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Friday, August 28, 2009
Intelligence Failures
A long-time reader writes in:
Several very disturbing things have happened in the last few days,
the aggregate of which will be to either disembowel or corrupt the
output from our intelligence apparatus.
- First, there's the shameful release of a classified report that
even Obama appointee CIA Director Leon Pannetta has eloquently
argued against on the grounds it will undermine the foundation of
trust between CIA patriots and their government.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8398902
- Second, there's AG Eric Holder's announcement that not only will
he seek to prosecute intelligence employees for doing their jobs,
but that he's selected a prosecutor to head that investigation that
has already displayed a bias against the intelligence apparatus and
its professionals in the past.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/24/AR2009082401743_pf.html
Can you say "Witch Hunt"? I knew you could. Holder has displayed a
preference for the rights of terrorists to get access to our court
systems over the rights of Americans to continue to live.
- This leads to the third, disturbing occurrence, the WH creation of
a unit that will supervise all high profile interrogations.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112169988 This
is upsetting on multiple counts. First it displays unparalleled WH
micro management of the intelligence process. Second, we now have an
"Interrogation Czar". If this is under the WH auspices like all the
other Czars, will they claim executive privilege in keeping out
congressional oversight to a degree never imagined even by those who
criticized the Bush administration? Finally, this office will work
from the FBI, under the same Eric Holder who doesn't seem to care
for our anti-terror fight, displays a preference for terrorists'
rights over Americans' civil liberties, has displayed animus against
intelligence professionals, and who thinks a law enforcement
approach to countering threats to our nation is preferable to a
military one even though that's the mindset that led to all the
terrorist attacks under Clinton and to 9/11.
Ironically, what these things mean is that, intentionally or
unintentionally, the White House is going to gain much greater
influence over the intelligence that comes out of our agencies, in a
way that vastly overshadows anything the Bush White House is alleged
to have had, and that the left railed against. Remember the meme
that the Bush WH was trying make the intelligence fit what they
wanted to do? Can you imagine what will happen under this WH when
the it is seen as being so intensely involved in management of the
intelligence apparatus by those inside it?
One has to wonder whether these acts are to intentionally weaken our
intelligence apparatus, intentionally control it, or unintentionally
destroy it through liberal naivete.
I confess I hadn't thought of that last issue. But I think the reader
makes an excellent point - when intelligence product is manufactured by
the pols at the White House, and not by a separate agency of careerists
that must answer as much to Congress as the Presidency, how can ANYONE
trust that the product is free of political taint?
Labels: Intelligence
<http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/search/label/Intelligence>, Obama
<http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/search/label/Obama>, War on Terror
<http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/search/label/War%20on%20Terror>,
Warfighting <http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/search/label/Warfighting>
[CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE NET]
<http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2009/08/intelligence-failures.html> posted
by Jason : 01:53 EST, Friday, August 28, 2009 0 transmissions this net
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