[McGavin999]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick of the bashing our intelligence community is going through. They are doing the best they can with the limited funds they have received over the years and the way congress has tied their hands.

Intel is an art, not a science (although it contains parts of both) and if they are going to err I would prefer it be on the side of caution. Saddam was a threat to his people and a threat to the US. I would not change a thing. Besides, I STILL believe we will find the WMDs.

[Criminal Number 18F]

'm sick of the bashing our intelligence community is going through. They are doing the best they can with the limited funds they have received over the years and the way congress has tied their hands.

Stone correct. I was astounded to see Kerry lambasting the community, because he has always had a very sharp knife. Look at any of the debates on intel matters during the Reagan years and you'll see Old Botox Face in there undermining his best.

The worst damage to human intelligence operations was done during the hearings led by Frank Church (D) in 1975, and by the Carter (D) and Clinton (D) administrations, both of which were hell on human sourced information -- Carter and his DCI, Stansfield Turner, more or less dismantled the capability that had taken CIA thirty years to develop, and it's never recovered to pre-Carter health.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F