Analyst's note: It is time to get people in place who know how to play this deadly game of intelligence. Political correctness is still killing Americans and will continue to do so until we find those who can recognize and will report the truth. We simply must know about our enemies. As a minimum, no one should even be considered for high-office (by either promotion or appointment) in the intelligence community until they have demonstrated the skills of strategic thinking. And that is just for starters. We obviously live in treacherous times.
"[...] Something is very wrong with the American intelligence services.
[....] Of course, the CIA failed to see the coming collapse of the shah's government in Iran as well as the fall of the Soviet Union -- not to mention the entry of Pakistan and India into the nuclear club. Then came 9/11.
In the wake of that failure, Congress and the Bush administration reorganized the 16 different agencies of the intelligence community (known in the trade as the IC). Among the changes was the effective demotion of the CIA director, long considered the head of the IC, and the creation of a new top job, the director of national intelligence.
In theory, this was supposed to streamline the chain of command and get the IC's disparate factions -- including the vast new Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, the various military intelligence services and others -- to pull together under a leader with direct access to the president.
In practice, it hasn't worked out that way, with the DNI's authority more theoretical than practical. In less than six years, we've already had five DNIs. In that time, we've also seen the Fort Hood massacre, the attempted bombing of an airliner over Detroit, the deaths of seven CIA agents and contractors in Afghanistan in a security-lapse suicide bombing, and the Times Square near-miss.
[....] The larger issue here is the nature of the people [...] appointed to these sensitive positions, so crucial to our national safety.
[....] But the middle of an ongoing war and rapidly changing world events is no place for politics. And it's certainly no place for politically correct ignorance."
