Morning Update: Scrutinizing the CIA
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) on ABC’s This Week called for a special counsel to investigate the destruction of videos showing CIA interrogation of suspected terrorists. Biden also responded to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s accusation that last week’s NIE on Iran was “misleading” and a “deliberate sabotage” of the Bush administration’s Iran policy. “Who are you going to believe,” Biden asked. “Newt Gingrich’s assessment, or 16 intelligence agencies of the United States of America reaching a unanimous decision?”
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also called for further investigation into the CIA tapes on Fox News Sunday. McCain also said military action against Iran is not off the table, despite the NIE. He said direct talks with Iran are “overrated,” and voiced concerns that such talks cold “enhance the prestige of the president of Iran.”
Also on Fox News Sunday, Mike Huckabee, who has often been criticized for a lack of foreign policy experience, spoke in generalities about his foreign policy outlook as president, and addressed democracy promotion. “I think the greatest way to export democracy is not to force it, but rather to build the best possible version of it right here so people are attracted to it,” he said.
Republican candidates largely focused on immigration policy in a bilingual debate (PDF) on Spanish television station Univision last night. Though the candidates have battled throughout the campaign over who among them would be tougher on illegal immigration, they provided some new subtlety to their positions on the issue before a largely Hispanic audience. The candidates also addressed Latin American politics, a subject that has rarely come up in these debates.
McCain repeated his call for immigration to be handled with “compassion and love.” Huckabee said the process by which immigrants gain legal entry to the United States should be expedited. “If you can get an American Express card in two weeks, it shouldn’t take seven years to get a work permit to come to this country in order to work on a farm,” he said.
Fred Thompson said it would be disrespectful to those Latin American immigrants who “fought tyranny, who have fought against the Castro regime, who have come here and risked their lives to become United States citizens,” if illegal immigrants were granted any special status. Thompson avoided directly answering whether he thought children born in the United States should be separated from undocumented parents. McCain said that issue cannot be addressed until the border is secured. Mitt Romney said the United States should not adopt “these chain migration policies that say, you’ve got a child here that’s a U.S. citizen, and the whole family can come in.”
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) received boos when he advocated for diplomacy and trade with Venezuela and Cuba. “We create the Chavezes of the world, we create the Castros of the world by interfering and creating chaos in their countries, and they respond by throwing out their leader,” he said. Rudy Giuliani and McCain both said they would take a more blunt approach. McCain said he “would like to echo the words of (King) Juan Carlos, ‘Por que no te callas?’ ‘Why don’t you shut up?,’” referring to a recent confrontation (AFP) between the Spanish king and Chavez. Giuliani also said he agrees with “the way King Juan Carlos spoke to Chavez.”
Regarding Cuba, Thompson said the United States should regard Fidel Castro’s brother and second-in-command Raul Castro “with the same contempt that we show Castro, including keeping the embargo on Cuba.” Romney agreed that the United States should “continue our isolation of Cuba.”
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) boycotted the debate (AP).
December 11th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
And what do you think of the very popular view by a leading Israeli analyst Obadiah Shoher? He argues (here, for example, http://www.samsonblinded.org/blog/america-arranges-a-peace-deal-with-iran.htm) that the Bush Administration made a deal with Iran: nuclear program in exchange for curtailing the Iranian support for Iraqi terrorists. His story seems plausible, isn’t it?