Loose Senator Outs Predator

The US-Pakistani "Don't ask-don't tell" accord on our use of Predators in the Pakistani tribal region ran into turbulence when Sen. Diane Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, implicitly confirmed what the WaPo had reported last March - US Predator drones are based in Pakistan.  This admission complicates the public posturing of Pakistani officials trying to assuage their domestic audience (but we are still shooting).  Here is the Telegraph:

US drones based in Pakistan, Senator Dianne Feinstein reveals in apparent gaffe

Dianne Feinstein may have revealed an intimate military secret when she stated that American military drones used to bomb Pakistan's tribal areas operate out of a Pakistani air base.

Washington and Islamabad have never commented on where the deadly Predator drones take off and land, seemingly content with the general assumption that they are deployed from US bases in the Middle East or Central Asia.

But if Mrs Feinstein, who is chairman of the senate intelligence committee, is right, she may have made life even more difficult for Pakistan's government, which has to weigh its obligations to help the US fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda with hostile public opinion.

During a hearing on Friday for Dennis Blair, the new director of national intelligence, Mrs Feinstein noted apparent contradictions in Islamabad's expression of anger with the US missile.

"I don't know whether you'd care to comment on this but [I] also noticed that Mr Holbrooke in Pakistan ran into considerable concern about the use of the Predator strikes in the FATA area of Pakistan.

"And yet, as I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she said.

And a new media Pakistani paper gets a quote from a Georgetown expert:

“If accurate, what this says is that Pakistani involvement, or at least acquiescence, has been much more extensive than has previously been known,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. “It puts the Pakistani government in a far more difficult position [in terms of] its credibility with its own people.”

Feinstein's defense is that, like Sarah Palin, she reads the papers.  All of them.  And listens to the radio:

Spokesmen for the longtime lawmaker insisted Feinstein wasn’t divulging any secrets she’s been briefed on as the top intelligence oversight official in Congress. They said she was simply referring to an article she read in the Washington Post last March, which cited “Predator strikes launched from bases near Islamabad and Jacobabad in Pakistan.”

“The first question was based on an NPR story. The second was based on the Washington Post story,” Feinstein spokesman Gil Duran told me late Thursday in response to an inquiry. “She did not cite the story in her question, but it ran on [Page] A1 and was the source of the question.”

Such modesty from the Intelligence Chair!  But even if Americans are willing to believe that Ms. Feinstein is out of the loop on the actual basing of Predators, will the Pakistani man in the street believe it?  Hmm I know how dumb I think we are, but how dumb do they think we are?  Feinstein's question was indiscreet and makes life difficult for Pakistani officials and others, as the Attackerman notes:

But now the Pakistanis are going to have to react to the comments from a senior American legislator, and this is going to make the jobs of many people a lot harder -- namely, regional envoy Richard Holbrooke, Central Command chief Gen. Petraeus, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Chances are Feinstein simply blundered, but this is the sort of blunder that compromises a sensitive and apparently effective counterterrorist operation, and it's not like Feinstein is a novice on the committee. Slip-ups like these are why CIA officers don't trust Congress. If a Republican did this, progressives would be up in arms.

As to the bit about "If a Republican had done this...", well, sure, progressives have a pretty low flash point.  But I don't think of Feinstein as a particular darling of the loony left; if reaction has been muted (on both sides) it is because other news, such as the stimulus drama, has dominated the cycle.

But speaking of reaction - here is the Long War Journal with a Pakistani denial, Lorie Byrd, and the HuffPo.

[END OF THREAD]

Comments

[narciso]

Now, Tom, you know you don't get away with a driveby swipe like that. You know she would know to keep confidential, this type of information. So just great, our best effort to root out AQ in the Stans, ruined
because, oh who cares why. Now more
Americans will have to do the dirty work of penetrating into the FATA, probably without
the tacit support of the new government.

[matt]

what a load of horse manure...more lies...She cites an article a year ago and is head of the intelligence committee...She just invented a new oxymoron.

[matt]

get Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson on it, and then Fitzgerald can investigate it....

[RichatUF]

The key graf-

Chances are Feinstein simply blundered, but this is the sort of blunder that compromises a sensitive and apparently effective counterterrorist operation, and it's not like Feinstein is a novice on the committee.

Which is why the Obama Administration wanted to burn the operation to shut it down. Does anyone really believe that Team Zero wants to kill terrorists in the tribal areas anymore? His staffers had Feinstein burn it for them so they can say ooops and wrap it up because of political pressure.

[bad]

TM is a poet!! But I'm not sure Di is thrilled about the "loose" description.

Loose lips
Sink ships

rolls a little more smoothly off the tongue but overall, very well done, TM.

[Rick Ballard]

"Does anyone really believe that Team Zero wants to kill terrorists supporters of Emperor Hugo Ogabe I in the tribal areas anymore?"

[PeterUK]

"Such modesty from the Intelligence Chair!"

Don't know how "modesty" and "intelligence" got in there,but Feinstein is certainly a chairhead.
What a vacuous,halfwitted dimbo.

[Matthew Crandall]

This just reinforces my opinion that Diana Feinstein is a dolt, a dullard, in fact a dim bulb in every way.

[Rick Ballard]

I believe Senator Feinstein to be among the most intelligent women to ever use her husband's money to buy a seat on the Dem side of the aisle. If the IQs of Stabenow, Boxer, Murray, Cantwell and McCaskill were summed, the sum wouldn't exceed Feinstein's IQ (or two digits for that matter). I think senility is in play here rather than stupidity. She's getting a little long in the tooth and the synapses just aren't firing as they once did.

[matt]

Don't forget Slush and Collins, Rick. It may not be hubby's money, but damn, they dumb....

[PeterUK]

Feinstein is more than just a dolt, a dullard, a dim bulb,Feinstein is a dangerous dolt,dullard and dim bulb.Quite simply people are going to get killed.The Reaper drone may be deadly,but the bases from whence they come are vulnerable to suicide bombers.Now that AQ and the Taleban know where to look,they will be going after these bases,which are probably not heavily defended.

[sbwaters]

Now I don't know, but I thought there were accusations that Diane was part of the Botox crowd and, ergo, couldn't possibly have loose lips.

[narciso]

slush, good one, there Matt, how goes the deployment, and will this volcano make up it's mind already

[matt]

they should be there by now....didn't make it up there..got a nasty case of food poisoning and was down for 2 days.

[glenda]

oo--oo--oo--matt: who is slush?
and I agree with Rich--no one is this stupid in public, unless it's on purpose.
Or a democrat.

[Pagar]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think there has been considerable effort from the Democrats to drive a wedge between the Pakistanis, their government, and the US. I think it was especially evident during the last year of the Musharraf government, and it seems to me this may be part of the same effort. I see no way that this info coming out at this time helps anyone except those who oppose a stable government in Pakistan.

[kim]

If it was deliberate, she ought to be hanged. Far more likely she is just too stupid to realize that she shouldn't have said it. And if that's the case, there'll be more like it.
============================================

[Mike Huggins]

Yeah, and compared to our other Senator, Boxer, Dianne is a MENSA. What glorious representation we have in California. Sheesh, what a revolting development.

[Sue]

Rich,

Ding! Ding! Ding! You are echoing what I said elsewhere a couple of days ago. Obama doesn't like the publicity he received for killing civilians. She did it on purpose so Obama could stop the program.

[matt]

slush = Olympia Snowe

[Mark Turner]

Is it really Feinstein, or some naive junior assistant pinhead aide from her office that somehow got access to some classified document, was indignant about what they read, and felt that the "public had the right to know"? Alternatively, it could have been a deliberate attempt to spark public outrage in Pakistan and disrupt support for our anti-terror efforts in Afghanistan.

[Frau Jedöns]

This is more than impulse, it seems: Leahy, Kerry, Rockefeller and Murtha, for example, have blabbed at home and abroad. Who knows what Madam Pelosi shared with Damascus?

[narciso]

Does it malice if it is deliberate malice, or just stupidity. Yet another tool in the war against Salafi & Wahhabi/Deobandism has been compromised, people, here, there, and everywhere will die because of this,the enemy will win sympathy and he's very lucky
a whole new set of sanctuaries, in the urban centers.

[bad]

Maybee and Kim, Tapper's blog just deleted my comment from the post about the Obama's valentine outing at Oprah's personal chef's restaurant.

This was my comment:

The chef has done wonders for Oprah.

[Stu707]

"This isn’t the first time Feinstein has blown a sensitive operation by opening her mouth, either. Californians will recall that Mayor Feinstein called a press conference to discuss the Night Stalker case, a string of violent rapes and murders that terrified the entire state. She divulged previously-confidential information about Richard Ramirez’ shoes and gun — and on hearing it, Ramirez promptly dumped them into the bay on his way out of town, eliminating key evidence in the case."

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/13/feinstein-blows-our-pakistani-cover/

[Fresh Air]

If it was deliberate, she ought to be hanged.

And if it was just a slip of the tongue, how about impeachment followed by life imprisonment on Alcatraz so she can wave to hubby.

If every Democrat who intentionally spilled state secrets was hanged, the street lights all over Washington D.C. would be blacked out by their carcases.

[BR]

Wow, Fresh Air, it's good to see ya! It's been over four years since I first read your refreshing comments, during CBSgate. And I still want to know about that Lukasiak IP address you found -- was it in a small town outside Boston? Gosh, I've forgotten my question :) Anyway, we were right about him, as the Thornburg report showed, hey. Ah those rodeo days. And then came Plamegate. And here we are. What do we call this one? Petrouchka?

[Dennis D]

I suppose the Washington Post has better sources of Intel than Feinsein. They must pay off leakers.

[narciso]

From my one of my old blogging attempts; that shows that the real quagmire has always been Pakistan:

Individuals who think Iraq, is just a diversion like Mr. Bergen, should be reminded of his intro to his tome on Bin Laden, and his trip to a graveyard in Peshawar, that commemorated the casualties of British casualties on the NorthWest Frontier of Pakistan, from 1838-1947. One of many sites where this appears is;

;Seeking some relief from the noise and pollution, I paid a visit to the leafy graveyard where dozens of British officers and soldiers were buried. Peshawar had been critical to the "Great Game" played by Britain and Russia as they wrestled for control of Central Asia during the nineteenth century. The graveyard was testament to the difficulties of life on the frontier. One headstone read, "Lt. Colonel Edward Henry LeMarch, shot to death by a fanatic, 25th March 1898, aged 40." Another read, "George Mitchell Richmond Levit, 20th Punjab Infantry, died aged 23, on the 27th October, 1863 of a wound received the previous day in the defense of the Eagle's Nest Picket, Umbeyla Pass. A good soldier and a true Christian." Another inscription recalled the way of life the British imported wholesale to remind them of their green and pleasant land: "Lt. Colonel Walter Irvine, who lost his life in the Nagoroman River when leading the Peshawar Vale Hunt, of which he was the Master." A partial representation of these names can be found here; as well as Href*Glosters/FAfghan.htm; and this is derived from this list
http://members.tripod.com/~Glosters/memindex3.htmExpedition. A list of s on the NorthWest Frontiercan be found through Wikipedia here;

You want an example on how easy the campaign to root out Bin Laden, would be, if we didn't have the inconvenience of Iraq; eh; well let's look at the history in one province; Waziristan; from one recent main reference; which is based several contemporaneoaneous sources; local religiously motivated insurgent leader during what could be considered the fourth of the major British wars in the Afghan/Indian periphery;)as background events in 1901-1902 during one incursion against the Mahsud tribe; "From November 1901 to the end of blockade; Indian Army losses were 32 killed and 114 wounded . . .68 killed, 129 wounded. 2Sixty three men were killed and 166were injured on a 23 April 1860 attack on the Palosin camp. . .33 men were killed and 86 wounded forcing the Barai camp in May 1860" This was out of a force of 5,000 men, 100 were killed and 261 were wounded.3 (n 89; Cardew, F.G. Bengal Native Army Calcutta; 1860. )A generation later, in 1881,' 8 & 24 out of 8531,. . .1894; 45 & 75 wounded out of 11,150 men. . .Tochi Valley in 1897& 61, out of 8,000'In the spring of 1917, during that little thing, called the First World War, around the time, the Russians bailed out, and the Americans came in " a convoy was attacked . . .(n. 86.Howell, Mizh (a monograph on one Waziri tribe, by a long serving British colonial officer who rose to the rank of India's foreign secretary,' a friend who reviewed it characterized it as "what a waste"casualities included two british officers, fifty three sepoys (Indian soldiers) it characterized it as "what a waste"casualities included two british officers, fifty three sepoys (Indian soldiers) Then there's the Third Afghan War; which was fought almost entirely in Waziristan, which finally forced the Brits to give up
Their claims on Afghanistan. One instance involved the siege of the garrison at Wana,
The regional capital of Waziristan. . A mutiny ensued and muck like the retreat from
Kabul, three quarters of a century ago, it ended badly, “Of the 1800 men of the militia
In Wana, 1100 deserted and 100 were killed, . . . Regular force was forced up the Punjab ha;lfway from the Tochi Valley, to Miranshah, and at Jandola, a garrison remained in place, yet British authority in Waziristan had collapsed.4 Less than a decade later, the pre-eminent Arabist spy, Sir Lawrence, was operating in that same area, under the name of “Aircraftman Shaw”Ross,, out of Miranshah. Another more contemporary source; Referring back to the predecessors to these brave souls, 5Describes the Waziri’s this
Way.” Of course the most frequent commentor on the Waziri, and their clashes with
The British, is of course , the frontier poet and scribe of Empire, Rudyard Kipling,
In his novel, stories and poems, relates the three quarter of century of clashes on the
NorthWest Frontier. In one poem. “The Young British Soldier6, the fate of said
Soldier facing the local ppoulace, which can either be Afghan or the likes of brethren
Tribes like the Waziri, is typified by the macabre sounding advice :’When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plain,and the women come out, to cutout what
Remains just roll up your rifle and blow out your brains” , In another tale, “the Fore & Aft,another verse, 8’’Two thousand pounds of education, drops two a ten rupee jezail,
(the local gun of choice,) when facing the likes of the yusufsai, Even tales, supposedly
About the Boer War, 9 such skirmishes as the Tochi, Malakand,(where Churchill began
His military career, against the likes of predecessor of the Faqir)& Buner( the future
Marshal Roberts of India & South Africa, made his mark) valleys. In the poem, “The
Screw Guns”`10 the Afridi, (one particular branch appear as the Afreedeman), They
Appear again in Kipling’s master work of ‘The Great Game”, Kim11, in Chapter 2;
One of the leading American ethnographers of the Pushtoon, Charles Lindholm, www.bu.edu/anthrop/faculty/lindholm/index.html, refers to Kipling,And his real life colonial analogue Col. Warburton, of Kamal
Khan, chieftain who Appears in the “Ballad of East & West”, the dubious and
contradictory view of the Pathans, appears in an intro to a Pashto handbook, of all things; referenced
here;

[Your Wise Uncle Rick]

Diane: You must go. NOW!

[Ken Hahn]

This is typical of Feinstein. What is pathetic is that she is the better of our two Senators.