no one should be surprised

the outlook is 'grim'. no, we're not talking about the economy or global warming or iraq or the victims of natural disasters or the lack of health care (what was it...hmmm.....LET THEM EAT CAKE!!! but remember what happened to her that said it)

it's afghanistan.


and NO ONE should be surprised the real story won't be released until AFTER the election.

please someone who is planning on voting for mccain / palevil PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave one tiny iddy biddy comment and tell me why. i just have to know

'Grim' Afghanistan Report To Be Kept Secret by US

No Plans to Declassify" New National Intelligence Estimate for White House

By BRIAN ROSS

US intelligence analysts are putting the final touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as "grim", but there are "no plans to declassify" any of it before the election, according to one US official familiar with the process.

Officials say a draft of the classified NIE, representing the key judgments of the US intelligence community's 17 agencies and departments, is being circulated in Washington and a final "coordination meeting" of the agencies involved, under the direction of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is scheduled in the next few weeks.

According to people who have been briefed, the NIE will paint a "grim" picture of the situation in Afghanistan, seven years after the US invaded in an effort to dismantle the al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Vanee Vines, said "it is not the ODNI's policy to publicly comment on national intelligence products that may or may not be in production."

The finished secret NIE would be sent to the White House and other policy makers.

Mike McConnell, the director of National Intelligence, has made it his policy that such key judgments "should not be declassified", although several have recently, including a report on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"That does not portend that this is going to become a standard practice," McConnell said it a guidance memo last year.

Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the Rand Corporation think tank, called the situation in Afghanistan "dire.".......

i disagree

the LAST thing we actually need is yet ANOTHER report on iraq. we don't need one. we KNOW the situation there (and here). we know it's destroying human life here and there. we know it's costing billions (yes and the report will cost money as well) here and there. it's unnecessary. it's redundant. even if we DO spend the millions on the report. IT WILL EFFING BE IGNORED OR LIED ABOUT JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER EFFING REPORT THESE DAYS (on ANY subject)
Kennedy and Levin Want New Report on Iraq Released

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
A new intelligence report on the situation in Iraq is "essential" to upcoming debates on the war, and its judgments should be publicly released, Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said yesterday in a letter to the head of the nation's intelligence agencies.
Levin and Kennedy asked Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to release an unclassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate before Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq, testify April 8 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs.
Without the NIE, Levin and Kennedy wrote, "Congress and the American people will not have the essential information needed for an informed public debate." The document, an update of two previous assessments publicly released last year, was completed and delivered to Congress on Tuesday.
Several lawmakers familiar with its conclusions declined to provide specifics but said it contained little information beyond public accounts of recent events in Iraq. "The stuff that was positive, they emphasized. The negative, they stated, but deemphasized," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was briefed on the intelligence estimate early this week. ......

draw your brakes brodda*

and in this case i mean BIG BRODDA (cause he really IS watching)

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.
Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site........

things like this just leave me wondering. right now let's just say, screw MY rights (just for now). i must wonder why our government is spending money on shite like this when our returning veterans (just as ONE instance out of a kazillion) aren't getting the care they need.

*one of my favorite reggae songs. it was on the album the harder they come by jimmy cliff

he's NOT getting the job

afterall
but remember, if they didn't get caught HE WOULD HAVE HAD THE PROMOTION
that's how it works afterall
Fake FEMA Briefing Costs Official New Assignment
Missteps Too Common At Agency, Critics Say

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director of external communications was denied a post as senior spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday, becoming the highest-ranking casualty of a fake news conference staged by FEMA last week to publicize its response to California's devastating wildfires.
The flap is not the first time FEMA or its parent Department of Homeland Security has been on the wrong end of a public relations move that backfired. Rather, it fits a pattern in which domestic security officials have mismanaged the public presentation of their efforts, whether those efforts are going well or poorly. .........

the more you lie,

the higher up in king george's court you get!
Fake FEMA news conference director gets promotion
David Edwards
CNN reports that John "Pat" Philbin, the Director of Public Affairs responsible for FEMA's recent faked news conference, is effectively receiving a promotion. PRNewser was notified by an email which said that Philbin's new job was an "amazing opportunity to head the communications shop at ODNI."
Philbin is slated to become Director of Public Affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

and now after all of the war talk and animal abuse talk

and natural disaster talk, here's a little JOKE

100*

yes that's right. they claim they are ONLY tapping 100* people in the united states. they've outright lied about EVERYTHING they've done. 100* my big fat ass

McConnell: Fewer Than 100 Secret U.S. Wiretaps
Domestic Terror Cases 'Manageable'

By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer
Law enforcement officials are targeting fewer than 100 people in the United States for secret court-approved wiretaps aimed at disrupting terrorist networks, the top U.S. intelligence official said in an interview published yesterday.
The relatively low number of those under surveillance in this country stands in contrast with "thousands" of people overseas whose calls and e-mails are monitored for possible links to terrorism, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said.................

*on second thought they said 100 LEGAL COURT APPROVED wire taps. i DO believe that. what i want to know is how many ILLEGAL wiretaps they have going. FAR MORE than 100 and if you don't believe that get the f**k away from me

i'm ALL for it!

spying on terrorists or even suspected terrorists. one has to do what one has to do. IF those suspected terrorists are american citizens, one MUST get a warrant. there is a special process for that and from what i understand only two or three cases in the past 20 (give or take) years have been rejected. GET A WARRANT. this is AMERICA. we are AMERICAN CITIZENS.

i expect our agencies charged with 'certain duties' to protect us. i'm not an idiot. i know all sorts of underground activities go on. YET i do not want our constitution to be ripped apart when it comes to the citizenry of the united states of america. there is NO need

oh and to the democrats - stop it. take your vaginas out of your mama's handbag RIGHT NOW

How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won


By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers
For three days, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments to a federal surveillance law, but now he was putting his foot down. "This is the issue," said the plain-spoken retired vice admiral and Vietnam veteran, "that makes my blood pressure rise."
McConnell viscerally objected to a Democratic proposal to limit warrantless surveillance of foreigners' communications with Americans to instances in which one party was a terrorism suspect. McConnell wanted no such limits. "All foreign intelligence" targets in touch with Americans on any topic of interest should be fair game for U.S. spying, he said, according to two participants in the Aug. 2 conversation.
McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially been willing to accept..........

i'm confused (once again)

isn't one of the republican platforms, LESS government interference? LESS government period?

not only isn't there LESS government, there is an administration that has shredded our constitution. rights? WE DON'T HAVE OR NEED ANY STINKIN' RIGHTS!!! (or liberties or freedoms either)

NSA Spying Part of Broader Effort
Intelligence Chief Says Bush Authorized Secret Activities Under One Order


By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration's chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001. The disclosure makes clear that a controversial National Security Agency program was part of a much broader operation than the president previously described.
The disclosure by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, appears to be the first time that the administration has publicly acknowledged that Bush's order included undisclosed activities beyond the warrantless surveillance of e-mails and phone calls that Bush confirmed in December 2005.
In a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), McConnell wrote that the executive order following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks included "a number of . . . intelligence activities" and that a name routinely used by the administration -- the Terrorist Surveillance Program -- applied only to "one particular aspect of these activities, and nothing more."..........

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's a big honkin' secret

i know we contract out for MANY things including mercinaries (let's call 'em what the hell they are, ok?) in iraq and elsewhere in the middle east. i know we contract out for just about EVERYTHING. BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT contracting out for THIS:

Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.

is just beyond my comprehension
and note, some places are made up of MORE THAN HALF 'outsourced' spooks

By R.J. Hillhouse

Red alert: Our national security is being outsourced.
The most intriguing secrets of the "war on terror" have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers. They're about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence operations today.
Surprised? No wonder. In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn't want you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show.............