The Washington Post reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates broke with CIA Director Leon Panetta, and four past CIA Directors from Republican and Democratic administrations, to counsel President Barack Obama to release selected CIA memos describing enhanced interrogation techniques used to extract information from captured terrorists. His reason? It must have been a good one.
Robert M. Gates indicates that he supported the release of sensitive memos on detainee interrogation methods last week because he viewed their ultimate release as inevitable.
Reveal secrets before they are leaked? Interesting philosophy. It leaves just one question, though. Why have any secrets at all?
Let’s see everything Mr. Secretary. Troop movements, battle plans, weapons systems, intelligence assets, names of covert agents, all of it. It’s all bound to be disclosed someday anyhow, right? Might as well just get it out there now. No need to actually protect sensitive national security information. America should just dump all of its secrets out in the open and hope that no damage results. After all, in the age of Obama, hope is the policy and our protection.
Steve Maley
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
No wonder Obama decided to keep Gates on board.
Flagstaff (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 6:25PM EST (link)They think alike.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
Gates Is a Career Bureaucrat
IJB Thursday, April 23rd at 8:29PM EST (link)So this kind of thinking hardly surprises me from him.
As others have said, it’s no wonder why Obama kept him on. If Gates had an ounce of integrity, he would have resigned over Obama’s proposed military budget cuts.
That he didn’t tells me all I need to know about him.
DoD budget "cut"
benjjneb (Diary) Friday, April 24th at 1:29AM EST (link)2008 – 481.4B
2009 – 515.4B
2010 (proposed) – 533B
Ok, let's go down that road...
Wing Zero (Diary) Friday, April 24th at 4:16AM EST (link)Raptor Program – Cut
Missile Defense Program – Cut
Navy Carrier fleet will go down to 10 from 12
It’s more about what is getting cut than the total number dollars spent.
Granted, we are going to buy more F-35′s, but they don’t have the same mission as the 22. And those F-35′s are going to be spread out between the USAF, Navy, and Marines.
However – That budget os 533 billion is only the PROPOSED budget. How it will survive congress is still a mystery.
1-21-09 – We are so screwed… Wait… maybe not just yet.
all we need is hope...
RJD (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 6:28PM EST (link)didn’t the Beatles sing about this… er… hmm…
may not, on second thought.
"Hope"
reaganiterepublicanresistance Thursday, April 23rd at 6:33PM EST (link)I know this is sarcasm, but just want to go on record as saying that this folly will end in catastrophe for our nation- Obama is leading this country off a social, economic,and security abyss for which we will all pay dearly.
Ten years from now, people will cringe at the very mention of his name. I’d be praying for the birth certificate case to blow-up, if it weren’t Joey Pluggs waiting in the wings- and one has to think Obama knew that when he chose him.
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com
The Reaganite Republican
Why did Bush pick SECDEF Gates to begin with?
suzieQ (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 6:35PM EST (link)You would think Gates would have learned something from the military before this administration took over.
“Andy Stern, the head of the Service Employees International Union, is the union leader who probably best understands the challenge of the world market and the need to make American union members productive in the face of world competition.” – Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich Co-Sponsored a Global Warming Bill Calling for ‘International Agreement on Population Growth’
“I would have signed the assault weapon ban that came to his desk. I said I would have supported that and signed a similar bill in our state.” – Mitt Romney 2008
Gun Owners Of America on Mitt Romney
Probably on the recommendation of 41. N/T
Wing Zero (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 10:08PM EST (link).
1-21-09 – We are so screwed… Wait… maybe not just yet.
Well Gates, in that case
Wing Zero (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 7:37PM EST (link)Why don’t I just spill everything I know about intelligence. It’s bound to do grave damage, but it will come out anyway, right?
Good grief, this just burns me. I had thought when Obama asked Gates to stay on, it was a sign that Obama wasn’t a total lefty, that he would take practical reasonable advice. But Gates is horrid. I should have known better.
1-21-09 – We are so screwed… Wait… maybe not just yet.
While we're at it, Gates also decided
Flagstaff (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 8:23PM EST (link)to cut back the missile defense program, just as it’s being perfected and is needed more than ever.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
Bob Gates is no Don Rumsfeld... nt
rbdwiggins (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 8:26PM EST (link)“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
Let's not jump on Gates.
jeffreywturner (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 9:49PM EST (link)Let us remember what the status of Iraq was when he took over Defense and what it is now.
As far as the divulging of the information, I think this may be a bit of damage control by Obama in getting Gates to say he supported it, but whatever the case, I SERIOUSLY DOUBT that Gates was twisting Obama’s arm to release this stuff.
As for the defense cuts, this is nothing new for Gates. For instance, he advocated nixing the F-22 program well before Obama, and on that one, I kinda have to agree with him. I have worked on fighter aircraft for over a decade, and as incredible as the F-22 is, it is overkill and we can get what we need from the new Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) at half the price.
Finally, I would have to say that I see Gates as somewhat of a damper on some of Obama’s defense policy idiocy. Just think of the alternative (ie: if Obama picked a new SecDef). Obama would probably staff the DOD with management from Code Pink and Move-On.
“Life is too short, can’t we all just eat pork and kill some terrorists?”
Either Gates drank bambi's kool aid
panchita Thursday, April 23rd at 9:56PM EST (link)or he was already predisposed. No matter which way you cut it gates is forever stained as is any other member of his administration.
Smart libs know to wait it out till hillary eventually breaks out. Being a part of this administration will be a death knell to many a career.
Well if you want to go toe to toe on the F-22
Wing Zero (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 10:05PM EST (link)There is no such thing as Overkill when you’re in the middle of a fire fight. The Raptor is a better Air Superiority fighter.
There are things the F-22 can do that no other fighter in the world can do. We also have to replace 2 aircraft with the F-22. The F-15C and F-15E. The E will fly longer than the C because it’s younger and hasn’t been in service for nearly as long, and carries air to ground ordinance. The F-35 was never designed to replace the 15. It’s the follow on to the F-16. We will naturally buy more F-35′s, as the roll of the F-35 will be to go in and start taking out targets once the F-22 has established air superiority.
As for my credentials – USAF 1N0 at the First Fighter Wing, supporting the F-15 AND F-22.
1-21-09 – We are so screwed… Wait… maybe not just yet.
Not disputing the awesomeness of the F-22.
jeffreywturner (Diary) Friday, April 24th at 9:15AM EST (link)In fact, I don’t think there has been a single kill scored in training against an F-22 when there were any less than 5 adversaries.
However, there are simply no other countries in mass production of fighters advanced enough to require us to use F-22′s.
Yes, the F-22 is the air superiority fighter and the F-35 is the fighter/bomber, but my point is that even so, there are no adversary fighter aircraft (in mass production) that an F-35 could not surpass. And given that, why not just use the F-35 as a dual-role fighter/bomber since it is so much less expensive?
And don’t forget, we already have almost 200 F-22′s, so it isn’t like they aren’t there if we need them, or we will forget how to build them.
It is kinda like the end of the cold war when we had enough nukes to destroy the world several times over. I am all for nukes because they probably saved at least 1 million American lives at the end of WW2, but seriously, once you have enough to wipe out the entire globe, how many more do you need?
“Life is too short, can’t we all just eat pork and kill some terrorists?”
And on Iraq
Wing Zero (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 10:11PM EST (link)Gates didn’t have much to do with that. It was General Petraeus and his plan that did the job.
It was also the work of analysts and service members going after the trouble makers.
1-21-09 – We are so screwed… Wait… maybe not just yet.
Gates is a power whore just like Colin Powell.
Tbone (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 10:01PM EST (link)nt
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
he was a good man, i broke bread with him
Doc Holliday (Diary) Friday, April 24th at 1:29AM EST (link)I think you are right, he has gone power mad and lost a moral compass. I think the line “the King is dead, long live the King” will have a special meaning when this man looks back on his life.
Molon Labe!
This Admin makes me sick!
CarolT (Diary) Thursday, April 23rd at 11:24PM EST (link)I had hoped that Obama keeping Gates was good, but now I wonder if BHO is pulling Gates strings to keep his job or if it’s really true that Gates wanted to give it all up on his own.
He might be like Tbone said above, a power whore, what a sad state for our once great country. It will take years to undo what Obama has done in three months.
I never liked or trusted him
Rapunzel46 Friday, April 24th at 1:22AM EST (link)since he was involved in the report to Bush that we should embrace Iran… why Bush hired him or Paulson is a huge mystery in my mind.