In The Blogs

Truthiness

| Tue May. 19, 2009 8:57 AM PDT

The CIA sure does suck at keeping even marginally accurate meeting notes, don't they? If you're the suspicious type, you might wonder if this is deliberate. If you're the institutional type, you might wonder what else they suck at. And if you're the political type you might be thinking that putting together a Truth Commission to get to the bottom of this is sounding a lot better than it used to.

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Kevin Drum is a political blogger for Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here.

Comments

Well, sure. Exhibit 'A' is

Submitted by Snarki, child of Loki (not verified) on Tue May. 19, 2009 9:35 AM PDT.

Well, sure. Exhibit 'A' is how they managed to destroy interrogation tapes. You know, those interrogations that are claimed to be of critical importance for protecting the country from radical islamic extremists? Yeah, those. No telling how many other tapes/notes/records they've managed to lose or destroy. Why, wasn't there a ton on that stuff in Cheney's personal office vault, that mysteriously caught fire and was completely burned?

Less CIA, More Intelligence

Submitted by Dave Brown on Tue May. 19, 2009 9:39 AM PDT.

tagged as:

solution

Hopefully we'll look beyond the current controversy (although it deserves a thorough investigation) and take a deeper look at the CIA. The overall incompetence and lack of direction at the CIA has been laid bare before. For anyone who cared to notice, the Aldrich Ames case was a telling tale. Mr. Ames, a bumbling, lackluster "C" student, became a bumbling, lackluster CIA agent, and through the process of social promotion that got him into the CIA, Mr. Ames continued to rise through the ranks at the agency in spite of his glaring incompetence, drunkenness, and dishonesty. For years the CIA has operated much as the ivy league, with it's legacy admissions and social promotion, and with the expected results. Mr. Ames wasn't an aberration at the CIA, excepting his treason, he was typical. Today, the CIA's intelligence and analysis is of dubious value, a problem compounded by the politicization of the agency. The best fix is probably to disband the agency rather than attempt an overhaul.