An expert on Vietnam and one-time adviser toformer Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Negroponte said he sees moredifferences than similarities between the two conflicts. In Vietnam,for example, there was a clear enemy, given Soviet support of the NorthVietnamese. "We didn't have has as many debates about the nature of theenemy as we seem to be having with respect to Iraq," Negroponte said.
Additionally, "in Vietnam, the cities weresecure. The province capitals were secure. I walked around that countryas an unarmed civilian for almost four years without ever having anyserious brushes," said Negroponte, who served in the U.S. Embassy inSaigon. "In Iraq, even the capital is highly insecure — perhaps one ofthe most insecure places in the country."
It's funny how Bush has consistently rejected comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam; yet his own Intelligence Czar is making them.
President Bush wants to because such lawsuits would force classified information to be revealed in a closed court room:
In papers filed late Friday, Justice Department lawyers said itwould be impossible to defend the legality of the spying programwithout disclosing classified information that could be of value tosuspected terrorists.
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte invoked the statesecrets privilege on behalf of the administration, writing thatdisclosure of such information would cause "exceptionally grave damage"to national security.
As a political science/history student, I cannot help but draw parallels between what we are seeing today and the propaganda during the Cold War. The House hearings during the late-40s and early-50s involving Hollywood screenwriters accused of being communists were part of a sustained effort to snoop into the lives of anyone nuanced enough to ever question the domestic-driven U.S. foreign policy. We are watching the same thing unfold today. Although the a very legitimate battle against terrorism continues abroad, there are a few individuals heading government agencies here that are trying to get the government to wage war against its own law-abiding citizens.
Domestic surveillance by the NSA is supposed to occur with the oversight of both the legislature and our judicial system. If a U.S. citizen feels that his or her privacy is being violated, then that is where our Judicial system comes in to at least hear the cases of those people. If there is no way for those people to be heard, then there is absolutely no check on the Executive agencies in question.
Like during the Cold War, today National security is the ultimate trump card being used to outweigh all other matters in government. What it comes down to is one question: is it more important to prevent the disclosure of classified information in a closed court room; or is it more important to see to it that every citizen has the right to be fully represented by our judicial system? You make the call.
Here are some conflicting statements coming from inside the Bush administration about Iran's nuclear capacity. First, Iran is years from developing a nuclear weapon:
"We believe that it is still a number of years off before they arelikely to have enough fissile material to assemble into or to put intoa nuclear weapon, perhaps into the next decade."
Not so, :
Rumsfeld, interviewed on Tuesday by conservative radio talk showhost Laura Ingraham, was asked if he had confidence in the current U.S.intelligence assessment that Iran is five to 10 years away fromproducing a nuclear weapon.
"No, I'm not confident," answered Rumsfeld, according to thetranscript released on Friday. He added that U.S. intelligence agencieshave had problems penetrating Iran.
"I think it's a very difficult target for our intelligencecommunity," said Rumsfeld. "They work hard at it and they're finepeople, but it's a difficult thing to do. Our visibility into theircircumstance is imperfect."
Wouldn't the National Intelligence Director know just a bit more than the Secretary of Defense about Iran's military capacity? Dissent within any government branch or agency is a good thing. But it's the job of the National Intelligence Director to get an assessment from all different agencies -- the NSA, CIA, FBI, Pentagon, and others. Rumsfeld is only limited to what he is being fed by Pentagon research.
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