Dems Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

"A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law. [Sen. Patrick] Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge."

Sen. Patrick Leahy previously said his bill boosts Americans' e-mail privacy protections by "requiring that the government obtain a search warrant." That's no longer the case.

(Credit: U.S. Senate)

by Declan McCullagh November 20, 2012 4:00 AM PST  
Follow @declanm

Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.
CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Revised bill highlights

✭ Grants warrantless access to Americans' electronic correspondence to over 22 federal agencies. Only a subpoena is required, not a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause.

✭ Permits state and local law enforcement to warrantlessly access Americans' correspondence stored on systems not offered "to the public," including university networks.

✭ Authorizes any law enforcement agency to access accounts without a warrant -- or subsequent court review -- if they claim "emergency" situations exist.

✭ Says providers "shall notify" law enforcement in advance of any plans to tell their customers that they've been the target of a warrant, order, or subpoena.

✭ Delays notification of customers whose accounts have been accessed from 3 days to "10 business days." This notification can be postponed by up to 360 days.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September. But after law enforcement groups including the National District Attorneys' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association organizations objected to the legislation and asked him to "reconsider acting" on it, Leahy pushed back the vote and reworked the bill as a package of amendments to be offered next Thursday. The package (PDF) is a substitute for H.R. 2471, which the House of Representatives already has approved.

One person participating in Capitol Hill meetings on this topic told CNET that Justice Department officials have expressed their displeasure about Leahy's original bill. The department is on record as opposing any such requirement: James Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, has publicly warned that requiring a warrant to obtain stored e-mail could have an "adverse impact" on criminal investigations.

Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that in light of the revelations about how former CIA director David Petraeus' e-mail was perused by the FBI, "even the Department of Justice should concede that there's a need for more judicial oversight," not less.

An aide to the Senate Judiciary committee told CNET that because discussions with interested parties are ongoing, it would be premature to comment on the legislation.

Markham Erickson, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who has followed the topic closely and said he was speaking for himself and not his corporate clients, expressed concerns about the alphabet soup of federal agencies that would be granted more power:

❝ There is no good legal reason why federal regulatory agencies such as the NLRB, OSHA, SEC or FTC need to access customer information service providers with a mere subpoena. If those agencies feel they do not have the tools to do their jobs adequately, they should work with the appropriate authorizing committees to explore solutions. The Senate Judiciary committee is really not in a position to adequately make those determinations. ❞

The list of agencies that would receive civil subpoena authority for the contents of electronic communications also includes the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission.

Leahy's modified bill retains some pro-privacy components, such as requiring police to secure a warrant in many cases. But the dramatic shift, especially the regulatory agency loophole and exemption for emergency account access, likely means it will be near-impossible for tech companies to support in its new form.

A bitter setback
This is a bitter setback for Internet companies and a liberal-conservative-libertarian coalition, which had hoped to convince Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to protect documents stored in the cloud. Leahy glued those changes onto an unrelated privacy-related bill supported by Netflix.

At the moment, Internet users enjoy more privacy rights if they store data on their hard drives or under their mattresses, a legal hiccup that the companies fear could slow the shift to cloud-based services unless the law is changed to be more privacy-protective.

Members of the so-called Digital Due Process coalition include Apple, Amazon.com, Americans for Tax Reform, AT&T, the Center for Democracy and Technology, eBay, Google, Facebook, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, TechFreedom, and Twitter. (CNET was the first to report on the coalition's creation.)

Leahy, a former prosecutor, has a mixed record on privacy. He criticized the FBI's efforts to require Internet providers to build in backdoors for law enforcement access, and introduced a bill in the 1990s protecting Americans' right to use whatever encryption products they wanted.

An excerpt from Leahy's revised legislation authorizing over 22 federal agencies to obtain Americans' e-mail without a search warrant signed by a judge. Click for larger image.

But he also authored the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which is now looming over Web companies, as well as the reviled Protect IP Act. An article in The New Republic concluded Leahy's work on the Patriot Act "appears to have made the bill less protective of civil liberties." Leahy had introduced significant portions of the Patriot Act under the name Enhancement of Privacy and Public Safety in Cyberspace Act (PDF) a year earlier.

One obvious option for the Digital Due Process coalition is the simplest: if Leahy's committee proves to be an insurmountable roadblock in the Senate, try the courts instead.

Judges already have been wrestling with how to apply the Fourth Amendment to an always-on, always-connected society. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police needed a search warrant for GPS tracking of vehicles. Some courts have ruled that warrantless tracking of Americans' cell phones, another coalition concern, is unconstitutional.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies already must obtain warrants for e-mail in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, thanks to a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010.

SOURCE: CNET

Contact you Senators and Congressmen and tell them to vote NO to this legislation:

Contact Information For Elected Officials

Track this Bill HERE

Glenn Beck Breaks Down Petraeus Scandal: ‘What Are the Odds?’

  
Watch Beck break down the scandal via TheBlazeTV here:

During Tuesday’s broadcast, Glenn Beck delved into the developing sex scandal involving David Petraeus, former director of the CIA. The former four-star general resigned his CIA post last week after acknowledging an extramarital affair.

However, the timing of his resignation — just days before he was scheduled to testify before Congress about the Benghazi terrorist attack — seems a little too coincidental, Beck explained.

“Petraeus was set to be the key witness in the Benghazi testimony this week,” he said. “But wouldn’t you know it, the FBI…accidentally stumbled upon some private emails and determined that he was having an affair.”

“What are the odds?”

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today we learn of the involvement of Gen. John Allen, NATO commander in Afghanistan.

The New York Times reports that Allen is under investigation for “inappropriate communication” with Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who initiated an FBI investigation by reporting harassing email.

John R. Allen

The messages came from Paula Broadwell, whose affair with Gen. David Petraeus led to his resignation Friday as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Broadwell, a graduate of West Point, co-wrote a biography of Petraeus called “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.”
FBI agents searched her North Carolina home Monday night, carrying out boxes.

Allen’s name had not come up in coverage of the scandal until early this morning.

The Marine Corps general has headed forces in Afghanistan since July 2011, when he succeeded Petraeus. President Obama nominated Allen last month to become commander of American forces in Europe and the supreme allied commander of NATO.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta issued a statement to reporters Tuesday saying that those nominations had been placed on hold.

Panetta said the FBI had referred their findings on Allen to the Defense Department on Sunday.
The Times reports that the Pentagon’s inspector general is reviewing 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, many of them e-mails between Allen and Kelley.

Kelley has hired celebrity lawyer Abbe Lowell, whose former clients include Bill Clinton and Jack Abramoff; and crisis PR handler Judy Smith, who has represented Monica Lewinsky and Michael Vick.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI agent who initially fielded her complaints was barred from involvement in the case. The agent allegedly sent shirtless photos of himself to Kelley before the email investigation began.

Source: Muckety.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a personal note, this just doesn't add up.  Would General Petraeus really allow himself to be used by this administration?

It just doesn't make sense.  I truly believe there's more than meets the eye on Jill Kelley.  I'm not so sure that the 'other woman,' Paula Broadwell wasn't also was a set up.  

It is more believable that they set him up from the beginning and these women were in cahoots to assist in destroying him.

I never could understand  why them move Panetta out of the CIA and Petraeus into the CIA.  That move stunk when they did it and it stinks even more now.

Hopefully, Petraeus pulled some CIA jujitsu and has incriminating video/audio of his extortion that he will reveal.

What are your thoughts?    

Glenn Beck Connects the Dots in Benghazi Attack: ‘This Is Fast and Furious Times 1,000′

During his show on TheBlazeTV Wednesday night, Glenn Beck said President Barack Obama has “crossed a line” concerning the “lies” about the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi on Sept. 11. In fact, he claims “Benghazi-gate” is “Fast and Furious times 1,000.”

“I don’t think that we are going to have time to be able to get this out to the American people before the election, because the press is of no help,” Beck said. “You need to try to listen and get your friends to listen next door because this isn’t about politics. This truly is about the future of the country because we are in grave, grave danger.”

Beck explained that America has had three major scandals in the White House: Former President Richard Nixon’s Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal with former President Ronald Reagan and former President Bill Clinton’s sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky.

But in those cases, “as the old catchphrase goes, When Clinton lied, no one died,” Beck said. In Benghazi, four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed in a horrific manner.

Speaking from the model Oval Office in his Dallas studio, the host said “when you’re in this office” every lie told matters.

“[President Obama] is putting American lives in dangers and he doesn’t seem to care about the consequence of his own actions,” he added. “The Libya story hasn’t passed the smell test with me from the beginning but it keeps getting worse.”

Beck went on to discuss Tuesday night’s explosive report that revealed 300 to 400 national security officials received emails detailing the Benghazi terrorist attack as it was happening on 9/11, raising fresh questions about the truth behind the Benghazi attack.

The emails show that the Libyan radical Islamic group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility for the attack just two hours after it began via social media. White House officials told CBS News that an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Libya, providing Washington with a live feed to the chaos that unfolded.

“Everyone had these emails, everyone,” Beck said, holding a hard copy of the emails in his hands. “These emails were accompanied with video and links to be able see everything live as it was happening. It makes it very, very clear. This was a terrorist attack conducted by a terrorist organization. There’s nothing in here about a YouTube video.”

Beck explained that if the administration was really working off the “facts,” the White House would have never mentioned the anti-Muslim YouTube video.

But one of the most disturbing developments involves the Obama administration’s response to the assault, according to Beck.

“Why would he choose not to send in a quick response force?” he asked. “Why were they not dispatched to Benghazi? Why were people in the situation room standing around watching our people get killed. Help could have been there within the hour.”

A frustrated Beck lamented the fact that there are still more questions than answers regarding the Benghazi attack.

On the most dangerous day of the year, in one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Beck said, four Americans were at a CIA safe house. However, we still don’t know why.

Beck says Americans deserve answers.

He then delved into the distressed message left by U.S. diplomat Sean Smith, who was killed in the attack, on a gaming website, a strange place to post a message like this: “Assuming we don’t die tonight, we saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.”

“I believe this is a place where he said ‘listen if I’m in trouble I will let you know on this site.’”, Beck said. Thirty four minutes later, when the Americans in the CIA safe house already knew something was wrong, U.S. Ambassador Stevens took a meeting with the Turkish ambassador.

“What’s bizarre is, he comes in while they are under threat…and here comes the Turkish ambassador.”

The Turkish ambassador leaves with no incident, unharmed. Hours later, the attack began. The fight lasted for seven hours, until the break of dawn. The live feed was streamed to the White House Situation Room.

“The picture is frightening and you need to share it with your friends,” Beck concluded.
Watch Beck’s entire analysis via TheBlazeTV here:
Obama has crossed a line


TheBlazeTV host also provided more details about his theory, which seems to make more sense every day, that the U.S. is running weapons to Syrian and Libyan rebels, which he called a scandal that was “Fast and Furious times 1,000.”

During his radio show on Wednesday, he said arming the enemies of the United States — for any reason — is grounds for treason, adding that people may “go to jail” over this scandal.

Watch Beck explain his gun-running theory and why he believes the president is lying:

SOURCE: THE BLAZE

IS THERE A CONNECTION BETWEEN OUTING OF CIA AGENTS IN IRAN AND LEBANON AND PANETTA LEAVING CIA IN JULY?

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.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/21/cia-spy-ranks-busted-in-iran-lebanon/#ixzz1eNE2c8Kq

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

America's Survival - Leon Panetta Security Risk ?

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.

http://www.usasurvival.org

http://www.aim.org

Related Links: Leon Panetta Is A Security Risk

Leon Panetta, High Security Risk?  Communist Sympathizer?

*****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*****

Obama sending Panetta to Pentagon, 

Petraeus to CIA

APNews

Apr 27, 2011

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.

SOURCE: TOWNHALL

9/11 DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT THAT SOMBER DAY?

In light of the recent position of this new administration regarding the investigation of the CIA, it is my humble opinion that it is not a coincidence that there have not been any further attacks on American soil since 9/11.

Today, I started out my morning, much like that fateful day 8 years ago. I still vividly remember exactly where I was standing and what I was doing when the first plane hit the tower. It was 7:46 am and I was preparing for work. I could hear the tv from the room I was in. The minute I heard about the plane flying into the World Trade Center, I knew it wasn't an accident.

Words will never be able to fully express the emotions that consumed me. After re-living those emotions this morning and for the last 7 September 11ths, every year I find myself consumed by a profound sadness after seeing those images and now, for the first time I am overwhelmed with the emotion of outrage. Outrage because this administration has positioned itself as Anti-CIA, Pro Terrorist and, in my opinion, Anti-American.

For goodness sake, they can't even call it a war on terrorism. They are now "overseas contingent operations". They feel that the same people that decapitate people on video and show it to the world, fly airplanes into buildings massacring innocent men, women and children; train children to become suicide bombers, and force innocent people to jump from the 110Th floor of a building because that is a better choice than burning to death, deserve the same rights and priviledges as someone that commits any crime. I don't think that the tactics used by the CIA to get information from captured terrorists should be elevated to the level of torture. I applaud these men and women for putting their lives on the line and keeping us safe for the last 8 years.

I seriously wonder what side this administration is on. Do they really hate the Bush Administration that much? Is this just a chance to "flex their muscles" and show us they will do ANYTHING to try to bring bogus charges against the Bush Administration? If they do anything that puts the CIA agents in harms way, I feel that Eric Holder, President Obama and any of the other henchmen in office that perpetrate this act of treason, should be put on trial as enemy combatants committing treason against the United States of America.

God Bless the families that were directly affected by the events of 9/11 as well as all of the brave service men and women that have given their lives and limbs for the freedoms we hold so dear.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT THAT SOMBER DAY? YOU NEED TO ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT GUT WRENCHING FEELING TO REMIND YOURSELF WHAT KIND OF ENEMY WE ARE FIGHTING....... I REMEMBER.............

Michele