I cannot disagree with your list of debacles. I have truly wondered about the Berger incident. They guy should be in jail. The Plame investigation is a fishing expedition which I seriously doubt will imact Bush or his administration (I have a category on that subject as well). DC does get more than its fair share of bogus stories – too many reporters with too little news.

As ponderous as things are in DC, it wouldn’t surprise me that Bush & Co. knows nothing of this and are learning just as we are.

The dilemna arises when the exceptions lead to information that threatens US interests that the foreign governments are entirely unaware of.

I guess I should have been clearer. It can make sense to bring these people into our spider web – not doubt. But maybe in hind sight it was too risky. And hopefully in the future we do not play such games – we let them in to arrest them immediately. But my point also was the supposed disconnect from the 9-11 testimony of Bergler and Clarke that everyone was on the look out for AQ in the US in 2000 due to all the near misses we dodged at the Millenium.

So your point is valid for normal times probably pre 1999. But it makes little sense in 2000, at least according to Clinton’s people.

frustrating aspects of the ABLE DANGER scandal has been the insidious set of roadblocks

Rahman was cleared for entry by a N.O.C. CIA agent.

Additionally, the American Consulate in Jeddah was issuing visas for all sorts of unsavory characters for entry into the United States prior to 9/11 and claims have been made that the CIA was effectively operating the consulate in Jeddah.

Thanks for the kind words. I have lived and worked around DC my entire life. It is not anymore dysfucntional than any human endeavor, it takes time for important issues to break down barriers and be recognized sometimes. The same group that were able to ID Bin Laden as the prime culprit and have us militarily in Afghanistan within weeks of 9-11 (and trust me – that is incredibly fast, some skids had already been greased due to Bush’s pending order to go after the Taliban and AQ), took this long to see the import of Able Danger.

The reason I knew early on Able Danger was a pilot program was by the response of the establishment. It was a fluke, lucky hit by a program that was tried and tossed. It is rare for things like that to rise again from the ashes. Able Danger had not established any credibility yet – and in fact may have had a terrible reputation from what the MY Post is telling us.

This is not abnormal – it is normal. We do not put our security in the hands of fly by night promises and quirky results. But it is still important to change the mindset in government to not dismiss new ideas or methods too quickly or because they can make the govies uncomfortable. When all is said and done I think that will be the case. What else was the Gorelick wall for except to minimize headaches for govies in their jobs? It was too much to have to deal with complex issues of law and PR and so they dealt with it ostrich style.

That is human nature my friend. That has nothing special to do about our government or our elected leaders. And so Bush has little to gain by going through organizations he needs at peak performance and on their toes doing the blame game. What happened will come out. It just cannot be allowed to distract us from our prime purpose: the war on terror.

BTW, great job on the Able Danger debacle here and in the comments elsewhere. Just One Minute and Cap’n Ed’s commenters ask some very intelligent questions. I wish others would post here also.

BurbankErnie