Here is an interesting and rare insight into the workings and key personalities involved in our nation’s intelligence and anti-terrorism efforts:

Allen “has to solve the internal problem of getting 22 units working together,” said Loch Johnson, a political science professor at the University of Georgia who has written often about the CIA. “It’s a job probably for three people.”

…

Allen, 71, had a hand in some of the CIA’s greatest achievements and cleaned up some of its biggest messes. In 1990, he forecast Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait — a prediction that was largely ignored — and in 1998 then-CIA Director George Tenet asked him to settle turf wars within the agency after it failed to anticipate five underground nuclear tests by India.

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Allen was sitting in the operations room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in 1998 when he received word of al-Qaeda’s bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The simultaneous attacks killed more than 224 people and brought Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network to the world’s attention. Allen was immediately assigned to head up the effort to collect more information on al-Qaeda.

An independent commission’s report on the Sept. 11 attacks, while criticizing the CIA and FBI, in general praised Allen as “indefatigable” in his efforts to round up information on bin- Laden and his network.

I wonder if Allen was the rare veteran open to Able Danger’s technology and potential? He sounds like the kind of person who would be. He is clearly a long time maverick. Of course there is the old ‘playing with words’

Author James Risen in his 2006 book “State of War” said Allen oversaw a program to contact relatives of Iraqi scientists to learn whether the country was developing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Allen discovered that Saddam Hussein had abandoned these weapons programs. His superiors ignored this information, according to Risen.

We all know Saddam mothballed his efforts until sanctions were to be lifted. Suspended and abandoned are two different words. Everyone to this day seems to agree Saddam only suspended his drive for nuclear weapons. Risen is a lame headline grabber who botched the NSA program leads. Oops! Here is one strike against Allen, he has a lunatic vouching for him:

Former co-workers said Allen’s success is based on an ability to challenge superiors without alienating key supporters in the hierarchy, a knack for grooming young talent and a marathoner’s work ethic. While Allen has been willing to challenge conventional wisdom, he’s also been careful not to embarrass superiors, said Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst.

Hopefully this is simple honest admiration on Johnson’s part and Allen is not a VIPS in waiting. Is it possible he was moved to Homeland Security to clean out the CIA?