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Saturday, April 22, 2006

Graphictruth.com - Bonebox.info - NOC NOC, Who's there?

I wrote this, almost a year ago. I believe it bears repeating and updating.

Listen. When a man's partner's killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it.' (Bogart in The Maltese Falcon).

Graphictruth.com - Bonebox.info - NOC NOC, Who's there?: "NOC NOC, Who's there?
July 21st, 2005 (03:47 pm)

It was very badly written, due to the fact that I was shaking with incoherent rage, and that nobody was taking the issue seriously. Now we know that the President of the United States personally declassified the information, either in order to leak it, or subseqently to it being leaked.

Either way, it may not have been a crime, because he was the classifying authority, or so the argument goes.

On the other hand, should any other classifying authority behave in such a fashion, I would presume there would be swift consequences brought to bear, along the lines of being suddenly unemployed, if not worse.

It's simply amazing to me that the President of the United States could be so inherently stupid and so poorly advised as to think that he could blow a CIA network in a vital area of the world without becoming more of a threat to National Security than the "threat" the Prez was trying to gin up.

These stars each commemorate a CIA operative who died in the line of duty or as a consequence of their affiliation with the CIA.

The more I learn about Karl Rove and his way of operating, the more I learn about the scumbags that infest the Whitehouse and misuse the trust and sense of duty of those in the service of their nation, men who have already betrayed their trust once during IRAN-CONTA, men who have grown used to using intelligence assets and personnel like nickle chips in their own hegemonic poker games, the more I pray for the consequences of their actions to be brutal, conspicuous and very, very public.

In public culture, "Mission Impossible" depicts NOC agents; deep cover 'illegals,' who would go to some Third World or Eastern European sinkhole and turn the life of some depraved, power-mad lunatic upside-down. In real life, drama is the last thing any agent wants to happen near them, and they certainly do not wish to become "collateral damage" of extremely vindictive, petty, partisan politics.

Now, I don't know how many of these stars were put their by the decisions of Rove, Poyndexter, and other Iran-Contra convicts who are prominent members of the Regime. No doubt a few, but we will probably never be sure. But I'm equally sure none of those men are completly unaware of consequence.

Now, you might imagine that I am herein criticizing what the CIA did in all of this. I most profoundly am not. While covert, the CIA comes from the traditions of the OSS - which are military. Duty and trust of command authority are part of that. Understanding that missions are risky and assumptions often wrong is part of the job, as is the fact that from time to time, innocent blood may be spilled in an effort to spare millions more.

Or at least, so hope those who are told to go and spill it, knowing that it's plain common sense on everyone's part that they are never sure.

When it becomes clear and evident that those who have been pulling the strings for 35 years or more have no more regard for their tools than their victims, it is perhaps time to reflect upon what might help correct such cynical misuse.

The CIA has been scapegoated for many things; its secrets betrayed, its influence blocked and its assets squandered. One wonders if it's because those doing so fear that the CIA might know something.

I hope it does. Perhaps we shall find out, or perhaps we shall simply have to infer that by sudden and coincidental changes of fortune and circumstance.

If you would like to communicate your personal displeasure at the misuse of CIA assets, I have created a bumpersticker you might like.