Ciao, CIA

Adam's Apple

Senior Member
Apr 25, 2004
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Ciao, CIA
By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 11, 2005

On Aug. 2, Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reported that "a major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years."

On Dec. 5, the Jerusalem Post reported that Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, "confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb." My, how time flies. It hasn't seemed as if 10 years have elapsed since last summer.

The CIA could be right, and the Israeli intelligence service Mossad and the IAEA could be wrong. But given the CIA's forecasting record--it missed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Islamic revolution in Iran, the warning signs of 9/11 and Saddam's WMD--that's not the way to bet.

Intelligence analysis isn't the only thing the CIA does sloppily. The Bush administration suffered major embarrassment when it was disclosed that the United States was holding top al-Qaida suspects in "secret prisons" in eastern Europe and North Africa.

A Swedish journalist who prepared one of the first stories on the CIA flights that transported al-Qaida captives told Josh Gerstein of The New York Sun the CIA did a poor job of covering its tracks. "I would say they didn't give a damn," Fredrik Laurin told Mr. Gerstein. "If I was an American taxpayer, I'd be upset."

For a show broadcast in May of last year, Mr. Laurin traced the tail number of a Gulfstream jet used to transport captives to a clearly phony company in Massachusetts. "You weren't able to trace the name to any living individual," Mr. Laurin said. "They were all living in post office boxes in Virginia.

"If that's all the imagination they can drum up at Langley, I'd fire the bunch," Mr. Laurin added.

But if the CIA hasn't been very good at ferreting out the secrets of our enemies or keeping our own, it has shown a talent for playing politics. "The CIA's war against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years," wrote lawyer and Web logger John Hinderaker in The Weekly Standard.

The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the Bush administration by former Democratic officeholders, and permitted a serving analyst, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book bashing the president.

The principal CIA weapon has been the leak. Reporters for ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post didn't have to do even the minimal legwork Mr. Laurin did to out the CIA's clandestine "rendition" program. It was handed to them by "current and former intelligence officials."

for full article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05345/620202.stm
 
Mr. P said:
My question is, why is this being allowed to continue?

I think Bush and the new Director of the CIA do have a plan to clean house and are in the process of doing that. Several of the "old timers" have left the agency in the last year. It's being reported now that Valerie Plame is also leaving. I am sure these people, with the help of cohorts still inside the agency, are one of the sources of leaking to the press. Those still on the inside have to be flushed out and fired before the leaking can be plugged. They certainly are damaging the country, all in the name of partisan politics.
 
Adam's Apple said:
I think Bush and the new Director of the CIA do have a plan to clean house and are in the process of doing that. Several of the "old timers" have left the agency in the last year. It's being reported now that Valerie Plame is also leaving. I am sure these people, with the help of cohorts still inside the agency, are one of the sources of leaking to the press. Those still on the inside have to be flushed out and fired before the leaking can be plugged. They certainly are damaging the country, all in the name of partisan politics.
Yep, I agree and think that is what has been spurring these rush of leaks.
 
Adam's Apple said:
They certainly are damaging the country, all in the name of partisan politics.

Too right, Adam's Apple - too right. They've been exposed as incompetent morons or worse. So, now it's all about saving themselves, and the good of the country be damned.

Reminds me of a certain, fast-fading political party. America is (too) slowly learning the truth: believe nothing the Democrats, their press agents, their apologists, or their spies say. The only truth these dinosaurs acknowledge is political expediency. To hell with America, her brave soldiers, and her Constitution. Did I say "dinosaurs"? I'm sorry - I meant "cornrered rats".
 

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