Congress Dumbs Down Intelligence

Weekly Standard: Sensitive Info Isn't Political Fodder

(Weekly Standard)  There is really only one source of first-hand information on what was and was not going on in Iraq prior to the war: the captured document collection held by Pentagon and Army intelligence. The government has admitted that it cannot fully and effectively analyze all the information it had gathered from Iraq — including reports that supported connections between Iraq and terrorists — and in fact they have stopped trying. Former Director of National Intelligence Negroponte begrudgingly released portions of the archive online for public review and analysis, but the most contrived excuse in the world — that an inadvertent disclosure about Iraq's retarded nuclear weapons program helped advance the progress of an active program in Iran — shut down the public effort this past fall. If politicians are truly concerned about finding out who called it right on Iraq, the focus of their angst should be aimed squarely at current-DNI McConnell, not ex-Undersecretary Feith.

The politicization of intelligence does not stop with the Senate. This past week the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted unanimously to provide access to the classified NIE on Iraq to the entire House membership. By abdicating the role they play on behalf of the rest of the House, every member of the committee has declared open season on the professionals who conduct intelligence operations and their work. The bickering over intelligence issues was almost unbearable when just a handful of representatives had access to classified material; one can only imagine the cacophony that will erupt once over 400 partisans begin clamoring for their chance to score a goal in front of their myopic fans.

In one sense, politicians can almost be forgiven for abusing intelligence in this fashion because there is nothing that they touch that is not used in some way to gain an advantage over their adversaries across the aisle. What is even more offensive is that the media that covers intelligence issues makes such a concerted effort to facilitate the politicization of intelligence and undermine the work of their mirror images in the classified world.

Intelligence officers and reporters are both charged with seeking out and communicating meaningful information to a set of consumers. Both strive to tell an accurate story based on the most trustworthy information available. How then to explain that the early reports about the Office of Special Plans turned out not to contain the actual findings of the report, but the politically-charged assertions of politicians? Is this the media promulgating partisan spin, or is it merely the result of amateur-level carelessness from veteran national security beat reporters?

Every media report has focused on the "inappropriate" nature of the work that OSP had done and minimized the key fact that there was nothing illegal about the effort. That the work was inappropriate is a mater of opinion offered from criminal investigators, not intelligence professionals; that the work was wrong is an equally flawed assertion that flies in the face of what we have discovered since overthrowing Saddam. I am not one that clamors for more feel-good stories in the media, just one that asks for a modicum of diligence and fairness in the stories that are reported, particularly those that deal with issues of national security.

In this and all future conflicts, quality, insightful, and timely intelligence is paramount to our success. In past conflicts intelligence was a lesser partner to operations given that it used to be fairly easy to observe and target enemy forces for destruction. Today there is not a spot on the planet we cannot destroy; the challenge is figuring out which spot to target. The continued abuse of intelligence for partisan political purposes might make it easier to win re-election, but it makes our ability to fight and win wars drastically more difficult.

[briannorwood]

Hey Mr. Tanji:

In your eloquent dismissal of those of us who have a problem with these gestapo type, war mongering neocons running amok in this administration, there's just one little point you failed to mention...

That is, one of those estimates was correct, while the other was dead wrong.

Can you guess which one was which?

[ademeyer]

I agree with ObservantX, clemenhagen1 and Meritocrat. Its such a relief to read the truth for a change. Thanks for your posts.

[observantx]

Every member of this administration needs to be taken into custody and investigated for the extent to which they set into motion the misguided and unnecessary war in Iraq.

The initiation of the war in Iraq was an act of treason. The lying to Congress and the American people about the necessity and reasons to begin war in Iraq was an act of treason.

The unwarranted spying on American citizens, the unlawful kidnapping, transport into false imprisonment and torture of individuals if not an act of treason, is a gross violation of rights granted by the Constitution of the United States.

In addition, any members of Congress, the intelligence community, business community, lobby groups or political action groups who aided and abetted this administration's gross and treasonous conduct need to be taken into custody and investigated.

It is time to clean house. It is time to rid ourselves of this foul disease of our body politic.

[oleander8]

To: Meritocrat

Thank you, for your remarks. Unfortunately not enough people will read and appreciate them. You should be a guest contributor to a widely read column.

[meritocrat]

Rant V:
Citizens of these United States must be shown how the IC was prostituted to perpetrate this outright fraud which has already cost the lives of more young servicemen and women than were lost on September 11, 2001, not to mention an accrual of one trillion in unsecured debts. At best, this fraud was a zealous, moronic, %u201Cfaith-based%u201D attempt to sew the seeds of liberal democracy within a region and state whose well-known and ancient inter-sectarian and ethnic conflagration doomed it to failure. At worst, this Administration%u2019s motive to launch OIF was an unforgivable, unconscionable, and yet deliberate partisan political act to secure another four years of power. At least in the latter case, it can be seen as a success. Justice seekers take heart; God will doubtlessly offer only a microgram of pity upon their souls.

[meritocrat]

Rant IV:
As one who had an extensive breadth and depth of knowledge of prewar intelligence on Iraq which included compartmented information well above the classification of the NIE, I will vehemently assert until my last breath that the NIE did not represent an objective assessment. It was not written or edited by those most qualified within the US intelligence community; it avoided and undercut them. It was, in fact, a self-serving, reasonless prospective designed to achieve a political sales job. Drafts were personally edited by the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, and their single-minded henchmen with particular attention paid to massaging the executive summary and the accompanying briefings, beyond which very few Congressmen were compelled or had the means to explore. When Mr. Snow incessantly reminds us all that Congress voted in 2002 to authorize the war, he forgets to mention that it was (and remains) this Administration who provided executive oversight of the entire US IC and directly manipulated it to sell Congress the Iraqi WMD snake oil. Mr. Snow, when conmen defraud little-old ladies of their life savings, do we send them all to jail together?

[meritocrat]

Rant III:
The consolidation of the entire IC under the Director of National Intelligence, a Presidential appointment, only further eroded any objectivity. To give the IC the objectivity it needs, a court of senior analysts must be created that is independent of both the Legislative and Executive Branch, with appointments and terms similar to Supreme Court Justices. These senior analysts could impartially review IC products, and produce independent NIEs. Knowing the IC as I now do, I can tell you until such impartiality is achieved, we cannot, and the world will not, trust any assertion our IC makes, ever again.

[meritocrat]

Rant II:
Why is objectivity so important to intelligence assessments? Intelligence analysis is often like an attempt to duplicate someone%u2019s secret 400-page diary. Rarely do you get access to the actual book, instead you must proceed after meeting the person on the street, seeing the outside of their home, obtaining a glimpse of a paragraph on page 13, sifting through some of their trash and thumbing through a family picture album that represents the last few years of key events. Obviously, much is often up to interpretation and conjecture, leaving lots of room for error %u2013 and/or manipulation. It is, in fact, easier to write a diary that suits a predetermined storyline than it is to approximate the original. This Administration set forth with a predetermined story and diligently cherry-picked and made paramount the tidbits of evidence that met their storyline regardless its ambiguity, dubiety, or continuity with other evidence of much greater quantity or quality. Analysts were conscience of the fraud be also knew that publicly or even privately disagreeing with the Administration%u2019s assertions put their livelihoods and freedom at risk. Thus, this easy manipulability was and is the Achilles%u2019 heel of intelligence.

[meritocrat]

Rant part I:
Mr. Tanji%u2019s column ended where it should have started, %u201C%u2026quality, insightful, and timely intelligence is paramount to our success.%u201D True, but one critical adjective is glaringly (and purposefully) absent, namely, %u201Cobjective.%u201D As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that this element is most essential to whatever use intelligence products may be applied. What this Congress is righteously pursuing is a public airing of the gross manipulation of objective intelligence that the neoconservatives in and formerly of this Administration undertook to ensure national and international support for their %u201Cgrand%u201D plans.

[clemenhagen1]

#1. They cooked the books. The intelligence proved to be flawed because they "fixed the intelligence around the policy" as stated in the Downing Street Memo. Feith and the others had the job of spinning false analysis of fixed intel.

#2. Much of the information they spun came from what should clearly have been seen as unstable sources. Curveball, a drunk exile, found nobody to take his claims serious except the U.S. The same can be said for the convicted fraud, Chalabi. These exiles possessed a clear agenda, told the U.S. what they knew Bush's crew wanted to hear, and now they blame the CIA! How can anyone not be incredulous?

#3. The waged war on any in the intelligence or political community who challenged their fiction. They not only outted Valerie Plame to get back at her husband, they exposed an entire CIA company, Brewster-Jennings. Why? To send a clear message to any in the intelligence community that they would stop at nothing, including treason and putting operatives lives at risk, in order to defend the fraudulence and fabrications that constituted their "slam dunk" case for an illegal war.

[clemenhagen1]

#1. They cooked the books. The intelligence proved to be flawed because they "fixed the intelligence around the policy" as stated in the Downing Street Memo. Feith and the others had the job of spinning false analysis of fixed intel.

#2. Much of the information they spun came from what should clearly have been seen as unstable sources. Curveball, a drunk exile, found nobody to take his claims serious except the U.S. The same can be said for the convicted fraud, Chalabi. These exiles possessed a clear agenda, told the U.S. what they knew Bush's crew wanted to hear, and now they blame the CIA! How can anyone not be incredulous?

#3. The waged war on any in the intelligence or political community who challenged their fiction. They not only outted Valerie Plame to get back at her husband, they exposed an entire CIA company, Brewster-Jennings. Why? To send a clear message to any in the intelligence community that they would stop at nothing, including treason and putting operatives lives at risk, in order to defend the fraudulence and fabrications that constituted their "slam dunk" case for an illegal war.

[dallison7]

If over 400 congressmen get access to secret information, it won't be secret anymore.

Posted by Consciousnes

The legislative branch of our government is 'equal to' the executive branch. Our form of government is NOT A DICTATORSHIP. Congress is comprised of sub-committees and those designated to the task are as intitled to REAL intel as the President. This is called OVERSIGHT, it's purpose is to stop someone like Bush from stealing our freedom. Bush and company have lied repeatedly to congress in an attempt to do just that, and they have almost succeeded!! Only our HEROS in congress like Murtha, Biden, Hagel (and yes, I know Hagel is a republican) can stop the outright murder of what has always been the greatest country on earth.

[bluestardad]

Email your senators and representatives tell them your views! http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_in
formation/senators_cfm.cfm or http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

[mbcsmith]

Bush could have saved himself an expensive and destructive war if he had used US intelligence properly! What I have read the information that there were no weapons of mass destruction was there then!

Not according to the French, British, German and Russians.

[frankbowers]

Our nation need to take gw bush out of his office and then tar and feather him. Perhaps the next president then would know not to lie and deceive the public and then hide behind his lawyers and the illegal immigrants who he praises for making his friends richer. the best of good byes from frank bowers

[ademeyer]

Er, Mr. Tanjii does remember it was the office of the Vice President that coordinated the outting of a CIA agent, blowing not only her cover but that of the firm where she worked? And the reason for revealing this intelligence secret...politics. It seems to me the executive branch of the administration has misused intelligence more than the Congress in the last six years.

[bluestardad]

GUYS YOU GOTTA READ THIS!
http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_a
ipacClubs.htm
The Elite Minyan group - you mean for a minimum of only $100,000 dollars
a year I too can shape world policy? Tell me more!
I especially like the bit about enjoying "the exclusivity you deserve."
This thing borders on parody, but alas, unfortunately it is all too real.
You may have noticed the coming surge of American public opinion against using our military to promote the agenda of other Countries! American people are learning it is ok to disagree with a President who is friends of Saudi Arabia and who gives them special treatment on the world stage at the expense of American lives. 95% of killing done in Iraq is done by Sunnis Sponsored by Saudi Arabia! For years no one would say anything against promoting the Israeli agenda for fear of being labeled an anti-Semitist but now America is learning it is also acceptable to disagree with Israeli promoters like AIPAC members who would gladly sell thousands of American soldiers lives to promote Israeli interest! Now these same policies and neocons are pushing our soldiers toward another war in Iran. American military is made to protect American interest not fight proxy wars in the interest of other countries! American blood and treasure should be spent only in American interest! As for the Rest of us Americans, The Statue of Liberty Stands in New York Harbor and is not Kneeling in the desert of the Middle East!

[consciousnes]

If over 400 congressmen get access to secret information, it won't be secret anymore.
I know there has been missinformation, but to give everyone access to everything, is more stupid then saying that no one has ever died at the hands of guys like Hitler and Saddom.
You are right, we need a new government based on truth, honor and justice, not a congress that is bent on throwing it political party weight around.
Actually, I think party politics should be illegal. Of course that would not stop a group of lawmakers from getting to gether and making deals that benefit themselves. etc, etc, etc.

[bluestardad]

GUYS YOU GOTTA READ THIS!

http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm


The Elite Minyan group - you mean for a minimum of only $100,000 dollars
a year I too can shape world policy? Tell me more!

I especially like the bit about enjoying "the exclusivity you deserve."

This thing borders on parody, but alas, unfortunately it is all too real.

[truth_reason]

"fuzzybear9" great idea. I agree, but the time will come...soon i hope. Hopefuly the goverment will see reason before it comes to that. Im for a New American Order: Truth,Reason,Honor,Justice.