The Intelligentsia

The Administration has put forth a restructuring of the intelligence system in America after... well... we all know how poorly our intelligence has served us. Indeed, some would argue that the intelligence has its shortcomings, as does those who manipulate intelligence for their dark purposes.

President Bush, embracing 70 of the 74 recommendations of a blue-ribbon intelligence commission, said Wednesday he was creating a national security service within the FBI to specialize in intelligence as part of a shake-up of the nation's disparate spy agencies.

A fact sheet describing the White House's broad acceptance of the panel's suggestions said that three more of the recommendations would be studied and that one recommendation -- which was classified -- was being rejected. The decisions come after a 90-day review led by the National Security Council's homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend.

Was one of the recommendations for our human agents to kidnap "enemy combatants" in friendly foreign countries such as Italy, then send them off to shady offshore, half-friendly countries such as Egypt for "interrogation," [ie: Torture], avoiding as much political oversight as possible? Or was it simply that the do it like idiots, so that the CIA looks like an overzealous and incompetant crew of thugs cruising the world in luxury, leaving detailed paper trails and bad attitudes in their wake? Or is one of the reforms simply that when this occurs, the US won't respond to said friendly foreign countries, even upon the indictment of 13 of their human agents for felonies stemming from these tactics?