Machiavellian Machinations

Evil Origami, Funny Pictures











DP Rating: Pretty entertaining if you're into such things.

You'd expect no less from a bunch of spies with their competing bureaucracies & competing agendas.

And the speculation is as juicy as you'd expect out of that other Washington:

Hayden, being an acolyte of Negroponte, was a counter-move against the Rumsfeld-Cheney cabal & their secret (oh, does that surprise you?) Pentagon-driven intelligence expansion.

(Doesn't really sound like something that George would do to me, but then again, he's been under some pretty ferocious pressure with respect to his stubborn defense of Rumsfeld.)

In any event, they'll all be united in what's sure to be the party line: the intelligence on Iraq was an incomprehensible mess, & that's why we need a strong, disciplined miltary man, yadda yadda....& that's what we'll be hearing more & more as the days wear on.

(If you're in danger of being brainwashed, see "Revolution in the Air: Another Spook Talks" last month. It was a lengthy post & impossible to summarize here.)

The Washington Post today covers the controversies in several articles & commentaries but Demon Princess likes this one, "Experts See A Strategy Behind CIA Shuffle," best (click on title bar) for its breathless tone, & for precious quotes like this:

"'The concern about Hayden is not really about Hayden, it's about Rumsfeld and Cheney,' said one former senior intelligence officer, referring to Vice President Cheney's strained relationship with the CIA and allegations that he used Pentagon-gathered information on Iraq's weapons because it comported with his personal view on Iraq.
...
"[According to a Professor of National Security Studies at the War College, Hayden is] 'out of Rumsfeld's reach.'"

"The CIA establishment views the encroachment of the Pentagon into such sensitive areas as covert operations and human intelligence as a misguided effort that does not recognize the inherent difficulties in understanding, much less penetrating, terrorist networks.
...
"But the military's frustration with the CIA -- including not having enough terrorist targets identified for attack in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere -- is at least in part behind Rumsfeld's expansion of military intelligence capabilities. Rumsfeld has moved hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of troops into clandestine intelligence collection and analysis. With little public discussion and a wall of secrecy, the military is poised to launch its own intelligence-gathering and man-hunting operations independent of the CIA or other authorities."