The Church Committee destroyed the CIA's operations division for... well, forever. Let's see if we can't hit that mark again.

The 'fact-finding' effort will seek details on secret prisons and interrogation methods -- but will not aim to determine if CIA officials broke laws, legislative sources say.

By Greg Miller
February 27, 2009

Reporting from Washington - The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to launch an investigation of the CIA's detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush, setting the stage for a sweeping examination of some of most secretive and controversial operations in recent agency history.

The inquiry is aimed at uncovering new information on the origins of the programs as well as scrutinizing how they were executed -- including the conditions at clandestine CIA prison sites and the interrogation regimens used to break Al Qaeda suspects, according to Senate aides familiar with the investigation plans.

Officials said the inquiry was not designed to determine whether CIA officials broke laws. "The purpose here is to do fact-finding in order to learn lessons from the programs and see if there are recommendations to be made for detention and interrogations in the future," said a senior Senate aide, who like others described the plan on condition of anonymity because it had not been made public.

...

The investigation also could draw comparisons to the special Senate committee formed to investigate the CIA in 1975 and headed by Sen. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat. Revelations by the Church Committee led to greater congressional oversight and legislation restricting intelligence activities.

The terms and scope of the new inquiry still were being negotiated by members of the committee and senior staffers Thursday. The senior aide said that the committee had no short-term plans to hold public hearings, and that it was not clear whether the panel would release its final report to the public.

The inquiry, which could take a year or more to complete, means the CIA will once again be the target of intense congressional scrutiny at a time when it is engaged in two wars and its ongoing pursuit of Al Qaeda.

...

During the Bush administration, the agency was often able to safeguard many of those secrets. Lawmakers have never been told the locations of the CIA's secret prisons overseas, for example.

I'd like to point out this is an irrelevant detail as far as lawmakers are concerned. If you know the prisons exist and what is being done there and who is being held, what does it matter as far as a lawmaker where the site is?

The Bush Administration has kept this secret for diplomatic reasons -- the countries allowing us to keep sites on their soil do so at great risk to themselves. They face possible uproar from their citizens, strained relations with other countries in a position to thwart their ambitions (as France can thwart Poland), and of course: actual reprisal from Al Qaeda.

Bush kept this secret because the countries demanded it and because he knew Senators would leak this information almost immediately. Which they will.

...

Panetta argued that CIA officers should not face prosecution if they were acting on orders in accordance with Bush administration legal opinions.

"I would not support, obviously, an investigation or a prosecution of those individuals," Panetta said. "I think they did their job, they did it pursuant to the guidance that was provided them, whether you agreed or disagreed with it."

News of the inquiry was greeted with concern among agency veterans.

"There is a good deal of investigation fatigue, and a feeling that the agency has become even more than before a piñata," said a former high-ranking CIA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The new investigation is likely to "stimulate more risk aversion," the former official said. "There's a potential cost to other operations down the road when the current administration says, 'We would like you to take this operation, it's been blessed by lawyers and briefed by Congress.' Why should we do anything anywhere near cutting-edge if down the road the next administration can decide to get back at their political opponents?"

...

The panel will also look at whether lawmakers were kept fully informed. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the committee, and others have said that the Bush administration improperly withheld information from Congress on the CIA's operations.

...

Senate investigators plan a similar line of inquiry, with a goal of assessing the effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques employed by the CIA, including sleep deprivation and subjecting prisoners to cold temperatures.

Panetta's immediate predecessor as CIA chief, Michael V. Hayden, has defended the agency's use of such methods and argued that the agency should not be bound by Army Field Manual constraints.

Thanks to WilliamA.

Posted by: Ace at 05:29 AM | Comments (76)
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Nothing brings people together like music. Particularly if youÂ’re in a mosh pit or attempting a stage dive. Except when you stage dive into a too thin crowd. Then you get together with a concrete floor.

Neither of the links below are exactly new. Please, though, whatever you do…don’t get into a flame war over your differences in musical tastes. For example: Don’t say anything like “The entire membership of Styx should be bound and gagged, then placed in a steel cage enclosure with 100 starving wolverines.” Because that would simply be wrong. Wolverines don't deserve that sort of cruelty.

First link is to Spinner which has a number of categories such as “Worst Lyrics Ever,” “Hooker Songs,” “Rockin’ Gay Moments,” but you get the idea. Would’ve been a lot better if they’d invited the staff of Cracked.com over.

Second link is to The Rock & Roll Hall of FameÂ’s list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock & Roll. Some of these are real head-scratchers. And what about the omissions? Assholes left out the Bay City Rollers. Hell, without BCR do you think Lynyrd Skynyrd wouldÂ’ve ever been formed?

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 10:07 PM | Comments (97)
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"Reporter" Zachary Roth tries to create a scandal out of whole cloth. Unfortunately, the facts seem to be against his thesis, but that hasn't stopped him from sticking with his non-scandal story. After all, who needs facts when you're trying to destroy threats to The One?

The same liberal site (which, incidentally, brags about its original reporting) that finds lies where there are none simply ignores actual lies spoken by public officials. Go figure.

Posted by: Slublog at 07:48 PM | Comments (86)
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The decision was issued this morning (PDF). It really is an extraordinary story.

In July 1776, after the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, each of the colonial delegations was charged with informing its residents about the colonies’ decision to separate from England. The Massachusetts Executive Council (the Executive Council), an entity that shared governing responsibility with the Massachusetts legislature, issued an order directing that copies of the Declaration be printed and delivered to the ministers of all churches in Massachusetts so that the document could be read to the ministers’ congregations....Such copies of documents intended for widespread distribution were commonly referred to as “broadsides.”

...The broadsides also included the Executive Council’s additional order requiring that the ministers, after reading aloud the Declaration, deliver the broadsides to the town clerks. The order directed the town clerks to record the Declaration’s text in their respective town record books “to remain as a perpetual Memorial thereof.” Neither the Executive Council’s order nor any other law directed the town clerks regarding the proper disposition of the broadsides after their contents were transcribed in the town record books.

So the broadside in question simply disappeared for over two hundred years. Eventually it was discovered in the papers of the deceased town clerk of Wiscasset, Maine (formerly Pownalborough, Massachusetts) by an auctioneer hired by the clerk's daughter's estate. It then passed through a few hands until Richard Adams, a Virginia resident and the defendant in this case, purchased the the broadside for $475,000.

Somehow the State of Maine got wind of the transaction and the provenance of the broadside and sued Adams for its return. They said it was a public record owned by the town. Adams, of course, resisted.

What do you think? Should Adams keep it or does it go back to the state? more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:44 PM | Comments (83)
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Well, we had three weeks in a row of good stuff. And then last week. My short recap is below the fold.

In tonight's episode, we deal with Starbuck's special destiny and just about everyone wants to make Boomer pay. After this, three episodes to go. When do I get my Lucy back?

Spoiler Policy: Anything from the miniseries and the show up to and including tonight's episode is fair game; no need to warn or in some way obscure text for anything that comes from that material. However, anything you may have heard about future episodes should be kept to yourself. Thanks. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:40 PM | Comments (88)
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Now it stands ready at the orders of President Wonderful to show the Norks what for ifn they try any of their sneaky missile shit.

Remarkable how the story changes when circumstances warrant.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 04:23 PM | Comments (66)
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I was curious why no one had suggested this earlier. Must be ghastly-expensive.

– U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today introduced legislation that would allow the use of advanced directional drilling to tap the vast energy potential of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain without disturbing the unique characteristics of the area.

The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, would allow access to the coastal plainÂ’s oil and natural gas resources through the use of underground directional drilling from state-owned lands to the west of the refuge and state waters from the north.

“Everybody wins with this bill – America improves its energy security and the conservation community is ensured that there will be no visible impact on the refuge,” Murkowski said. “I urge those previously opposed to oil and gas exploration in ANWR to take a fresh look at this issue and show a willingness to compromise.”

The legislation seeks to find a compromise with those groups concerned with preserving the 1.5 million acre coastal plain while recognizing the need to improve our energy security and economy by meeting more of our energy needs with domestic production.

...


Directional drilling would allow energy companies to reach oil deposits up to eight miles away with no surface occupancy in the refuge. Production platforms on state lands and waters would be far away from the calving areas most used by the Porcupine caribou herd that visits the coastal plain in summer.

Again, I figure this is very expensive to do and that's why it hasn't been proposed before.

But now that it has been: Okay, liberals. Are you for ANWR or are you just determined to block energy production?

Posted by: Ace at 01:06 PM | Comments (129)
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DC, with Joe the Plumber.

Chicago.

Denver.

Thanks to Bo for the Denver pics.

Posted by: Ace at 12:41 PM | Comments (89)
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That's sharply up from the previous estimate of 3.8%.

A much sharper cutback in consumer spending — which accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity — along with a bigger drop in U.S. exports sales, and reductions in business spending and inventories all contributed to the largest revision on records dating to 1976.

Posted by: Ace at 11:42 AM | Comments (140)
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Sam Jackson's signed to play the super-commando in up to nine different movies.

The movies include Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and at least one sequel each, PLUS the possibility of fast-tracking a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie -- which is said to already be in development.

Thanks to DavidR.

Posted by: Ace at 10:59 AM | Comments (71)
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