As a quick follow-up to my recent post about Bush's failure to make the capture of the largest mass-murderer in U.S. history a priority, take a look at this page on the FBI's website. Notice anything missing?
How about this page?
It has been almost four years since 9/11, and capturing those responsible is such a priority that not one of the 30,000 people who work at the FBI---and whose salaries we pay---has gotten around to updating the "Most Wanted" profiles of Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri to include any mention of 9/11. And both profiles say the two are "currently thought to be in Afghanistan." Maybe that's why we haven't found them; we're looking in the wrong country.
Or maybe we're wasting time looking for people we've already killed. On this page of current "Most Wanted Terrorists" at the FBI's website, Muhammad Atef is listed with a large reward offered. Atef was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Committees spend years talking about how to improve our intelligence agencies, we spend tens of billions trying to do so, and we even establish massive new bureaucracies like the Department of Homeland Security---but we can't have one person take five minutes to update a website. That says it all, doesn't it?
Combined with outrages like this one courtesy of a recently-departed senior CIA official, what we're learning about the source named "Curveball" and so many other mistakes, miscalculations and screw-ups in the intelligence community, is anyone really surprised?
How about this page?
It has been almost four years since 9/11, and capturing those responsible is such a priority that not one of the 30,000 people who work at the FBI---and whose salaries we pay---has gotten around to updating the "Most Wanted" profiles of Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri to include any mention of 9/11. And both profiles say the two are "currently thought to be in Afghanistan." Maybe that's why we haven't found them; we're looking in the wrong country.
Or maybe we're wasting time looking for people we've already killed. On this page of current "Most Wanted Terrorists" at the FBI's website, Muhammad Atef is listed with a large reward offered. Atef was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Committees spend years talking about how to improve our intelligence agencies, we spend tens of billions trying to do so, and we even establish massive new bureaucracies like the Department of Homeland Security---but we can't have one person take five minutes to update a website. That says it all, doesn't it?
Combined with outrages like this one courtesy of a recently-departed senior CIA official, what we're learning about the source named "Curveball" and so many other mistakes, miscalculations and screw-ups in the intelligence community, is anyone really surprised?
