|
US Administration goes on Fall Offensive
Recent U.S. intelligence analyses of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs were flawed and the lack of clarity on the issue hampered U.S. diplomatic efforts to avert the underground blast detected Sunday, according to Bush administration officials.with barely restrained glee. Some recent secret reports stated that Pyongyang did not have nuclear arms and until recently was bluffing about plans for a test, according to officials who have read the classified assessments. The analyses in question included a National Intelligence Estimate a consensus report of all U.S. spy agencies produced several months ago and at least two other classified reports on North Korea produced by senior officials within the office of the Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte. The all seeing, all knowing NIE was wrong? Whodda guessed? We all know it to be fully authoritative for Iraq when it calls for immediate withdrawal according to Pelosi. The officials said there were as many as 10 failures related to intelligence reporting on North Korean missile tests and the suspected nuclear test that harmed administration efforts to deal with the issue. Details at the link. Intelligence officials are hoping President Bush will make a comment supporting U.S. intelligence agencies' performance on North Korea, something he has not done to date. In other news, people in Hell were asking for ice water. "It was an intelligence failure," said one administration official close to the issue. May I repeat myself? Additionally, the weak assessments undermined the recent visit to China by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did not have good enough intelligence to persuade Mr. Hu that a test was imminent and that he should use his government's influence on North Korea to stop it. Aides to Mr. Abe are said by U.S. officials to be upset that they could not help Mr. Abe better understand the nuclear test plans before the meetings. Ooh screwing up relations with Japan. That's starting to get serious. Carl Kropf, a spokesman for Mr. Negroponte, dismissed as false claims by officials who say U.S. intelligence analysis on North Korea was flawed. "That is absolutely wrong, that we were not tracking this issue for some period of time," he said.] "We were tracking it. The Norks just didn't cooperate with the way we were spinning it. Our folks will coordinate better in the future." "I think the community is a little bit gun shy," Mr. Hoekstra said. "They're being held to a strict standard and as a result are going to caveat everything in the aftermath of Iraq." And we never publicize their successes. According to officials familiar with the reports, the weak analysis on North Korea is being blamed on Thomas Fingar, the most senior U.S. intelligence analyst within the office of the Director of National Intelligence. We've got a suspect. The Fickle Fingar of Fate. Mr. Fingar, now deputy Director of National Intelligence for analysis, was the lone dissenter in a 2002 national intelligence assessment that stated Iraq had large stockpiles of chemical weapons and carried over the skeptical viewpoint to North Korea's arms programs. That's why they call him The Stopped Clock. He was a Doubting Dove on Iraq and was right. Now he's a Doubting Dove on Korea and he's wrong. Wonder how he's calling Iran. Being a Doubting Dove on that one could get him renamed the Fickle Fingar of Infamy. Also wonder who he voted for in 2004. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-10-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=168528 |