Interrogations got out of the CIA's control
Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 1:17AM OP-ED: How the CIA Became Dangerously Dependent on Outside Contractors, By Allison Stanger, U.S. News & World Report, August 27, 2009
As per my recent Esquire column, a lot of the MSM analysis said (in effect): "Look at all the wonderful rules the CIA made up for the interrogations. See, they had it all in hand!"
I read the report and got a very different vibe, as I stated. I saw the CIA overmatched by the situation and having to rely a lot on unexperienced contractors and scary legal opinions, with their instinct being to bureaucratize it big-time with rules that gave them the illusion of control, when, deep down, it seems a lot of those involved felt it was going badly from the start.
Allison's piece on US News.com explores, like her upcoming book (which I want the usual free copy of, so I can slavishly push it in a WPR column), just how dependent our national security/intelligence establishment became in recent years, and how--in effect--we now reap what we sowed in this age of frontier integration and all the burden that Gap-spanning tumult causes for our government. The "peace dividend" was a myth in terms of money. It's real in terms of the great-power piece.
Now, we've simply moved onto the next stage of expanding our international liberal trade order, meaning the hardest nuts/regions to crack. Some of it will be outsourced, but we need to be careful on the what and the why.
Reader Comments (2)
This type of thing happens a lot in my job. Essentially orders are given... "Go make "this" (fill in the tasking) work and don't spend any money."
The powers that be then look at what was done and usually state, "That's not what we meant! No make it go away."
Too late.