Coupla interesting facts gathered in a random walk down News Street this week.
First, did you know that something like $75 billion a year is devoted to the various activities the US government groups under the rubric of intelligence? What Engelhardt and Turse are trying to warn us about is the escalating intelligence war our tax dollars are going to, rather than paying for health care or schools or bridges.
…as Paul Woodward of the website War in Context has pointed out, “Two groups of combatants, neither of whom wear uniforms, are slugging it out on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Each group has identified what it regards as high-value targets and each is using its own available means to hit these targets. The Taliban/Qaeda are using suicide bombers while the CIA is using Hellfire missiles.”
Which one’s cheaper and more available? The answer might be indicated by the success of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi in penetrating a heavily secured CIA base in Afghanistan to meet with the base chief, the CIA’s second in command for the country (do they still call that Deputy Chief of Station?), a captain of Jordanian intelligence who was al-Balawi’s handler, and at least six other CIA “operatives”, two of whom worked for Xe. Of those, only the CIA’s number two survived, with injuries.
Dr. al-Balawi’s suicide attack essentially took out a major part of the Agency’s targeting information system. As one unnamed NATO official told the New York Times, “These were not people who wrote things down in the computer or in notebooks. It was all in their heads… [The C.I.A. is] pulling in new people from all over the world, but how long will it take to rebuild the networks, to get up to speed? Lots of it is irrecoverable.” And the Agency was already generally known to be “desperately short of personnel who speak the language or are knowledgeable about the region.” Nonetheless, drone attacks have suddenly escalated — at least five in the week since the suicide bombing, all evidently aimed at “an area believed to be a hideout for militants involved.” These sound like vengeance attacks and are likely to be particularly counterproductive.
More poorly targeted drone attacks, that’s a good idea! Surely the Afghans will understand why we have to attack their wedding parties once they learn of the CIA’s losses.
It’s simple, really. What keeps our economy going? What business is always booming and never has its bubbles burst? Weapons.
The US has been developing a secret army for decades. Oliver North talked about an “off-the-shelf, self-sustaining, stand-alone entity that could perform certain activities on behalf of the United States.” Chalmers Johnson refers to the President’s private army.
The Romans called it the Praetorian Guard, and it eventually came to control the Imperial throne.
Second fun fact of the week: the $75 billion we spend on the so-called intelligence community is well over ten times the nominal GDP of Haiti.
