> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Ritu
.... > Umm, and since when have the Presidents of the USA been in the habit of > basing their policy statements on intelligence reports from other > countries without having their own agencies verify the same? Perhaps even more to the point, what happened to the whole system by which intelligence is vetted before it even reaches the president? That's what continues to bug me. There are layers of review that are supposed to happen, largely intended to assure objectivity in what is presented, in order to prevent manipulation for political purposes, yet that seems to be exactly what happened here. I've previously mentioned that I'm familiar with the process. I'll say a bit more. A number of years ago, there was proposal to turn the daily security briefing from text to multimedia. At the time, I was pretty well-known around the world as an expert analyst in that area, so the contractor who built and maintains the system by which the data makes its way from Langley to the White House asked me to get involved in developing the proposed changes. They were even suggesting that a video link would allow the president to talk directly to the analysts who prepared the items in each report. That, and the rest of the proposal, was dropped pretty quickly -- precisely because it would bypass the various non-partisan reviews that intelligence has to pass before it goes to the president. Video was also nixed because no one felt that it is ever really objective, or at least there was no good definition of objectivity. Perhaps that makes it a bit more clear what is supposed to happen -- intelligence to the president is supposed to be thoroughly checked, not just for accuracy, but also for "spin" and such. I can't say much about who the reviewing parties are, or how many people are involved, but it all funnels through the office of the DCI -- the director of central intelligence, who we usually think of as just the head of the CIA. The NSC is involved and so are key people in other branches of government. That system didn't work regarding the misleading information. Whether that was deliberate or not, I don't know. But it clearly indicates that under this administration, the system failed to operate the way it nearly always has. Perhaps with the media abandoning objectivity and accuracy, most people simply don't realize that the U.S. intelligence system still strives for it, so they don't realize what a fundamental problem this reflects. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
