by Deb Cupples | Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael Hayden reportedly want to keep their jobs but suspect that President-elect Barack Obama will replace them when he takes office.
A Washington Post writer seems to think that congressional Democrats want to get rid of McConnell and Hayden purely for political reasons: i.e., because they supported President Bush's (egregious or potentially illegal) policies.
I don't know about Mr. Hayden, but I can think of non-political reasons for getting rid of Mr. McConnell -- starting with the fact that he twice made misleading statements to Congress (I say "made misleading statements," some say "lied").
In September 2007, for example, Mr. McConnell had to withdraw statements he'd made during testimony to Congress. When trying to persuade Congress to support the so-called Protect America Act, Mr. McConnell falsely claimed that The Act had facilitated the foiling of a terrorist plot in Germany.
In reality, German and U.S. military folks had exchanged information 10 months before The Act was passed, which information helped foil the terrorist plot. (Newsweek)
Just a few weeks later in September 2007, Mr. McConnell told the House Intelligence Committee that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA) requirements had prevented agents from quickly tapping Iraqi
insurgents' communications,
which enabled insurgents to capture three U.S. soldiers in May.
In reality, officials didn't even seek wiretapping approval until 86 hours after the soldiers had been captured. (Washington Post)
Then there's this report from February 2008:
"On Friday evening, Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell had said in an unusually blunt letter to Congress that the nation 'is now more vulnerable to terrorist attack and other foreign threats' because lawmakers had not yet acted on the administration's proposal for the wiretapping law.
"But within hours of sending that letter, administration officials told lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees that they had prevailed upon all of the telecommunications companies to continue cooperating with the government's requests for information while negotiations with Congress continue." (LA Times)
In other words, the Bush Administration was still getting Telecoms to do wiretapping; thus, Mr. McConnell's claim did not gel with reality.
Mr. McConnell's pattern of playing fast and loose with the truth should concern Congress, because Congress and we taxpayers depend on intelligence officials for accurate briefings.
Last time intelligence officials egregiously dropped the ball, we ended up invading a country we shouldn't have, and we're still there -- five years, thousands of lives, and billions of dollars later.
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