Thadius
Posts: 5091
Joined: 10/11/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: rulemylife quote:
ORIGINAL: OrionTheWolf We either trust what is said, until it is proven that this admin is untrustworthy, or we no longer trust any administration. There are some things that the general public, and more importantly, those we are in conflict with, should not know. If disclosure endangers those intelligence assets then the good of the people must be determined by those in power. The problem is the whole concept of "national security" gives the government carte blanche to hide any information it chooses to under that guise. There is no real oversight. Well the oversight is supposed to come from Congress and the administration... however, to score points against the previous administration that oversight is now seen as nothing but smoke and mirrors (a political game). Pelosi has helped to fuel this fire by claiming that she was lied to, or not informed during the various briefings, then she retracted a bit trying to say it was the "Bushies" that did this to her. She completely overlooked the fact that besides the few apointees, the rest of the CIA is operated and manned by professionals. She cast a shadow over them and their name, and it is going to continue on into the future. I know she is not the only reason folks don't trust the CIA, but she is one of the highest ranking members of our government to make such accusations, and those accusations carry alot of weight. Now here we sit with a new administration in office, and the new CIA head Panetta states the exact same thing that the outgoing one did. Releasing this information to the public would be dangerous. In my opinion, without seeing any of the information they are asking for, is that is a correct assessment. It would allow people to narrow down what assets we have in the field, what techniques we have used to gather and verify intelligence, it would further allow for a better judgement of our intelligence capabilities, and finally it would allow for those assets (both tech and human) to be exploited (with false information or avoided). I may or may not agree with what a particular administration's policies are, but I must trust that those in charge of oversight and running the various military and intelligence agencies are doing their jobs. I also hope that they are going to take the responsibility for keeping the young men and women, performing those duties in the field, protected from needless exposure and other harm. I am curious, if some would have us just unclassify everything that the government knows or has its hands in?
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When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends." ~ Japanese Proverb
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