HARDthink

Late last night (there has got to be a decent song in there somewhere) I was watching Tim Sebastian interviewing Philip Giraldi. Giraldi used to be a Counter Terrorism agent with the CIA between '76 and '92. The interview was fantastic, sadly the BBC does not produce transcripts of the interview and interviews are not repeated.

Most of Giraldi's arguments are reproduced in this article printed in the American Conservative.

I'll try not to misrepresent what was said during the interview, but the basic points, and points I found interesting, were:
1)Despite the billions of dollars spent on the war on terror, there have been few actual gains. Indeed, now that terrorist cells are acting on smaller, more localized systems it is becoming harder and harder for counter terrorist agents to track and close down terrorist cells. The result is/may be that the world is a more dangerous place because of this.
2)The Bush Administration has been exceedingly hostile toward Syria. Some Neocons are seriously considering intervention in Syria, although the logistics of this make this scenario unlikely. Syria has provided a large quantity of accurate intelligence and are actually trying to help the United States. This has not been taken into account and it appears that the 'You're either for us or against us' doesn't necessarily apply in this case.
3)No-one in the Bush Administration has been punished since September 11 2001. Bush isn't interested in accountability.
4)There is a tension in the pentagon between those in the military and the civilians over what needs to be, and what can be, done. Interestingly, I got the impression the civilians were more hawkish.
5)The war in Iraq has detracted from the war on terror, despite the two being linked by the Administration.
6)The UN had the most accurate intelligence regarding Iraq. Everything they stated has since come to pass. The US intelligence (or manipulation thereof) was wrong on almost every count.

Not all of the points were that surprising, however it was nice to hear them from a conservative US ex-counter-terrorism expert. He isn't very popular in Washington, but states that there is a lot of unease in intelligence and military circles over what is happening.

Torshin is in a far better position to comment on the legitimacy of the above - esp re Syria.

In other news, this site is so bad I could laugh - albeit painfully. Apparently, the UN is evil and is out to destroy your individual rights (to destroy the environment...). My personal 'favourite', however, has to be this 'article'.

"The UN's International Kangaroo Court
America's court system - the most fair, free and transparent in all the world - isn't perfect. But that doesn't mean its power should be usurped by jurists 8,000 miles away who are not elected, selected or directed by anyone responsible to American voters."

I don't think I can do that comment justice.