Past CIA Directors: 'We can neither kill nor surveil our way out of terror.' [View all]

[seafan]

EyeOnMiami has this important review today of the Showtime special, "Spymasters: CIA in the crosshairs", based on interviews with living former Directors of the CIA.

.....

There are two conclusions reached by America's top spymasters. They concur on the following points, whether appointed by Republican or Democratic presidents.

The first is that terrorism is impervious to surveillance. In other words, no matter how much money we spend on tracking our enemies (or citizens), we will never root out every terrorist before they inflict their mayhem. This point stands in sharp contrast to headline stories: we have entered a new phase of "the war against terror" demanding new techniques of surveillance.

The second: we can't kill our way out of terrorism. Readers, pay attention: these are definitively not pronouncements by liberals.

Both these points need emphasis since the (GOP) Congress is rife with jingoistic calls for "more boots on the ground" in the Mideast, blaming President Obama for everything from the sun rising to the sun setting.

The documentary appears almost as though the past CIA directors, to a man, believe something strange and difficult is happening within the body politic of the United States. One can sense, in their direct appeals to the camera filming them, a need -- not to expiate, far from it -- but to explain the limits of CIA power.

It is highly unusual for top officials of the CIA to speak candidly for the record. Consider, for example, that CIA Cold War directors would scarcely allow their photos to be taken, much less be quoted in the media. So "Spymasters" signals a sense of utmost urgency for calm, rational reflection of mistakes we made, to chart a path forward.

The most shocking revelation, widely noted, is by George Tenet, an appointee of George W. Bush. Tenet explains how Condoleezza Rice, the Bush Secretary of State, failed to acknowledge and act on CIA warnings of an imminent attack on America during the summer of 2001. He brings new information to the charge.

Up to this time, the 9/11 narrative has been that a briefing paper on Al Qaeda's plan to attack America was sitting on the president's desk in August. Tenet recounts that after his staff briefed him on concrete information gleaned from surveillance of some of the 9/11 terrorists in June 2001, he was so worried that he instantly disrupted Rice's schedule to convene a meeting with her and his senior staff. In her memoir, Rice reports she does not recall the meeting of any special significance because the terrorism threat had been a constant agenda item during this period of time, but Tenet contradicts Rice. He "slammed his fist on her desk" in an emergency meeting. Afterwards? "Nothing."

The second admission -- by Robert Gates, a Bush CIA director held over by President Obama in his first term -- is self-evident to anyone who has paid attention to the tragic costs of war since 9/11. Gates says to the camera, and to the world, in effect: "Imagine how the world would have been different, if we had not gone to war in Iraq under false pretenses."

In the end, what these CIA directors emphasize -- except perhaps George HW Bush -- is that the best we can hope for through the application of CIA involvement in the Mideast is to "buy time and space" for politicians with the will and moral authority to solve problems that cannot be resolved by war. The key message is "we cannot kill our way out of terror".

(Emphasis added)



'.....except perhaps George HW Bush'---- (CIA Director from January 30, 1976 until January 20, 1977)

That says it all.



Moral, political and socioeconomic will has been virtually unseen in our political leaders for many years.


The time is now for widespread change, instituted by those who possess that will.