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CIA not CYA
Rich Galen Wednesday July 14, 2004
Let me do another one of my disclaimer numbers right at the top: In Iraq worked with several people whom I knew to be employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. I worked with others whom I assumed to be CIA officers, although it never actually came up in the course of conversation. In all cases I found these folks to be honest with me, courageous in carrying out their assignments and, above all, patriots.
In real life I also am acquainted with people I know to be officers in the CIA and others whom I assume to work for one US intelligence service or another. I have found them to be people with whom I would go into any war zone, any time.
I cannot be the only person on the planet Earth who thinks the people who labor in the shadows, trying to protect our safety and, in some cases, dying to protect our nation should be honored and cheered, not held up to scorn and ridicule as we have seen these past few weeks by the Edwards/Kerry ticket and the Michael Moore Liberals who support it.
I have been to CIA headquarters - although not for a while. In the CIA there is a marble wall into which, as of this writing, 83 stars are carved. They represent the intelligence officers who have died in the service of their country. 48 are named in a book attached to the wall.
Thirty Five are anonymous. Only a star carved in a marble wall revealing a nation's gratitude.
I made friends with an officer in Iraq. We met on occasion and talked, as friends do, not about what we're doing in our jobs, but about � about things.
About a month after we met I dialed my friend's phone and was told that he had "left for home."
I feared my friend had been killed. I'm certain I never knew my friend's real name.
The notion of whether Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was not an idea held only by the American CIA - it was a notion believed by every intelligence service on the planet. Including the French.
Furthermore, as far as most Iraqis are concerned, the weapon of mass destruction they most cared about appeared in a courtroom the other day, arraigned on enough counts of murder and mayhem to hang him about 100 times over - just about the right number, I suspect, Iraqis might say.
The problem with a report like the one which was released by the US Senate last week - and another report which will be released in Britain today - is not that it is inaccurate; the problem is that it is - and must be - incomplete. The failures of organizations like the CIA and MI-6 become public knowledge.
The successes remain hidden from view.
We don't know how many Madrid-style attacks have been thwarted by the CIA or MI-6 or, for that matter the French Deuxi�me Bureau - or whatever they call themselves.
Intelligence services don't brag about their successes - in some cases they don't want the bad guys to know they're onto them and, in others, to reveal a victory would be to reveal the methods by which that victory was achieved.
They are forced, however, to suffer their defeats in well-documented silence.
The Senate report says the CIA was wrong about the WMD. But Saddam is gone and the Iraqi people are taking control of their country. The Saudis are finally cracking down on terrorists. Libya has thrown in the towel. Iran will not, in my judgment, be far behind.
A couple of days ago my friend - the one from Iraq - sent an e-mail. We are planning to get together in Washington in the next couple of weeks.
Another anonymous intelligence service star. This one, thank God, not represented by one carved into a marble wall.
On the Secret Decoder Ring Page today: A photo of the CIA's Wall of Honor; a Mullphoto, and an excellent Catchy Caption of the Day.
--END --
Copyright © 2004 Richard A. Galen
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