FAILURE IN SOMALIA: LESSONS THE AGENCY REFUSES TO LEARN

NY Post ^ | 6/11/06 | Derek Leebaert

[Oshkalaboomboom]

America scored one clear success in the War on Terror last week with the killing of Abu Musab al-Zar qawi, the longtime leader of al Qaeda in Iraq - but also a clear failure, with the taking of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, by Islamist militias. The contrast between the two covert operations is telling - for the details teach an abject lesson in the difference between a "learning organization" and one that closes itself to outside influences while insisting that it can perform functions far beyond its core competence.

Supremely well-coordinated intelligence is vital to any successful special operation. Zarqawi was hunted by a secret U.S. military commando unit that spread bribes, worked undercover, conducted expert interrogations and accumulated an intimate understanding of his network. Then the special operators called in F-16 fighter jets to finish the job.

Clearly, U.S. Special Operations Command delivered. It did so in tandem with both the Air Force's conventional might and welcome insights from the CIA.

By contrast, the CIA led the covert effort in Somalia. Indeed, both the military and the Foreign Service were reportedly "largely shut out" of the enterprise - which is certainly the agency's preferred way of doing business, despite the method's abysmal track record. (The shutout of military special-op forces is particularly reminiscent of the CIA's feckless anti-terrorist efforts of the 1990s.)

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Do they really expect us to have any confidence at all in an agency that would hire Valerie Plame as a covert operative?

[zarf]

But we can read a car licence plate from outer space...LOL.

[leadhead]

These stories always look like a "plant" where somebody is out to ax someone else.