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Originally Posted by PlayadelSoul
Because you guys definitely know more about whats going on then the new head of the Intelligence Committee. Jane Harmon got the questions right, but this guy and a few others (including Republicans, to be fair) failed miserably.
http://public.cq.com/public/20061211_homeland.html |
It is terrifying to realize how deep the knowledge gap really is among officials assigned to head committees and subcommittees that were specifically designed to address the most intricate and ominous issues affecting the security of our country.
However, I'm most terrified at the reporter's assertion that top counter-terrorism officials at the FBI fared no better regarding such elementary yet vital bits of knowledge about the sources and nature of the threats afflicting our society. These are the very bureaucrats that were supposed to have accumulated the complex and extensive knowledge-base of terrorism and its multiple manifestations, in the course of their long and ascending careers. These are the experts our public officials rely upon, along with other similarly situated analysts' perspectives, to guide their policy decisions.
I'm reminded of a pathetic theatrical passage whereby a chaotic group of blind soldiers carry on with absurd regularity such pre-conditioned tasks as shooting these enormous artillery guns in any and every possible direction, at the auditory stimulus of a war movie strategically projected onto a canvas a few yards from the dreadful cannons.
As for the article in question, I do have a few qualms with the author of the report. I have always paid significant deference to the folks running CQ. Overall these folks are generally well informed and strategically positioned to derive the most insightful and enticing morsels of information on the peculiar dynamics of the Congressional universe. However there were some significant evidentiary hiccups here that need to be addressed.
I would like to know exactly what sources this fellow Stein relied upon to assert that the Hezbollah was responsible for the 1983 Beirut suicide bombing massacres. Apart from mere circumstantial conjecture, to this day there is no evidence to validate this dubious contention.
In fact, Caspar Weinberger, the Sec. Def. at the time of the massacre, stressed in a 2001 Frontline interview that "we still do not have the actual knowledge of who did the bombing of the Marine barracks at the Beirut Airport, and we certainly didn't then."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...einberger.html
In fact Stein completely omitted the 2003 legal action taken by the families of the 241 servicemen who were killed in the massacre which included intelligence intercepts indicating that Iranian officials had instructed the leader of the terrorist group Islamic Amal "to take a spectacular action against the United States Marines."
And while the presiding judge actually pointed to Hezbollah as a conspiring participant in this process, the evidence actually suggests Islamic Amal.
Furthermore, while a few groups claimed responsibility to the attack, Hezbollah was not one of them.
For this cite, check out the following case:
Anne Dammarell et al. v. The Islamic Republic of Iran et al.
http://www.fedsmith.com/articles/ref...arell%20IV.pdf
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a
Anyway, we need informed officials, we need informed politicians, we need adequately informed bureaucrats lest we face more devastating tragedies. Unfortunately we're electing folks for their money and connections, their looks and charisma. Go figure.