Source: Obama nominee tied to CIA interrogation

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional aide says the Obama administration's pick for a top intelligence post at the Homeland Security Department has ties to the CIA's harsh interrogation program.

This could become an issue during Philip Mudd's confirmation hearing, which is expected next week. Mudd was nominated to be under secretary of intelligence and analysis at Homeland Security.

The aide confirmed that Mudd, who was deputy director of the Office of Terrorism Analysis at the CIA during the Bush administration, had direct knowledge of the agency's harsh interrogation program. The aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKb8yA95LYLoB_RghzDwem05wN4QD98JTKE01

So far it's been cosmetic and PR-type promises--the dog, the world-wide gag rule on pregnancy prevention, and the Supreme Court nominee; that's about it.

The minute his "promise" meets with a little opposition, he crumples like a cheap suit.

You don't appear to be.

I mean, yeah, the OP might have indulged in a bit of hyperbole, but what "promises" has he kept? List them. It will be a bit hard. To begin with, I'm willing to acknowledge that his only been in office 6 months so many of his can't particularly be "kept" yet. I'm also willing to acknowledge that he is at work on some of them, health care being one of the larger ones. He's also working on the whole "middle class taxs cut" thingy. He has changed the "tone" especially in the diplomacy department. He has started some new dialogues and reached out to various cultures and countries.

But if one took his platform and campaign promises and started checking things off, just how long would the list be? Then make a list of things from which he has deviated significantly. Which list is longer?

NT!

in the SF Bay Area spying on Muslims' purchases at grocery stores. Sounds like quite an enterprising guy.

Join reality, it's really not that bad.

and see what that gets you.

I wanted someone who is the opposite of Greenspan, Gieghtner, Bernanke, Paulson. I want someone clean.

I want someone clean of torture.

I want single payer, not Baucus and his corporate team emab;ers/

this man's approval.

Change I can't believe in!!!

Obama's rehabilitation program.

Who's aide? Dem or Rep? What's his/her agenda? I'd have to have a lot more info before making any kind of decision about this.

Many have heard the expression "his name is Mudd." (Frequently mistaken as "his name is mud.") This is shorthand for doing or being responsible for something very bad. "If I don't come through with the help they asked for, my name will be Mudd."

The origin of this goes back to 1865 when Dr. Samuel Mudd set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. There is also a school of thought that Booth actually enlisted Mudd in his original plot to kidnap the president.

Anyway, that's how the name "Mudd" began to be used as shorthand for "bad."

Perhaps we'll now have a more contemporary reference for the term with this "Philip Mudd" character.