Recently in CIA Category

It's a fairly slow news day (for the moment, anyway), here's a few miscellaneous items:

• Eric Ruth at the WNJ suggests that Delaware businesses will gain from the upcoming bump in Maryland sales tax. Good thing, if it happens, but color me skeptical. Folks wishing to dodge Maryland sales tax already come here to shop. Last night I went to Elkton with the family to shop at the only decent Wal-Mart in the region, and parked in a sea of Delaware-tagged vehicles. It would seem that that sales tax isn't the only thing folks consider in choosing where to shop.


• Fox News has been flogging this story about a dog from the Washington Square area possibly being held for ransom. Not to take away from the story itself, as it's truly difficult not to empathize with the dog-owner's loss, but why is this a national top story for Fox? Have they run out of MAWWs (missing attractive white women)?


• I stayed away from the story about the NIE last week. Opinions on the right are as varied as I've seen, and the left predictably has flip-flopped on their view of our intelligence agencies. Before, they were untrustworthy tools of the administration, suddenly the CIA is back in vogue now that the meme is convenient to the reflexive purveyors of hatred toward all things Bush. All kinda predictable, I suppose. A couple of points, though. Applying pressure on a rival nation and actually going to war are very different, and I've seen nothing substantive to indicate that Bush has crossed that line or even plans to. With even many on the right (including me) conceding that the administration has made plenty of errors, why does the left feel compelled to engage in fantastic conspiracy hype and downright dishonesty?


• Okay, one more thought on the NIE. In industry, it's not uncommon to design something even go so far as to prototype it, then shelve the design while waiting for some outside event to occur, such as new availability of raw materials, or the maturing of complementary technology, or an anticipated change in market conditions or politics. The elephant in the middle of the room regarding Iran is that they did indeed have a nuclear weapons program, and they are still enriching uranium they don't need. Isn't it possible that they shelved it for reasons having nothing to do with us? Wouldn't it be folly to assume that "shelved" is the same as "scrapped"? Just asking...


• On the CIA's destroyed interrogation tapes - everyone knows that we waterboarded two or three terrorists a few years ago, and haven't done it since. Does a tape of an event already admitted to really add anything new to anyone's argument on either side? Other than to be used as fuel for demagoguery, that is. Speaking of which, all of the "obstruction of justice" talk seems to be a little overboard in light of the fact that no one was objecting to the CIA's techniques at the time, including some key Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Bob Graham, and John D. Rockefeller. But I don't hear anyone calling for investigations on their complicities in the matter...


• I agree that Huckabee is starting to look like he has too many warts to go the distance. Shame, too, as he seemed pretty likable before his record started coming to light. Maybe there's still time for Fred to come alive...


• Lots of folks seem to agree with the sentiments in this opinion piece. I can't remember Ron Williams' message, though - all that stuck with me was the childish and petty tone of the piece. Shame, too, as Ron might have had something important to say...

This revelation from Bill Keller as to who the White House supposedly asked to intervene on the lastest exposure of secret anti-terror programs.

Are you ready?

Jack Murtha.

Yeah, the one and only.

Keller insists that "not all of them urged us not to publish". Bryan at Hot Air deduces that Murtha was the odd man out.

If this is the case, Murtha has some big-time 'splainin to do. But don't count on the NYT to tell us - Keller doesn't mind publishing national security related secrets, but considers his conversation with Murtha to be confidential.

Via AP/Yahoo:

WASHINGTON - Determined to win the Cold War, the CIA kept quiet about the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the 1950s for fear he might expose undercover anticommunist efforts in West Germany, according to documents released Tuesday.

The 27,000 pages released by the National Archives are among the largest post-World War II declassifications by the CIA. They offer a window into the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence — and the efforts to use former Nazi war criminals as spies, sometimes to detrimental effect.

If you're a history buff, or an intelligence buff, check out the National Archives website for more information about these declassified historical documents.

A Friday afternoon shocker:

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America's worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.

It was the latest move in a second-term shake-up of President Bush's team.

Making the announcement from the Oval Office, Bush called Goss' tenure one of transition.

"He has led ably," Bush said, Goss at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives."

For me, there's no doubt that this was unplanned. But why? I'm assuming whatever it is will become clear over the next 24 hours. My money is on this having something to do with it. (added: but it's not a lot of money...)

The question is: Did he jump or was he pushed?