Yesterday I watched the President use Harry Truman's line "the buck spots here" to place the blame on himself rather than any individual or agency relating to the failure to pick up on Christmas Day's attempted terrorist attack.
The President stated that the intelligence agencies were going to get their priorities in order and make sure information was shared and all the dots got connected as soon as possible. His Deputy Director of National Security is going to report back in a month as to the progress made.
I thought inter-agency cooperation among the intelligence agencies had been mandated during the Bush years. President Bush established the post of Intelligence Czar and Dennis Blair currently holds the post.
I was puzzled by the problem of sharing intelligence in a central base and looked for some information. See the attached link.
http://www.intelligence.gov/1-members.shtml
This is the list of the major intelligence gathering agencies in the United States. I thought we were talking about CIA, NSA, FBI, DIA, and DHS. I did not realize how many other players are part of the alphabet soup.
When one sees the list then one sees the problem. Competition. Everyone wants to be the fair hair boy and receive the accolades. In the same way, with so many participants, it is easy to spread the blame around so that no one person or agency takes a heavy hit.
With all of the tax dollars being spent on security, you would think Dennis Blair would have a super Cray computer under his command that could take all the information and spit out the answers in minutes. Maybe he does. After all, a computer is only as good or as bad as the humans who supply the information.
Right now the focus is once again on airport security, super scanners, more dogs, air marshalls, getting TSA employees who are attentive and not bored with their jobs.
(I am going to do some research and find out what the average salary and shift is for a TSA inspector.)
What we need is more human intelligence assets in the hot beds around the world. I know that things went bad for the CIA in Afghanistan with the operative they thought they recruited, but the bottom line is good old fashion human spies provide the best intelligence. Electronics are good for assistance, but it is the nameless human assets recruited in the areas of unrest who provide the best and most accurate information.
Budgeting needs to be done for the recruitment of these assets and maybe then a true gain can be made on the war on terror.
Its Common Sense!
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The "buck stops here" comment was ironic because in today's economy what is a buck worth? It is meaningless.
Michael Jones stated before the Obama press conference that American's would be "shocked" after hearing what Obama would say. Where was the "shock". He did not give anything new except for the first time in this ego maniac's term he has finally took responsibility for something instead of blaming Bush.
The intelligence failure is alot like the economic failures of this Administration because it all comes down to those people that the One has put into place as advisors and Cabinet level positions, as well as Czars. 8% of his Administration have business experience, thus failed economic and business policies. Likewise for the intelligence positions, Panetta, Napolitano and a whole host of his advisors and Cabinet level, including Czars have zero intel backgrounds or experience.
The proof is in the pudding.....
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