The Presidential Commission on the "Intelligence Capabilties of the United States regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction" ordered by President Bush have now turned in their report and as expected, things are bad.
Looking beyond Iraq, the report goes on to state:
"The bad news is that we still know disturbingly little about the weapons programs and even less about the intentions of many of our most dangerous adversaries."
What should be even more disturbing than this is that at this point in time, and not mentioned, is that here we are coming on to almost four years after 9/11 and we still can't seem to get things right. Why? This report makes over 70 recomendations for the new director of US intelligence John Negroponte including this brainfart:
"Among the commission's 74 recommendations are the creation of a nongovernment research body to play permanent devil's advocate, challenging the agencies' assessments, and of a National Intelligence University to improve the training of analysts and spies."
Correct me if I am wrong, but logic would seem to dictate here that adding on any more bureaucracy and red tape is the absolute last thing that is needed.
The problems that we continue to avoid and honestly address can be broken down into three main areas and those are:
Outsourcing
For those of you who think that our nation has its own assets in critical areas, you are in for a very rude awakening. Much of our nation's intelligence work is currently being outsourced to foreign governments and to private military contractors. By outsourcing our intelligence work not only do we we subject ourselves to security risks, but we also put ourselves in a dangerous position with foreign governments who might not share the same goals and objectives that we share as a nation. Look no further than France and Germany during the run up to the Iraq war for evidence of this. Both of these countries vehemently opposed our actions and yet we foolishly relied on German intelligence assets instead of developing our own. Why? And so now we find out that "Curveball" was a fabricator. It is we who are the fools.
Partisan Politics
This is something that I personally have first hand knowledge of. Individuals within our State department and career diplomats who are willing to do anything in their power to discredit the Bush administration. Why are these people still employed? Have we got a deathwish or something? We could have learned a lesson or two from the Romans -
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear."
Marcus Tullius Cicero - Roman Statesman - Speech in the Roman Senate - 42 B.C.
Political Correctness
We still have not heeded the wakeup call that political correctness kills. It would seem that we are more interested in appearence rather than substance. Diversity is the buzzword. We appoint womyn ambassadors to Muslim countries and openly homosexual individuals as ambassadors to devoutly religious countries knowing full well the consequences and knowing that they cannot and will not be effective in their appointments. While our CIA is attending mandatory sensitivity classes and diversity training we disregard information that might be of value and find ourselves either questioning the motives of the source or ensuring that they have no criminal record. With our lack of common sense and foolishness we have effectively tied the hands of our intelligence agencies and signed our nation's own death warrant.
Forget effectiveness, forget our nation's national security and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The one thing we can be damn proud of is that we had not only a diverse, but a politically correct working enviroment at our embassy in Pakistan. Too bad we couldn't get to Dr. Khan or Osama Bin Laden. Thanks a lot Nancy. What exactly did you accomplish?
If we are ever going to serious about intelligence then we need to start using common sense first.
Looking beyond Iraq, the report goes on to state:
"The bad news is that we still know disturbingly little about the weapons programs and even less about the intentions of many of our most dangerous adversaries."
What should be even more disturbing than this is that at this point in time, and not mentioned, is that here we are coming on to almost four years after 9/11 and we still can't seem to get things right. Why? This report makes over 70 recomendations for the new director of US intelligence John Negroponte including this brainfart:
"Among the commission's 74 recommendations are the creation of a nongovernment research body to play permanent devil's advocate, challenging the agencies' assessments, and of a National Intelligence University to improve the training of analysts and spies."
Correct me if I am wrong, but logic would seem to dictate here that adding on any more bureaucracy and red tape is the absolute last thing that is needed.
The problems that we continue to avoid and honestly address can be broken down into three main areas and those are:
Outsourcing
For those of you who think that our nation has its own assets in critical areas, you are in for a very rude awakening. Much of our nation's intelligence work is currently being outsourced to foreign governments and to private military contractors. By outsourcing our intelligence work not only do we we subject ourselves to security risks, but we also put ourselves in a dangerous position with foreign governments who might not share the same goals and objectives that we share as a nation. Look no further than France and Germany during the run up to the Iraq war for evidence of this. Both of these countries vehemently opposed our actions and yet we foolishly relied on German intelligence assets instead of developing our own. Why? And so now we find out that "Curveball" was a fabricator. It is we who are the fools.
Partisan Politics
This is something that I personally have first hand knowledge of. Individuals within our State department and career diplomats who are willing to do anything in their power to discredit the Bush administration. Why are these people still employed? Have we got a deathwish or something? We could have learned a lesson or two from the Romans -
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear."
Marcus Tullius Cicero - Roman Statesman - Speech in the Roman Senate - 42 B.C.
Political Correctness
We still have not heeded the wakeup call that political correctness kills. It would seem that we are more interested in appearence rather than substance. Diversity is the buzzword. We appoint womyn ambassadors to Muslim countries and openly homosexual individuals as ambassadors to devoutly religious countries knowing full well the consequences and knowing that they cannot and will not be effective in their appointments. While our CIA is attending mandatory sensitivity classes and diversity training we disregard information that might be of value and find ourselves either questioning the motives of the source or ensuring that they have no criminal record. With our lack of common sense and foolishness we have effectively tied the hands of our intelligence agencies and signed our nation's own death warrant.
Forget effectiveness, forget our nation's national security and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The one thing we can be damn proud of is that we had not only a diverse, but a politically correct working enviroment at our embassy in Pakistan. Too bad we couldn't get to Dr. Khan or Osama Bin Laden. Thanks a lot Nancy. What exactly did you accomplish?
If we are ever going to serious about intelligence then we need to start using common sense first.
No comments:
Post a Comment