Cofer Black Quotes
There was before 9-11 and after 9-11. After 9-11, the gloves came off.
One aspect of the “gloves coming off” was the CIA engaging in illegal activities such as torture, as well as the legal activities which were so effective at the beginning of the Afghanistan War and the use of drones to kill terrorist leaders.
Cofer Black, Director of CIA Covert Operations and the Director of Operation Greystone, Congressional Testimony
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The ‘Third Reich’ was Nazi Germany. Some scholars criticize President Reagan for disparaging and angering Al Qaeda and other Islamic organizations for no particular purpose. Others criticize him for, as this quote indicates, his not taking these organizations and their leaders seriously enough.
In the aftermath of 9-11, there was a call for giving the law enforcement agencies more authority and the Patriot Act was passed in haste and fear. Some law enforcement personnel then went about picking up Arab Americans and in many cases holding them incommunicado without any charges. No terrorists were discovered by this process and yet good American citizens were abused, traumatized and insulted. In our zeal to protect American freedom, we actually began to resemble some of the capricious and abusive practices of our undemocratic enemies. There were other abuses allowed under the Patriot Act, but at the time of this writing the extent had not yet been revealed, but the refusal of the authorities to make public the national security benefits suggests that there was not much national security benefit and much abuse.
Hayden was then ordered to go ahead with several of the ideas for which “no authority existed” including massive secret wiretapping of phone calls that were against the law as it existed. Cheney and the President decided not to ask Congress for a legal change, but took the position that if the President says to do it, it cannot be illegal as he is the Commander in Chief. The lower Federal Courts and the Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine was preposterous and un constitutional.
Agree had resigned from the CIA in protest to its political positions. This prediction was right after the 9-11 attack. He not only predicted the attempts to restrain American civil liberties, but also the length of the war. See {632811}.
Bush claimed he did not remember the conversation. His incoming National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, was also briefed about bin Laden by the Clinton anti-terrorism director, Richard Clarke. The Bush Administration ignored the warnings until bin Laden struck on 9-11
There can be a heavy cost in terms of giving up rights, costs of prevention the internal conflict in the society about how to deal with the terrorists.
Joseph Cofer Black (born 1950) is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who served as director of Counterterrorism Center in the years surrounding the September 11th attacks, and was later appointed Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department by President George W. Bush, serving until his resignation in 2004. Prior to his roles combatting terrorism, Black served across the globe in a variety of roles with the Directorate of Operations at the CIA.
