a long-range missile test banned under a U.N. resolution adopted after the 2006 atomic test.

The U.N. Security Council's condemnation of the April 5 launch angered North Korea, which quit the international nuclear talks, expelled inspectors and threatened to conduct nuclear and long-range missile tests.

The regime also said it has began reprocessing spent nuclear fuel roads _ a move aimed at harvesting weapons-grade plutonium used to make atomic bombs.

Washington has expressed its willingness to hold talks with the North in order to get the nuclear negotiations back on track. But the North dismissed talks with the U.S. as useless, accusing President Barack Obama's government of maintaining what it called a "hostile policy" toward the nation.

The U.S. does not have diplomatic ties with the North and has relied on the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to negotiate on its behalf.

A Swedish envoy met with each journalist on March 30, but the North since has refused access to them, U.S. officials said.

"I'm not aware of any kind of reasons that have been given to us as to why they're denying the consular access, which, of course, is contrary to the Vienna Convention," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Monday.

Under North Korea's criminal code, conviction for illegal entry could mean up to three years in a labor camp. Espionage or "hostility toward North Koreans" _ possible crimes that could be considered "hostile acts" _ could draw five to 10 years in prison, South Korean legal experts say.
Click to read the article and the comments

Liz Cheney vs. Norah O’Donnell: “The tactics are not torture”

You MUST view the entire clip. Liz Cheney asks a great question regarding what Obama did, or did not know.



Was Obama aware that the interrogation efforts had been effective? Did he make a decision to release those incredibly sensitive memo's without adequate information? If Obama chose to release the memo's before educating himself regarding all sides of the issue, it is at a minimum shameful on his part. He has basically destroyed the ability for our intelligence services to gather information.

This is a great article from Hot Air.com.
Rees

April 26, 2009
by Allahpundit
from Hot Air.com

A few days old but we’ve had a steady stream of requests for it. Hotline has the transcript; don’t quit before the end or you’ll miss her thoughts on Palin and Meghan McCain. Speaking of McCains, Maverick may differ with Cheney about whether waterboarding constitutes torture but they agree that a “truth commission” would be a very bad idea. A good question: “[Enhanded interrogation] was bad advice. But if you criminalize bad advice on the part of lawyers, how are you going to get people to serve, and what sort of precedent does that set for the future?”

Actually, here’s a better question: If we all know it’s going to happen anyway in certain circumstances, why not legalize it? Kathleen Parker, unsurprisingly, doesn’t get it:

In his book “Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age,” Dershowitz proposes that since torture is a given under those certain circumstances, then “torture warrants” should be issued by a judge.

He is right that most of us would do whatever necessary to save our child, possibly even torture a kidnapper. Likewise, if we stumbled upon someone trying to harm a loved one, we would kill the attacker if necessary to stop him.

But those are both darkly impassioned environments. It is by the cool light of day that we devise our laws. And it is by that same light that we judge our actions.

The law would protect you if you had to kill an attacker to stop him from killing, which is to say, it’s those “darkly impassioned environments” that law is most concerned with. Why leave a CIA agent in legal limbo if, however likely or unlikely it may be, he finds himself with a detainee in a ticking-bomb scenario?

Do yourself a favor after you watch the clip. Go listen to the archived audio here. Three minutes. Click to read the article and comments

A word about the soldiers - Could apply whether British, American or Israeli

This is great commentary. Could apply whether British, American or Israeli.
Rees

US should tell UN to shove it - UN laws do not trump US laws

from Breitbart.com
By VERONIKA OLEKSYN
Associated Press Writer

UN torture envoy: US must prosecute Bush lawyers

VIENNA (AP) - The U.S. is obligated by a United Nations convention to prosecute Bush administration lawyers who allegedly drafted policies that approved the use of harsh interrogation tactics against terrorism suspects, the U.N.'s top anti-torture envoy said Friday.

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama left the door open to prosecuting Bush administration officials who devised the legal authority for gruesome terror-suspect interrogations. He had previously absolved CIA officers from prosecution.

Manfred Nowak, who serves as a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, said Washington is obligated under the U.N. Convention against Torture to prosecute U.S. Justice Department officials who wrote memos that defined torture in the narrowest way in order to justify and legitimize it, and who assured CIA officials that their use of questionable tactics was legal.

"That's exactly what I call complicity or participation" to torture as defined by the convention, Nowak said at a news conference. "At that time, every reasonable person would know that waterboarding, for instance, is torture."

Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said it was up to U.S. courts and prosecutors to prove that the memos were written with the intention to incite torture.

Nowak also said any probe of questionable CIA interrogation tactics must be independent and have thorough investigative powers.

"It can be a congressional investigation commission, a special investigator, but it must be independent and with thorough investigative powers," Nowak said.

On Thursday, Obama's press secretary suggested Obama does not care for an independent panel.

Last week, the Obama administration released secret CIA memos detailing interrogation tactics sanctioned under Bush.

The memos authorized keeping detainees naked, in painful standing positions and in cold cells for long periods of time. Other techniques included depriving them of solid food and slapping them. Sleep deprivation, prolonged shackling and threats to a detainee's family also were used.

Nowak said Saturday that Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA operatives who used questionable interrogation practices violates the same U.N. convention. But at that point he did not specifically address the issue of how the convention would apply to those who drafted the interrogation policy and gave the CIA the legal go-ahead.
Click to read the article and comments

Nancy Pelosi Knew about Waterboarding

Americans have to decide now - We can't have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets

from The Washington Post
By Porter J. Goss
Saturday, April 25, 2009

Since leaving my post as CIA director almost three years ago, I have remained largely silent on the public stage. I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national security and trying to gain partisan political advantage. We can't have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets. Americans have to decide now.

A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation's intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaeda. In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA's "High Value Terrorist Program," including the development of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers

Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as "waterboarding" were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.

Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

-- The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.

-- We understood what the CIA was doing.

-- We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

-- We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

-- On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed "memorandums for the record" suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately -- to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president's national security adviser -- and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have.

Circuses are not new in Washington, and I can see preparations being made for tents from the Capitol straight down Pennsylvania Avenue. The CIA has been pulled into the center ring before. The result this time will be the same: a hollowed-out service of diminished capabilities. After Sept. 11, the general outcry was, "Why don't we have better overseas capabilities?" I fear that in the years to come this refrain will be heard again: once a threat -- or God forbid, another successful attack -- captures our attention and sends the pendulum swinging back. There is only one person who can shut down this dangerous show: President Obama.

Unfortunately, much of the damage to our capabilities has already been done. It is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day "I have your back" only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it. After the events of this week, morale at the CIA has been shaken to its foundation.

We must not forget: Our intelligence allies overseas view our inability to maintain secrecy as a reason to question our worthiness as a partner. These allies have been vital in almost every capture of a terrorist.

The suggestion that we are safer now because information about interrogation techniques is in the public domain conjures up images of unicorns and fairy dust. We have given our enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate. The terrorists captured by the CIA perfected the act of beheading innocents using dull knives. Khalid Sheik Mohammed boasted of the tactic of placing explosives high enough in a building to ensure that innocents trapped above would die if they tried to escape through windows. There is simply no comparison between our professionalism and their brutality.

Our enemies do not subscribe to the rules of the Marquis of Queensbury. "Name, rank and serial number" does not apply to non-state actors but is, regrettably, the only question this administration wants us to ask. Instead of taking risks, our intelligence officers will soon resort to wordsmithing cables to headquarters while opportunities to neutralize brutal radicals are lost.

The days of fortress America are gone. We are the world's superpower. We can sit on our hands or we can become engaged to improve global human conditions. The bottom line is that we cannot succeed unless we have good intelligence. Trading security for partisan political popularity will ensure that our secrets are not secret and that our intelligence is destined to fail us.

The writer, a Republican, was director of the CIA from September 2004 to May 2006 and was chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1997 to 2004.
Click to read the article and comments

Obama just got played by Iran's Ayatollah - you live by the sword, you die by the side

Wow! That one had to hurt!

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just dropped the "Anti-CIA" card on Obama. Yes, Obama. You bad-mouthed the CIA. You've convinced many Americans and the world that we are the bad guys and guess what happened? Low and behold, Khamenei tells the world that US Intelligence (CIA) is responsible for the attacks that killed Iranian Pilgrims.

How do you dispute that charge Obama? You can't. You've already made it so that all of our intelligence services and military are now "guilty until proven innocent."

Yes Obama, you own it! One more time. "YOU OWN IT!" Any questions before you slither back into the White House?

Thanks for the way you've been treating all the Patriots who are defending and protecting our Nation. (sarcasm) They are Americans who are Proud of Our Country (something you and your wife are not familiar with) and serve us honorably. You crapped all over them. Of course, what does it matter to you? They're not the type of people you hang with anyway are they are.
Rees

Ali Khamenei charges US military in Iraq, Israeli intelligence with attacks that killed Iranian pilgrims

DEBKAfile Special Report
April 25, 2009

"The main suspects in this crime and crimes similar to that are American security and military forces," said Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Satuday, April 25, of the string of deadly bombs that left 155 dead in Iraq including dozens of Iranian pilgrims.

"The growth of the poisonous grass of terrorism in Iraq will definitely be written in America's criminal record and US and Israeli intelligence bodies are the first suspects of that," he said.

DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that the all-powerful ayatollah was not just accusing the US security and military forces in Iraq of the suicide attacks of the last 48 hours but of "similar" crimes.

The ayatollah's attack shortly after Hillary Clinton's unannounced arrival in Baghdad seems to signify a sudden sharp cooling in Tehran-Washington relations - hardly a hopeful starter for the dialogue sought by President Barack Obama.

Two suicide bombers struck separate targets Friday, April 24, killing at least 65 people at the important Shiite shrine of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim in the Kadhimiya district of Baghdad as people gathered for Friday prayers; seven died at a car dealership in Diyala. At least 149 were wounded in both incidents. Thursday, a suicide bomber killed 55 people, including 53 Iranian pilgrims, also in Diyala, while a female suicide bomber killed 28 people in Baghdad. More than 100 were wounded in both attacks.

Khamenei may have been irked by the encounter in Tokyo between US special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki at a donors' conference for Pakistan. What exactly happened between them is not known. When asked about a meeting, Holbrook said curtly: "No dialogue. I ran into the foreign minister as we were milling around and we said 'hello' and chatted for about a minute or two."
Click to read this and other great articles at the Debka File

Here is additional information from an article in The Jerusalem Post:
Iran blames Israel, US for Iraq attacks

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed Israel and the United States on Saturday for recent suicide attacks in Iraq that have killed dozens of Iranian Shiite Muslim pilgrims.

"Dirty hands and evil brains that founded this blind and uncontrolled terrorism in Iraq should know that the fire will burn them, too," Khamenei said in a statement broadcast on state television.

"The American and Israeli intelligence services are the prime suspects," state television quoted the Iranian leader as saying.

Khamenei's comments come as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Iraq and the Obama administration has said it wants to engage Iran after a 30-year diplomatic deadlock.

Clinton responded to Khamenei's allegations, saying it was "disappointing for anyone to make such a claim since it is clearly traced to the al-Qaida remnants and other violent groups who wish to disrupt the progress of Iraq."

"I condemn these violent recent efforts to disrupt the progress that Iraq is making," Clinton said, claiming the attacks were a sign that extremists are afraid Iraq's government is succeeding.
But she said the response by the government and its people was "firm and united in rejecting that violence and refusing to allow it to set Iraqi against Iraqi, which is obviously one of its intended goals."

Iran has sent mixed messages to Washington in response to President Barack Obama's overtures.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran was ready to forget the past and start a new relationship - but he also called Israel a racist country and blamed the US invasion of Iraq on a Zionist conspiracy.

US president Barack Obama has been trying a different approach to Teheran by offering to engage in dialogue with the Iranians, who have sent conflicting signals back to Washington.

On Monday at a UN anti-racism conference, Ahmadinejad called Israel the "most cruel and repressive racist regime," prompting diplomats from every European Union country to walk out. Click to read the article and comments