Spies, Damn Lies, and WikiLeaks

The WikiLeaks Afghanistan docudrop is generating much more attention than the WaPo splash last week on the Top Secret Military-Intelligence-Industrial Complex...

The Washington Post has done the taxpaying citizens a favor with its big feature on the US Government intelligence and security apparatus, A Hidden World. They gathered their information from open sources, so if they’ve revealed anything, it’s the government’s fault, not the Post’s.


No Government Function Should Be Exempt From Scrutiny 
Shining a light on the bureaucracy and questioning spending and redundancy is a legitimate service to the taxpayer. It is very different from revealing specific methods and programs that end up rendering them useless and putting lives in danger.

Was it sensational? Yes. Was it sometimes inaccurate and wildly speculative? Yes! Did it demonize contractors and corporations? Hell Yes! Regardless, they are doing what the press is supposed to be doing. Now if they would just throw their dragnet over Pelosi, Barney Frank, and their serial affairs with big business, unions, and especially Fannie and Freddie.

The WaPo alleges we have a money wasting intelligence bureaucracy run amok, and that is not good, regardless of its original purpose.

Much of what they finger as malfeasance is actually legitimate activity. These are arcane areas and one-of-a-kind systems that require specialized expertise. It is often more cost-effective to contract it out.

How much fraud, waste and abuse is in there? Is it out of control?

We threw a gob of money at the defense and intelligence communities after 9/11. As anyone who has spent any time in or around government knows, government money is mad money, especially when it comes in gushing torrents.

The WaPo series was unbalanced and unfair, but it contained much verifiable truth as well. 

When Big Government fails serially and the bureaucrats and their liberal defenders cry for more Big Government, conservatives and libertarians rightly stand up in opposition. Well, we can’t give defense and intelligence a free pass.

When it comes to government, be skeptical. Be very skeptical...

Further reading on the WaPo expose:
NRO - The Corner
Salon - Why so little reaction?

Bureaucratic Terrorism

I always thought the whole Terrorism threat level system, with its Christmas tree colors, was nonsense.

What's my 85 year old granny supposed to do with this alarming information blared out by the government? 

What am I supposed to do with it?  Go out and start shooting suspicious looking people?  I wonder how many paranoiacs and chronic worriers this stupid systems has pushed over the edge...


Congressional Testimony Nonsense
Ronald Baily at Reason points to the uselessness of congressional testimony involving intelligence officials telling us that bad people are out there and they want to kill us...

OK, here's my problem. Of what possible use is this kind of testimony? It does no good for public safety because doesn't tell Americans what kind of attack they should be looking out for; it just sows generalized angst. Now why would federal security bureaucrats want to increase public anxiety?

(1) Call me cynical, but one possibility is that the heads of the various security agencies are trying to protect their budgets by scaring senators and public. More fear = more money.

(2) Or it's a cover-their-behinds move [...]

What We Really Need
I want an anonymous, silent intelligence Agency That Shall Not Be Named.  A combination of Mossad competency and cold-blooded KGB brutality.  I want an agency full of Odd Jobs who can cut the head off of a statue with a steel-brimmed bowler hat.

Mullah Killed by Exploding Kebab
Forget the niceties.  Did intel find something actionable, but prosecuting the perps will be tricky?  Kill them.  I want to see suspicious people around the world dying from mysterious poisonings, exploding cigarettes and unexplained car crashes.

"The World" can point its grubby little fingers our way all it wants, we'll just shrug our shoulders and go "meh." 

So let's get to work terrorizing the terrorists, and stop scaring granny with red alerts...