American Future grabs this tidbit from the press briefing earlier this week with the Attorney General & General Hayden, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence and former Director of the National Security Agency:
Q Have you identified armed enemy combatants, through this program, in the United States?
GENERAL HAYDEN: This program has been successful in detecting and preventing attacks inside the United States.
The text of the full briefing is available.
I’m just wondering and all.. but considering all of the flap over the Valerie Plame leak investigation and all….
Since real classified information was leaked in this case – and that leak caused irreparable harm to a program that appears to be generating actionable intelligence…
Where’s the outrage over this disclosure of highly classified information? Where are the calls for a special prosecutor?
I’m just wondering.. that’s all…
The illegal strike of the New York City transit workers makes me wistful for these words of wisdom by former President Ronald Reagan:
Let me make one thing plain. I respect the right of workers in the private sector to strike. Indeed, as president of my own union, I led the first strike ever called by that union. I guess I’m maybe the first one to ever hold this office who is a lifetime member of an AFL – CIO union. But we cannot compare labor-management relations in the private sector with government. Government cannot close down the assembly line. It has to provide without interruption the protective services which are government’s reason for being.
It was in recongition of this that the Congress passed a law forbidding strikes by government employees against the public safety. Let me read the solemn oath taken by each of these employees, a sworn affidavit, when they accepted their jobs: “I am not participating in any strike against the Government of the United States or any agency thereof, and I will not so participate while an employee of the Government of the United States or any agency thereof.”
It is for this reason that I must tell those who fail to report for duty this morning they are in violation of the law, and if they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.
And then this great question & answer:
Q. Mr. President, why have you taken such strong action as your first action? Why not some lesser action at this point?
The President. What lesser action can there be? The law is very explicit. They are violating the law. And as I say, we called this to the attention of their leadership. Whether this was conveyed to the membership before they voted to strike, I don’t know. But this is one of the reasons why there can be no further negotiation while this situation continues. You can’t sit and negotiate with a union that’s in violation of the law.
The Secretary of Transportation. And their oath.
The President. And their oath.
Bubblehead writes of Germany’s release of Mohammed Ali Hamadi:
I have a new standard by which I’ll measure the success or failure of the current Administration: whether or not this scumbag is still breathing in January 2009. Chapomatic makes pretty much all the points I’d make about the Germans freeing Mohammed Ali Hamadi, murderer of SW2(DV) Robert Stethem, in what they’re claiming was not a “terrorist for hostage” deal.
As much as I’d like to see Hamadi dead, I guess I wouldn’t mind too much if he’s just captured and returned to the U.S. to face trial and subsequent execution. And if he’s captured overseas, and our European allies make a big stink about flying him through their airspace, I know just the warship that should carry him here.
Where’s that missile equipped Predator when you need it?