Check out this fascinating combination of articles in yesterday’s Washington Post ‘Outlook’ section:
Getting the CIA we need, by David Ignatius
Our clueless intelligence system, by Amy Zegart
Who runs the CIA? Outsiders for hire, by R. J. Hillhouse
Ignatius thinks that the CIA is something of a rogue outfit, because it doesn’t have sufficient oversight from the White House. His example of the way things should be harks back to the Reagan administration, when Vice-President Bush intervened personally to make sure the CIA did things his way. So it’s not a little funny that his example of the current woeful state of things is that Vice-President Cheney has been intervening personally to make sure that the CIA does things his way. Ignatius’s op-ed concludes: “A culture of accountability is needed in U.S. intelligence, and it must begin with the White House.” Hmmm…is he saying we should impeach Cheney?
Zegart says that the U.S. intelligence system has “crippling organizational weaknesses,” but she blames the Pentagon. She wants the White House to “take on the Pentagon, demand radical overhaul and see it through.”
This White House?
*shudder*
Hillhouse seems to think that none of this matters, because not even the CIA controls the CIA anymore. Apparently, the bulk of its operations have been outsourced to private companies like Booz Allen Hamilton, Abraxas, Lockheed Martin, and Rayethon. Accountability? How about plausible deniability instead? Just give us some killer drones (and $42 billion a year) and turn us loose!
