Saturday, May 13, 2006

Defending the CIA

 Killing the CIA

By Sidney Blumenthal

In Goss, Bush found the perfect hatchet man to take vengeance on a despised agency. Now Goss is gone, scandal looms -- and the CIA is ruined.

The moment that the destruction of the Central Intelligence Agency began can be pinpointed to a time, a place and even a memo. On Aug. 6, 2001, CIA director George Tenet presented to President Bush his presidential daily briefing, a startling document titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." Bush did nothing, asked for no further briefings on the issue, and returned to cutting brush at his Crawford, Texas, compound.

In Bush's denial of responsibility after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the search for scapegoats inevitably focused on the lapse in intelligence and therefore on the CIA, though it was the FBI whose egregious incompetence permitted the plotters to escape apprehension. . . .

. . .But despite urgent pressures to report to the contrary, the CIA never reported that Saddam presented an imminent national security threat to the United States, that he was near to developing nuclear weapons, or that he had any ties to al-Qaida. Moreover, analysts predicted a protracted insurgency after an invasion of Iraq. Tenet, despite the lack of cooperation from the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, acted as backslapper for the administration's policy . . .

. . .The White House was in a fury. The CIA's professionalism was perceived as political warfare, and the agency apparently was seen as the center of a conspiracy to overthrow the administration. Inside the offices of the president, the vice president and the secretary of defense, the CIA was referred to as a treasonous enemy. "If we lived in a primitive age, the ground at Langley would be laid waste and salted, and there would be heads on spikes," wrote neoconservative columnist David Brooks in the New York Times on Nov. 13, 2004, citing White House officials and "members of the executive branch" as his sources. Reflecting their rage, he called on Bush to "punish the mutineers ... If the C.I.A. pays no price for its behavior, no one will pay a price for anything, and everything is permitted. That, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk. . . ."

. . .No president has ever before ruined an agency at the heart of national security out of pique and vengeance. The manipulation of intelligence by political leadership demands ever tightened control. But political purges provide only temporary relief from the widening crisis of policy failure.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Slam dunk' meant BIO WMD. The nuclear was interesting, but the reason for the invasion was BIO WMD. 'Dr. WMD' had a lab and produced lost of bio weapons for Saddam. She was freed by the Iraqui courts the day Plame and Wilson were in 'Time.' Plame confused and he afraid. It is not known where 'Dr.WMD' is or who she works for now.

The 'Hatchet Job' at the agency is old. They are simply guaranteeing more checks and 20 year union pensions. Sacrifice a few and keep everyone else employed. Its probably no coincidence that Goss was sociable as, perhaps, Plame and there was the DoD conference right after he resigned on Cinquo de Mayo.

Goss's job was to close the agency and Congress made a move to have this done, but Goss stood in the way of congress and would not allow the CIA closed. The new Director has already made a deal to hire all the CIA analysts at DIA/NSA and place them on a new computer system-total intelligence awareness. He has already guaranteed CIA employment when the job was to close them down. This was planned for a couple of months.

The NSA phone issue is a choice that DIA and NSA had to make with CIA. They have allowed them access to DIA/NSA databases and it's normal for them to hire the CIA when, actually, they violated procedures allowing CIA employees access to DIA databases. It's not important after CIA is hired unless a Congressman, who possibly had the same access, askes DIA/NSA if someone at CIA, like Plame, had access to DIA/NSA databases.

I doubt many Americans like the idea of Plame accessing DIA/NSA looking for them.

Bob Harrison said...

Complex response, certainly sounds like you have some good inside info. However, I don't think moving between agencies is anything new in a bureaucratic environment like DC and certainly neither is protecting your pension-- just observe any member of Congress.

I certainly recall Dr.WMD but if I remember correctly she was most responsible for the Kurdish murders, which doesn't necessarily mean she was later producing bioweapons, circa Iraq invasion.

Interesting theory about Goss; it is certainly counter to 99% of what I've read about the situation. I have a hard time picturing any Bush appointee as a defender of the CIA.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback; if you have more, please let me know.