CIA's Panetta, DNI Blair Must End Turf War and Switch Jobs

As this is written, in January of 2010, it is easy to see that this is an extremely well written article.

The main lesson of 911 was that Intel agencies needed to share info - but it also shed some light on the differences between the FBI and the CIA: The FBI is absolutely bound by the laws protecting all American Citizens, legal immigrants and visitors within U.S. territories, while the CIA has to operate in hostile environments that often respect no laws.

Civil and criminal courts are very different from military tribunals, just as common criminals are very different from enemy combatants and prisoners of war. Most people do not understand how the Geneva Convention applies to prisoners of war but not to enemy combatants.

This of course is a shame, but pales in comparison to not understanding that common criminals are considered innocent until proven guilty, while enemy combatants are 'by nature' captured in a war zone and considered guilty until proven otherwise.

Our military is in a war zone to win battles, not to gather evidence for lawyers to prosecute common criminals. In a war zone its kill or be killed! Captured enemy combatants are usually the lucky ones that manage to survive a loosing battle to an honorable and civilized opponent. Terrorists do not fall into that category and they usually do not take prisoners - instead, they take hostages to bargain with or to torture and decapitate on video to further their cause.

The war on terrorism is a misnomer: we are really in a war against Radical Islam. There are no 'prisoners of war' possible here, unless the terrorists start wearing uniforms with a country insignia and begin identifying themselves by name, rank, and serial number.

Black Ops are never meant to see the light of day and laws are meaningless on either side. Morality does not enter the equation here. A proper Commander-in-Chief can only provide guidance and must not attempt to micromanage field ops.

Diplomacy enters the equation at the Director of National Intelligence level, as he or she not only coordinates sharing information, but perhaps more importantly, as he or she makes sure that our laws are not violated by agencies under homeland jurisdiction.

Political Correctness cannot and should never be part of any calculation involving national security. A proper Commander-in-Chief would know the difference between image politics and the realities of a command structure geared towards security as the primary and mission-critical objective of the intelligence community.

The Constitution requires a Commander-in-Chief to be a Natural Born Citizen as a safeguard against 'divided loyalties'. Complexity and chaos between the various security agencies and the DNI command structure is a fatal flaw that could easily be exploited from within.

While we should all feel embarrassed by the recent failures of our DNI, CIA and FBI directors, we are still failing to connect the dots about our own president.

Sunnstarr of CA 3:24AM January 27, 2010