more info on the slithery Cambone

[donsu]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/16/opinion/main623498.shtml


If not for the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, most Americans probably never would have heard of Stephen Cambone. For more than a year, Cambone has served as the first-ever undersecretary of defense for intelligence, but he has lived a cloistered existence at the Pentagon. During most of his infrequent public appearances on Capitol Hill, Cambone has been a silent presence hovering over the shoulder of his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But then came Abu Ghraib. Last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee called Cambone to testify about the role military intelligence officers played in the treatment -- and mistreatment -- of inmates at the Iraqi prison.

-snip-

In fact, since Cambone's March 2003 confirmation by the Senate, he and Rumsfeld have spent far more energy explaining what the job isn't -- that is, a rival to the director of central intelligence (DCI). The DCI is the titular head of the intelligence community, but he has budgetary and executive control over only the CIA, which he runs directly. The problem is that the CIA controls only about 12 percent of the estimated $40 billion intelligence budget, while Pentagon-based intelligence services represent about 85 percent. (The difference is made up by the smaller agencies.) Previously, the various Pentagon intelligence services didn't have a single official overseeing them. Now they do -- Cambone. That change has prompted some to suggest the new undersecretary represents an alternative power center in the intelligence community. "What the creation of office has done is to shift the intelligence community's center of gravity further into the Pentagon," says Aftergood.

-snip-

In a rare interview, Cambone -- a longtime defense wonk and veteran of George H.W. Bush's Pentagon -- is emphatic that he's not a rival to the DCI. "I can't imagine that's true," he says. He describes his 120-member office as focused on "workaday and relatively unglamorous kinds of things." Its foremost responsibility, according to Cambone, is to ensure that military commanders have the intelligence they need, which in turn guarantees that "the other agencies are concentrating on the right things." (He declined to discuss Abu Ghraib.) Beyond focusing on immediate battlefield needs, Cambone makes sure the Pentagon civilian leadership also has the intelligence it requires. He emphasizes that his office does not itself perform either intelligence collection or analysis. But, in the event of disagreement between the intelligence agencies, Cambone will explore the roots of the dispute and "encourage the community to engage in those comparative analyses."
(pardon me while I throwup)

-snip-

Cambone's latest bounce may end up being his last. He was once discussed as a potential successor to Tenet, but Abu Ghraib surely makes that impossible. A report expected next month from a top Army intelligence officer, Major General George Fay, will examine the conduct of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib in greater detail, and, while Fay lacks the authority to investigate his civilian or military superiors, congressional officials say they will be reviewing Fay's findings for indications of high-level approval of the abuse, tacit or otherwise. "I wouldn't be surprised if we have back up" to testify, says the senior Senate Armed Services Committee staffer.
-snip-
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[Warpy]

1. Cambone, along with Rumsfeld, Perle, Feith and Woflowitz

would be the greatest argument in the world for shutting down the Pentagon intelligence office forever.

Not only is it redundant, but it's been a proven nursery for cadres of ideologues who have little knowledge of real geopolitical forces.

They have now lied us into two disastrous, unwinnable wars, Vietnam and Iraq. It's time to cut their funding, shut them down, keep them away from government.

That's the first step in the thorough housecleaning the Pentagon needs.