To understand just how disgusting the news coming out of Iraq today about the release of Ali Musa Daqduq is, you have to understand that he was handed over by this President and his radical terrorist loving administration.
The Obama administration chose to turn over terrorism
suspect Ali Musa Daqduq to Iraq, a blow to U.S. military and
intelligence officials who wanted him tried by a U.S. tribunal.
By Eli Lake Dec 17, 2011 12:17 AM EST As it formally wrapped up war operations in Iraq, the Obama administration handed over terrorism suspect Ali Musa Daqduq
to Baghdad’s government, dealing a blow to U.S. military and
intelligence officials who wanted him tried by a U.S. tribunal on
charges he plotted the killings of five American soldiers.
The
White House said Friday night it has tried to secure assurances from
Iraq that Daqduq will be tried in that country for his role in the
January 2007 killings, but U.S. intelligence fears he will eventually be
released to Iran, where he has been linked to Hizbullah and the
notorious Quds Force.
The
administration’s decision drew a swift, harsh rebuke from a Republican
senator who had pressed in recent weeks to have Daqduq tried by a U.S.
military tribunal.
“Daqduq
is one of the worst of the worst,” Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said.
“He’s got a significant record of terrorist activity with Hizbullah and
the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, even training them. The
handover to the Iraqi government causes grave concerns in my mind that
he’ll find his way back to the battlefield where undoubtedly innocent
people will be killed.
“And,
to add further insult, the decision to turn this terrorist over to the
Iraqi government is a slap in the face to the families of the five
service members who were killed under Daqduq’s direction,” Grassley
lamented.
The resolution of Daqduq’s status was one of the thorniest remaining issues as U.S. troops leave the country this month.
Plans
as recent as this summer envisioned some U.S. forces remaining on bases
in Iraq and working out a way to at least monitor the custody of
Daqduq. But after President Obama failed to reach a new troop agreement
with his Iraqi counterpart, Nuri al-Maliki, the U.S. was compelled to
transfer the last of thousands of prisoners it kept in jails on U.S.
bases.
"Daqduq is one of the worst of the worst.
He’s got a significant record of terrorist activity."
(Wathiq Khuzaie, AFP / Getty Images)
Daqduq was one of hundreds senior
Shiite and al Qaeda suspects kept in detention centers on U.S. bases
when Obama took office. But slowly, most of those prisoners were
released. The highest-profile prisoners released until Friday were Laith
and Qais Qazali, two brothers who led a network that provided
Iran-supported militias in southern Iraq with lethal roadside bombs
known as EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators.
White
House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Friday
night that the United States “sought and received assurances that he
will be tried for his crimes.”
Last month, though, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged that Daqduq “would certainly find better justice here.”
One
reason Daqduq could not be sent to the United States is that Obama had
not allowed new detainees to be sent to the Guantánamo prison in Cuba.
Intelligence
officials are frustrated by the outcome. “This is one of many things we
just dropped,” one intelligence officer told The Daily Beast,
predicting that some of those turned over by the U.S. in recent days
will be released and “will go back to the Iranian terror mac
McCain to Obama: Take action against Iraq for terror suspect release
By Julian Pecquet
-
11/16/12 01:03 PM ET
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Iraq's Friday release of a
Lebanese man accused of killing five U.S. soldiers an “outrage” and
urged the Obama administration to respond in kind.
“This is an
outrage,” the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee told
reporters on Capitol Hill. “Families of those who were killed by this
terrorist should also be outraged and appropriate actions should be
taken with regards to our relationship with the Iraqi government.”
The release of Ali Mussa Daqduq, a suspected operative of the
Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, was expected after an
Iraqi court acquitted him of the charges. Secretary of Defense Leon
Panetta, however, had told Reuters that he had received “assurances” from Iraq that the country would not let him go.
Daqduq,
who was captured in 2007, has been a source of U.S.-Iraqi tensions ever
since Iraq refused to extradite him. He flew back to his native Lebanon
on Friday.
NEW YORK POST COLUMNIST INTERVIEW REGARDING PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE LEAKS:
Krauthammer: WH Leaking Iran Intel To NYT Is A ‘Scandal’
BAIER: OK, the next topic is this cyber warfare that a big article
again in the “New York Times” talking about how president Obama secretly
ordered the increase of sophisticated attacks on computer systems in
Iran, including the Stuxnet virus we’ve heard a lot about. There’s been
some angst about this story and others recent days. Steve, intel
officials are not happy with this.
HAYES: No. And I started the morning with intel people, national
security people who are concerned about the leaks and the fact it was
laid out on the pages of the “New York Times,” and that increased as
the day went on. I talked to some senior former intelligence officials and
he said David Petraeus needs to do a crime report and start an
investigation into the leak. The bigger problem is one person said it
appears to professionals that the information that they have been sworn
to protect is being used for political purposes by the White House.
That’s a problem in the intelligence community.
KLEIN: You played something earlier in the show that Leon Panetta
said about cyber warfare and the idea that would be warfare. The
implication is we may be at war with Iran over what went on. It’s
stunning, a stunning revelation. And we are learning more about the
president and how aggressive he’s been in some of the national security
areas. And I think this is just — it’s a really fascinating development
with a lot of potential tentacles. And it gets us into hot water
potentially. The concept of retaliation would very much seem to be on
the table.
KRAUTHAMMER: It’s beyond a problem, it’s a scandal. Leaking the
details that we saw in that plan about a very, very highly secret
operation, the name of the operation, how it worked, when it worked, how
it leaked out, the fact that we his Israeli cooperation, the name of the
secret Israeli unit. All that were missing were the Hebrew names of the
Israeli agents and their street addresses in Jerusalem. You wonder how
an administration could allow this and jeopardize what we have done
simply as a way to boost the president in an election year. I think it
is a scandal.
Let's see....when did they remove Panetta as head of the CIA and put Gen Petraeus in charge of the CIA?????? 'Defense Secretary Robert Gates will retire on June 30 with Panetta taking over in July. Gates told senior staff that he recommended Panetta as his replacement six months ago.' So Panetta knew he was leaving the end of June and the leader of Hezbollah announces in June they have rooted out at least two CIA spies?
Does anyone think it is a LITTLE FRIGGIN' coincidental that right before he is about to leave, they announce they rooted out at least 2 CIA spies? I swear guys, I think they were outed by Panetta and he got out just in time and would leave General Patreus to clean up this disaster!
What do you think? It was announced April 27th and Panetta was to officially leave July 1st.
CIA Spy Ranks Reportedly Busted in Iran, Lebanon
Published November 21, 2011
| Associated Press
The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.
Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.
In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies -- foreign assets or agents working for the agency -- before Hezbollah can find them.
To be sure, some deaths are to be expected in shadowy spy wars. It's an extremely risky business and people get killed. But the damage to the agency's spy network in Lebanon has been greater than usual, several former and current U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about security matters.
The Lebanon crisis is the latest mishap involving CIA counterintelligence, the undermining or manipulating of the enemy's ability to gather information. Former CIA officials have said that once-essential skill has been eroded as the agency shifted from outmaneuvering rival spy agencies to fighting terrorists. In the rush for immediate results, former officers say, tradecraft has suffered.
The most recent high-profile example was the suicide bomber who posed as an informant and killed seven CIA employees and wounded six others in Khost, Afghanistan in December 2009.
Last year, then-CIA director Leon Panetta said the agency had to maintain "a greater awareness of counterintelligence." But eight months later, Nasrallah let the world know he had bested the CIA, demonstrating that the agency still struggles with this critical aspect of spying and sending a message to those who would betray Hezbollah.
The CIA was well aware the spies were vulnerable in Lebanon. CIA officials were warned, including the chief of the unit that supervises Hezbollah operations from CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and the head of counterintelligence. It remains unclear whether anyone has been or will be held accountable in the wake of this counterintelligence disaster or whether the incident will affect the CIA's ability to recruit assets in Lebanon.
In response to AP's questions about what happened in Lebanon, a U.S. official said Hezbollah is recognized as a complicated enemy responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before September 2001. The agency does not underestimate the organization, the official said.
The CIA's toughest adversaries, like Hezbollah and Iran, have for years been improving their ability to hunt spies, relying on patience and guile to exploit counterintelligence holes.
In 2007, for instance, when Ali-Reza Asgari, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, disappeared in Turkey, it was assumed that he was either killed or defected. In response, the Iranian government began a painstaking review of foreign travel by its citizens, particularly to places like Turkey where Iranians don't need a visa and could meet with foreign intelligence services.
It didn't take long, a Western intelligence official told the AP, before the U.S., Britain and Israel began losing contact with some of their Iranian spies.
The State Department last year described Hezbollah as "the most technically capable terrorist group in the world," and the Defense Department estimates it receives between $100 million and $200 million per year in funding from Iran.
Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has built a professional counterintelligence apparatus that Nasrallah -- whom the U.S. government designated an international terrorist a decade ago -- proudly describes as the "spy combat unit." U.S. intelligence officials believe the unit, which is considered formidable and ruthless, went operational in about 2004.
Using the latest commercial software, Nasrallah's spy-hunters unit began methodically searching for spies in Hezbollah's midst. To find them, U.S. officials said, Hezbollah examined cellphone data looking for anomalies. The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time. Then it came down to old-fashioned, shoe-leather detective work: Who in that area had information that might be worth selling to the enemy?
The effort took years but eventually Hezbollah, and later the Lebanese government, began making arrests. By one estimate, 100 Israeli assets were apprehended as the news made headlines across the region in 2009. Some of those suspected Israeli spies worked for telecommunications companies and served in the military.
Back at CIA headquarters, the arrests alarmed senior officials. The agency prepared a study on its own vulnerabilities, U.S. officials said, and the results proved to be prescient.
The analysis concluded that the CIA was susceptible to the same analysis that had compromised the Israelis, the officials said.
CIA managers were instructed to be extra careful about handling sources in Lebanon. A U.S. official said recommendations were issued to counter the potential problem.
But it's unclear what preventive measures were taken by the Hezbollah unit chief or the officer in charge of the Beirut station. Former officials say the Hezbollah unit chief is no stranger to the necessity of counterintelligence and knew the risks. The unit chief has worked overseas in hostile environments like Afghanistan and played an important role in the capture of a top terrorist while stationed in the Persian Gulf region after the attacks of 9/11.
"We've lost a lot of people in Beirut over the years, so everyone should know the drill," said a former Middle East case officer familiar with the situation.
But whatever actions the CIA took, they were not enough. Like the Israelis, bad tradecraft doomed these CIA assets and the agency ultimately failed to protect them, an official said. In some instances, CIA officers fell into predictable patterns when meeting their sources, the official said.
This allowed Hezbollah to identify assets and case officers and unravel at least part of the CIA's spy network in Lebanon. There was also a reluctance to share cases and some files were put in "restricted handling." The designation severely limits the number of people who know the identity of the source but also reduces the number of experts who could spot problems that might lead to their discovery, officials said.
Nasrallah's televised announcement in June was followed by finger-pointing among departments inside the CIA as the spy agency tried figure out what went wrong and contain the damage.
The fate of these CIA assets is unknown. Hezbollah treats spies differently, said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism and intelligence expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies who's writing a book about the terrorist organization
"It all depends on who these guys were and what they have to say," Levitt said. "Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around."
Who's responsible for the mess in Lebanon? It's not clear. The chief of Hezbollah operations at CIA headquarters continues to run the unit that also focuses on Iranians and Palestinians. The CIA's top counterintelligence officer, who was one of the most senior women in the clandestine service, recently retired after approximately five years in the job. She is credited with some important cases, including the recent arrests of Russian spies who had been living in the U.S. for years.
Officials said the woman was succeeded by a more experienced operations officer. That officer has held important posts in Moscow, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Balkans, important frontlines of the agency's spy wars with foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations.
Topic: Cliff Kincaid has startling information that he and Trevor Loudon have uncovered revealing that Obama's CIA Director and Sec. Of Defense designate Leon Panetta has a long history of association with communists agents and revolutionary regimes.
President Barack Obama plans to name CIA Director Leon Panetta as the next secretary of defense and move Gen. David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, into the CIA chief's job in a major shuffle of the U.S. national security leadership, senior administration officials and other sources said Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates will retire on June 30 with Panetta taking over in July. Gates told senior staff that he recommended Panetta as his replacement six months ago.
Gates described his plans ahead of a White House announcement, expected Thursday, that Panetta would be the president's choice to replace Gates.
Petraeus' move to the CIA is not expected until early fall, after he wraps up his term as Afghan commander over the summer, officials said.
The four-star general also agreed to retire from the military before taking the position, in a meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the move in mid-March, administration officials said.
The CIA would probably be led by a deputy over the summer.
All sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes hadn't been announced by the president.
The officials said Obama would name Lt. Gen. John Allen to replace Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and diplomat Ryan Crocker to be the next U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan. With the turnover slated for September, that gives the administration several months to get Petraeus, Allen and Crocker confirmed by the Senate for their new positions.
Allen, now the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command in Florida, is due in Washington on Wednesday, and sources in Afghanistan said Petraeus was also headed to Washington.
U.S. military and civilian defense leaders call 2011 the make-or-break year for turning around the war and laying the path for a gradual U.S. exit by 2015. The main obstacles are the uncertain leadership and weak government of Hamid Karzai, the open question of whether the Taliban can be integrated into Afghan political life and the continued safe harbor Pakistan provides for militants attacking U.S. and NATO forces over the border in Afghanistan.
A U.S. official who confirmed Panetta's move to the Pentagon said the White House chose him because of his long experience in Washington, including working as a congressman with budgets at the intelligence agency, as well as his time as CIA director. The official said Panetta had traveled more than 200,000 miles to more than 40 CIA stations and bases and more than 30 countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Panetta's experience as a former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget will be helpful as the military faces efforts to cut defense spending, said John Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security, and a member of the Defense Policy Board.
Nagl said Panetta brings "an understanding of the budget process that's probably unmatched, plus complete currency on both wars," in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Gates has come up with $400 billion in prospective cuts to the defense budget over the next 10 years, and Obama has asked him to come up with $400 billion more, Nagl said, a task that will now fall to Panetta, if he is confirmed for the job.
Petraeus, who took over as Afghanistan war commander last June, had been expected to leave that post before the end of this year. His name had been floated for weeks as a possible replacement for Panetta. Current and former administration officials noted that Petraeus would bring a customer's eye to the job as one of the key people to use and understand CIA and military intelligence during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Petraeus contends that military advances, especially in the traditional Taliban stronghold areas of southern Afghanistan, have blunted the Taliban-led insurgency and given the edge to the U.S. and its NATO partners. A planned transition to Afghan security control begins this year, and the U.S. wants to start withdrawing some of its approximately 100,000 forces in July.
Sending Crocker to Afghanistan would briefly reunite him with the outgoing Petraeus, recreating the diplomatic and military team credited with rescuing the flagging American mission in Iraq. Crocker would replace Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a former Army general whose two-year tenure has been marred by cool relationships with major players in the Afghanistan war, including the White House, U.S. military leaders and Afghan President Karzai, administration and other sources said.
The nearly wholesale changes at the top of Obama's Afghanistan military and diplomatic lineup will leave fewer military and civilian leaders who have Obama's ear and who also have Afghanistan experience. Allen, the choice to become Afghanistan war commander, has never served there.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will leave his post in September after four years dominated by the ebb of the war in Iraq and the escalation of the one in Afghanistan. The top candidate to replace Mullen is Marine Gen. James Cartwright, who also has never served in Afghanistan.
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