It seems the CIA favors Obama over McCain.

This is not surprising in light of the horrific damage the Bush Administration has done to the Agency (outing Valerie Plame, making sure the Phase II report on intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq war was delayed long enough for the public imagination to associate the notorious 16 words more with CIA failure than with the fantasies of Feith and co., and then foisting the grossly unpopular Porter Goss on the Agency for a year and a half, which resulted in the resignations of some of the most seasoned operatives, and an infamous scandal.)

"Normally, at least a while back, and certainly in the 1990s, during the Clinton administration, people around the CIA would tend to vote Republican," says a recent covert agency retiree, asking not to be identified because he still consults with the spy agency.

"But I think that's changed, probably because of Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

After years of derision and insults from neoconservatives who coalesced in the Bush administration, old hands say, they're getting their revenge.

:

"I think we need to have a full, fair account of what happened [during the last eight years]come out, and probably that's going to have to go through a commission, but I think the Republicans are right when they say, you know, what the Democratic leadership did needs to fully exposed too if there's going to be an inquiry. So I think they're raising that because they want to block an inquiry, but I think the point is an absolutely fair, correct point. It does need to be exposed." [emphasis added]

-Scott Horton, interviewed on Oct. 15 by Glenn Greenwald.

As many might reflect, investigations tend not to be pursued with the proper diligence by those who will be, in effect, investigating themselves.

(reposted and retitled)

Alberto Gonzales was one kind of pox. He was a national embarrassment- a naked symbol of the corruption of the Bush administration. 'Naked' because he was the most isolated figure to haunt the Capitol- all he had going for him was his blind loyalty to his patron; he was clueless, friendless (except for Bush), and, speaking generally, became someone  permissible for 'moderate Republicans' like Arlen Specter to remorselessly tear apart. (And 'moderate Republicans,' as Lincoln Chafee reminds us, had plenty of rage bottled up against the Adminstration.)

He was an idiot. But that may not be the whole story. Most of us, given orders. like he was, to barge in on John Ashcroft's hospital bed in order to obtain permission to egregiously break the law (think about it!), would simply resign out of despair: We would not have the heart, or the stomach, for the task. I don't mean we would resign out of excess of humanity. We would resign for the same reason we don't light matches when we peer into the gas tank.

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(No, I don't mean the Republicans and the Democrats, though I confess to intemperate feelings regarding both.)

Alberto Gonzales was one kind of pox. He was a national embarrassment- a naked symbol of the corruption of the Bush administration. 'Naked' because he was the most isolated figure to haunt the Capitol- all he had going for him was his blind loyalty to his patron; he was clueless, friendless (except for Bush), and, speaking generally, became someone  permissible for 'moderate Republicans' like Arlen Specter to remorselessly tear apart. (And 'moderate Republicans,' as Lincoln Chafee reminds us, had plenty of rage bottled up against the Adminstration.)
He was an idiot. But that may not be the whole story. Most of us, given orders. like he was, to barge in on John Ashcroft's hospital bed in order to obtain permission to egregiously break the law (think about it!), would simply resign out of despair: We would not have the heart, or the stomach, for the task. I don't mean we would resign out of excess of humanity. We would resign for the same reason we don't light matches when we peer into the gas tank.

Read more »