June 3, 2004
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Big News, Relevant Thoughts
Before I start, let me say that as far as his personal reputation is concerned, CIA director George Tenet is said to be a likeable man. There is no question to our knowledge that he is true, loyal and capable, among those who know him. And there is a reason why so many people around him genuinely like him. However, there are likely also some timely benefits to arise from his departure. That being the case, it is my hope the U.S. finds it a catalyst for change within the CIA, where folks begin to realize the fat days of the 90′s are over and it is time to get to work and decide who your team is.
Below are a few timely excerpts from my personal journal, as entered two days ago on the 1st of June. I share them now because I think they bring some very valid points to the table; points which no doubt will be expressed (and have, even as of today) all across the print and broadcast media by others who have come to similar or dissimilar conclusions as the fallout continues. While naturally, I do not feel we need to fire everyone in that agency, it has been frustrating for me, as indeed it most certainly has been for most Americans as they see one fumble after another in a very important football game.
“…Sometimes I wonder if we just need to fire everyone at the CIA, bulldoze their buildings and start completely over. It is historically obvious that more than a few of these guys are complete morons who can’t (or won’t) tell good intel from bad when it has to do with so much as determining the differences between their butts and a hole in the ground. As such, they interfere with the work of others and tarnish the reputations of others.
A few glaring examples?
-The amount and location of WMD’s in
-Global Terrorism since far before 9.11 including the first World Trade Center attacks, the Attacks in Africa and the middle east including the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole**
-Ignoring the emergence of 5th generation fighter aircraft coming out of China and Russia which according to many, far out-class our old F15. Also for denying we have needed a replacement such as the F/A-22 for the past 7 or more years and that by doing so have managed to sacrifice an important tactical advantage in the Taiwan Straits and elsewhere.
-Failing to guard tactical and technological (including nuclear) secrets particularly throughout the 90′s
For too long they (the CIA) have had quite a fair share of politicos (placed there by administration policy wonks and ideologues in times past) who make it their aim to help the administration they favor look good, while helping the others look bad, all the while working alongside folks who are trying to perform just the opposite. This has arguably amounted to nothing more than a policy (or perhaps, ideology) wave-machine, where attitudes and policies work their way to the bottom at about the same time contradicting ones are introduced by a new Administration at the top and begin the long journey to the bottom again. Not unlike many other federal agencies, but a big reason why politicization needs to be kept to a bare minimum.
It is clear today that President Bush, Secretary Powell and others have been forced to work within the limitations of an occasionally dysfunctional executive system (including the State Department, the Pentagon and so forth) that has caused logistical, as well as huge P.R. nightmares for the people who count on correct data to support their credibility in foreign policy and elsewhere. And of course, habitual high-profile failures = executive turnover.
Summery: aspects of the CIA are overrun with bureaucracy and ineffectiveness at their worst, (which is more often than it should be) despite recent improvements. Red tape, inept bungling and conflicts of interest have at times prevented the agency from fulfilling its mandate in a timely and effective manner. While there are many within the organization who obviously earn their keep, a portion of the group-think is arguably one of a similar fashion as that widely known to be found in the departments of education, HUD and countless other “civil servant” branches whose jobs now more resemble the glorified welfare of job-entitlements and immunity than Jack Kennedy’s ‘Ask-not’ vision.”
Naturally, venting this in my journal the other day was expectedly therapeutic. I just had no idea I was out in front of the train again. I do want to say how proud I am of the officers who are doing a good job, working with our officials and ultimately our troops and law enforcement to provide for, as they say, ”the common defense.” If it weren’t for these guys we would have been getting “Spained” on a regular basis. I think of Mike Spann as an example of just such a hero. I also realize that security is a team matter and requires the cooperation of all governmental agencies, which has lacked in the years leading up to the attacks of 9-11. We know the FBI and the INS still have a LONG way to go, for example. But these guys do need to work together better, there is no doubt, and that I think needs to happen in short order for the benefit of everybody.
I would bet it’s not an unpopular thing to state that what is needed is a massive house-cleaning at the agency and in this vein, I think a new director is a good start- even though I know there were many reasons to like Tenet. Such a change is something that without a doubt has been, and will be met with varying degrees of opposition by the old trolls whose bretheren exist on every government payroll.
Of course we will have to wait on the official Commission report about the shortcomings of the CIA in recent years, delayed for a few weeks so it doesn’t look as if it is tied to Tenet’s resignation, to see what the official take is. As well as how George Tenet is portrayed by the findings. However despite claims to the contrary, one wonders in the very least if Tenet’s personal matters (the reason for which he says he now resigns) could possibly have served as part of a real distraction from his duties as chief. Of course that at present is difficult to say.
Additional Notes:
*It remains very likely that the information on the existence of WMD’s was not completely off, however we also know that were it not for confirmed Israeli sources on the ground, we would not know with any great certainty exactly what was buried by Saddam’s troops just across the border in the sands of Syria immediately before the allies began strikes.
**This was also touched on today in various media outlets
Comments (3)
I don’t know you but will you post a comment on my friend’s site? It is kind of a joke, I am trying to rack up random comments for him.
He is: http://www.xanga.com/iamtellingyouthetruth
thanks~
Rebekka
hello! i’m not quite sure as to whether you remmeber me or not, you commented on my site quite a while back. that’s fine though. it’s really great to see that you take the time out to search for information, and it seems as though you are very careful before you jump to conclusions, and i really respect that! i was flipping through some of your previous posts (all very interesting) and i happened to stumble upon the abu ghraib section, which concerned me a bit. I completely agree with you, that those regimes which are getting upset with us rae absolutely horrid to their people themselves, however, i don’t understand the point you were trying to make there.
why are you threatening those countries? especailly the people of iraq, have quite a right to complain. saddam is gone,yes, and now he’s been replaced, so it seems, by people that are no different from himself. i don’t think at all this was a few bad apples, i thinkt he whole system there is incredibly messed up. do you realize how disgraceful it is for dogs to be sicced upon these naked men and women? to place womens underwear over their heads? to make them masturbate while looking at some completey random female’s breasts, while their wife and children are at home praying they come home soon? it absolutely sickens me. of ocurse, it sickens me when any gov’t/country does sucha thing, and i get highly emotional about this sorto f thing (considering i want to achieve world peace and end world hunger :0) ). i just think now is not the time to complain about the other gov’ts, we know they’r ebad, they know they’re bad. and we are not humiliated at all. the fact that people say “the Us has lost its credibilty” and the fact that that is all we have focused our attention to, is absurd. noone should give a hsit as of now about th US, the only people humiliated are the iraqi prisoners, and they need to get the respect they deserve, considering most of htem didn’t do anything. and i know someone that got deported for absolutely no reason, so i know it happens often.
i’m not ranting at you, now, just at the government. but, if possible, could you explain to me why you have such resentment toward them ? (or so it seems) them, being, the “easterners”. bruning israeli and american flags? yes, that’s a childish deal. they’ve been doing it for quite some time now. we’ve done simliar things. it’s an immature thing to do, and hurtful, yes. but things like this give those that do it ten times more reason to.
i was listening to hannity and colmes the other day, on the radio (dont’ ask me why) and this is what he said: ” tomorrow, we’re going to discuss which was worse: te abu ghraib prison scandal or the beheading of nicholas berg?” my qeustion is this: why must we have discussions baout which is worse? what is worng with people in this world, that they must discuss such horrible comparisons between different forms of torture? do you know why people are like this? bah, it makes me so angry. the people that did that to nicholas berg are abnormal, not human. they simply hide behind “Islam” and say they are speaking “for Allah” and blame a religion for the terror they cause. unfortunately, not enough people understand this, and think “oh no! the iraqis did it! they brun our flags! they shout random things at us! now it’s okay, now the torture isn’t such a big deal!” i think i’d like to kill that woman in the pictures. whenever i see her face..yes. bad things happen. why can’t we all just love each other?
thanks for allowing me the chance to let everything out and pretend i’m ranting at you. great site!!
DM, it is certainly a healthy thing to rant someplace, and your rants are not unreasonable ones in the least, rather articulate and well-thought. I do remember your blog, it has been awhile, but I was just wondering where you had wandered off to. It is great to see you are still blogging away. First, I want to set your mind at rest. I absolutely have nothing against “easterners”. When you see me vent I am strictly doing so in the direction of tyrants, terrorists and the like. The average person on the eastern street is partly why I rant, though the West may see the wicked hand of terror from time to time, the easterner is often the first victims, and that daily.
. Spc. Lynndie England and her pals are monsters. They do not represent the wishes or intents of the U.S. Army. I also would like to see Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski go. I think it will become clear her part in all of this. I wouldn’t doubt that we find out the truth there. It is my opinion (and I rarely get this strong in my assessments) she is a sick and unstable person, just like the criminals she supervised. The Army officers I know and have spoken with all agree she had to have known. For that matter, any first year “plebe” at West Point could tell you that. General Ricardo Sanchez isn’t too far behind, in my view. We’ll see what comes to light there.
Now, ranting, as I mentioned is a healthy thing when done within reason, which is essentially what I was doing in that particular blog. My point was not to threaten the peoples of any countries, rather, as I mention above, simply to call for a reality check aimed both at the wicked leaders of the world and the politicos, such as the Spanish Prime Minister who attack the U.S. for popularity points. What I was saying in its most basic form was that nations who accuse the U.S. of being such an evil monster bent on conquest and oppression had better get their facts straight. Most of them know they are spouting rhetoric even while they make the accusations. To illustrate this point, I asked the reader to imagine the U.S. if it really were some such evil miscreant nation, an Empire such as Rome, the Huns or the Mongols, for example, and what the state of affairs for the rest of the world would be then. It would be a quite different picture to say the least. I think we are all glad not to be a part of such a world. I also made the point that what took place at Abu Ghraib is really the exception and not the rule for the U.S., and to prove this I pointed to the worldwide shock that was expressed as a result of the prisoner abuse. Nobody is shocked anymore about the near-extinction killings in the Sudan, China or Iran. Even the Chechen war has gone largely un-noticed for the crimes committed there by both sides of the conflict. That is because it is by definition that we only express shock when we are surprised. Nevertheless, the nature of war is that sometimes there are some undesired casualties. This is not to excuse it; it should always be dealt with, but it is why we are better off building huge deterrents so that 9-11′s, Pearl Harbors and so forth don’t ever happen. As the saying goes, “war is hell.” Nevertheless, I agree with you that the female soldier who perpetrated the acts we all now know her for, should be handed over to the Iraqis, along with her cohorts. Better yet, send her to a Turkish prison
With regard to your mention of the Easterners, I think sadly today that a large part of the Islamic political world has been hijacked by charlatans and frauds. The Al Qaeda’s of the world say they are for Islam, but break every rule in the Qur’an, claiming to fight in support of it, they use the masses to promote their own power and disregard the very lives of the people they claim they are for. This I think is so tragic, because most people in any given culture have better things to do than wage senseless war and have their babies drafted into suicide corps. The American presence in the Iraqi region is shaking things up quite a bit. This is a good thing because it is providing the chance for the first time in centuries for the people to decide the courses of their own futures, not some ruthless tyrant or terrorist group. It is a free people who build prosperity, hospitals and schools for little boys AND girls to learn so they one day can attend university and pursue their dreams, not learn to count “One plus one Saddam equals two Saddam’s” and so-forth. This is a culture that is rich in its heritage and history and offers a treasure far above gold, rubies or oil to the world, if only given the chance.
Granted, we may not agree on everything. Well, no one ever has. But I think on this matter you might agree with me more than you originally thought. At any rate, I hope this rather lengthy reply meets at least in some small part your questions and answers them as completely as possible.
Kind regards,
Blogbat J
…now let’s see if xanga posts long replies :smoke: