Intelligence
Posted at 2:47pm on May 30, 2008 Masters of the Obvious
why intelligence analysts shouldn't drive trains
By streiff
[Note: I'm taking a short break from our daily Obamafest to check in on the rest of the world]
In most activities you have two basic choices to make, a former commander of mine was fond of saying. You can drive the train or you can call out the whistlestops. I naturally prefer driving the train but I can call whistlestops with the best of them. What I can't abide is the guy who claims to be driving the train calling the whistlestops or, conversely, the guy who is supposed to call the whistlestops trying to drive the train.
I'd submit that this basic inability to either decide on a role, or to carry out the role they are best suited for, is the crux of the problem with our intelligence apparatus.
Read on.
Posted in hayden | Intelligence | War — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:19pm on Dec. 13, 2007 Spying and Policymaking Don't Mix
By California Yankee
Required reading: Henry Kissinger on misreading the NIE and the intelligence community's recent tendency to turn itself into a kind of check on, instead of a part of, the executive branch.
Posted at 7:21pm on Dec. 4, 2007 Convenient Intelligence: Not Just For Republicans Anymore
Recent sanctions are why Iran stopped their Nuke program...4 years ago! Huh?
By haystack
Democrats have been bleeding through their bulging eyeballs with outrage over this President's alleged misuse of Intelligence in order to deceive the American people and wage a war of "blood for oil" for YEARS. They have vilified Bush AND they have trashed the Intelligence community relentlessly, accusing them of everything from being Bush's puppets to being the most incompetent group of organizations to ever serve the American people.
Give them a report they like, or one that fits their agenda of pacifism, retreat, and capitulation, and BANG! Magically, the Intelligence community instantaneously transforms into some surreal beacon of hope for a brighter Democrat future.
Having taken credit for requesting a report that coincidently aligns with a promised Obama or Clinton appeasement of the man who wants to see Israel destroyed, the Democrats believe they have George Bush right where they want him. Of course, they also seem to believe...NEED to believe that Iran is but a fluffy little fuzz ball and has been since 2003.
Um, hang on a cotton-picking minute here folks.
Vowing to impeach both George Bush AND Dick Cheney for lying to the American people and waging a war they supported (while now suggesting they only did so because they had been duped by this evil Administration and the ordered fabrications of his marionettes in the Intelligence Community), the Democrats have been slinging spittle of outrage at TV cameras around the globe for YEARS over this Iraq debacle. Basing their broken promises to end the war on half-truths and outright lies about what's actually happening on the ground, these people insist we should just as quickly accept a report they think might benefit them now?
My cynicism knows no bounds.
More below the fold...
Posted in Democrats | Intelligence | Iran | Middle East | Republicans | War — Comments (19)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 6:11pm on Apr. 12, 2007 Score: Honesty one, diplomacy nothing
By Jeff Emanuel
If you are an idiot, we want that made known.
—U.S. Deputy National Intelligence Director for Analysis Thomas Fingar, on a possible system that would rate intelligence analysts based on the accuracy of their assessments.
