Obama's Political pick for Deputy CIA Director

Why Obama would chose a woman with no CIA experience for No. 2 CIA job can only be answered by his need to place political allies and those who share his ideology in these important positions. Avril Haines will be the first woman to be second in command at the CIA, but critics point not to her gender but her lack of CIA experience. Her choice screams loud about how Obama views his political survival over national security.

An article by Jennifer Skalka Tulumello of the Christian Science Monitor

Plucking from a collection of high-powered female lawyers serving the White House, President Obama has nominated Avril Haines as the next deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Ms. Haines is the first woman to hold the job. She replaces Michael Morell, who announced his retirement after more than three decades in the CIA to spend time with family. She’s an unexpected pick in that she hasn’t any background with the agency. In fact, Haines was slated just a couple months ago to move to the State Department as its legal adviser.

How unusual is it for a lawyer – and one without spook experience – to fill such a powerful agency job?

One former senior CIA official tells the Monitor that her nomination has prompted surprise among his former colleagues, not due to Haines’s gender, of course, but because she is a relative unknown in the community. He says the law is “not a typical track” for the deputy director job and that she’ll likely “face some skepticism among the ranks until she can prove that she has learned the intricacies of the organization and doesn’t automatically default to an overly legalistic, risk averse, view of everything.”

“She has the disadvantage of following Michael J. Morell who is much admired across the board,” the official adds. “Thirty-three years of experience being replaced by none. She faces quite an uphill climb.”

CIA Director John Brennan provided his full support for Haines, however, suggesting “she knows more about covert action than anyone in the US government outside of the CIA.”

"She has participated in virtually every Deputies and Principals Committee meeting over the past two years and chairs the Lawyers' Group that reviews the agency's most sensitive programs," he added, in a statement reported by UPI.

But the former senior CIA official says Haines’s experience doesn’t add up to the job. “Sitting in National Security Committee meetings on covert action is nice, but being deputy CIA director involves much, much more that covert action, and she has no known experience in those things,” he says.

Forget about the women angle, or the lawyer piece, or, for that matter, Haines’s lack of agency experience, says Philip Mudd, former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center. With Mr. Brennan and Haines in the top two jobs, the CIA has a direct pipeline to the White House.

“I think this underscores the relevance of the CIA in the post-9/11 era,” Mudd says. “You want people with firepower there – and that’s political firepower. Because the White House needs that agency in ways they’ve never needed it before.”

Mudd says the CIA is a flat organization – it’s not military-oriented and it’s not hierarchical.

“The key question people on the inside are going to ask is, ‘Is she going to listen?’ ” Mudd says. “It’s a proud organization. They’re going to sniff her. ‘Is she going to ask us what we think?’ ”

At the White House, Haines served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs. According to her White House bio, the Georgetown University Law Center graduate formerly worked for the State Department as assistant legal adviser for treaty affairs and in the office of the legal adviser. And she served as deputy chief counsel for the majority on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Chicago.

Some are suggesting the Haines appointment is less about elevating her than ousting Mr. Morell for his role in extracting from official administration talking points references to the CIA’s warnings that terrorists could attack the Benghazi diplomatic compound.

The Benghazi controversy continues to dog the Obama administration politically.

Morell issued a statement pushing back on that speculation.

“Whenever someone involved in the rough and tumble of Washington decides to move on, there is speculation in various quarters about the ‘real reason,’” he said. “But when I say that it is time for my family, nothing could be more real than that.”

Morell’s last day is Aug. 9. Haines is not subject to Senate confirmation in the new post.

Governor Scott of Florida Suspends County Sheriff Over Gun Rights

From an article titled - "Florida Governor Suspends Sheriff For Standing Up For 2nd Amendment", posted on June 10, 2013 by Ben Bullard on PersonalLiberty.com,  I have to throw the bullshit flag on Governor Scott as he apparently does not understand the concept of law enforcement officer discretion nor the second amendment.  And all this in the shadow of Attorney General Eric Holder and all his misdeeds and mal-feasance.

Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott has suspended the Sheriff Nick Finch of the State’s least-populous county (Liberty County) after he allegedly set free a man who’d been arrested for possessing a weapon without a permit.

Nick Finch, sheriff of Liberty County near the State’s Alabama-Georgia border, faces a 3rd-degree felony charge for official misconduct after evidently destroying or altering the paper trail that began when one of his deputies brought in a motorist who had two handguns in his car.

The motorist, Floyd Parrish, didn’t have a concealed-carry permit and was subsequently charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon. Car carry is legal in Florida for those without a conceal-carry permit, but the law stipulates such firearms must be securely encased or not readily accessible for immediate use – two stipulations which Parrish allegedly didn’t meet when he was pulled over in Liberty County.

Parrish stayed in jail until Sheriff Finch arrived, accompanied by the suspect’s brother. Finch allegedly spoke to both men about the incident before ordering that the charges be dropped and Parrish be released.

According to the JCFloridian, Finch allegedly told the deputy who’d arrested Parrish that he “believed in 2nd Amendment rights” and instructed jail staff to return his confiscated firearms.

But the Florida Department of Law Enforcement learned of the incident, which occurred in March, and obtained an arrest warrant for Finch. He was arrested and booked into the Liberty County jail last week before being released on his own recognizance. Gov. Scott has since suspended Finch and temporarily installed a regional agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as acting sheriff.

Finch’s arrest for exercising his judgment in protecting another citizen’s Constitutional freedom has drawn anger from both locals and 2nd Amendment advocates throughout the U.S.

One Liberty County man said Finch may have been a sitting duck among longtime power brokers in a good old boy network,“[s]ince he’s considered what people consider an outsider and not from Liberty County, that they finally railroaded him out. In my personal opinion he was doing his job and people didn’t like it.”

Though Finch has not commented on his arrest, his attorney has said it’s ridiculous to construe the sheriff’s actions as anything but proper defense of his constituents’ Constitutional rights.

“The records at the jail show exactly what happened in this case and the records speak the truth. The sheriff looked at the facts and said ‘I believe in the second amendment and we’re not going to charge him.’ That is not misconduct at all. That is within the Sheriff’s prerogative whether to charge someone or not,” said attorney Jimmy Judkins.

Dean Garrison of DC Clothesline agrees:

With so many Sheriff’s offices making strong pro-2nd Amendment stands in 2013 this is a situation that was bound to happen. The Sheriff had every right not to charge this man. The 2nd Amendment of the constitution should supercede any Florida law. “Shall Not Be Infringed” still means something to men like Nick.

The whole case will surely become about the documents. If Nick Finch destroyed the documents they will make an example of him for all of us to see. They have been waiting for this opportunity. This case will not be prosecuted to the extent that Nick Finch did not understand the 2nd Amendment. They will try to get him on a technicality.

Pro-2nd Amendment law enforcement officials all over the country need to take note. They are looking for any backdoor they can to try to shut you down. This story should be national news soon. My hope is that Finch did not destroy the documents and this case can be heard on its real merits.

Nick Finch was elected sheriff of Liberty, a county of only 8,400 people, in November of last year.

Obama's Hypocritical Quotes

From an article by Kyle Becker on IJReview.com with the title - "19 Huge Broken Campaign Promises of President Obama"

1. Domestic Spying
"We reject the use of national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime." (2008)

2. Guantanamo Bay
"We will close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, the location of so many of the worst constitutional abuses in recent years." (2008)

3. Patriot Act
"We will revisit the Patriot Act and overturn unconstitutional executive decisions issued during the past eight years." (2008)

4. Executive Power
"We reject sweeping claims of 'inherent' presidential power." (2008)

5. Surveillance Oversight
"We support constitutional protections and judicial oversight on any surveillance program involving Americans." (2008)

6. Habeas Corpus
"[W]e don’t always catch the right person. We may think this is Mohammed the terrorist, it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You might think it’s Barack the bomb thrower, but it’s Barack the guy running for president. So the reason that you have this principle [habeas corpus] is not to be soft on terrorism, it’s because that’s who we are. That’s what we’re protecting." (2008)

7. Staying True to Values
President Obama on the war on terror: “This war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands. In America, we’ve faced down dangers far greater than Al Qaeda by staying true to our values.” (2013)

8. FOIA Requests
"The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails... In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public." (2009)

9. Tracking Citizens
"We reject the tracking of citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war." (2008)

10. Extraordinary Rendition
"We will not ship away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off countries, or detain without trial or charge prisoners who can and should be brought to justice for their crimes, or maintain a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law." (2008)

11. Executive Actions
"We will not use signing statements to nullify or undermine duly enacted law." (2008)

12. Warrantless Wiretapping
"We will review the current Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program." (2008)

13. Restoring Constitutional Traditions
"[W]e’ve seen an Administration put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. The Democratic Party rejects this dichotomy. We will restore our constitutional traditions, and recover our nation’s founding commitment to liberty under law." (2008)

14. Unreasonable Search and Seizure
President Obama on the Patriot Act: "This is legislation that puts our own Justice Department above the law. When National Security Letters are issued, they allow federal agents to conduct any search on any American, no matter how extensive or wide-ranging, without ever going before a judge to prove that the search is necessary.” (2005)

15. Washington Secrecy
"For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes it is well-grounded in the Constitution." (2009)

16. Whistleblowers
In a statement about protecting whistleblowers: "Often the best source about waste, fraud and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism . . . should be encouraged rather than stifled." (2009)

17. On Presidential War Powers (See Libya)
“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation. In instances of self-defense, the President would be within his constitutional authority to act before advising Congress or seeking its consent. History has shown us time and again, however, that military action is most successful when it is authorized and supported by the Legislative branch. It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action.” (2007)

18. Openness and Transparency
"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." (2009)

19. Don't Mock the Constitution (see photo at top of post)
"Don’t mock the Constitution. Don’t make fun of it. Don’t suggest that it’s un-American to abide by what the Founding Fathers set up. It’s worked pretty well for over two-hundred years." (2008)