Loose lips sink ships, Huckleberry
by digby
The current major budget cuts known as sequestration could make America less safe in the event of a future terrorist threat, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Graham called the Sunday closure of U.S. embassies in several countries “scary” and said he had been briefed by the vice president on the issue. Embassies will be closed for one day due to an unspecified al Qaeda threat, CBS News reported.
Graham said the budget cuts enacted in March are hurting America and could do further damage if they’re not reversed.
“Al Qaeda’s on the rise in this part of the world, and this NSA program has proven its worth yet again. But we need to reevaluate where we’re at in light of these threats. Sequestration has to be fixed,” Graham said.
Speaking of the weekend’s embassy security threat, Graham said, “If this happens a year from now, our intelligence community and military will be less capable.”
Despite his criticisms, Graham praised the Obama administration Sunday for taking security threats seriously.
And here I thought it was aiding and abetting the enemy to discuss the operational outcome of these NSA programs. Did he learn that in the scary classified briefing from the Vice President? Isn’t Huckleberry being a little loosed lipped here?
Still, you have to give him credit. He’s cleverly conflating the Pentagon sequestration cuts with the NSA programs to try to create the impression that sequestration will defund the intelligence that’s keeping your little babies safe from the bogeyman. It doesn’t, unfortunately. And frankly I’d be surprised if other Republicans use that line to try to roll back the defense cuts. These NSA programs are controversial enough even among Republican voters that they may be reluctant to put them in the mix with “the troops” to make their case for rolling these cuts back in favor of more head start defunding.
Then again, Republicans are nuts so who knows what they’ll do?
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