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| Iraq | |
| U.S. to search cleric's house in Najaf | |
| 2003-08-02 | |
The U.S. military tomorrow will begin a major excavation in search of banned weapons components an Iraqi informant said were buried by Saddam Hussein's regime at a Muslim clerics's house in Najaf in December, three months before the war began. Pentagon officials told The Washington Times that David Kay, who is leading the CIA's search for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, briefed officials on the classified intelligence in Washington this week. The Iraqi informant told Mr. Kay's team that the weapons components were moved to the cleric's house in Najaf, south of Baghdad, and buried at the base of a wall. Since the Iraqi came forward, the U.S. military has been monitoring the site and is scheduled to begin digging tomorrow. If the informant's information proves true, it means Saddam was actively hiding weapons components at the very time U.N. inspectors had re-entered Iraq and were conducting searches. That team left Iraq shortly before President Bush ordered the March 20 invasion.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #6 replace them with such smart and clear-eyed guys as PD, Liberalhawk, Zhang Fei Thanks for the kind words. The funny thing is that I got a letter from the CIA requesting an interview while I was in grad school. (Nice logo, I remembered thinking). I ditched the letter, figuring that my career prospects were better-served in the private sector. After getting a post-9/11 taste of the politically-correct gruel we're getting from the security services, I can't say I regret not flying out to Virginia to talk to these guys. I think the problem is institutional - one man isn't going to make a difference - the change has to come from the top. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-2 11:54:43 PM |
| #5 OP, we got lots of P-3's if that's all that would be needed. Oh, and when the cry of "Madman!" goes up, don't drop the Mark 48, mmmmKay? |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-8-2 7:24:54 PM |
| #4 I have many, many friends in NIMA. The problem doesn't reside there, but in the tasking arena, controlled mostly by CIA, and somewhat politicized. The intel functions of the military are still mostly controlled by people with common sense, but the major assets are "shared" - meaning the CI/NSA insiders take the lion's share, and the military gets what's left. The good news is, tactical intelligence-gathering has entered the 21st century with a vengence, and there's some pretty good stuff coming down the pipe. Still wonder why the US doesn't lease one of the oil companies' MAD aircraft for a desert search for buried metallic objects. It's not pretty but it works. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-8-2 2:38:17 PM |
| #3 The logical place for Saddam to have hidden his WMD's would be in mosques--especially the dozens he built after "getting religion" about 10 years ago. They'd be protected that way from prying infidels. |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-2 2:13:53 PM |
| #2 I just wish I belonged on the list! And all the killer posters you left off - shit! Never name names, my friend, you always forget someone! To not write a book here is damned hard, so I'll be cryptic and hit 4 obvious problems: 1) CIA: the Frank Church witch hunt retired the real kick-ass field agents; pursuit of elint to the exclusion of, instead of in addition to, humint; NSA can read your mail and your mind, but the product overwhelms the pipeline's translation & cultural context capacity; obsession with hi-tech when most of our enemies are low-tech - but they don't seem to mind, they'll just use ours against us - and we'll even train them how... 2) INS: a lack of sense, will, and political stupidity, by both parties, for decades of decisions to under-fund, ignore, and mismanage the INS has left us wide open to infiltration and attack. Even with recent pushing, the INS seems unable to "get it" and has done very little to even map out how to correct our vulnerabilities, much less begin to correct them. Define "urgent" and compare to INS progress. 3) FBI: even less effective than the CIA; in the main, they are media-whores, not elite investigators; FBI management is utterly political; a standing joke among field agents that the only way to get ahead in the agency, is to give it; mainly good for explaining who did what after the crime has been committed - long after - and only true if they can build several "task forces" (each with separate resume-enhancing titles, er, management positions such as Super Special Agent In Charge or Special Task Force Liason) and lots of TV and Congressional "face time" and several funding increases. 4) Atty Gen'l & Homeland Security: Since this is where the rubber shall meet the fucking road, the truth is painful: added together, Ashcroft and Ridge don't equal one half of one Wild Bill Donovan - the kind of get-it-done type we need; everything they touch either turns to, or remains, shit - so far; political Ass-kissing Islamic apologists (and fundraising supporters for border-line or terror groups) such as CAIR, ISM, and a host of others are coddled and asked to advise - when they should be tossed out on their asses, or prosecuted, or held at least at arm's length; mishandling TIA (Poindexter - who's the moron who...); creating no-fly lists without oversight or a means of redress - stupid & unAmerican - we're going to need everyone on the same side, folks, and this will feed the IndyMedia fools with bona-fide issues; banning racial & cultural profiling when that is proven to be effective (ask Israel - the real experts) - whatever the fallout: it works; political games and funding ploys such as the recent threat to cut the Air Marshall pgm; taking granny's fingernail clippers away, but failing most bona-fide tests of weapons porosity at both first and second tier airports; ad infinitum, ad nauseum... If we limp along without another major 9/11-scale attack before these fuckups are finally being effectively addressed and these agencies start to live up to what's expected of them, we'll be the luckiest mofo's in history. Just my opinion. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-8-2 4:44:28 AM |
| #1 "It was not on the CIA's list of suspected weapons sites before the war." Because-- as the CIA guy explained to us under-educated morons-- his patience with us wearing thin as he sipped green tea in the shade of his Alexandria, VA veranda-- "Y'see, Ba'athists are secular and socialist, while clerics are like, well, RELIGIOUS for christmas sake... Doncha get it?" From such "deep" and "educated" thinking at the CIA also came obtuseness about the fact that Iran's Hizbo-loonies were charter members of the Yazoo Arafat Fan Club. And I'll bet those CIA chrome domes are now trying to figure out how's come the Iranian Hizbo-loonies have been and are making deals with the militantly atheistic NKORS-- have been in bed with Syrian Alawites for three decades-- etc. etc. Well-- just my opinion!-- I think that the best solution for all concerned would be to (1) send the bulk of CIA "smart guys" back to the academic hothouses where they were created-- i.e., fire their damned asses!-- and (2) replace them with such smart and clear-eyed guys as PD, Liberalhawk, Zhang Fei and-- of course!-- Fred Pruitt. Just a thought.... |
| Posted by: TPF 2003-8-2 3:07:56 AM |