Saturday, July 30, 2011

Former Obama Intelligence Head, Dennis Blair, Says America Should End Drone Strikes, Questions War on Terror


Okay, first thing I need to point out here is that former director of national intelligence under Obama, Dennis Blair, was forced to resign by the dufus that hired him, Obama, because he wanted to set up some far-fetched intelligence coalition with France. Anyway, bottom line of my mentioning it is that it's just another example of Barack Hussein Obama making horseshit choices in key leadership and strategic positions.

Anyway, Blair was fired last year but now is coming out with all of this "sage" advice about our anti-terror and Afghanistan War efforts.

Blair thinks that the drone attacks in Pakistan hurt the feelings of the Pakistanis, he thinks there are 4,000 islamic terrorists in the whole world, and basically thinks it's wayyyy too much money for us to be spending to protect America from terrorists. In other words, it appears that Blair would like to stick daisies in the AK-47's of the Taliban, let the Taliban move freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan and basically forget about al Qaeda in the world because there just aren't that many of them.

This is the kind of guy Obama trusted with one of the highest security positions in the country. Sure he fired his ass but where was the vetting of this man?

The story is at Dawn.




Stop Drone Strikes: Former Intel Chief


ASPEN: Former US intelligence chief Dennis Blair said Friday the US should stop its drone campaign in Pakistan, and reconsider the $80 billion a year it spends to fight terrorism.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, Blair said the CIA’s unmanned aircraft operation aimed at al-Qaida is backfiring by damaging the US-Pakistan relationship.

The former director of national intelligence suggests giving Pakistan more say in what gets hit by drone strikes and when, despite Pakistan’s record of tipping off militants when it gets advance word of US action.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who previously headed the CIA, has lauded the drone campaign as a key tool to take out al-Qaida and other militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Strikes, which have more than tripled year-to-year under the Obama administration, are done with tacit Pakistani assent, though publicly, Pakistani officials decry the hits.

That tension has grown worse after the US unilateral raid into Pakistan May 2 to kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and an earlier incident in January, when a CIA contractor was held for killing two Pakistani men in Lahore that he said were trying to rob him.

Blair said the continuing drone strikes are more of a nuisance than a real threat to al-Qaida, and that only a ground campaign by Pakistan would truly threaten it and other militant organizations.

”It can sustain its level of resistance to an air-only campaign,” he said.

The retired admiral also suggested cutting the cost of hunting terrorists by relying more on local forces in places like Yemen and Somalia.

The US is already working with indigenous forces in both countries, but also sustains a large and expensive offshore presence aboard a ship off the Yemeni coast, as well as flying armed and observation drones from Djibouti and other sites in the region.

He estimated that there are some 4,000 terrorists worldwide, and a budget of some $80 billion devoted to fighting them, a figure he said did not include the wars of Afghanistan or Iraq.

”That’s $20 million for each of these people … Is that proportionate?” he asked.

He pointed out that 17 Americans have been killed inside the US by terrorists in the decade since Sept. 11, including the 14 killed in the Ft. Hood massacre, while car accidents and daily crime combined have killed some 1.5 million people during the same 10 years.

”What is it that justifies this amount of money on this narrow problem?” he asked.

Blair, who was forced to resign by the Obama administration, says the White House undermined his authority as director of national intelligence by siding with the CIA, instead of telling it to listen to him.

”They sided enough with the CIA in ways that were public enough that it undercut my position,” Blair said.

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