Obfuscation and dissembling

A KEY House of Representatives committee has issued a stinging attack on US intelligence on Iran, saying the CIA and other agencies lack the ability to acquire essential information necessary to make judgements on Tehran's nuclear program or even its ties to terrorism. SMH

As an old cold war history junkie, I still find it fascinating to note how far intelligence services have degraded. I’m not talking about the ‘James Bond’ spooks here, but those shadowy ‘deep background’ people, the analysts and signals experts.

There has always been a comic sideshow aspect to the visible spy game, but in the background were invisible and officially non-existent armies of information gatherers and analysts. We speculated about the existence of various agencies and were hardly surprised as various of them were exposed to some daylight.

If they weren’t effective then I guess no one would ever have known, but given comparisons with today’s clowns I suspect they were highly efficient.

The Lebanon fiasco, at least I part, was an indictment on the once ‘faultless’ Mossad. A handy little outfit that was, able to operate without all those pesky rules, the only rule was success. They almost put the intelligence into intelligence.

In the shadowy world of intelligence we can only judge how effective they are by the observable results. It is guesswork at best, but guess work on actual events, which don’t cast those services in a particularly good light.

So what happened to the efficient spooks of old? They have been politicized! If they still provide substantially sound assessments, and there is no reason to suppose they don’t, then the results are being corrupted somewhere along the information chain.

It must be the case; how else would military and political planners be getting it so wrong? It is either poor information to begin with or it is being massaged to suit political and commercial agendas.

Of course it is most likely a bit of both. The Plame saga makes it clear that information, intelligence, is manipulated to political ends. On the other hand it is madness to think that Israeli intelligence would have held back vital information about the strength of Hezbollah’s armaments and fortifications in Southern Lebanon.

Obfuscation and dissembling

The accusations of who knew what prior to 9/11 and the London train bombings tumble over the politically timed arrests of the alleged plane bomb plotters all raise more questions than answers.

The political agenda is clearly to maintain an atmosphere of fear in the various electorates where the method is being practiced.

Media reports even give a sense that those who should know what is going on have no idea at all. The increasing use of suggestive as opposed to qualified language is testimony not just to poor journalism and readership gullibility, but to the uncertainty of our political leaders.

(Mike over at Born at the Crest of the Empire has a slightly different take on this issue: Frederick Fleitz reappears - Neocons at work on Iran)

The increasing use of qualifying words such as; probably, possible, plotters, intended, might have, among others have no place in our journalism of political language.

Information by suggestion is no real information at all. To imply without supporting argument shows either basic ignorance or dishonest intention. Again it is probably a bit of both, but it is something the media should be jumping all over, not simply repeating verbatim.

In the end, if the CIA and other agencies lack the ability to acquire essential information necessary to make judgements the fault must come back to their political masters. Bush and Blair et al appear to have gutted sound intelligence gathering services for their own political ends.

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