14 February 2007

CIA vs. DoD

As bubblehead surmised, I am still active duty. Although I have a TAP scheduled and my termination rad-health coming up soon. I found a letter from former USD(P) Douglas Feith in the Early Bird this morning.

Much earlier in my career, on post-JO shore duty I found out that the "intelligence community" was actually many rival camps. In my case, I was in a location very close to a potential adversary. Many of the estimates of the potential adversary's future intent and capability were in conflict. CIA said one thing, DIA differed, surprisingly ONI differed from DIA (somewhat). That's what makes Hugh Hewitt's recap of the whole Feith-Levin "war against the war against the war" very interesting.

Now, I can understand and appreciate intelligence organizations arriving at different conclusions based on different information available to them. But, when an organization selectively leaves out portions of intel that don't fit the picture, there is a problem. And the executive branch has more than a right to question the info and assumptions leading to conclusions - they have a responsibility to do so.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've seen the term,"midnight Cowboy." I rode herd on both the 636 and 735.

Anonymous said...

What is a TAP and a rad-health?
(Unless it is classified us civilian lurkers want to know).

BTW Nice site! and thank you for your service to our country!

midwatchcowboy said...

TAP is Transition Assistance Program - mandatory training on how to move to civilian employment.

http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/tap/main.htm

Rad-health just reflects the addition al aspects added to a normal physical exam due to working on nuclear ships.