Turf

While the stature and role of the CIA were greatly diminished under Goss during the congressionally ordered reorganization of the intelligence agencies, his counterpart at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, continued his aggressive efforts to develop a clandestine intelligence operation within his department. The Pentagon's human intelligence unit and its other clandestine military units are expanding in number and authority. Rumsfeld recently won the ability to sidestep U.S. ambassadors in certain circumstances when the Pentagon wants to send in clandestine teams to collect intelligence or undertake operations.

"Rumsfeld keeps pressing for autonomy for defense human intelligence and for SOF [Special Forces] operations," said retired Army Col. W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East affairs at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "CIA has lost the ability to control the [human intelligence] process in the community."

Now, "the real battle lies between" Negroponte and Rumsfeld, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Donald Kerrick, a former deputy national security adviser and once a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "Rumsfeld rules the roost now."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/05/AR2006050501738.html

Comments

[RJJ]

I know nothing about the inner workings of the clock; I can barely tell time.

But this

the real battle lies between" Negroponte and Rumsfeld ...

reads like one of those good news-bad news jokes.

Is it?

[ckrantz]

What Rumsfeld have done is to create a kind of super GRU working both domestically and abroad. Negroponte controlling Rumsfeld is a joke. As is the so called intelligence reform that created his position. Most of the U.S. intelligence agencies are still under Rumsfeld's direct control. With little or no oversight from the outside. And he is creating new ones like the strategic support branch apparently without informing anyone outside of the pentagon.

[Babak Makkinejad]

But how successful is this going to be institutionally once the Secreatay of Defene is replaced?

[John Howley]

'Course, most of the intelligence budget is already under Rumsfeld (NSA part of DOD) so it seems there's a structural problem built into the DNI set-up.

I wonder what problems this creates on the ground in Country X -- that is, having DOD take over both State and CIA functions. If I'm in Country X's Foriegn Office and I need to get stuff done, do I talk to the Ambassodor's guy or the military attache or the "dark" Special Forces crew. Or do I have to go through my own military to line up the connections? If I am in X's spy service, do I talk to the CIA guy at the Embassy or go to the SF guy? Confusing when viewed from the other side?

I'm just an ordinary civilian, meaning that I have absolutely no idea how my tax dollars are being spent.

[Sally]

If the battle is between Rumsfeld and Negroponte, I have no one to root for.

[ckrantz]

Since much of the institutional change is based on how the pentagon lawyers define the "war on terror" as ongoing and indefinite I suspect the change is permanent. I wonder how republicans will like all that power in the hands of a President Clinton.

When it comes to the DNI this clip seems to say everything. URL to whole story below.

...there seems to be a new, relaxed John Negroponte. And some close observers think they know why.

He’s figured out the job. Which is to say, he really doesn’t have much control over the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Continue read about the three hour lunches.

http://public.cq.com/public/20060303_homeland.html

[Sally]

Babak, not "when" the Secretary of Defense is replaced, but "if" the Secretary of Defense is replaced. Doesn't look like these guys are going anywhere; just digging in.

[zanzibar]

Is there really a turf battle? Isn't Cheney effectively in control of the national security apparatus?

If CIA spooks Drumheller's and Pillar's revelations are correct, then the CIA did get Iraq right (WMD & AQ connection) and Bush-Cheney knew the facts.

So it would seem the real turf battle is to get all the spook agencies to provide "intelligence" that fits the deciders decisions with no contrary analysis and facts that could be leaked.

[W. Patrick Lang]

ckrantz

The 3 hout lunches are meetings. that is where the real busineness is conducted. pl

[W. Patrick Lang]

Babak

This is not really about circumstances and personalities. It is about long standing distortions in the intelligence community which may be rectified by Negroponte if he is succesful in pursuing his institutional ambitions. pl

[W. Patrick Lang]

ckratz

"strategic support branch" what's that? pl

[ckrantz]

Col:

Wapo piece on SSB.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29414-2005Jan22?language=printer

[ckrantz]

For balance the official version:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jan2005/n01252005_2005012510.html

[rpe]

Will any of this really matter in the end? This administration ignores any and all intelligence information that clashes with their preconceptions. They know what the truth is, the function of the various intelligence services is to gather information, no matter how dubious the source, that supports the neo con agenda and their predilection for violent solutions to diplomatic and political problems.

[John Pfeifler]

All,

How can there be a battle between the DNI and the SecDef when Secretary Rumsfeld consistently states, "I am not in the intelligence business"? Most recently, he declared this when answering McGovern in Atlanta. The diffusion of accountability is amazing when the guy with the most beans doesn't know he's in the bean business.

[Curious]

Negroponte vs. Rumsfeld?

They are in the same team. Remember the mini smear job a couple of months back where negroponte said to spend hours a day in some massage parlor? That was an internal agency battle. Goss lost. (Goss isn't that bright anyway compared to Negroponte)

CIA is utterly alone now. It has nobody. I give it several more month, when that huge Iraq embassy is done. Then The whole thing will get sucked into blackhole of bureaucratic confusion.

The momentum of Iraq war will eat up institutional coherency and twist reality even further.

The combined dci/cia under negroponte will distort so much information, nobody will know the truth anymore.

Ya think Zarqawi is evil now, according to Pentagon propaganda, wait several more months, Zarqawi will fly faster than superman and climb tall building like spiderman. (Osama who? Probably Pentagon wills tart saying, Zarqawi is now the leader of Al qaeda and Osama doesn't really matter)

and we gonna start spending up north of $100B/year in Iraq soon.

We'll increase troop significantly after big some big insurgency offense. GOP is going for broke.

Iran will have nuke, get out of NPT, and start supplying their people in Iraq with weapons.

and within 5 years we will have an open regional war in the middle east.

So far all my bad scenario has panned out to be true. So I am continuing my streak.

The war in Iraq has now entered different phase where it distort our domestic politics beyond PR campaign. GOP is in panick mode.

Pray hard, they don't do something stupid. (like crashing the entire national economy for eg)

[Curious]

I'm just an ordinary civilian, meaning that I have absolutely no idea how my tax dollars are being spent.
Posted by: John Howley | 06 May 2006 at 02:59 PM

It means just that. We lost institutional coherency. Everybody will do turf battle for now on. And ultimately we lost everything, because we can't keep it straight.

Our ambassador will say one thing, the black section will say another. And rival country will be able to play those differences and crack the whole thing.

Pentagon will become a mini nation creating its own diplomatic policy. Ya think the neocons are evil now, soon installing a few people inside pentagon will get them foreign policy too, instead of military analysis stove piping.

Bargain basement price. Cheap military power and global diplomacy using less than 300 people.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Is it because commitment to the enterprise is lost both in the government service and in large corporation ("Après mois le Deluge!")?

[jonst]

It all reminds me of the Godfather. Recall the line? Here is my version: "Negroponte is a pimp. He can never out fight the Iron Triangle HQ'd at the Pentagon"

The guy is a gangster. And not because of his name. But because of his actions. His left a disaster in his wake in Iraq. And he was promoted for his loyality. He is a walking, talking symbol for what is wrong with the nation.

[canuck]

I don't believe this is a power struggle. Rumsfeld has been in charge of intelligence for a very long time.

The real story is Hookergate. This administration doesn't give two hoots about America's security ... what they are interested in is appealing to their base. They can't tolerate a sex scandal because they have to appeal to their voters who would be shocked if this administration is linked with sex and bribery. So to contain it, they made up this struggle between Negroponte and Rumsfeld. Rove is at the wheel again doing damage control. Better to contain it now than to wait for Goss to be proven implicated in the scandal and be forced to resign at a later date.

[angela]

Disruption similar to the Church Committee?

Oil shocks, demoralizing moral efforts, lots of Latin America moving leftward, dollar weakening...

Deja vu? The seventies all over again. The president a hybrid Nixon/Carter?

[Curious]

Disruption similar to the Church Committee?
angela | 07 May 2006 at 03:31 PM

Obviously the last Church comitte doesn't work. Or at least the system soon snap back to business as usual after a decade or so.

The only way to cure it is to actually take out those people and put it in death row.

we wouldn't have to deal with Ford adminsitration criminals this time round had we put them all in death row last time. It saves lives too.

[W. Patrick Lang]

All

You conspiracy theorists should read the Time story on this.

Most of what happens in Washington can be explained in terms of bureaucratic politics.

CIA is dead meat except as a specialized clandestine service. pl

[Eric]

@ Pat:

A little OT, but why not.

What do you make of all SecDef's special ops teams going out into the world and helping the appatent scores of nations "threatened" by terrorists.

Seems like a recipe for One, two, many Vietnams, to paraphrase the motorcycle diary man; and "many" in a dark, self-inflicted way, given the competence quotient of the current governmental clowns.

Back to my funk hole now, to effect some improvements.

[avedis]

Col. Lang,
I would not so readily dismiss the perspectives above as being the fevered thoughts of "conspiracy theorists",

Negroponte has been a tool - an enforcer - for the darker elements of clandestine services (and the Bush family) going back to at least the early eightees. And Rumsfeld has been a loyal tool for the same crowd. I find it extremely hard to believe that any conflict exists - or is allowed to exists - between them. They've always played for the same team and been fed from the same hand. It is more reasonable to assume that talk of conflict is manufactured tripe, a smoke screen.

Furthermore, it does not matter if there is a "conspiracy" or not. Cows moo and dogs bark. These are craven men. The end product will closely resemble what the "conspiracy theorists" imagine, regardless.