News Alert: Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban's Top Commander

By GottaLaff

This just arrived by e-mail:

Secret Joint Raid Captures Taliban's Top Commander

The Taliban's top military commander was captured several
days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by
Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to
American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan
described by American officials as the most significant
Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in
Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks
second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the
Taliban's founder, and was a close associate of Osama bin
Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several
days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both
taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world/asia/16intel.html?emc=na

Hmm, I wonder why BushCo couldn't do that.

Blackwater participated in clandestine CIA raids

By GottaLaff

I just got a news alert from the New York Times. I can't find the link yet, but here's the e-mail:

Blackwater Guards Tied To Covert Raids by the C.I.A.

Private security guards from Blackwater Worldwide participated in some of the C.I.A.'s most sensitive activities -- clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees, according to former company employees and intelligence officials.

The raids against suspects occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency between 2004 and 2006, with Blackwater personnel playing central roles in what company insiders called "snatch and grab" operations, the former employees and current and former intelligence officers said.

So Blackwater "transported" the detainees. Big surprise. They most certainly must have had a little to do with their torture, er, treatment too.

The convoluted relationship between the U.S. government and this bunch of thugs explains why legal remedies are so difficult. How can you prove something that doesn't exist? Besides, Blackwater had virtual immunity anyway.

The more we learn about Blackwater's activities, the scarier it gets. Why are we still employing them again?

Where is Jeremy Scahill when you need him?

Wiretap whistleblower: Bush FBI sent 18 armored agents to search my house

By GottaLaff

Typically BushCo bullying, terrifying payback. One might even call it terrorism:

The Bush Administration’s FBI sent 18 agents in body armor to the home of a man who revealed details of the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program, according to a little-noticed account of the whistleblower published Thursday.

Thomas Tamm, a former Justice Department lawyer in the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, revealed details of the wiretapping program to the New York Times in 2004. In 2007, FBI agents raided his Potomac, Maryland home.

Tamm wasn’t there. His college-aged son, wife and young daughter were — but their father had never told them of his leak to the Times.

And what did the 18 agents do? Treat the family politely? Nah. Take care to avoid frightening a child out of her wits (are you listening "pro-lifers"?) with guns (that can kill children as well as adults)? Uh-uh. Act in the least bit respectful to their fellow Americans? No way:

“They asked me questions like ‘Are there any secret rooms or compartments in the house’?” Terry Tamm, his son, told Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff last December. “Or did we have a safe? They asked us if any New York Times reporters had been to the house. We had no idea why any of this was happening.”

Abrupt, surprise attack and intimidation are so much more fun. Who needs genteel foreplay? It's more important to scar kids for life and take as long as possible to do that, while brandishing deadly firearms:

“They were all wearing body armor, they were all well armed,” he told the audience, according to Wired. “They asked my kids if we had any secret rooms in the house … or whether I had any weapons. They were in my house for over seven hours.”

“I’m sure before that time my phone was listened to,” Tamm added. My wife “will never feel the same in my house … She really felt that her security had been victimized.”

But the ObamAdministration will come to the rescue... won't they?

After the 2007 raid, Justice Department prosecutors tried to convince Tamm to plead guilty to revealing classified information. He refused. To date, he’s had a criminal indictment hanging over his head — but authorities have yet to charge him with a crime. [...]

Now that President Obama has taken office, however, Tamm seems more likely to elude jail. Prosecutors told the Bush lawyer-cum-whistleblower last year that they’d delay a decision on whether to charge him until this year. It’s unknown whether the Justice Department will continue to pursue a criminal charge.

Dear ObamAdministration: Do the right thing. Love, Laffy

What's Blackwater doing with all those AK-47s?

By GottaLaff

What are those scalawags up to now? Previously, we've discussed Blackwater's antics here, here, here, and here. Now those mischievous little tin soldiers are up to their old tricks again:

Federal agents raided a Blackwater armory Tuesday and seized 34 automatic rifles that the company purchased and stored on behalf of a local law enforcement agency, the Associated Press reports. [...]

The raid came after reports on a deal in which the company paid for weapons that were registered in the name of the Camden County, N.C., Sheriff's Office.

"The 2005 agreements gives the sheriff's office unlimited access to the weapons, including 17 Romanian AK-47s and 17 Bushmasters," the wire service says. "But [Sheriff Tony] Perry said his department has only used the AK-47s in shooting practice at Blackwater and that none of his 19 deputies are qualified to use them."

Federal law prohibits private companies or individuals from purchasing automatic weapons.

Stay tuned for the next installment. It's sure to end with a bang!