> Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Behalf Of Deborah Harrell > > The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my > friend, > > and indeed might be another enemy. It appears to > >me that this possibility has been sadly overlooked in > > US foreign policy during my entire life. > But, a variation of that principal has been > over-applied by the US in it's > intelligence work. As a result, the US has been > woefully undermanned in > human intelligence...as the 9-11 commission has > pointed out. > > Using human intelligence agents usually involved > dealing with rather unsavory characters. <snip>
Intelligence-gathering is not exactly in the same ballpark as foreign policy, but perhaps I should have been clearer: the current involvement in Iraq is at least partly based on dubious intelligence from a dubious character (Chalabi), whom this administration chose to 'believe' because it supported their preconceived notions for regime change in Iraq. If you're dealing with unsavory folk, you ought to have the sense to check out what they give you via another, unrelated channel. If 3 unrelated shady characters give you what amounts to the same info, it has a much better chance of being correct or at least potentially useful, than from one fellow with an agenda. Which points out the need for intelligence, or at least some common sense, when interpreting that aquired information. I only state the obvious for those who ought to be reading the List, but clearly have not benefitted from our collective wisdom. [Uh, that last is supposed to be sarcastic, and is *not* directed at any List member!] Debbi Now Paranoid About Her Humor Projection Maru ':) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
