Kicking the CIA Again – David Ignatius – Washington Post

 FROM INEPT TO HOPELESS

ANOTHER STORY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN INTEL COMMUNITY

This morning’s Washington Post has an OP-ED by David Ignatius who laments the partisan politics in Congress which effectively demands that the CIA and all American Intelligence Services be used as a political football.  I do not agree completely with his points but he does have a basic valid premise and that is, since when are Intelligence Services of a nation to be given such scrutiny by the general public that their effectiveness is undermined?  I have to admit, it is a hard case to argue against, even for a Leftie like me.  The article is here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071502393.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 .

I live in the DC area and in fact I have personal friends and aquaintances numbering about a dozen, who I strongly suspect hold various positions with various intelligence agencies, not all of them American.  Not all of these people are conservative, some are surprisingly left wing and liberal types.  They all have one basic attitude about government intelligence services however, no matter what nation is involved.  They all say, if you want kissie face, then simply use your State Department.  If you want to ensure that your country’s agenda moves forward overseas where there are no rules, you need a clutch of tough guys to ensure that this happens.

I frankly do not fully know how I feel about that but it makes sense.  I don’t particularly want people assassinated all over the place by American Intelligence Services.  At the same time, I do not want Americans and foreigners working in America murdered by the thousands by brutal sociopaths who will kill anyone who gets in the way of their psychopathic plans in honor of their vengeful and murderous sense of a Deity who commands them to kill.  As bad as our Intelligence people can apparently sometimes be, and being fully aware that we have committed plenty of atrocities ourselves over the generations by using those services to put forth our own murderous agenda at times, I don’t want my sense of morality to get in the way of my sense of security.  There are bad people out there and they will kill us if they get the chance.  That is a hard reality we all must grapple with on a daily basis.

So what do we have a right to expect of our Intelligence Services?

I would simply say this.  The same rules of conduct that apply to a soldier or sailor in combat apply to them.  You are morally obligated as an American with a weapon and the license to kill in the name of this republic to use the minimum amount of force possible to take away the enemy’s ability to make war.  Soldiers are not supposed to be outright murderers.  Intelligence people are not supposed to have an unlimited license to kill.  That is what Sadaam’s intelligence service was like, as well as the intelligence services of the Nazis, the Soviets and the various generallisimo’s in Latin America over the years.  I don’t want the intelligence services of the West, especially that of the USA, to be involved on a routine basis in overt murder unless the life of the agent is in danger of being snuffed out by the enemy.

They are intelligence services, they are not supposed to be a murder for hire group of contractors.  Although I am fully aware that oftentimes intelligence people must kill, I have to say that as an American citizen, I would like the body count to be reduced to an absolute minimum if the killing is being done in my name.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)