Oh So Feinstein!

One of the major blunders by a mayor of any city in the U.S. came in 1985 when the then-Mayor, Diane Feinstein, decided to hold a press conference and release a lot of what had been intentionally kept secret about the serial killer named Richard Ramirez (aka: The Night Stalker). Her press conference literally destroyed any chance of catching this gruesome killer because she released information that should have never been given out. Further, she even jeopardized the criminal case against Ramirez by releasing the details of how he killed. Ramirez, too, listened to the press conference and, as result, quickly left San Francisco for Los Angeles to kill; and, keep killing again. This all took place at a time when the San Francisco police were so close to catching this guy.

Consistent with her stupidity of the past, the now U.S. Senator Feinstein pulled another loose-lipped stunt in the Senate yesterday by releasing information about the cooperation of the Pakistani government in using Predator drones, based in Pakistan, to attack Pakistani/Taliban strongholds along the border of Afghanistan (Click to See Diane In Action). She did it by releasing confidential/secret data in the setting of public hearings so that all of Pakistan could hear about it. All along, the Pakistani government has taken heat from its own citizenry over the attacks on the tribal areas of Pakistan by U.S. military forces. Now, thanks to our brilliant Ms. Feinstein, we may lose any cooperation of the Pakistanis in further attacks on those tribal areas. A cooperation that is so desparately needed in containing the Taliban and Al Qaeda; and, in finding Bin Laden.

This is a perfect example of why Senators and Congressional Representatives can not be trusted with classified information. All throughout the Bush Administration, classified and secret activities of our government came to light through press agencies like the New York Times. Speculation was that it came from within the CIA and other agencies. One can only wonder if it wasn't actually from the likes of Diane Feinstein. While she might not have anymore need to attack the Bush Adminstration, this latest blunder might actually be an intentional disclosure in support of her own, predominately anti-war constituency. Who knows.