Rasputin is my man, dude.
But seriously, Miggle, do you think it's likely that it will be possible anymore for ANYONE to control ALL the secret agencies? I mean, I used to think the CIA was all-powerful, a secret government, but look how they've shredded the poor chaps. I almost feel sorry for them now, those pipe smoking, tweedy Yale chappies -- with George Tenet tossed to the dogs, and everybody blaming the CIA for everything. Likewise the FBI.
There are so many danged secret agencies, as you enumerate, and so many interagency rivalries that no matter what they call the new czar, if they make one, the reality of the balance of powers among secret agencies will make it in practice impossible for ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL. (Oh, you forgot to list one of my favorites, the DEA.)
There are so many scary things to be scared about that currently the last of my worries is another J. Edgar Hoover. Those days are over. If they tried to construct a new one, the next day somebody from the NSA or the Tripartite Commission would just leak it to the press that the man likes to dress up in ladies' undies, with real time video, and that would be the end of that.
"The only thing to fear is fear itself."
Ross Bender
In a message dated 8/23/2004 10:38:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
On 23 Aug, 2004, at 09:26, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Anti-Terror Watch List Keeps Kennedy Off Planes
You may think this was funny, but this is exactly what the 9/11
Commission has recommended.
... adopt the premise -- guilty until proven innocent.
Kennedy managed to convince Tom Ridge that he wasn't such a bad guy,
... but...
The 9/11 Commission wants J. Edgar reinstated as "US Intelligence Czar"
with full and ultimate authority to build dossiers on anybody he
doesn't happen to like ... just like he did for his buddy Joe back in
the 1950s.
If you really believe that there is ANY difference between the powers
wielded by J. Edgar Hoover and those which will be wielded by the
recommended Intelligence Czar, consider this ... J. Edgar was only able
to boss around the FBI -- the NEW NCTC Czar will be able to boss around
the FBI, NSA, CIA, NSC, TSA, Homeland Security Agency and god only
knows what else. He will be responsible for the government's ENTIRE
"black budget" (the one nobody is allowed to question, and which the
Senate must simply Approve or Disapprove en-mass).
The commission caveated their recommendation with the throwaway
statement, "... any clear-cut centralization of authority to manage and
be accountable for it [NCTC] may concentrate too much power in one
place." Everyone ignores this comment as the ravings of paranoids.
John Kerry thinks that the centralization of such power in one
individual is a good idea. He has endorsed the recommendation with no
misgivings.
John Kerry has abandoned Gay Rights; Abortion Rights and Civil Rights
-- any mention of such "divisive ideas" has been stricken from the
Democratic Platform and Kerry's Campaign literature and activities. Why
should he not also abandon Civil Liberties. All that Kerry worries
about is that somebody questions the fact that he only spent 3 months
in Vietnam, got a medal for every month there, came home, threw those
medals away, and testified before Congress that all of the men he
served with in Vietnam were guilty of War Crimes.
Kerry likes the idea of an Intelligence Czar -- he thinks that he can
"control him" ... yeah, right, just like Rasputin was controllable.
You may not like Bush, but Kerry will be the end of Civil Liberties as
we know them today.
[If you don't believe me, go read what the 9/11 Commission's
recommendations actually say. It is one scary document.]
T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]