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2004-07-19 Home Front: WoT

Acting CIA chief sez al-Qaeda plots against the US thwarted

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Posted by Dan Darling 2004-07-19 8:37:17 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Keep up the great work. It is a pretty thankless job, since the more successful you are, the less apparent it is that you've done anything.

So: Thank you.

Posted by eLarson 2004-07-19 11:18:29 AM|| 2004-07-19 11:18:29 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 (not a shot at you by any means eLarson, but:)

It will continue to be a thankless job until the CIA starts displaying some necessary PR awareness.

Frankly, after their singular lack of success in foreseeing any major event over the past, oh, two decades (Collapse of the USSR ? HEL-lo !), I am unwilling to accept the claim that they have necessarily unpublicized "successes".

Uh-uh, I don't believe you guys anymore.

Start figuring out how to publicize your "successes" without compromising yourself.

And you better start soon, because right now I am on the "raze the CIA, sow Langley with salt, and start over" end of the spectrum, so you guys have a looooooong way to go.

/rant

Posted by Carl in N.H 2004-07-19 11:51:55 AM|| 2004-07-19 11:51:55 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I was a Damage Control Assistant(DCA) on a ship. Sucessful DCA's remain happily "thankless." Post 9/11, our homeland team has made internal security boring an uneventful. I hope all firemen, policemen and EMT's continue to be underappreciated for the near future.

Posted by Super Hose 2004-07-19 12:02:05 PM|| 2004-07-19 12:02:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 DCA? Yikes! No man is more reviled on a ship after a REFTRA or INSURV visit than a DCA.

Nothing is less glamorous than watertight doors or fire hoses, but without them the ship goes to the bottom if hit. A perfect analogy.

Posted by dreadnought 2004-07-19 3:14:38 PM|| 2004-07-19 3:14:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Carl, the CIA for all it's probs had 25 years of hand cuffing from stupid policies (Toricelli) and gutting by the Clinton admin. I don't blame it all on the agents, I blame it on the piss-ant politicians who put them in the position of having no human intel.

Posted by Jarhead 2004-07-19 3:29:05 PM|| 2004-07-19 3:29:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Jarhead:

I hear you bro, but I want the CIA to show me the money.

Curse the politicos of course, but the CIA really needs to start showing what they are doing for us. They need to balance out their spectacular failures with some successes.

I call bullsh!t on their claims without publicizing the results to back them up.

Posted by Anonymous5862 2004-07-19 3:57:59 PM|| 2004-07-19 3:57:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Jarhead, I am impressed with McLaughlin. An organizatrion with brains and determination should do the job now that the shakles are being removed. The judgement of the CIA's effectiveness should be done by Congress. If Congressmen wanted to perform oversight effectively, it wouldn't be hard to come up with a batting average on intelligence items. It would work very simular to Fred's terrorism futures set-up, but it would deal with individual pieces of intelligence. Regardless, the results would), have to be classified - until political football season rolled around.

OT - with respect to civil liberties, does anyone ever notice how tame the provisions of the evil Patriot Act are when compared to the Espionage Act (1917), Sedition Act (1918) or Smith Act?

Posted by Super Hose 2004-07-19 4:42:13 PM|| 2004-07-19 4:42:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 No man is more reviled on a ship after a REFTRA or INSURV visit than a DCA.

Actually, if you do your job right, the DCA should be the most reviled man before OPPE, REFTRA, or INSURV.

Posted by Pappy 2004-07-19 10:22:18 PM|| 2004-07-19 10:22:18 PM|| Front Page Top

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