FORMER-CIA ANALYST PILLAR MAKES HOLLOW, WEASEL-WORDED CHARGE

I just saw Pillar on THE SITUATION ROOM. He is the former head of the MIDDLE EAST DESK at the CIA. He's making a big splash these days because of an article he wrote that's published in FOREIGN AFFAIRS which is critical of Bush and the Iraq War. Pincus of the WASHPOST also wrote up a big article twisting Pillar's criticial article into a full frontal BDS ATTACK piece.

Well, as I said, I read the articles and just saw Pillar on CNN, and get this: Pillar agreed with clips from Bush and Cheney in which they argued that the USA intel and foreign intel "OVERWHLEMINGLY" concluded that Saddam had WMD stockpiles.

Pillar also greed that the Silberman-Robb Commisssion Report was entirely accurate when they asserted that there had been ABSOLUTLEY NO coercion put on ANY intel analyst to change or alter or spin their opinions; not ONE IOTA.

Pillar claims it was a subtle "politicization." of the intel. THOSE ARE WEASEL WORDS. I wonder if he - like another former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer and Cindy Sheehan - believes we went to war for Israel's securtity, and not ours!? It wouldn't surprise me.

HERE'S THE FRIGGIN BOTTOM-LINE: Saddam had done nothing - as in ZERO, NADA, ZILCH, BUPKUS - to earn the benefit of the doubt. In fact, Saddam had done TONS OF STUFF which made REASONABLE people ALL OVER THE WORLD consider him totally untrustworthy - HENCE, "THE FULL AND FINAL OPPORTUNITY" TO COME CLEAN; AKA: UNSCR#1441. Saddam did NOT come clean. Kay and Duelfer BOTH concluded Saddam WAS IN VIOLATION OF UNSCR#1441. Therefore war was the only answer.

And let me ask Pillar this: did he or his INCOMPETENT comrades in the CIA uncover the FACT that Arafat and his stooges pilfered BILLIONS from the PNA and were ACTIVELY suppporting terror? Nope. In fact, Pillar's career is one of FAILURE after FAILURE. FROM PINCUS:

Pillar, retired after 28 years at the CIA, was an influential behind-the-scenes player and was considered the agency's leading counterterrorism analyst.

In all his years as CHIEF OF THE MIDDLE EAST COUNTER-TERRORISM DESK, did the CIA prevent any terrorist attacks on us!? Or did the CIA allow us to get attacked OVER AND OVER AGAIN! Beirut. The embassies. Khobar. The USS Cole. In other words: Pillar's desk was UTTERLY INCOMPETENT at it's assigned duties, and I for one would never EVER put any value on his opinion on ANYTHING. Pillar is a loser and liar and a weasel. A DISGRUNTLED weasel at that.

And here's the BIGGEST thing WRONG WITH PILLAR: he is NOT a decision maker; he is a service provider. In our DEMOCRACY the ELECTED leaders MAKE POLICY. This seems to upset Pillar - and most LEFTIES: they've always preferred the "POLITBURO" approach to public policy, in which "career bureaucrats" - UNELECTED AND UNACCOUNTABLE INSIDERS, (like other disgruntled WHINERS: Larry Wilkerson and Richard Clarke and Rand Beers) - make policy. And that is un-democratic and bad. Here's EXACTLY what this anti-democratic AS--OLE Pillar recommends (from his FA article):

The community needs to remain in the executive branch but be given greater independence and a greater ability to communicate with those other constituencies (fettered only by security considerations, rather than by policy agendas). An appropriate model is the Federal Reserve, which is structured as a quasi-autonomous body overseen by a board of governors with long fixed terms.

He WANTS A QUASI-AUTONOMOUS SPY AGENCY!? Sheesh. He is EXACTLY WRONG. The people in the CIA need MORE accountability - (because of their countless, nearly constant FAILURES) - not less accountability.

BOTTOM-LINE: Bush was re-elected. And that means that as far as the way we went to war: THE CASE IS CLOSED. Lefties are wasting their time if they think this issue can have any traction or value. It's like arguing about whether FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attack BEFORE it happened and ALLOWED it to happen to galvanize support for the war. A stupid waste of time.

RIGHT NOW.... we are in a similar situation with Iran: our intelligence services - and that of MOST of the world - indicate that the Iranians are trying to build nuclear weapons. All we know for sure is that they LIED about their nuclear research activities FOR 18 YEARS! And that makes them as trustworthy as Saddam.

And given what's at stake, we cannot afford to err on the side of caution. WE MUST PRE-EMPTIVELY DESTROY IRAN'S NUCLEAR ASSETS AND THEIR OFFENSIVE MILTARY ASSETS. Even if it turns out that Iran has no nuke weapons program. The cost of doing nothing and being wrong is far FAR greater.

Bush has said as much. Bush has said OVER AND OVER again that he will NOT give tyrants the benefit of the doubt. Jerks like Pillar want to. That's why we shouldn't listen to them. That, and the fact that they're NOT elected, and NOT accountable.

UPDATE: BTW, you'd think Pillar never heard of the friggin 1998 Iraq Regime Change Policy Act. Signed by Clinton. Sheesh. I mean to read Pillar, you'd NEVER think that getting rid of Saddam was the friggin offical policy of the USA ever since Democrat Clinton was POTUS. You'd think - from reading Pillar - that it was an idea hatched in Texas by Rove and Cheney and Wolfowitz (while on the phone with their Zionist boss Arik Sharon and their other boss the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and their other bosses at Halliburton).

And to read Pillar, you'd never know that JUST IN ORER TO GET INSPECTORS BACK IN, Bush had to amass 500,000 troops in the region (on land and on ships). And you'd think the inspectors were NOT meeting with any delays or deciet or obfuscation. And you'd think that Saddam's "full and final" report was full and final. And you'd think that it was the inspectors jobs to play "DETECTIVE" and not merely audit the factuality of the "full and final report."

IN SHORT, WHAT PILLAR HAS DEMONSTRATED MOST IN THIS ARTICLE IS WHY THE CIA HAS BEEN AN ABJECT FAILURE FOR THE LAST FEW DECADES. WITH MEN LIKE HIM RUNNING THE SHOW, IT'S A MIRACLE WE WON THE COLD WAR! (And probably we woulda lost that one too, if not for Casey and Reagan!)

UPDATE: (MORE on moron Pillar HERE from WEEKLY STANDARD hat tip NRO.)

UPDATE #3: Three days later and POWERLINE posts a comment which reiterates exactly what I've written here. More proof that TAB scoops the big boys BIGTIME - just about everyday.