Washington, DC
New York Times reporter Tim Weiner has hurled an extraordinary broadside at the Central Intelligence Agency in his new book, Legacy of Ashes. The CIA certainly provides any critic with much ammunition over decades of malfeasance, incompetence, and downright brutality. Indeed, we continue to pay a heavy price for so many perverse CIA interventions that, for example, brought the Baathists to power in Iraq, deposed Mossadegh in Iran, and rigged, attacked, or even toppled governments from Indonesia and Italy to the Congo and Cuba.
Weiner parlays this painful history - what Eisenhower called a legacy of ashes even back on the late '50s - into a stunning, over-the-top indictment of the CIA and its White House enablers.
Alas, therein lies the rub. Weiner's political axe-grinding goes so far that it impairs his credibility and weakens his argument. It seems that CIA has done absolutely nothing well and many things catastrophically poorly in its 50+ years. Just as MoveOn.org undercut itself with the childish, reckless, and needless "General Betray Us" ad on the eve of General Petraeus's Congressional testimony, Weiner gives the other side an undeserved weapon by diverting attention to its own decided one-way tilt. Besides, Weiner's unrelenting criticism reinforces the CIA's many inadequacies without offering any remedies. OK, it's broken. So how do we fix it? It must also be said that most of the CIA's misadventure were not unitary renegade acts. The Agency was often acting at the behest of the White House, whether it was Nixon's illegal wiretaps, Reagan's Iran-Contra stunt, or Bush's failed WMD proposition.
Sir Richard Dearlove had it just right in a recent Financial Times editorial when he wrote, "If you are disposed to think badly about the CIA, then Tim Weiner's book is for you." (September 22-23, 2007, p.7) Sir Richard is also right in urging the United States to remove the CIA from the amateurish partisan politics that has fueled its own demise, reaching an ugly nadir under the disastrous reign of Porter Goss earlier this decade.
I try to view the CIA neither in completely positive nor negative terms. Sure, the CIA is and has been a mess. Sure, the politicians to whom the agency reports rarely want the truth from the CIA, requiring only that the Agency validate their existing views and otherwise advance their political schemes. But surely, the CIA has done some things well over these many decades. And just as surely, it must be populated by some honorable people. Weiner seems to miss this part of the CIA.
Yes, we learn by building from failure, but the ability and willingness to rebuild must stem from a conviction that something is worth rebuilding in the first place. The U.S. needs a first-rate intelligence service, so Weiner and others should be framing this discussion around how to get there - and fast. The longer we simply condemn the CIA for its pitiful legacy, the longer we will live amidst Ike's legacy of ashes. Let's rise phoenix-like above these ashes and get to work.
New York Times reporter Tim Weiner has hurled an extraordinary broadside at the Central Intelligence Agency in his new book, Legacy of Ashes. The CIA certainly provides any critic with much ammunition over decades of malfeasance, incompetence, and downright brutality. Indeed, we continue to pay a heavy price for so many perverse CIA interventions that, for example, brought the Baathists to power in Iraq, deposed Mossadegh in Iran, and rigged, attacked, or even toppled governments from Indonesia and Italy to the Congo and Cuba.
Weiner parlays this painful history - what Eisenhower called a legacy of ashes even back on the late '50s - into a stunning, over-the-top indictment of the CIA and its White House enablers.
Alas, therein lies the rub. Weiner's political axe-grinding goes so far that it impairs his credibility and weakens his argument. It seems that CIA has done absolutely nothing well and many things catastrophically poorly in its 50+ years. Just as MoveOn.org undercut itself with the childish, reckless, and needless "General Betray Us" ad on the eve of General Petraeus's Congressional testimony, Weiner gives the other side an undeserved weapon by diverting attention to its own decided one-way tilt. Besides, Weiner's unrelenting criticism reinforces the CIA's many inadequacies without offering any remedies. OK, it's broken. So how do we fix it? It must also be said that most of the CIA's misadventure were not unitary renegade acts. The Agency was often acting at the behest of the White House, whether it was Nixon's illegal wiretaps, Reagan's Iran-Contra stunt, or Bush's failed WMD proposition.
Sir Richard Dearlove had it just right in a recent Financial Times editorial when he wrote, "If you are disposed to think badly about the CIA, then Tim Weiner's book is for you." (September 22-23, 2007, p.7) Sir Richard is also right in urging the United States to remove the CIA from the amateurish partisan politics that has fueled its own demise, reaching an ugly nadir under the disastrous reign of Porter Goss earlier this decade.
I try to view the CIA neither in completely positive nor negative terms. Sure, the CIA is and has been a mess. Sure, the politicians to whom the agency reports rarely want the truth from the CIA, requiring only that the Agency validate their existing views and otherwise advance their political schemes. But surely, the CIA has done some things well over these many decades. And just as surely, it must be populated by some honorable people. Weiner seems to miss this part of the CIA.
Yes, we learn by building from failure, but the ability and willingness to rebuild must stem from a conviction that something is worth rebuilding in the first place. The U.S. needs a first-rate intelligence service, so Weiner and others should be framing this discussion around how to get there - and fast. The longer we simply condemn the CIA for its pitiful legacy, the longer we will live amidst Ike's legacy of ashes. Let's rise phoenix-like above these ashes and get to work.