Of lies, deceit, and the coming world war

“But there is nothing more hurtful in a State than that cunning men should pass for wise.” — James Harrington, Oceana, 1656

Senator Finestein’s dastardly but cunning decision to release the lying, Democrat-only “study” of the rendition-and-interrogation program is less an attempt to wreck the CIA than a desperate gambit to protect the Democratic Party from political annihilation. Because it already has been proven irrefutably that the information produced by the CIA program saved lives, protected property, and kept the United States in the fight against the Sunni Islamists — and did so at a time when both George W. Bush and Barack Obama refused to use U.S. military power to whatever extent was necessary to defeat the Islamists — the CIA will survive and flourish once a non-interventionist adult arrives to run the national government.

That said, however, the era when the CIA and the other U.S. intelligence services could protect the United States against al-Qaeda and all the groups that have flowed from it is long gone. The Islamists are now firmly ensconced and expanding on four continents, are slowly forming a nation-state in northern Iraq and eastern Syria, and Western commentators and politicians are again whining about a “lack of intelligence” regarding the mujahideen. Responsibility for this claimed lack of intelligence, of course, lies in the laps of Barack Obama, who ended the rendition/interrogation program and has never sought an adequate replacement for it; Senator John McCain for first describing the interrogation program as “torture,” thereby giving gravitas to the Democrats’ anti-Bush-and-Cheney witch hunt; and to the media of all descriptions for only partially covering the ongoing war which an ever growing portion of Islam is waging against the United States, as well as for continuing to claim that America’s foes are “terrorists” when it is obvious to any honest person that the Islamists have made themselves into an international insurgency which is now fielding semi-conventional military units in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

What to do? Well, Mrs. Clinton suggests abject surrender in her call for “empathizing” with the Islamists, while in the next breath she calls for the United States to work with women in the Muslim world for peace and, presumably, to pick-up the White-woman’s burden to feminize and de-Islamicize them. Poor, addled Mrs. Clinton, she still does not see the obvious, which is that her Israel-first-ism and interventionism, and that of her bipartisan colleagues, are the Islamists’ greatest motivators, recruitment tools, and donation generators. She likewise does not seem to know that she and all others in both parties — if elected — are obligated to protect Americans, period. No U.S. Marine or soldier should ever be called on to risk his or her life to make sure foreign women can vote, abort, and be — like American feminists —arrogant and viciously intolerant toward those who disagree with them.

Given Mrs. Clinton’s typically juvenile suggestion, it is essential that Americans understand that Finestein’s politically motivated report was issued because the United States and its allies are headed toward a world war with Islam, one they will have to fight domestically and overseas. The citizenry must also understand that since 2008 the Obama administration has done everything in its power — with able assistance from many Republicans — to facilitate an extraordinary strengthening of Islamism, and so has greatly increased the chances of a world war. The policies of Obama and Mrs. Clinton have, for example,

  • Returned numerous incarcerated mujahideen commanders to the fields of war, and endorsed the opening of Arab prisons during the Arab Spring, events that sent thousands of skilled and veteran reinforcements to Islamist forces.
  • Largely blinded the U.S. Intelligence Community by ending the rendition-interrogation program while having nothing comparably successful to take its place. They then resorted to eavesdropping on 300-plus million Americans — negating their 4th Amendment protections — and lied that this improved U.S. security. (This with Republican support) Eavesdropping does nothing but move America another long step down the road toward a tyrannical national government that will have to be removed.
  • Invaded Libya and knowingly created a new Islamist safe haven, staging area, and arsenal. (This with Republican support)
  • Supported both the military coup in Egypt that overthrew the victor in a valid democratic election and Israel’s war with Palestine, thereby ending the chance that any Muslim will believe Washington’s assertions of support for democracy in the Muslim world or that America is an “even handed” broke in the Arab-Israel war. (This with Republican support)
  • Worked assiduously to destroy the Syrian regime so the mujahideen will have a safe haven and arsenal in the Levant from which they can begin destroying the Lebanese and Jordanian regimes. (This with Republican support)
  • Assisted the EU, Hollywood, and the UN to steal half of Muslim Sudan’s territory and most of its oil resources and give them to Christian leaders who are corrupt, incompetent, and bent on waging war amongst themselves for tribal supremacy.
  • Re-intervened in Iraq on the side of the Shia and so cemented America’s reputation as the eternal enemy of Sunni Islam. (This with Republican support)
  • Kept America’s borders wide open, apparently assuming our Islamist foes are Ivy League graduates and so cannot find Mexico and then cross into the United States.
  • Repeatedly proclaimed America is not and never will be at war with Islam, thereby reassuring Islamist leaders that the U.S. national government is still run by deaf and clueless morons.
  • Willingly presided over U.S. military defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by doing so helped arm the coming generation of young Muslim fighters with the conviction that Allah approves of their elders’ jihad and has rewarded them by providing the double defeat of a superpower.
  • Cut the U.S. military to the bone monetarily and gave pink slips to many combat experienced officers and NCOs at a time when the Islamist movement has never been larger, better armed, richer, more talented, more geographically dispersed, and mo re ferocious.
  • Spent Americans into $9 trillion of additional debt so when the world war arrives the U.S. war effort will start from a position of utter bankruptcy.
  • Lied to Americans that bin Laden’s demise marked the terminal decline of the Islamist threat, a lie that will ensure shock and disbelief among the citizenry when it becomes clear that the Obama administration not only failed to reduce the threat, but by its deliberate actions made the Islamist movement a far greater threat then before it took office.

It is against this background that Finestein’s report must be viewed. Obama and the leading Democrats know that their years in power have at least paved the way toward, and probably ensured, an U.S.-vs.-Sunni Islam world war. They also know that such a war will be partially the result of Obama ending the effective and intelligence producing rendition-and-extradition program. Thus, Finestein’s report is meant to fix in the public mind the transparent but media-supported lie that the CIA’s rendition-interrogation program never yielded a single useful piece of intelligence. This will permit the Democrats, when the war comes, to counter attacks claiming that America would have been better prepared for war if Finestein, Obama, and their party had not blinded the U.S. intelligence community.

With the great physical destruction and cost in dollars and lives that will be attendant to the coming war, Finestein’s lie might be neither cunning nor durable enough to save the Democrats’ necks, or those of their Republican accomplices, from the fully appropriate rage of a populace that will quickly wise up to the fact that they were played for fools.

Author: Michael F. Scheuer

Michael F. Scheuer worked at the CIA as an intelligence officer for 22 years. He was the first chief of its Osama bin Laden unit, and helped create its rendition program, which he ran for 40 months. He is an American blogger, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst.