Today it became much clearer why the Obama administraton has been digging its heels in the sand on the question of the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute issues surrounding torture and the Bush Administration's illegal actions. Recall that Obama himself has called the nation to "look forward and not backward" on this. Within the past 24 hours, the Obama administration's nominee to lead intelligence efforts at the Department of Homeland Security, Philip Mudd, has withdrawn because of his own role in waterboarding and torture. This is not the first person Obama has picked in his administration who has "monsters in their closets". Dennis Blair and the newly tapped general to head the effort in Afghanistan, Gen. McChrystal, also very likely have blood (and illegalities) on their hands. Obama's terrorist guru wannabe, Mudd, was one of the people behind a silly & likely illegal program to monitor falafel sales in the SF Bay area to track down "terrorists" (NO, I'm not wearing a tin foil hat and making this up. See UPDATE #6 below).
Let's look at Philip Mudd. The New York Times is reporting about him:
The Obama administration’s nominee to lead intelligence efforts at the Department of Homeland Security withdrew Friday after it became clear that lawmakers would raise questions about his role in the Bush administration’s interrogation programs.
...Mr. Mudd is now a deputy in Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterterrorism unit. Before that, he was deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Counterterrorism Center. It was in the latter post that legislators believed Mr. Mudd became deeply involved with the government’s enhanced interrogation efforts, including the use of the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding. A White House aide said the president was well aware of Mr. Mudd’s links with interrogation programs that the Obama administration has described as torture.
Source: (emphasis added) http://www.nytimes.com/...
So, let's get this straight. The Obama administration has condemned waterboarding, in Attorney General Eric Holder's words, as "torture". Obama then selects Mr. Mudd--who has a twenty-four year history of involvement in intelligence and was actively engaged in the Bush administration's use of waterboarding--to an important post at Homeland Security full well knowing ("the president was well aware of") Mudd's shady past. Bingo! We now know why Obama has put a special prosecutor "off the table" in this area (and where is Eric Holder on this issue, by the way, has he been abducted by aliens?).
Of course, Mr. Mudd and the administration are now trying to spin this to claim that Mr. Mudd's withdrawal is "for the good of the country". In the same New York Times article we find this:
Philip Mudd...said in a letter to the White House that he worried that his nomination could become a "distraction" from President Obama’s agenda.
...A White House spokesman, Nick Shapiro, said Mr. Obama had regretfully accepted Mr. Mudd’s withdrawal, adding, "Phil once again demonstrated his duty to country above all things."
Ah, that's big of Mudd and Obama, isn't it? When it becomes clear that Mudd will have to answer Congressional questions on torture and waterboarding, Mudd withdraws. So dodging congressional questions because his answers probably would incriminate him in illegal acts of torture is "duty to country"? It seems to me more like: protect your own butt at all costs and the butt of the new administration for picking Mudd. Doubtless Obama will appoint Mudd to another top position as he did with John O. Brennan when the same situation arose. Brennan, by the way, gave the same excuse for bowing out, he also didn't want a "distraction" (see Comment #7 below). I guess complicity in torture is now not illegal, it's merely a "distraction."
Mr. Mudd really put the country above all things when he apparently broke US torture laws on waterboarding and broke the Torture Convention and the Geneva Conventions. Now we know why the Obama administration wants to "look forward and not backward." If anyone (especially a special prosecutor) really looked at this in a bipartisan, impartial, professional way, too many people that Obama knows and appointed to office would be caught up in the net. People like Mudd, John O. Brennan, Gen. McChrystal, Dennis Blair-- looks like we have the cast for a movie, "Obama's Dirty Dozen". Mr. President, you have Mudd all over you.
UPDATE #1: UPI just now is reporting that Mudd will remain in his position as Assistant Chief of National Security at the FBI. http://www.upi.com/...
We know what a terrific job the FBI had been doing investigating and prosecuting Dr. Tiller's killer, don't we? After Scott Roeder had super glued a Kansas City clinic on 4 separate occasions since 2000, after the clinic had provided the FBI with Roeder's name, telephone number, license plate number and given them videos of the incidents, the FBI did nothing. Mudd and the FBI, it seems were too busy tracking sales of falafels in San Francisco to deal with a true domestic terrorist in Kansas. Please see comment #6 below for falafel explanation and my recent diary on this and Amy Goodman's story at democracynow.org for full details on the FBI and Dr. Tiller's killer. http://www.dailykos.com/...
UPDATE #2:
On General McChrystal, see John H. Richardson's article at Esquire, "Acts of Conscience":
As President Obama taps Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to run the Afghan war, do these revelations, divulged to Esquire at great personal risk by an elite Army interrogator two and a half years ago, imply the new commander's aiding and abetting of torture?
...
It was a point of pride that the Red Cross would never be allowed in the door, Jeff says [about Camp Nama that stands for "Nasty Ass Military Area" a secret army torture camp overween by Gen. McChrysal]. This is important because it defied the Geneva Conventions, which require that the Red Cross have access to military prisons. "Once, somebody brought it up with the colonel. 'Will they ever be allowed in here?' And he said absolutely not. He had this directly from General McChrystal and the Pentagon that there's no way that the Red Cross could get in — they won't have access and they never will. This facility was completely closed off to anybody investigating, even Army investigators."
SOURCE: http://www.esquire.com/...
See also Wikipedia (emphasis added):
McChrystal's Zarqawi unit, Task Force 6-26, became notorious for its interrogation methods, particularly at Camp Nama, where it was accused of abusing detainees. After the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal became public in April 2004, 34 members of the task force were disciplined; five Army Rangers were ultimately convicted of prisoner abuse at Camp Nama.[3][9][10]
McChrystal was also criticized for his role in the aftermath of the 2004 death by friendly fire of Ranger and former professional football player Pat Tillman. The day after approving a posthumous Silver Star citation for Tillman that included the phrase "in the line of devastating enemy fire," McChrystal sent an urgent memo warning senior government officials not to quote the citation in public speeches because it "might cause public embarrassment" if Tillman had in fact been killed by friendly fire, as McChrystal suspected. McChrystal was one of eight officers recommended for discipline by a subsequent Pentagon investigation but the Army declined to take action against him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
UPDATE #3: On Dennis Blair, see Wikipedia entry which reports in part that:
According to journalist Alan Nairn, Blair disobeyed orders from civilians in the Clinton Administration during the 1999 East Timorese crisis during his tenure as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command. Amid growing international concern over violence against the independence movement in Indonesian-occupied East Timor, Blair was ordered to meet with General Wiranto, the commander of the Indonesian military, and to tell him to shut down the pro-Indonesia militia. According to Nairn, two days after the Liquiçá Church Massacre, Blair failed to deliver this message; instead he presented Wiranto with an offer of military assistance and a personal invitation to be Blair's guest in Hawaii.
...The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network opposed Blair's nomination for Director of National Intelligence, saying "His actions demonstrate the failure of engagement to temper the Indonesian military’s behavior and his actions helped to reinforce impunity for senior Indonesian officials that continues to this day."
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
See also: Allan Nairn's January 22, 2009 story,
"Breaking News: US Intel Nominee Lied About '99 Massacre. US, Church Documents Show Adm. Dennis Blair Knew of Church Killings Before Crucial Meeting." From the intro to that story:
On the eve of his Senate confirmation hearing (due for 10am, Thurs. Jan. 22), new information has emerged showing that Adm. Dennis Blair -- President Obama's nominee for US Director of National Intelligence -- lied about his knowledge of a terrorist massacre that occured before a pivotal meeting in which Blair offered support and US aid to the commander of the massacre forces.
http://www.allannairn.com/...
UPDATE #4:
A few posters below have questioned where there is enough sourcing for this. Google News as of now has more than 500 other sources saying pretty much the same thing. Here's another example from another top paper, the LA Times:
Mudd became the latest candidate for a high-level intelligence position to be forced to withdraw after being tied to the CIA's use of severe methods to interrogate terrorism suspects.
...Mudd faced a confirmation hearing next week before the Senate Intelligence Committee. In recent days, key lawmakers said that Mudd was likely to face questions about his role in the CIA's interrogation program.
Mudd's position at the CIA would have given him direct knowledge of counter-terrorism operations, including the detention and interrogation program. But officials familiar with his role said Mudd was a veteran analyst and not an architect of the interrogation program.
...Former senior CIA official John Brennan was widely rumored to be Obama's first choice to lead the spy agency. But Brennan was forced to withdraw from consideration in November for reasons similar to those cited by Mudd.
SOURCE: http://www.latimes.com/...
The Washington Post has more information including this nugget in a lengthy report:
"Since he [Mudd] was deputy director of the counterterrorism center, he was going to be asked whether interrogation produced useful intelligence, and if it didn't, why didn't he stop it?" the source said.
As a result of that session, Mudd's Homeland Security Committee hearing date was pushed to June 9, which was five days after he was scheduled to appear before the Senate intelligence panel.
John O. Brennan, Obama's first pick to head the CIA, also withdrew from consideration after questions were raised by some of the president's liberal allies about Brennan's involvement with the interrogation program. Brennan is now the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, a position that does not require Senate confirmation."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
And from Jeff Stein at CQ Politics:
"...President Obama’s nominee to be intelligence chief at the Homeland Security Department had to know the jig was up. Senate staff reviewing his nomination had just asked about his role at the CIA... The advance questionnaire he’d filled out was incomplete, or vague.
Did he approve of CIA renditions of terrorist suspects to countries, they asked, where they were likely to be tortured? What about waterboarding or other enhanced interrogation techniques? ...What was your role in the Bush administration’s notoriously false claims that Saddam Hussein had nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and links to al Qaeda? Where were you? What did you do? What did you say?
SOURCE: http://www.cqpolitics.com/...
UPDATE #5:
A fellow diarist here at Dailykos, Carlos the Jackal, earlier posted a very sketchy and brief diary on the same topic: "FYI: Philip Mudd drops out from DHS Nomination". I agree with Carlos when he said: "Here is a good example of where holding the administration's feet to fire can lead to something good." BUT, Mudd still remains at a top FBI position in the Obama administration. Have a look at the Jackal's diary at http://www.dailykos.com/...
UPDATE #6: Mudd's "colourful past": wanted to snare "terrorists" by tracking falafel sales in San Francisco:
Mudd’s colorful history included coining the phrase "Pepsi jihad" to describe what he called the growth of extremism among young people on the Internet. He was also accused of advocating programs of ethnic targeting designed to snare Iranian-Americans who might be spies.
Perhaps his most famous project to collect consumer data regarding falafel sales in the San Francisco area, believing that the sales records would somehow lead to Iranian terrorists. FBI criminal investigations division head Michael A. Mason reportedly put a stop to the program, saying it was "ridiculous" to put someone on a terrorist list because of the food they ate. The fact that falafel is not an Iranian dish was likewise not lost on many.
SOURCE: http://news.antiwar.com/...
For more on this man now STILL WORKING in a top FBI job see Jeff Stein's:
"FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here"
By Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor
...the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists. The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.
The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal."
SOURCE: http://public.cq.com/...
And from the ever insightful Amy Goodman at democracynow.org:
Obama Nominee Linked to Spying on Muslims, CIA Torture
The Obama administration’s pick for a top Homeland Security position has ties to the FBI spying on Muslim Americans, as well as reported links to CIA torture. Philip Mudd has been nominated to become secretary of intelligence and analysis at Homeland Security. Under the Bush administration, Mudd helped spearhead an FBI program that sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian secret agents. ...
SOURCE: http://www.democracynow.org/...
UPDATE #7: John O. Brennan
From Wikipedia (emphasis added):
John O. Brennan is the Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security... He was interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center immediately after its creation in 2004 through 2005... . He advised Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues. Since 2007, Brennan has served as Chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. It was assumed early on by some that Brennan would be appointed next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency by Obama. Brennan withdrew his name from consideration in November 2008, however, over concerns that his nomination would be a distraction, due to his previous associations with controversial harsh CIA interrogation techniques.
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Glenn Greenwald quoted Andrew Sullivan on Brennan way back in November, 2008:
"...Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity."
In the same blog, Greenwald noted that Brennan has advocated and defended renditions (quoting Brennan as saying, "I think it's an absolutely vital tool. I have been intimately familiar now over the past decade with the cases of rendition that the U.S. Government has been involved in. And I can say without a doubt that it has been very successful as far as producing intelligence that has saved lives."). Greenwald also shows that, "In November, 2007, Brennan -- in an interview with CBS News' Harry Smith -- issued a ringing endorsement for so-called "enhanced interrogation tactics... ." Greenwald concluded that: "In the same interview, Brennan even defended -- or at least justified -- Michael Mukasey's refusal to say whether waterboarding was "torture," on the ground that by doing so, Mukasey would be admitting that the President broke the law (as though that is a valid reason for a prospective Attorney General to refuse to opine on a legal matter...)".
SOURCE: http://www.salon.com/...
It makes you wonder what Obama was smoking when he picked Mudd, doesn't it? I'm outta here to munch on a falafel--better change that order to an All-American Big Mac (hold the FRENCH fries) or else Mudd might be on my doorstep.