Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

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The Wilson tempest

The Washington Post and the other suspect elite media are on top of this non-story. They smell scandal, and they mean to have one. This guy Wilson is all over television going on about I-don’t-know-what. But he wants some satisfaction; this foreign policy advisor and contributor to Kerry’s campaign, this intellectual snob, this self-serving chest thumper, does want satisfaction. Is there anyone who has seen this guy for more than two minutes think that he is a straight shooter, that he is really concerned about his third trophy-wife’s well being, that he is really concerned about national security, etc.? Well, I don’t. I think all this is a phony storm, nothing interesting will be discovered, and the investigation will go on and on, the President will be blamed more and more, and there will be no clarity, the so called scandal will just hang in the air.(Why doesn’t he conduct his own internal investigation? Why doesn’t he fire someone already? The justice department can’t really do it right, so maybe we ought to have an independent counsel, and so on.) But it will have served a nicely partisan, albeit temporary purpose by creating the appearance of a scandal; run with it and see what mischief you can cause. This White House is not scandal ridden enough, let’s get something going already! Maybe we can get Karl Rove in the process; and since he is the boy-genious behind all of Bush’s electoral victories, if he is thrown out, maybe we have a chance to win in 2004! If there turn out to be facts in this matter that differ from this I will change my mind. For now, I am settled on this opinion. Here is Robert Novak’s recent take on all this, since he is the one being held responsible for saying that it was a leak back in July. This stinks.

Discussions - 4 Comments

It stinks even worse, when you consider that there may well be CIA/State folks who will leak further, because they see this as a chance to damage our hawkish friends in DoD, who are ascendant at the moment in foreign policy decisionmaking and who have questioned CIA’s political judgments on intelligence from the beginning.

Of course, the real question is why someone whose association with the CIA is so sensitive that their "exposure" would amount to a "National Security" crisis would volunteer their spouse for a "high profile" intelligence gathering mission as the one assigned to Joe C. Wilson, "gadfly".

Also, as someone who has incurred such apparent "angst" over the "outing" of the "spook" wife, why on Earth would Joe (007) Wilson "go public" with his CIA connection and the "inteeligence" he collected in Niger on their behalf.

Finally, when someone provides "intelligence gathering" services to the CIA, even "Pro Bono", do they not sign some sort of "Confidentiality Agreement" related to said services? If not, does this explain why the folks in charge of the "bug shop" at Langley provided a Sudanese asprin factory as target for Clinton’s "wag the dog" al Qaeda WMD strike?

Ask yourself why the Niger mission in the first place. It’s purpose was to verify British Intelligence Service’s claim that Saddam was seeking materials for his Nuke program in Africa. A claim they stick by even today. Well, perhaps the reason the CIA was forced to "do their own thing" to "check out" the Brits’ "Intel" was because the Brits were afraid to share their "sources and methods" with Valerie Plame’s section at the CIA.

Hmmm! Perhaps the Brits were afraid that if they shared this sensitive data with the CIA to verify their "Intel", they might be reading it on the pages of the "Nation" shortly thereafter.

It almost seems like the CIA is back in the political "coup business" again, only this time Director Tenet is going after the U.S. government. It also looks like he has certain elements at the Pentagon (the Perfumed Princes) and at the State Department, on board (in the racing pool). Maybe I’ll go rent that 60’s movie Burt Lancaster, "Seven Days in May", and watch it again tonight.

What’s Wrong with the CIA?

"It’s obvious that something is wrong with the CIA. The 9/11 attacks were, by definition, the worst intelligence failure in our country’s history. More recently, we have had trouble locating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and have been consumed by the flap over whether the CIA signed off on President Bush’s accurate observation in his State of the Union speech that British intelligence believes Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase uranium ore in Niger.

"In each of these cases, the CIA was asleep at the switch, not quite on the ball, or tossing a banana peel under the president’s feet. In the midst of a war in which intelligence must play a central role, we need a CIA that is razor sharp and playing offense, not one that blindsides the country or embarrasses the commander-in-chief."

From:What’s Wrong with the CIA? by: Herbert E. Meyer

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