Intel Gathering
Two must read articles for those interested in our nations security and military effectiveness. First, from the Washington Post, Barton Gellmon, breaks news of a Department of Defense initiative to improve humint, human intelligence, gathering. Unfortunately, Gellmon, attempts to make this a negative or an attempt to subvert congressional oversight, possibly even illegally. The second, by Eric Schmidt for the NY Times, is a further attempt to question the motivations of Defense Department and to make a turf war between the C.I.A. and the Pentagon more apparent. Had the Pentagon simply continued to operate on the status quo, the Post/Times leftist dominated media would attack them for their inaction and stubbornness. By acting in the best interest of the nations defense, the Pentagon gets painted as a group of power thirsty egomaniacs subverting the law, war mongering, and treading on the sacred turf of the C.I.A, which has famously done so well of late. Right.
The importance of both pieces rest in their pointing out that the Pentagon, under Secretary Rumsfeld, has taken steps to ensure that the Defense Department has the intel it requires in order to fight a clearly underhanded enemy, and potentially those who would be more openly aggressive in military actions. If clandestine, as described, then the actions of the Defense Department are admirable and should be lauded. If covert, then the law and the Congress should continue to pressure the C.I.A. to make the necessary changes to their makeup to permit better humint operations. We must be willing, as citizens, to accept the occasional dirt bag bedfellow and to have the breadth of contacts to allow us to distinguish between the dirt bag who is providing good data and the one who is simply spreading the dirt around.
What strikes me as most troubling, however, is that the center-right blogs are again not taking up the question. The media will most assuredly, with willing congressional supporters, make it out to be yet another move by Defense to gain power in Washington, and it is there that we must make it clear that the aim of the Pentagon is to protect our interest as a nation, not there own. This is exactly why the C.I.A. is no longer seen as the perfect tool for the job, because far too often, they’ve been described as slow-moving, risk averse and bureaucratically or career minded.
