CIA Chief Called Iraq Woes "Irreversible"

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Woodward reports that CIA chief Michael V. Hayden told the Iraq Study Group that "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," and that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around."

That's a sharp contrast with the view of the president who, according to one panel member, painted a "Churchillian" vision of "victory" in Iraq.

In a separate story, the Post says the White House is blocking efforts to reconvene the bipartisan panel to provide another independent appraisal of the situation in Iraq.

Meanwhile, even before its release, the front pages were abuzz with speculation about how the new Iraq report would play.

The New York Times said the White House will do its best to put a positive spin on the report, declaring that "satisfactory" progress has been made on nearly half of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress. At the same time, it will qualify those areas rated as "unsatisfactory" by saying more time is needed to make final judgments.

The Washington Post points out that the administration's review of the report stands in sharp contrast to the "the overwhelmingly negative view of military and political conditions in Iraq" offered by U.S. intelligence experts a day earlier.

One administration official told The Times the report is "a mixed bag," saying it will "not conclude, as it has been characterized, that this is a colossal failure."

The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, reports that the administration's decision to set benchmarks is now widely seen as "a costly blunder" that has given ammunition to White House critics and "galvanized resistance in Iraq."

Dirty Bombs Made Easy

How easy is it to get a license to purchase radioactive materials that could be used to build a "dirty bomb"?

Much too easy, according to reports in The New York Times and Washington Post that detail a sting by undercover congressional investigators to get such a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The investigators, posing as businessmen from West Virginia, were able to obtain the license within 28 days and with almost no scrutiny. They were never visited by NRC officials or interviewed in person - which is a good thing, since their phony construction company had no office or employees. Its only asset was a post-office box.

The Times said the operation showed "once again that the security measures put in place since the 2001 terrorist attacks to prevent radioactive materials from getting into the wrong hands are insufficient."

McCain Dials Wrong Number

It's been a lousy couple of weeks for John McCain. His top two campaign aides quit. The latest fund-raising report shows him far behind his Republican presidential rivals. The immigration bill he championed in the Senate failed.

Now, The New York Times reports McCain has a possible ethics problem to deal with. The Times says that on Tuesday, just after accepting the resignations of his two senior campaign staffers, McCain ducked into the Republican cloakroom just off the Senate floor and made a conference call to his top fund-raisers.

That call, says The Times, could be a violation of Senate ethics rules, which bar lawmakers from engaging in campaign activities inside the Senate. If he asked for donations during the call it could also be a violation of federal criminal law.

McCain is certainly familiar with the impropriety of such calls. Ten years ago, he called for an independent prosecutor to investigate similar accusations against Vice President Al Gore, and later made the episode one of the foundations of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

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