Obama, McCain eye better use of spies

While there may be some that think the status quo is just fine, John McCain has seen past failures of the intelligence community firsthand. "We need to revisit intelligence reform, going beyond rearranging boxes on an organizational chart," he said in July 2007. "We must invest still more in human intelligence and deploy additional trained operatives and diplomats with specialized knowledge of local cultures and languages." John, hate to break this to you but having even minor diplomatic relations with your enemies provides you with an "in" to getting intelligence. Having no people inside a country makes that next to impossible. Guess you're going to have to change your unconditional diplomatic talk crap or shelve your new spy agency. FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP

Bringing in all three branches of the government will simply turn the intelligence community into a political law enforcement agency, handicap any agency efforts and internationalize U.S. national security. There have been too many leaks in the past that have been politically motivated. It is not above the Congress to exploit that vulnerability. Jimmy Carter was the last President to handicap our intelligence community. We cannot use IKIWISI to define torture and then prosecute or attempt to prosecute our people after the fact. Hell, we can't even define terrorism. The only reason to bring in the legal branch of government is to provide legal excuses not to act (Bill Clinton strategy) and open up our legal constitutional responsibilities to the World Court. Mr. Obama's plan is rife with internationalization.

From what has been taking place on the internet regarding censorship, it seems that Obama will use spies to keep tabs on his domestic opposition. The Haaretz Article, Top Iran officials recommend preemptive strike against Israel, has triggered the need to repost an article that I wrote some time ago about a dream I had when Iran was testing their missiles. I light of Sen. Biden’s recent remarks that Obama would be tested by our enemies, I ask the question, “What would Obama do?” http://zachjonesishome.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/what-would-obama-do-haaretz-article-top-iran-officials-recommend-preemptive-strike-against-israel/

"Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, also objects to waterboarding and other rough interrogation techniques as a violation of the Geneva Conventions prohibiting torture." I wonder what the Geneva Conention says about treating a spy. I am familiar with what it says about treating a soldier. The Geneva Conventions need updating to add the elements of fighting Stateless terrorists that don't where uniforms as in contrast to uniformed soldiers that represent a country, which the conventions now are about.

I believe we were just as bad as Russia if not worse during the cold war. For example capitalism means our oil companies drill in Russia. Where communism may have meant more sharing of natural resources for the people. A lot of our problems we caused. 9/11 was basically the world trade towers. I don't want to reduce fireman or the like to collateral damage, but I do blame republicans and big business. Were suicide bombers from Detroit and former auto plant workers I'd know what was going on and could make an informed decision. I think back to WWII and how we were tentative to interfere. Despite it seeming the last good war I believe a more humble approach is needed. I disagree with Biden and see Obama as having international appeal. We may for once come across as a melting pot, a diverse culture. If tourism were to increase I'd hope they weren't all treated like terrorist. But they both seem to agree that Intelligence should be improved. Where McCain seems a throw back to the guys that started the Cold War. Throwing punches and crying about Cuba when the bell already rang.

DTFrankel: I suggest you be sensitive to CHavez66, based on the content of what he is trying to say. He is all over the place and lacks coherency revealing his search for who he is. Once he finds out who he is he'll be able to see a bit more clearly and make better judgements. First, history has never had a country like America. We have given new hope to entrapped peoples of the world. However, many question what America has done because they find it hard to jetison their old ways and traditional beliefs. For example, in the days gone by life was ever so simple compared to today. You were born into a position in life and it was clear to everybody how to live. Not so today. We're exposed to ways that are disappearing and ways that are appearing, much more taxing on us. So, I think treating CH with kid gloves will help him understand the world better than mashing him down. U.S. has done more good for more people than any in history. Ask the people of Iraq, today, now that Saddam is no longer with us. Ask the people of Europe now that Hitler is gone and ask South Koreans who now do not have to forage for roots as they did for centuries. They are now emensely taller than under their past kingdoms and North Korea confirms it. North Koreans are emensely shorter than their brethern and sisters in the south. Why? Nutritian and medical care. Can go on, but... While healthy criticism of the U.S. is good, there is absolutely no need to hate the U.S. as the mass media tries very hard to do to get people like CHevezz66 to hate their country.

It does not matter if you call for better human intelligence: wanting it and getting it are two totally different things. When 911 occurred we did not even have enough Arabic speaking officers in the intelligence community to interpret all of the message traffic (chatter) we were hearing on websites under surveillance. And we certainly did not have any groups penetrated, I believe that problem still exists today so we have to pay for any humint provided by third party sources and we all know efficacy of the information provided - we invaded a country on faulty intelligence and have immersed this country in a quagmire that the current administration is either unwilling or unable to extricate us from. So Mr. McCain can call for all of the human intelligence he wants - he does not know how to get it either unless he is keeping it a secret along with how he will get Osama Bin Laden.

Democrat Barack Obama has called for more and better spies and an international security program targeting terrorists. ------------ Finally, someone is going to do what Bush should have done back in 2001!! Instead of spending 1 Trillion on war, we could have spent 200 billion beefing up the Intelligence Agencies of all the friendly nations of the world! But that wouldn't have made Shrub look like a Great President to Shrub!

By: DTFrankel We have the Clinton admin to thank for the gutting of the CIA's Clandestine Service after the Cold War. It was Clinton who cut funding for humint for increased funding for sigint & elint. While all of this is good, it's no substitute for having your own intel officers in the field. If the Clandestine Service had been what it once was, Clinton could've sent them or Delta to kill or capture Bin Laden in Kartoum in the 90's, instead of firing cruise missile that blew up an asprin factory. When you care enough to send the very best, you send guys like that, not missiles. --------------- Considering that the budgets for Intelligence gathering was kept secret until 1997 (then it was at $26.6 Billion per year) and is now secret again, it is really hard to say if Clinton made any HUMINT cuts in the CIA's budget. Anyway, less than 1% of that 26.6 Billion was used for HUMINT! Also, all HUMINT uassets from all agencies and military departments was in the process of being transferred to DoD control when Clinton became POTUS, a process started during Reagan's tenure. Apart from that, the CIA's HUMINT side was never really strong - we never had more than a handful of human sources insider the Soviet Union, for example (and most of those were lost to Ames' betrayal!). Even when Rumsfeld was glad-handing Saddam we had no deep humint close to Saddam or his circle, certainly nothing really worth the title - which explains why Curveball so easily sold us a crock of shinola when he came knocking on our door. Al Queda and their kind are hard to break into because of the way they are organized - no Embassy cocktail party's for them! HUMINT sounds fine and romantic on paper, in novels, but is notoriously very difficult to acquire - hence our reliance on SIGINT. It was a shame Hastert blurted out on 9/12 that we had been listening to Bin Laden's satphone - that was shut off shortly thereafter!

"When a man's ways please the Lord, it causes even his enemies to be a peace with him." That is the word of God. There are histories in the Bible of how weak people who trusted in God avoided the enemy and overcame them. In one instance a Syrian king asked, (Who is on the enemies' side) because Israel knew ahead what was coming. The God of heaven was guiding Israel's leader through the prophet. The promises of God are for peace and prosperity if we obey His ways and terrors of many kinds if we do not. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are two scriptures that once you know them, you know the past, the present and the future. Spies and lies are not God's ways. Seeking God's ways and the welfare of all people makes it easy to talk with other nations. Then you do not have to have taxes to pay for world wide spy activities.

Obama said the other day, on the Ellen Degenerate Show, that he thinks he "is a better dancer than John McCain". OK. Here is what I think: I think Obama needs to have both his arms and legs broken, several times over, over a period of--say--FIVE YEARS. Then let's starve him for a few years, in solitary confinement, and then generally abuse him physically in every way we can, and then---let's put him out on the dance floor and see how good a dancer he is. Let's see his moves. Let's see his "boogy". OK. Now, all that happened to John McCain, war hero, while he stood tall for America. What, exactly, has Obama stood tall for? What? What has he put it all on the line for?????

I would have to go with the most experienced in this category. It's one thing to talk about something, but another to know first hand about the subject at hand. The Ivy-League Illuminati politicians can talk a good game, but will they do the walking.

The presidential race this year offers a study in contrasts. On the one hand in John McCain we have a war hero who endured torture and terrorism as a prisoner of the communist regime of North Vietnam. On the other hand in Barack Obama we have a candidate of Marxist background who has allied himself with anti-American terrorists. The choice is between America's candidate and the candidate of America's enemies. 1. Obama's Marxist background includes (a) his parents, his father a theoretical communist and his mother a fellow traveler; (b) his Hawaiin mentor Frank Marshall Davis, member of the CPUSA; (c) his favored "Marxist professors" at Occidental College; (d) his Marxist Socialist conferences at Columbia; (e) his Marxist "community organizer" work, studying and teaching Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals;" (f) including after 1992 Obama acting as an unpaid trainer to taxpayer-funded ACORN, the country's largest violent and thuggish radical group, directing Project Vote, ACORN's corrupt partner organization, and his campaign paying an ACORN affiliate CSI inferrably for voter fraud; (g) his 20 year membership in a Marxist "church" teaching "Black Liberation Theology;" (h) his political start in the home of violent Marxists Ayers and Dohrn; (i) his state political endorsement by the Marxist "New Party;" (j) his communist cousin Raila Odinga; (k) his Castroite (Che Guevara) Houston office; (l) his contacts with Venezuelan communist Hugo Chavez; (m) and with Marxist FARC terrorists operating in Colombia. 2. Obama's Terrorist involvement includes (a) Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers (Obama's political mentor and co-worker) who considers himself at war with the U.S. and boasted of bombing the Pentagon in 1971, Bernadine Dohrn (Ayers wife), and Mark Rudd (who endorsed Obama); (b) PLO terrorists Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi (the latter a contributor to Obama who was also funded by Obama and Ayers); (c) Baathist Nahmid Auchi, Saddam's money-man who bribed western politicians, who funded Obama's campaigns and (with Syrian lobbyist Tony Rezko) helped Obama purchase his mansion; (d) Luo terrorists, including Raila Odinga (Obama's cousin) for whom Obama campaigned in Kenya in 2006, and "Roy" Abongo Obama (Barack's half brother), an Afrocentric militant Islamist; (e) Hamas via spokesman Ahmed Yousef (who endorsed Obama), Obama's church (which published the Hamas Manifesto), and Robert Malley (an Obama adviser); (f) Hezbollah agent Osama Siblani (who met with Obama in June, 2008); and (g) al-Qaeda via Obama's fundraiser Mohamed Salim Al-Churbaji and his cousin Odinga's financial backer Abdulkader al-Bakri.