Report Rips Intel Community in Afghanistan – Politics Daily

Politics Daily is running an article outlining the military’s dissatisfaction with the skills and services delivered relative to the American Intelligence Community’s efforts in Afghanistan.   The article is entitled Report Rips Intel Community in Afghanistan .  The armed services see the product delivered to them by American intelligence agencies to be more stage managed than real, more fluff than substance and sometimes wholly useless. Really?!

In a related article from the Washington Post this evening entitled Obama sharply criticizes intelligence agencies over bungled bomb plot we see that there is also tension present between the Obama Administration at the White House and the American intelligence community in general relative to all facets of the Christmas Day bomber incident.  We seem to have an ethos of clock watching and time card punching growing within American intelligence agencies.  Their work on the ground apparently leaves a lot to be desired.

Here is an excerpt from that article.

"Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, has been charged in U.S. district court with smuggling explosives onto the flight from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. U.S. investigators believe the alleged plot originated in Yemen, where Abdulmutallab spent several months last year and reportedly met with al-Qaeda militants. Dutch authorities said Tuesday that Abdulmutallab arrived in Amsterdam on a flight from Lagos, Nigeria, with explosives already sewn into his underwear and that there was no evidence he had an accomplice at Schiphol.

In a news briefing before Obama spoke, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that since his arrest, Abdulmutallab has provided "useful intelligence" to FBI interrogators, who have "spent quite some time with him." He did not elaborate."

And in another Post article entitled Return of Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay is suspended we learn that this is happening because the Christmas Day bomber, Abdulmutallab, was trained in Yemen.

In a related story released by the Associated Press tonight entitled Tensions grow as US heightens role in Yemen we see that Yemen is feeling the heat from the West concerning its ability to protect Western interessts and responding negatively.  And in a Politics Daily blurb on that situation entitled US Embassy in Yemen Reopens After Terror Threat we see that the U.S. is apparently applying pressure along with other Western governments to spur further action from Yemen.

And finally the Sphere Blog is running a story entitled Vegas Gunman Likely Angry Over Case, Officials Say and veterans are paying attention very closely to what the government will do here.

To be honest, I always thought that the opening shot of a situation I have expected for over ten years now that I have always thought of as "The Entitlment Insurrections" would start with disabled veterans who had been denied claims.  I never figured that this type of violence would start with an older guy who had been denied Social Security Benefits. 

But the scenario is almost identical and in my opinion, the social brushfire that this man has started will grow to an unstoppable forest fire very quickly here.  It will involve disabled veterans who have been jerked around by the Department of Veterans Affairs and it will explode into a conflagration of immense proportions if this cavalier attitude by the government is not brought under control.

I just recieved a routine email from one of the funny hat traditional veterans organizations and it outlines their goals for 2010 relative to legislation.  They are pushing hard for a quality of life upgrade to veterans compensation in 2010, especially for severely disabled veterans.

I think the government should take their position seriously.  This shooting incident in Las Vegas over denied benefits could literally set off a war.  I am not kidding. And there are roughly 22.5 million veterans alive in the U.S. right now.  That is a lot of bottled up anger over sub-par benefits for those whose lives have been smashed over the past seventy years in order to make the very wealthy into the maga-wealthy.

Word to the wise.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)