The C.I.A. Versus Bush (Brooks/NYT)

[struggle4progress]

Now that he's been returned to office, President Bush is going to have to differentiate between his opponents and his enemies. His opponents are found in the Democratic Party. His enemies are in certain offices of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Over the past several months, as much of official Washington looked on wide-eyed and agog, many in the C.I.A. bureaucracy have waged an unabashed effort to undermine the current administration. <snip>

White House officials concluded that they could no longer share important arguments and information with intelligence officials. They had to parse every syllable in internal e-mail. One White House official says it felt as if the C.I.A. had turned over its internal wastebaskets and fed every shred of paper to the press.

The White House-C.I.A. relationship became dysfunctional, and while the blame was certainly not all on one side, Langley was engaged in slow-motion, brazen insubordination, which violated all standards of honorable public service. It was also incredibly stupid, since C.I.A. officials were betting their agency on a Kerry victory. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/opinion/13brooks.html?th

Rove's shill, Brooks, tries to drum up support for a purge ...

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

1. preposterous tripe

However shameful the leaks in and of themselves, Brooks neglects to address the only real issue: whether the agency was being compromised for political reasons, which was the primary motive behind the leaks.

[bostonbabs]

3. Plotting takes time.....

...I do think that we will see the implosion of this stolen second term.The CIA hates him as do the joint chiefs of staff.Read Silent Coup(Colodny sp?).He makes a great argument that it was the Joint Chiefs that brought down Nixon. I see too many factions working against Bush.Woodward who has a top security clearance was a debriefer....highly skilled intelligence job.(he downplays this)...he was only a reporter for 8 months before the "story" broke...."Patience is Power"....and I think Kerry has plenty...

[FULL_METAL_HAT]

11. ...."Patience is Power".... a great mantra!

Especially in our hyper-time modern society, people have forgotten the simple power of "a little more time"... I had a problem with my microwave oven and I "was forced" to use my toaster oven which ended doing a better job of warming my sandwich and it really didn't take that long. The microwave may make things hot very quickly, but then they cool off just as fast it seems. A parallel certainly exists in the Instant-Gratification-Politics which are the hallmark of the current occupant of the WH...

And what was that about Woodward being "Deep Throat" himself !? (to read between the lines ;^)

All the best,

FULL_METAL_HAT

This is my computer. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My computer is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my computer is useless. Without my computer, I am useless. I must fire my computer true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My computer and myself are defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviours of my life. So be it .. . until there is no enemy ... but peace. Amen.

[splat]

2. accountability? Now? but only for the cia...

If the C.I.A. pays no price for its behavior, no one will pay a price for anything, and everything is permitted.

No one has pays a price for anything already.

[Shootz]

4. Pay Back's a B*tch

It's the Bush white house that should be paying over the Valerie Plame issue. It was 25 years of important work/contacts trashed for a personal vendetta. The only leaks from the CIA are the ones that are damaging to the Bush white house (they started it )Any thing they leak won't be anything to get us as a nation into any trouble. This is about pay back. It’ll take 30 years or better to undo the damage Bush has done.

[Martin Eden]

5. Right on, Shootz

and welcome to DU !!! :toast:

It takes incredible spin to make Bush into the aggrieved party in this fiasco, after his administration demanded and received a politicized 2002 NIE Report then blamed no WMD in Iraq on faulty intelligence.

Now they want to use the blowback from this and the Plame affair as an opportunity to install their own people in the CIA and destroy the last vestige of independence and integrity at that agency.

The Bush cabal continues to outdo itself.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

6. I challenge David Brooks to find a career agent ...

... who doesn't think this is the most blindly partisan leadership ever to infect and infest the CIA. The career people park their personal politics at the front door. That Kerry was the beneficiary of the most recent leaks is mere happenstance of time and place. If Kerry were to have chosen the Democratic ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who then brought in four of his own political aides to run the agency, the career agents would have been just as apoplectic.

Brooks, with Novakian recklessness, paints a portrait more warped than whatever Salvador Dali could dream, clearly implying that the career agents are selling out their country. He is Joseph McCarthy with a better shave.

[Shootz]

7. Spin

Your right about that Martin spin is all it is and every ones eating it. They ought to call it crap!

I hope this isn't over board for this forum but thats just the way I see it. And I'm a conservative, fiscal conservative anyway and look whats happened there. It's sad state of affairs I'd love to say more but this isn't the thread for it.

Where's the ranting thread ;)

[Shootz]

8. Faulty Intelligence

We also have the issue of Bush telling the world it was faulty intel. concerning wmd. Thats basically saying information from the cia can't be trusted. We know he recieved good intel the first time, he sent it back for them to rewrite it in favour of a war.
Put the blame where it belongs.

[Martin Eden]

9. Rant on, Shootz

I've read many a fine rant in this Editorials and Other Articles forum. Ranting isn't the issue so much as subject matter and the source of information that started the thread. I suggest you click on Discussion Forums at the top of the screen to discover the diversity of forums on this site. General Discussion is probably the most free-form forum and it has a lot of participation (too much, usually, for my tastes).

[XemaSab]

10. Brooks is a hack

I read the whole article this morning, and I wondered yet again if Brooks is paid by The Times to set up straw man versions of conservative arguments that are all-too-easily shot down.

Since when is it the duty of the CIA to kowtow to the president? The duty of the CIA is to support the country, not the administration, and if these folks think that leaking these documents is faithfully upholding that duty, God bless 'em.

Also, payback *IS* a bitch...these folks are probably scared that if they incur the wrath of King George, they'll be Plamed.

[baby_bear]

12. Brooks' column is downright scary

Federal agencies - not just the CIA - are filled with dedicated career employees, in many if not most cases dedicated to the cause of the their agency (e.g., protection of the environment; worker safety; safe and effective drugs). These people don't just leave or change when a new administration comes in. If Brooks thinks, for example, that all the career scientists at EPA suddenly became anti-environment when Bush took office, he is pretty naive. And worse that that: what he is suggesting sounds a bit like an endorsement of fascism to me, and I use that term as defined in Merriam-Webster:
a political philosophy, movement, or regime...that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

I just sit here and shake my head. Is Brooks describing the sort of government America wants? Do we want our civilian federal employees to have to salute the president? I pray not.

s_m

[mulethree]

13. Hmmmm you want both intelligence and Bush backing from the same person?

I would love it if every agency went on a media frenzy, then let the agencies defend or call slander and maybe the truth will slip out into the open where it should be.

These people work for the Office of the President of the U.S., not for Mr. Bush personally. If it's not classified then what place do their bosses have trying to control their free speech?

I bet the Secret Service is aweful antsy with so many disgruntled spooks around.