[xzins]

Mossad?

I'm asking myself why someone would want to be 2nd fiddle. This is not even a lateral move for Negroponte.

Isn't the new czar of all intel a cabinet level job?

[section9]

Yeah, Mossad. We're probably on the receiving end of a ton of HUMINT from them and we have to give a lot to get a lot, if it's as bad as I think it is.

DepSecState actually runs the Department and has vast patronage power. DNI, remember, was not something Negroponte was terribly happy at doing. There could be other things going on, as well within the WH that we aren't privy to, but expect Condi to stay.

The India treaty was a huge achievement for her, and the dividends from the Japanese Naval Treaty of 2005 are now coming due. Slowly, glacially, Rice is reorienting American diplomacy towards Asia and away from Atlanticism. People don't see this because of Iraq and Persia's bid for regional hegemony, but in the long run, Condi is concentrating our attentions on the part of the world that matters, Asia, and away from those that don't, Europe and the Middle East.

It's a little hard to conceive of this, but were it not for the petroleum, the Middle East would be a strategic backwater like it was during the thirties and forties.

Add to this fact that she spends a lot of downtime at Camp David and Crawford. She ain't going anywhere unless, say, H. Wayne Huizenga, in a desperate bid to recover from Alabama's poaching, offers her the Dolphins' Head Coaching Job.

Be Seeing You,

Chris