[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Putting some things together on this thread...Stratfor has my head spinning....

Abolish the CIA ( Destroying the interrogation tapes amounts to mutiny and treason. -
Slate ^ | Monday, Dec. 10, 2007, at 12:09 PM ET | By Christopher Hitchens

I know it is Hitchens...but go further on the thread...am adding more...got to find the Blog of Friedman for a VERY DIFFERENT opinion of why the NIE was revealed....heavy details....

[BIGLOOK]

Well....I liked Hitchens’ likening the CIA to Mark Twain’s cat and I suppose the CIA ought to be disbanded since they have been ineffective and palsied since the Church Committee hearings. But then we'd have to reorganize another agency to do what the CIA is supposed to be doing.

Got the impression that the current NIE was released by the Bush administration for political reasons to deliberately upset the Dems in Congress. Sort of like throwing sticks of firewood to the mob of witch hunters to see who was going to light the fire.....and get burned in the process. (I don't claim any insight on Foggy Bottom politics, never understood them. never liked 'em.)

The NIE is faulty. Given the negative response from our Ally's intelligence agencies and their respective governments, its assumption is erroneous. They've got their own assets and gathering systems to defend and are not happy having shared intel bandied about in a political brouhaha. They don't want hearings and investigations by high profile no name pols into their business; nor do our own effective intel agencies want hard skinny compromised and liaisons damaged.

So.....remember the hell Congress raised over the firing of seven USJD attorneys a year ago, the resignation of Goss from the CIA.....Libby?

An independent review of the intelligence on Iran by a non-partial panel to confirm or deny the conclusions of the NIE would be the right course now. If their review denied the conclusions of the NIE, Bush should fire the authors. I'd love to see the fireworks then.

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"