Newsday, which recently misquoted yours truly, is now quoting the latest avatar of that ubiquitous critter the “CIA Leaker,” latterly known as “a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House.” Whatever. These self-serving bottom feeders of the intelligence world seem to be everywhere except doing their jobs. If they spent half as much time learning Pashtu as they did and do whispering into the ears of Seymour Hersh, et al, the state of our intelligence services might be somewhat better than abysmal.
This particular anonymous leakazoid is sallying forth in defense of Stephen R. Kappes, deputy director of clandestine services, “the CIA’s most powerful division,” according to Newsday. Kappes is on his way out and the Bush Administration is evidently happy to see him go. Well, duh. Let’s get serious (Newsday won’t, so somebody better)… that same clandestine services division of the CIA has been a near disaster for the last decade (over two adminstrations, Newsday, got that? Complicated for you?). In fact the CIA, were it a private corporation, would be filing Chapter 11 along with United Airlines by now. Restructing is long overdue (along with those discount tickets to Ft. Lauderdale).
And those of you who always come out when I criticize the CIA to remind me there are good people inside the organization – I know that! But like most bureaucracies, after a certain amount of time, its original intent, in this case intelligence gathering for the defense of a nation, gets distorted into self-preservation of its own structure and personnel. Read Julien Benda’s great La Trahison des clercs for an account of how that happens.
(via Power Line)
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