Washington Turf Wars

OilPrice.com ^ | 15/09/2010 | John C.K. Daly

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Washington’s bureaucratic turf wars are a dismal reality of politics in Beltwayistan, but are now threatening national policy, as competing agendas threaten policies extending far beyond the continental U.S.

In two of the most notable recent examples, the Kazakh “Giffengate” corruption case and attempts to extradite notorious “Lord of War” Viktor Bout to the United States, eager federal officials in both cases are running up against other government elements content to let both cases lie fallow, notably the CIA and Pentagon.

The controversies, schizophrenic as they are, shed a bright light into the darker corners of federal realpolitic, pitting the pragmatists against a younger generation of Elliot Nesses. In the end, the eventual casualty is Washington’s relentlessly self-proclaimed image abroad as a “nation of laws.” Giffen has already essentially walked, and many are betting that similarly, Bout will likely not face American justice.

The two cases provide a microcosm of Washington’s contradictory agendas, where one federal agency trods upon the toes of another. While little is certain, as the country observes the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon and CIA in the name of national security have more clout than ever before, and eager beaver Department of Justice attorneys and Drug Enforcement Agency agents are about to have their wings clipped due to CIA and Pentagon modesty about their achievements.

JAMES GIFFEN AND “KAZAKHGATE”

A not inconsiderable aspect of “Kazakhgate” is the fact that that the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s job outside Washington, has proven a notable launch pad for subsequent political careers. In 1983, Rudolph W. Giuliani was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted drug dealers, organized and white-collar crime and government corruption. Full article at: Washington Turf Wars