THE BELGRAVIA DISPATCH: State is Hitting Back Someone

April 23, 2003

State is Hitting Back Someone

State is Hitting Back

Someone at Foggy Bottom or Langley is leaking to Glenn Kessler and Dana Priest in the WaPo making Pentagon uber-Chalabi-cheerleaders look unprepared and short-sighted:

"Chalabi's influence, particularly with senior policymakers at the Pentagon, helped play down the prospects for trouble, some officials said. "They really did believe he is a Shiite leader," although he had been out of the country for 45 years, a U.S. official said. "They thought, 'We're set, we've got a Shiite -- check the box here.' "

"We're flying blind on this. It's a classic case of politics and intelligence," said Walter P. "Pat" Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency specialist in Middle Eastern affairs. "In this case, the policy community have absolutely whipped the intel community, or denigrated it so much."

The smartest strategy now would appear to involve diplomatic attempts to reduce any Iranian meddling (while banking that differences between Arab Shi'a and Persian Shi'a, along with residual Iraqi nationalist feeling, will help stave off Iranian influence), while hoping that a decent number of "moderate" clerics are in the offing.

Posted by Gregory at April 23, 2003 05:54 PM

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	« Galloway to the Gallows I \| Main \| NYC Spawned the Neo-Cons! At » April 23, 2003 State is Hitting Back Someone State is Hitting Back Someone at Foggy Bottom or Langley is leaking to Glenn Kessler and Dana Priest in the WaPo making Pentagon uber-Chalabi-cheerleaders look unprepared and short-sighted: "Chalabi's influence, particularly with senior policymakers at the Pentagon, helped play down the prospects for trouble, some officials said. "They really did believe he is a Shiite leader," although he had been out of the country for 45 years, a U.S. official said. "They thought, 'We're set, we've got a Shiite -- check the box here.' " "We're flying blind on this. It's a classic case of politics and intelligence," said Walter P. "Pat" Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency specialist in Middle Eastern affairs. "In this case, the policy community have absolutely whipped the intel community, or denigrated it so much." The smartest strategy now would appear to involve diplomatic attempts to reduce any Iranian meddling (while banking that differences between Arab Shi'a and Persian Shi'a, along with residual Iraqi nationalist feeling, will help stave off Iranian influence), while hoping that a decent number of "moderate" clerics are in the offing. Posted by Gregory at April 23, 2003 05:54 PM Comments Tens of thousands of players play online poker daily on Online Poker Free, and there are many good reasons why! Here are the largest Online Poker Rooms in the world and we offer a variety of Free Online Poker Games and Tournaments, including Texas Holdem, Seven Card Stud and Omaha high/low .With thousands of players Online Poker Free provides the best in live, multi-player online poker, offering a wide variety of free online poker games and daily, weekly, and monthly free poker tournaments with generous cash prizes. Guaranteed security and fairness ! 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