Via GR, I have just read Bryan Preston’s speculations about what was going inside the mind of Joseph C. Wilson when he lied, or “misspoke,” as he called it, about his Yellowcake Adventures in Niger? Quite interesting and provocative. It certainly is the operative question, now that Wilson’s credibility is hovering in OJ land. What really went on here? Cui bono?
Sometimes I joke on here (or brag, depending on your POV) about my mystery writer background when I offer supposedly informed inside solutions to a crime. That is, no surprise I am sure to anyone, all BS. I am just guessing like everybody else and only once in a blue moon, as with my immediate hunch that the looting of the Iraqi National Museum was an inside job, does it pan out.
But I do have a hunch about this that I have had from practically the first moment I read about it. I think the Wilson/Plame escapade has little or nothing to do with whether Saddam tried to buy uranium of any sort in Niger or anywhere and everything to do with the power struggle between the CIA, the Pentagon and the State Department. Wilson’s trip to Niger was a charade. The CIA, or the part of the CIA that sent him, knew full well in advance that he would find nothing or say that he found nothing, nothing of significance anyway. In fact, if you were actually serious about finding out information about yellowcake sales, it seems the least likely way to go about it. (“Hey, Antoine, you guys didn’t happen to sell any yellowcake to old Saddam, did you?”..sip, sip… “Oh, my gosh, Joe, I’m glad you asked that question because we certainly would do no such thing.” and there you have it.)
What we do know that is important about Wilson is that he opposed the war from the beginning and is an Arabist of the most traditional State Department sort. These people historically have been extremely skeptical of democracy in the Middle East. There is way to construe that as racist, but it may actually have more to do with good old fashioned greed. Or maybe they are used in a sinister way to perpetuate each other. Whatever it is, they stand for a status quo ante in every sense. Wilson may claim to be a “progressive,” but he is an “old boy” at its purest.
Preston is quite correct in stressing the importance of the mysterious Rock Creek Corporation, which Wilson claims to represent, in all this. They appear here among the companies doing business with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, although there is no hyperlink, as there is with most of the other companies, well known ones like the Bank of America, Texaco and Halliburton. Another citation on Google (there are only 37) refers to it as a “private equity firm in Washington D. C.” CIA front or cash cow or both? Beats me.
The Washington blood sport that may be behind all this is not reassuring to contemplate.
The major media are virtually ignoring the scandal of Joe Wilson and his wife. They are gleefully celebrating the damage caused to President Bush and do not want to do anything to jeopardize Senator Kerryís election chances. We must face a very unpleasant fact: the media are the enemy of our democracy. The President is not merely being opposed by John Kerry, but also the liberal media. The latter are for all practical purposes, the left wing of the Democrat Party.
The polling data reflect the enormous destruction Wilson has done to President Bushís reputation. A relatively short time ago, the honesty and integrity of our nationís leader was taken for granted by most Americans—even his political opponents. No longer is this true. Many consider him to be a liar and willing to exaggerate evidence to achieve political aims. If John Kerry wins the election, the Arabists will increase their power and influence. The Joe Wilsons will take full advantage of their opportunities. We canít let this happen.
Quoting Brian:
“… that when Wilson was talking about those forged documents, he wasn’t lying. He simply slipped.”
I think that this is a very probable explanation. It’s simple and therefore the convincing. The ex-ambassador didn’t misspoke – he just got too smart and had overdone his case. This little slip makes the whole affair to look a premeditated frame-up.
Every single major attacker of President Bush, Michael Moore, Joe Wilson, and Richard Clarke have dramatically increased their wealth and power. One has no right whatsoever to describe these individuals as self sacrificing and courageous. On the contrary, they have been amply rewarded. Roger Simon and I are old enough to remember the warning to fear the establishment. At one time, we both took it for granted that this meant the Republican Party. It is ironic that today it is often the Democratic Party which seems to be the protector of those with deep pockets and questionable motives. Wow, how times have changed.
Whenever I read about spies doing this or that I think of John Le Carre novels. Forget his political posturing lately. I mean the kind of backstabbing and wheels within wheels plotting and intra-agency bureaucratic warfare that his novels describe, for example “The Looking Glass War” and “The Night Manager.” There is a lot going on below the surface here and we will probably never know what most of it is. And most of it is not James Bond derring-do, just petty venal mildly incompetent people protecting their turf.
Roger,
This story stinks. Big time.
I have two questions. Why was Saddam seeking uranium when we are being told he didn’t have a WMD program? Why IS Kerry financing Wilson?
Will the dominant, illiberal media seek the answers to these questions? Don’t hold your breath in spite of the stench. As Evan Thomas admitted, they are agents for the illiberal Democrats.
Outing Wilson as a liar is like finding the first termite in a house.
Roger,
One thing that struck me in your post here was the description of Wilson as being anti-war and arabist. Yesterday I was reviewing some of Glenn Reynolds’ older posts on the matter that he put up during the Gloatathon2004, and what jumped at me was a description in it of Novak as an arabophile. His anti-war attitudes are also well known, as is his dislike of the Bushes. As I blogged here, I cannot escape the feeling that Novak’s source for the whole thing was Wilson, right from the start.
ÔøΩ—One thing that struck me in your post here was the description of Wilson as being anti-war and arabist.ÔøΩ—
Arabists embrace the bizarre notion that Arabs are victims of Western imperialism. They are supposedly brown skinned people who are being taken advantage of by a bunch of white dudes from the United States and Europe; things would be utterly fantastic in the Middle East if only Israel did not exist. Please take note of the accusation that the Bush administration favors the Israelis over the Palestinians. I would estimate that at least half of Senator KerryÔøΩs supporters agree with this idiocy. Why is this being ignored by the major media? Moreover, why do so few American Jews seem concerned? Has their liberalism blinded them to reality? Or, do they now share the slanderous opinion that Israel is an unjust and perhaps even fascist society? On Daniel DreznerÔøΩ’s comment section, IÔøΩ’ve literally debated a Jewish guy who described Israel as an apartheid state.
Search google for rockcreekcorp, and you’ll see an email addresses or two for rockcreekcorp.com, such as “Ayham Khleif,” a “Business Executive” from Washington DC who it appears has even signed an Israel Divestment petition. It’s unclear to me whether this Rock Creek Corp is the same one named in this 1977 litigation (related to one William J Sherry, previously owner of Sherry Petroleum). If so, and I’ve found no evidence that it’s the same thing, then it seems like it was a small-time domestic oil company that morphed into an international private equity firm with Saudi, oil, and even CIA relations during the past 20 or 30 years. There even seems to be a connection to a member of the Bush clan, GW Bush’s youngest brother Marvin (who [also] seems like a bit of a drifter), via a razor-thin relationship to one Elias Aburdeen, now seemingly “president” of Rock Creek, according to this UK Court Case. CIA, oil, Sauds, and Marvin Bush? It looks like Rock Creek is quite a club. Disclaimer: These are the results of a few minutes of superficial googling, and the quality of the information should be discounted extremely heavily. Let’s just call it mental entertainment. There’s absolutely no way to suggest these random tidbits amount to anything serious whatsoever, nor that Rock Creek is anything more than a bunch of ambitious people who happen to move in the same social and political circles as everyone else in Washington DC, and who want nothing more than to make a buck off Arabia and/or oil. Someone with better information sources would need to weigh in first.
I’ve always thought of Arabists as romantics with a deep seated hatred of modernity. They graft that mindset onto the Arabs: sheiks, flowing robes, stallions racing across the desert sands, etc,.
Ergo their detestation for democracy; and for Israel: that intrusion of The West.
David:
Large segments of the Jewish heritage community long ago traded their religious identity for a socialist one. Most of these people’s ancestors came from Russia where often as not Jews attempted to appease anti-Semites rather then fight them. Unfortunately, this mentality is one of the few elements of Eastern European Jewish culture that has been retained by their modern socialist descendents. The Jewish left more often then not take up the most extreme left wing positions in an attempt to show the wider socialist world that they belong. However, all this does is reinforce traditional notions of anti-Semitism. I have come to the realization that the reason the Rosenbergs did not attempt to save themselves was that they wanted to show Stalin that Jews belonged in the Communist movement. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, like the rest of the Jewish left, knew that Stalin was planning a second Holocaust and probably believed that being loyal unto death would make Stalin change his mind. More then likely Stalin laughed at them. They were two less Jews to deal with.
Sending Wilson was not necessarily a bad idea. Often time the best way to find out something is to ask. And Wilson may have been a good choice to go and ask.
During the early 80′s when the USSR was fielding its latest main battle tank the T-80, there was a lot of concern as to the size of the tank’s main gun. If it were larger then those in the west,(The western tanks only had a 105mm gun)the soviets could have had a significant advantage.
This was made a top priority of western intelligence services. Western spies in Poland were sent over the fence into tank parks (and caught) satellite photos were taken and analyzed, signals intelligence made any traffic regarding the tank a priority, all to no avail.
Then at an embassy reception a French general asked a Russian general, “What is the size of the main gun on your new T-80?” “120mm” Replied the Russian.
Lesson: it never hurts to ask.
However, if asking doesn’t work, that in no way means that the issue is over. It would be like taking a suspect into an interview room and asking “did you steal the car?” and releasing the suspect when he answers no.
Perhaps Wilson is angling for a job in any new Kerry administration.
Let’s face it…this whole thing was cooked up by Wilson from the start, most likely in concert with the Kerry campaign. This was a political hit job.
I think the Kerry camp knew that the initial assertions would get far more press attention than any repudiation of Wilson and his story.
The entire Kerry operation runs on the theory that if one repeats a lie enough then that lie becomes accepted as truth.
The media are the accomplices in this hit job. It really is shameless.
David: I agree that the liberal media are trying to influence this election for Kerry.
And I have long maintained that one of the greatest challenges to overcome for Bush to win the election is to get his message out in spite of the liberal media.
Kerry is such a weak candidate that this election should not even be close. If we overcome the liberal media we go far in defeating Kerry…it’s that simple.
There does need to be another revolution in this country (a peaceful one)…and that is the revolution to overturn the liberal media.
Great post Roger, you are dead on in this one. That Plame/Wilson were in the middle of an element in the CIA which wanted to undermine administration policy regardless of the truth is getting more obvious – and is indeed the core story of the whole affair.
I wouldn’t fault Kerry for “cooking this up”, given that the whole thing started (at the latest) in the summer of 2002. I would fault Kerry for picking up and running with it.
Wow, between Roger’s blog above and TmjUtah’s comments near the bottom of the previous thread on this topic there is some excellent thought and discussion provoking material – at least it seems so to me.
Many of us neglect to remember that the US government is the world’s largest bureaucratic organism – by a wide margin. Once upon a time the Soviets and MaBell were even larger, but they have broken into many, much smaller pieces.
Every substantial bureaucracy has, in addition to a formalized structure, many informal power structures and sub-structures and a culture and sub-cultures. All that is extremely difficult even for insiders to fully comprehend and nearly impossible for outsiders to get more than partial and transient glimses of. Few people can develope expertise about more than a fraction of a large bureaucratic organization.
There are no end of cliches and analogies that could be applied, but the one I’ll try is that the US government is something akin to a five masted sailing vessel that is the size of, and has the complexity of, a modern nuclear powered aircraft carrier and all the support fleet around it.
Every 4 or 8 years we change the captain and he then decides which portion of the officers and crew he wants to change. That sort of leadership and management decision is based upon leadership and management “style” and how much he wants this whole thing to change course (if, in fact, course change is considered or deemed desireable).
The reason I picked a huge sailing ship is to combine the notion of enormous mass and inertia, which keeps that which is stationary stationary or that which is moving moving is a stable direction. Either way, inertia is a real bear to overcome. And a many masted sailing ship requires a well trained crew functioning to a common purpose. IT takes time and effort to get the crew trained to function as a unit understanding and agreeing with the common purpose. And each subunit has its own culture, sense of team, and leadership or management.
The reason I mention leadership and management style is because such things matter. Tmj really did a great job of setting this stage. And Roger set the stage to consider the characters and their associated subplots and how they can effect the ship.
If we look at the Clinton administration, or at least as I look at it, we see a leadership/management style that some of us would recognize as ruthless “house cleaning”. The instant the new captain (and his first mate wench – sorry, couldn’t resist) got aboard people were sent packing and often for no more reason than to send people packing to make room for the preferred officers and crew. And the new officers and crew had a script and song list that they were fully expected to act and sing to and push as far through the crew as ruthlessly as possible and whoever didn’t like it would be learning to swim. Officers and crew alike learned, over eigh years, to keep to script and sing the songs or walk the plank. Agreeing with course was not required, but surely a fair bit of the officers and crew did. They were, in many ways, the Captain Bligh (sp?) style of crew leadership and management. The beatings continued until morale and performance improved. I’ll toss up the Travel Office affair and the cabinet level “we all believe he never had sex with that woman” singalong as examples of what I mean by this but other examples can easily be found if anyone wishes to track them down or remembers them off the top of their heads.
We can argue till doomsday about the wisdom of course selection and what was cause and what was effect. I don’t know that such a discussion is necessary to the case or would be the least bit fruitful.
I believe it would be hard to argue that, at least having a look no deeper than the surface of the water and no farther than the horizon at the time, that sailing during the Clinton years was pretty fair weather and the rum rations were near to hand and plentiful. There were few dangerous challenges and those that were developing were largely overlooked or paid little more heed than lip service (where I come from we call it “grin f**cking, but that’s another story).
The Bush administration, when it came aboard, was much more inclined to leave a trained and functioning officer and crew contingent in place. This was, as I mentioned above, partly a matter of “style”. The Bush administration was, and remains, populated with much more experienced leadership and management people than the the Clinton administration was (or ever became as far as I can tell). In general the they had many more years of government service experience and business experience. I believe this level of experience would, in general, make them more inclined to keep a functioning crew together while they investigated the functioning of the ship and plotted course corrections. It would also make them less inclined to be concerned with keeping everyone speaking from the script and singing from the same songbook. No doubt they had significant course corrections in mind but I doubt they were, less than eight months into taking the helm, expecting to get slammed by The Perfect Storm.
We can argue till doomsday about whether or not they should have seen the storm coming and reacted differently, but doing so trashes the heck out of my analogy, and apparently the weather forecasting portion of the crew was a bit too enamored of the fair weather and rum rations, so let’s leave that alone for the time being.
Anyway, once the storm hit they were stuck with some “officers and crew” who apparently believe the ship should not alter course and, instead, simply sail through what was not a storm at all but nothing more than a summer squall that could be safely ignored. And when the Captain started demanding that they turn the freakin’ boat and fleet around NOW, we quickly found that there were some near (or fully?) mutinous officers and crew prepared to obstruct the course change by dragging their feet or willfully refusing to perform the required functions and others who either abandoned ship and began screaming over megaphones that a mutiny was necessary or, when made to walk the plank, set scuttling charges on their way out and then joined the mutineers.
While struggling through the most immediate dangers presented by the storm, and forecasting more trouble to come, they’ve got the ship turned but not completely and are now trying to focus on cleaning out the mutineers so they can set the ship and fleet on the right course. Unfortunately our system doesn’t allow the Captain to simply start shooting mutineers and tossing their warm carcasses overboard so its going to take some time and there’s going to be more litte mutineer flareups and a whole lot of kicking and screaming.
I expect that, following the election, many will discover that just because a particular leadership/management team does not favor the “ruthless house cleaning from day 1″ style does not mean they are incapable of executing that style once the sails are set and the pumps put to working right. I wouldn’t want to be an officer or crew with my hand anywhere near one of those scuttling charges come Nov. 3.
Sorry, that was way too long but its the adventure Roger’s and Tmj’s posts set me on.
Like Hovig I googled rock creek corp. I came across this interesting post on calpundit post on calpundit from last October 3. Search for “rock creek” to find the post. Admittedly there is a lot of Mikey Moorish dot-connecting here but you do get the impression that our man Wilson was playing with some rather mysterious Arabist boys. The poster seems to have a similar speculation as Roger. I quote:
“This affair kinda looks like a war between Bush allies/Neocons who support Israel (correction –Bush allies who suck up to wealthy millionaires who support Israel) vs Bush allies who support Saudi Arabia.”
“The Washington blood sport that may be behind all this is not reassuring to contemplate.”
Even less reassuring is the possibility that Wilson is an “agent of influence,” either paid for or ideologically motivated. I was wondering that even before I read the part about Rock Creek and the Saudis.
Knucklehead:
People do what they’re trained to do and what they’re accustomed to doing. To expect anything else would be unreasonable and unrealistic. It’s why the CIA was established in the first place: to do an end run around the established intelligence organizations of the State Department and the various branches of the military.
It’s why I thought the Department of Homeland Security was a dumb idea. You can’t take people who’ve been doing things all their working lives, give them different titles and organizational structures and expect them to do different things. They’ll keep right on doing the same things.
Has anyone noticed that the domestic political scene is becoming increasingly surreal? Sort of as though “Baghdad Bob” were at the helm of the New York Times and CBS News? Was it always this way and we’re just noticing it now because we have more information? Or has something changed?
Somewhat off topic but always important to keep mind. Lileks as always has a way of really getting to the personal in the WOT that you just have to admire. Scroll to the bottom of the page if you want to avoid the family and culture stuff.
To me, one of the most truly revelatory disclosures from this affair is Wilson’s wife’s position. She knew of his Arabist sympathies, and reportedly said, “there’s this crazy report” that Niger was dealing uranium to Iraq.
Plame worked in counterterrorism. Yet not only was she contemptuous of the report, which the Butler Report and Joe Wilson’s own notes confirmed, but she recommended her husband investigate, knowing he would seek to discredit the intelligence.
In saner times, it would be Plame who would be under investigation for actively undermining our intelligence gathering, not members of the Bush administration. This, I think, is what so staggered Robert Novak, and rightly so.
I have been gathering some thoughts on why the MSM is playing dumb on the Wilson story. I think its useful to view MSM’s commitment to the Bush Lied People, Died party line in the same way that most .coms approached market opinion at the end of the bubble. MSM’s objective is to get Kerry elected. If they were to come out now and admit that they hyped Wilson’s story in error they set the Democratic Party up for a big fall. The Dems entire campaign has been based on destroying Bush’s credibility. Both the Senates and the UK Parliament reports vindicate the President and demolish his criticsí arguments thereby reestablishing his credibility. The story would become the Democrats willfully engaged in a campaign of deceit, willful disinformation and outright lies to discredit the President during time of war. It would show the Demorcats to be at a level of disloyatlty not scene since the Copperhead movement of 1864.
The DNC and their MSM friends want to keep the Bush lied, People Died bubble alive until November 3. Once the votes are irredeemable cast and Kerry elected it will be permissible to discover that the charges against this administration were made from whole cloth.
I don’t like conspiracy theories much because whenever I look at them the Evil Geniuses who are supposedly perpetrating them would have pure morons to choose not only the alleged goals but especially the methods suggested by the conspiracy theorists. I’m always left with scratching my head, “Lemme get this straight. The Evil Genius Freemason Illuminati Cincinnatus Jewish Cabal wants to take all candy away from all babies, so they orchestrated the sinking of the QE2. I’m missing a dot or two here.”
But there doesn’t seem to be much doubt that Saudis have been spending a whole lot of dollars for a whole lot of years to purchase a whole lot of influence and, ummm… goodwill. Before I go down any Saudi Conspiracy rathole, however, I would point out that there are almost certainly several things at work.
One is that it seems unlikely that all the Saudi go-jillionaires interested in purchasing influence and goodwill are after the same results. If there is a conspiracy there are probably several competing conspiracies.
Two is that those with the go-jillions necessary to buy influence and goodwill are inclined to purchase same from all useful sellers. They aren’t dumb enough to shop only among Bushies or Clintonistas or Kerryloons. Those willing to sell are, clearly, not particularly reliable idealogues. Those who have been bought and purchased will more likely be dancing to the tune selected by the purchaser rather than their supposed master (Bush, Clinton, Kerry, whomever).
As much as I dislike Clinton and Kerry and the Democratic Party as a whole I’m not yet willing to entertain that any US leader or political party has been bought by some united group of Saudis lock, stock, and barrel. Each and all may be subject to pushing things in whatever direction for the benefit of “contributors”, but I just can’t fathom that the whole thing could be put up for sale as a big unit. It couldn’t be delivered so what smart go-jillionaire with a plan would even consider buying it that way.
There are almost certainly US civil servants who have been purchased with Saudi money. I seriously doubt that the purchasing has been done with single minded focus toward achieving a single, long term plan. And I seriously doubt (naively perhaps) that it goes all the way to the top for this or any other administration. There may be many traitors in our government and even some cells working toward a common purpose, but I suspect that if it is ever uncovered and fully exposed it might be shown to be remarkably large and widespread but it will be, like all previous traitorous activities, non-systemic (if that’s the right word).
Fresh Air:
Plame does not work counter-terrorism. She works Weapons of Mass destruction. I have a lot of friends who know and work in the same organization.
Jerry–
I stand corrected. Doesn’t that make her skepticism even worse?
Fresh air:
Yep!
Fresh Air & Jerry,
Now there’s a level of conspiracy that makes some sense and could potentially be carried out. Somebody with a lot of money wants to get WMD, the REAL DEAL (nukes), knows that intelligence agencies like the CIA are tasked with trying to track their plans and stop them from achieving them, so they ID some CIA folks in the WMD section, buy them, and then those purchased folks use self-loving, fundamentally stupid and rudderless hollywood wannabees like Plame and Wilson to try and undermine the US effort.
So Roger, when can we expect the “based on the true story” book and made for {shudder} TV movie? Please tell us your buddies there in DC are going to arrest these idiots before you release the manuscript and screenplay.
BTW, is it possible that the Tenet resignation was related to the uncovering of a “traitor cell” within the CIA? It would require that the traitor cell turned out to be dumber than stumps and overplayed their hand really badly (or maybe were flushed out of hiding by some sort of sting operation), but there seems to be a whole lot of overplaying of hands going on these days. Curiouser and Curiouser.
Knuckle–
I would be curious whether the obstruction of the CIA we have heard so much about is ideological, hard-headedness, NIH (not invented here), or something perhaps more sinister.
Whaddya think, Jerry?
Fresh air:
As stated in a previous, long forgotten thread, I believe that this more a product of bureaucratic turf wars then anything else. In addition one must remember that the CIA has a much more politically liberal workforce then the other “blue collar” intelligence agencies (DIA, NSA, NGA). It is no surprise to me that many CIA types would want to get rid of W just to put a liberal Democrat in office. What surprises me is that they would act on it.
The reason the MSM is mostly silent is because they figure if the story is ignored for three or four days, it will go away.
“The End.”
Then on the fourth day…”Once upon a time, Bush lied….”
Not any more. It doesn’t matter how many Pulitzers the New York Times has.
Knucklehead -
I agree in spades. Bush is accused of every dereliction from deconstructing the constitution to seeking the resumption of lynching to removing Hussein because he wanted to avenge his dad.
I don’t think he’s used the FBI as a weapon to fire employees. Or employed an intern as a mood leveller when discussing combat deployment of U.S. troops with a senior member of congress. Or consulted Karl Rove to decide whether or not telling the truth in a criminal investigation was the right thing to do.
Those are some big stories…but they aren’t if one set is expunged from public view. That was the crux of my 10:43 post on the “… Worse Than You Think” thread. And I still maintain that the Old Way of media dictating what is news is no longer valid.
I also share your reluctance to hang a conspiracy label on too many of the relationships between the literally thousands of diplomatic and business interests that interact in D.C., or anyplace where different nations do business. Not all of them are driven by nefarious agendas – very few of them, actually. It makes sense to do what you can to improve your relationships with your counterparts. The rub is where lines are clearly crossed; I remember the rumbles in the eighties when our State and Commerce functionairies would sign off on some trade agreement and shortly thereafter show up on the payroll of the very nation or industry that they had been in charge of negotiating with. Congress critters and cabinet folks, too.
I think that retaining Tenet was a prime example of deciding that the need for continuity overruled hasty action. The mere existence of creatures like Plame and Wilson as entrenched careerists in State and CIA is a dead-bang case that systemic failure is endemic to those organizations. Better to retain Tenet and engage him AND his subordinates over time to get a better feel for how deep to cut later instead of SOP headrolling that would only motivate the remaining beuaracracy to contract into CYA mode.
We’ve got a war to fight. Bush & Co. made the right call on Tenet. I do look forward to some serious reorganization of agencies after the election. I just hope they go for lean and mean vice foisting another Homeland Security monster onto the pile.
Jerry,
It could be all those things. If I had to make some bet I wouldn’t place the bet on some “conspiracy” or spy theory. I’d place it on some sort of “trifecta” spread of the things you described: turf wars, NIH, Ivy League political theology.
The matter of “motive” for Wilson/Plame is really a tough one though. Is there anyone alive who’s mom hasn’t said to them, “Oh, what a tangled web…” or “just tell the truth because once you start lying you have to keep lying to protect the first lie”.
Can they really be stupid enough to believe they could keep this from collapsing? I suspect that there is BIG element of people who are finishing out government careers (Plame, Wilson, Clark) who realize there is BIG money to be made on the Moonbat Books, Rubber Chicken Speakers, Convention Keynotes and Sidebars, and Hollywood COcktail Parties and Polemic Films circuit.
But back to wild-eyed conspiracies… if the Saudis or Mullahs have purchased any organizations in the US lock, stock, and barrel, I propose the MSM as the most likely candidates. Cheaper, more bang for the buck. Lets not forget that Saddam was playing that game rather gleefully. I don’t for a moment think Ol’ Spider Hole was the sharpest knife in the ME drawer. If it occurred to him to buy journalists it sure as hell has occurred to the Saudis and mullahs – and they have more money.
Knucklehead:
Who needs to purchase an organization… they already have the State Department gratis
Jerry,
Thanks for the laugh! The have it, but who’s to say they got it gratis? They could have paid of a 30 year mortgage on it years ago
Tmj,
I’ve always considered that the true initial purpose of Homeland Security was to provide a vehicle for offloading other agency deadwood. That was the whole point of the fight on creating it. The Dems wanted the retention rules that make firing a deadbeat very difficult at their home agency kept for Homeland Security. Under the previous rules the transferred individuals would retain their “unfirable” status in the new agency. Instead the new agency’s employment policies are much closer to private industries. The transferring agencies undoubtedly culled a good number of their deadbeats and sent them to Homeland. I expect that agency to become fairly efficient in another 4-5 years. OTOH I don’t expect any improvement at State or the CIA period. Those places are the Peter Principle personified – no one ever gets fired they just get reassigned to ever diminshing roles. That’s what happened to Wilson and that’s probably why he quit. He was passed over for advancement and the Saudis offered him a better deal.
I would not be aurprised at all to see a new “intelligence” agency established on the same basis as Homeland. It can’t happen until after the election but I’d bet that plans are being laid today.
Thought, that’s a problem every Republican candidate has had since the dawn of time. It’s worse for Bush now he has a record they can lie about, but it’s also better because there’s a lot good in that record that the MSM can’t obliterate.
Rick Ballard -
That’s an excellent argument…and tracks nicely with the management style of the administration. Too much ‘legacy inertia’? Just write a basic template for a new organization without the accumulated shelves full of exceptions and make it work.
I like it. Comments like yours are why I come to blogs like this. Wretchard shares your view on the CIA, too.
Let’s all remember also that Condi is quite an expert on bureaucracies and institutional change. Didn’t she do her thesis on that subject? Rick Ballard..excellent point about the deadwood! I’m sure Condi had mucho input.
As for the Saudis buying influence, I really don’t think it’s much more than an attempt to maintain the status quo (of which State is the prime example). On the other hand, some (certainly not all) of the Saudi influence has been to implant a tolerance of Islamist thought in America.
The Saudi royal family is divided itself on that issue, so attempting to discern an overarching principle of Saudi influence would lead to contradictions and confusion.
As for Wilson/Plame, an insight I’ve heard only from Hugh Hewitt (in an NRO article) is that whoever ‘outed’ Plame may very well end up being protected by Whistleblower laws. Shining a light on Plame’s actions. Now wouldn’t that be sweet.
The State Department is a great example of how bureauracracies get screwed up over time. Entire State Department careers were dedicated to developing and maintaining the cold war status quo kabuki rituals. People joined state and worked on the same problem until they retired and then left behind a cadre trained to continue working on the same problem – they don’t want a new problem, they want to keep working on the one they know all about and are bound and determined to make the current problem fit their mold.
I really thought Colin Powell was the right guy to fix that, but it doesn’t seem to have worked that way. They seem to have “fixed” him instead. I thought any leader who had a real part in changing the US Army from what it was at the end of the Carter administration into the force we sent to Kuwait in GWI was a “change agent” type fella. That was a near miracle considering there was only a little old decade between the two. Oh well, not all our heroes can do everything we want all the time.
Knucklehead, Jeffrey ó “Gratis”? With all the money the Saudis have spent buying and selling State Department officers and ambassadors over the years?
Today’s NYT Corrections indicates the source of its three false stories connecting Chalabi’s INC to an informer known as “Curveball” was an unnamed CIA official.
Woven throughout the Wilson story are lies by unnamed CIA officials who backed up his nonsense.(Indeed,a careful reading of the Novak piece on Plame indicates that the person who disclosed her position in the agency was just such a shadowy figure.)
I’m of the belief that Wilson’s lies and intel failures are not the big story here. The big story is an agency which is fighting tooth and nail to destroy this Administration and which has gone utterly beserk. The bigger story is why?
I used to think the motive was just to cover their ass–Now I wonder if some are such Arabists they want to see the President fail.
“Somebody with a lot of money wants to get WMD, the REAL DEAL (nukes), knows that intelligence agencies like the CIA are tasked with trying to track their plans and stop them from achieving them, so they ID some CIA folks in the WMD section, buy them, and then those purchased folks use self-loving, fundamentally stupid and rudderless hollywood wannabees like Plame and Wilson to try and undermine the US effort.”
“The big story is an agency which is fighting tooth and nail to destroy this Administration and which has gone utterly beserk. The bigger story is why? I used to think the motive was just to cover their ass–Now I wonder if some are such Arabists they want to see the President fail.”
Well, there’s your John Le Carre novel right there. Read “The Night Manager.”
Roger, since Le Carre has turned into a loony version of his former self, you want to take up the mantle?