Sunday, April 23, 2006

Mary McCarthy

From the NYT, concerning the analyst who apparently quit playing by
the rules:

Colleagues Say C.I.A. Analyst Played by the Rules
By DAVID S. CLOUD

WASHINGTON, April 22 — In 1998, when President Bill Clinton ordered military strikes against a suspected chemical weapons factory in Sudan, Mary O. McCarthy, a senior intelligence officer assigned to the White House, warned the president that the plan relied on inconclusive intelligence, two former government officials say.

Ms. McCarthy's reservations did not stop the attack on the factory, which was carried out in retaliation for Al Qaeda's bombing of two American embassies in East Africa. But they illustrated her willingness to challenge intelligence data and methods endorsed by her bosses at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Also, it illustrates that intelligence isn't always a cut and
dried, sure thing. Sometimes the reports disagree, that's why you
have analysts. Sometimes the analysts disagree, that's why you have
bosses. What you can't have is individuals deciding that they are
above the system; being so sure of themselves that they feel ok with
betraying their leaders' trust. Of course Ms McCarthy felt that she
knew better than her superiors. Don't we all? Didn't she consider that
opinions other than her's were taken into account before policy was
decided?

And put it this way, if Mary McCarthy had played by the rules and risen
through the ranks to become the Director of the CIA, wouldn't she demand
the allegiance of every single person in the agency? Wouldn't she see to
it that the organization under her care punish the Mary McCarthys who
seek to decide US policy on their own? As they say up north, ja sure,
you betcha she would.

0 comments:

fighting101s.jpg