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2005-03-02 Home Front: WoT
CIA dysfunction: a recap
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Posted by someone 2005-03-02 6:05:45 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Hmm...this is a good article with much common sense info - but I'm hesitant to put too much stock into a guy who shows his biases so early on.

First, he seems flattered that a KGB officer took note of his work. Fair enough. But did he believe that by providing the KGB with more insight that his work would be put to good use? Please.

Secondly his bias against the CIA is shown to be excessive in his opening paragraphs.

" Despite not having much to say, I readily assented." Not much to say? Hmm..you had plenty to say to the Russian KGB officer - how about you tell the CIA agent what the KGB was interested in?

And even more disturbing...he can't seem to grasp the BGO, that by not knowing what prosciutto was, the CIA officer probably wasn't in Italy - but was somewhere else that he wasn't willing to reveal.
Posted by 2b 2005-03-02 8:08:30 AM||   2005-03-02 8:08:30 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Yes, the author IS a bit dismissive of the intelligence community, although he cites a few examples of folks who should've been dismissed. I found very interesting that Clinton's aversion to military risk and consuming passion for diversity were factors. We called off a plot to capture bin Laden because somebody might get hurt?
Posted by Bobby 2005-03-02 10:06:48 AM||   2005-03-02 10:06:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 The author's arguments were more of the oft repeated Scheuer/CIA bashing, but doesn't go to the core of why Binnie is still so popular. Perhaps Scheuer's characteriztion of Binnie -- especially from the viewpoint of the nut job radicals -- is spot on. The real problem was the failure of the Clinton administration to grow a pair and deal with Binnie before he killed thousands.
Posted by H8_UBL 2005-03-02 4:50:23 PM||   2005-03-02 4:50:23 PM|| Front Page Top

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