Bush administration has made our intelligence problems even worse

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/20/AR2006042001356.html?nav=hcmodule

Fix the Intelligence Mess

By David Ignatius
Friday, April 21, 2006; Page A23

For the U.S. intelligence community, the warning lights are blinking red. A reorganization that was supposed to bring greater coordination has instead produced a layering of responsibilities and bureaucratic confusion. A demoralized CIA that needed professional management is chafing under a Republican former congressman who has proved to be the most political and ineffective director in the agency's history.

Look at the organizational chart of the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence and you wonder if America has become a Third World country with a rival intelligence agency for each patch of turf. At last count, there were 16 different spy units under the DNI's umbrella -- a number that puts even Syria to shame. In theory, this flotilla of spy agencies is being supervised by a deputy responsible for "customer outcomes," whatever that means, and three other deputy directors. The organization chart gives each of the four a peppy two-word mission statement: "Want It," "Know It," "Get It" and "Build It."

<<snip>>

The intelligence mess is serious enough that it has triggered a quiet investigation by the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a secretive blue-ribbon panel that advises the White House. The group's new chairman is Stephen Friedman, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs and former White House economic adviser. Other luminaries on the 16-member panel are former senator Charles Robb, former representative Lee Hamilton and retired Adm. David E. Jeremiah.

<<snip>>

The Bush administration, unfortunately, is a big part of what's wrong. From the start, officials close to Vice President Cheney viewed a moribund, risk-averse CIA as an obstacle to their goals. Certainly the CIA made mistakes, especially in its assessment of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, but that's not why it was punished. It became a political whipping boy for the right wing largely because it tried to tell the truth on two key issues: alleged Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Niger and alleged Iraqi operational links with al-Qaeda. On both, CIA analysts repeatedly warned the administration that the evidence didn't support its conclusions, yet the vice president's office kept coming back and telling them to take another look. The CIA issued a secret paper in January 2003 saying that there was no Iraqi authority, control or direction over al-Qaeda. Yet the political pressure continued.

<<snip>>

You would have thought it was impossible to make our intelligence problems even worse, but the Bush administration has accomplished that. This is a dangerous situation for the country, and it needs to be fixed, now.

[C_U_L8R]

1. problem ????? what problem?

intelligence? what intelligence??????

hello hello o o o o o
echo echo o o o o o

[Ecumenist]

2. No kiddin'.

Using the word "intelligence" in the same sentence in reference to this bunch is as oxymoronic as you can get.