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On Monday at the Center for Strategic & International Studies' Global Security Forum, John Brennan, Director of the US' Central Intelligence Agency, spoke about the recent bombings in Paris. In what many commentators took as a reference to Edward Snowden, but could instead refer to the Church Committee, Brennan predicted that finding the attackers will be more difficult than it would have been, had intelligence services been left unchecked:
In the past several years, because of a number of unauthorized disclosures and a lot of hand-wringing over the government's role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists, there have been some policy and legal and other actions that are taken that make our ability collectively, internationally to find these terrorists much more challenging.
I do hope that this is going to be a wake-up call particularly in areas of Europe where I think there has been a misrepresentation of what the intelligence security services are doing by some quarters that are designed to undercut those capabilities.
[...]
There are a lot of technological capabilities that are available right now that make it exceptionally difficult both technically as well as legally for intelligence security services to have insight that they need to uncover it.
Brennan's complete remarks are available in video via C-SPAN.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by gnuman on Wednesday November 18 2015, @06:29PM
given that the US government is in part responsible for the growth, and arming, of ISIS
Obama told Saudis and the rest of the anti-Iranian clique in the Middle East to NOT arm ISIS and the rest of the "freedom fighters" in Syria. So I don't know, but maybe US is not exactly responsible for arming ISIS. Though US is always the convenient scapegoat.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fritsd on Wednesday November 18 2015, @06:50PM
Well, whatever Obama says, but the director of Abrams tanks-R-us must surely be very happy with his profit these last few years:
some 40-odd to one side...
ISIS Captures Hundreds of US Vehicles and Tanks in Ramadi from Iraqis [military.com]
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Iraqi-army-losing-Abrams-tanks-so-easily [quora.com]
some 170-odd to the other side ...
US Selling Another 170 M-1 Abrams Tanks To Iraq After ISIS Captured 40 Last Summer [zerohedge.com]
Translation: Daesh is very happy with their tanks, and would like to procure some more.
Now I don't know much about tanks, but apparently these are the most modern ones in the world.
What's next, sell some to the Wahabbi's in Saudi Arabia to use after their weakening autocracy has collapsed?
Military-industrial complex >> Obama.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday November 19 2015, @08:16AM
Hmm. Does bring to mind that article awhile back where the tank factory was building a successor to the Abrams and the Army was all, "The hell are you talking about? Our tanks are fine. We don't need any new ones."
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday November 18 2015, @06:50PM
There were warnings that taking out Saddam Hussein would destabilize the Middle East and bring about the rise of even less friendly regimes. If you want to point a finger, point right at the invasion of Iraq by the US.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 18 2015, @08:35PM
Spot on. I wasn't smart enough to envision ISIS, certainly not smart enough to paint any details of what it has become. But, I was among those who wrote letters to GWB before the invasion, warning of destabilizing the region further.
Of course, everyone said that we were going to build a nation. What nonsense - there are no nations in the region, because it is inhabited by tribal people. Tribalists have no loyalty to kings, presidents, parliaments, or anything else. Tribalists only bow to the most ruthless dictator for the moment, while plotting how to take his place.
Saddam Hussein, as evil as he was, was almost the perfect ruler for the region. Assad is cut from the same cloth.
Had we succeeded in toppling Assad, today Syria would be entirely under ISIS/ISIL/Daesh control.
I say, "Thank God for Putin!" I wish we had a leader of his caliber. Unfortunately, there are none in sight.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday November 19 2015, @09:37AM
You are a brave man to say that openly, and I applaud that. As someone living in a country which only gained its independence from the USSR 24 years ago, I'd be appreciative if you didn't encourage our bear neighbour too much.
I highly recommend, at least as a starting point for further reading and discussion, /The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom/ by Adam Curtis. (There are 3 active torrents of the 3 parts we grabbed from kat, A8254654411F03A13E086F625863273C44634A44 9B53C8306AD9A4F2DD6B7A98896A7D09027FED90 117805357FC5D621486B61A6DCDDC9581C84E414, we're still seeding them.) It's chocka full of interesting historical snippets, although some of the analyses and logical deductions (in part 3 particularly) I completely disagree with. The insight into modern Russia and Putin was very interesting. In essence, Putin being in power, and thus the threat he is to my domicile's continued existence, was the US's fault too. Gee - thanks Bush (senior)!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday November 19 2015, @03:01PM
Downloading - thank you for the links.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday November 19 2015, @03:41PM
Tribalists do have a loyalty: to their tribe, which is another way of describing a really really extended family. That kind of loyalty is not unusual, nor is it non-existent in the US - many Irish-Americans still identify with the Irish in Ireland, for example, even to the point of supporting the IRA.
But you're right that the British and French made huge mistakes when drawing up the map of the region: If you compare this map [vanityfair.com] based on current cultural differences and boundaries, or this map [wikimedia.org] by T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia) to the map that they actually drew, it seems like the British diplomats who drew the maps were completely, obviously, disastrously wrong. Which isn't surprising, given the many other massive strategic mistakes made by all the players after World War I.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @10:38PM
Yes, there were warnings. If only we had listened!
—Dick Cheney [c-span.org] (36:15 into the video)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bogsnoticus on Wednesday November 18 2015, @11:48PM
If you want to look at reasons why none of the Arab forces were willing to join Dubya in the fight against Iraq, you only have to look at the broken promises made by Aitch Dubya to the southern Iraqi's and Kurds.
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 18 2015, @09:34PM
Obama told Saudis and the rest of the anti-Iranian clique in the Middle East to NOT arm ISIS...
Are you suggesting the Saudis listen to Obama, or anyone else that doesn't have their best interests at heart? Saudis have their own agenda.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Thursday November 19 2015, @07:36PM
Are you suggesting the Saudis listen to Obama, or anyone else that doesn't have their best interests at heart? Saudis have their own agenda.
I'm simply saying that you can't pin Syria problems and ISIL in general on USA. There is plenty of blame around, but it's not "America did it!". Not this time.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday November 19 2015, @09:03AM
There's a word for telling people to not do what you're actively doing yourself - hypocricy. And when it comes to matters like this, the word "stupidity" comes to mind too.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves