Disarray in US policymaking
The war against Fallujah is putting a lot of strain on the US forces inside Iraq. But at the same time, the bullying nature of the ideologically driven political appointees whom Bush and Co. have put in charge of national security decisionmaking has been putting a lot of strain on the seasoned professionals within the relevant government agencies.
Is Washington's national-security decisionmaking apparatus cracking under the strain?
Yesterday the WaPo reported that Robert Blackwill, the administration's previous Chief Minister for Iraq, had phsyically jostled or assaulted a female State Department employee in Kuwait, shortly before his very hasty (and probably related) resignation from his post.
But today we have even more startling news, from the WaPo's Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, namely that the CIA's top "regular cadre" employee, John McLaughlin, resigned yesterday.
He did so, they write,
- after a series of confrontations over the past week between senior operations officials and CIA Director Porter J. Goss's new chief of staff that have left the agency in turmoil, according to several current and former CIA officials.
The WaPo story continues that McLaughlin:
- resigned after warning Goss that his top aide, former Capitol Hill staff member Patrick Murray, was treating senior officials disrespectfully and risked widespread resignations, the officials said.
Yesterday, the agency official who oversees foreign operations, Deputy Director of Operations Stephen R. Kappes, tendered his resignation after a confrontation with Murray. Goss and the White House pleaded with Kappes to reconsider and he agreed to delay his decision until Monday, the officials said.
Several other senior clandestine service officers are threatening to leave, current and former agency officials said...
I for one don't feel more secure after reading this news.
Go read the rest of the article.
Haha, I love it - I have put the WaPo article (these abbreviations remind me of Laura Rosen, but still) into my blog, under the catchy title "OGA Dish Fest". I think I get my titling style from Wonkette, to be honest ('dish' is gay slang, as in 'dish the dirt' ; 'OGA' is 'other government agency').
p.s let's don't feed the trolls, huh ...
Did Bush really say this? Only Debka have actually quoted it, afaik.
'In joint news conference with Blair Friday, Bush said his administration looking forward to working with Palestinian leaders committed to fighting terrorism and democratic reform. “We will hold their feet to the fire to make sure democracy prevails.”'
ha, he did say it. What a jerk.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-blair13nov13,1,4898193.story
Helena,
It only gets worse:
CIA plans to purge its agency
(http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia1114,0,707331.story?coll=ny-top-headlines)
Sigh. I guess the faith based government can no longer abide by the reality based reporting coming from the CIA. I wonder how long before the military has to swear loyalty oaths to GWB?
SP
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