Intelligent design at the Pentagon

This war is becoming a quagmire.

Iraq? No the turf war between the CIA and the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 - The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-collection operations that have traditionally been the province of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation, Defense Department officials say.

The proposal is being described by some intelligence officials as an effort by the Pentagon to expand its role in intelligence gathering at a time when legislation signed by President Bush on Friday sets in motion sweeping changes in the intelligence community, including the creation of a national intelligence director. The main purpose of that overhaul is to improve coordination among the country's 15 intelligence agencies, including those controlled by the Pentagon.

The details of the plan remain secret and are evolving, but indications of its scope and significance have begun to emerge in recent weeks. One part of the overall proposal is being drafted by a team led by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a deputy under secretary of defense.

Among the ideas cited by Defense Department officials is the idea of "fighting for intelligence," or commencing combat operations chiefly to obtain intelligence [emphasis added].

Hmmm. That sounds ominous. In fact, it sounds like preemption taken to an entirely new level. Come to think about it, I think Iraq was the rehearsal for this plan. Despite their public confidance, the Pentagon and the White House assumed Iraq was bristling with WMD, but they coldn't be positive, obviously. So they went in and "fought for intelligence." Now, having secured the safety of the world by learning, once and for all, that Iraq was WMD-free, we have proof-positive of the effectiveness of the Pentagon's intelligence-gathering.

And it turns out that Boykin reports to Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense.

General Boykin and Stephen Cambone? These people are still employed?

This shake up in the intelligence community took place quietly in early 2003, beneath the din of the impending invasion of Iraq. Cambone's confirmation hearing on February 27h was a cursory affair that attracted virtually no media attention – the New York Times didn't mention Cambone in his new capacity for over a month.

Nevertheless, people inside the Pentagon who knew Stephen Cambone immediately saw this nomination for what it was: the culmination of Rumsfeld's efforts to politicize intelligence gathering and analysis.

Cambone certainly was an "unconventional choice," according to former Army Secretary Tom White, "seeing as [he] had no previous experience in the intelligence community." Moreover, Cambone is despised by many within the Pentagon for his attempts to steamroll all opposition to Rumsfeld's military transformation projects, and is widely perceived as a pompous ideologue who cannot be trusted to bring the requisite objectivity to intelligence matters.

Cambone's role in the prisoner abuse scandals has yet to be told (he's responsible for intelligence gathering at Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq). Boykin's a lunatic fundy.