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the rat wiretap trap

Posted by zeugma on June 17, 2006, at 17:28:11

In reply to Re: Is anyone suggesting » AuntieMel, posted by Bobby on June 11, 2006, at 12:28:21

perhaps people are happy because of all the lives that have been saved in the future. I realize that the violence will go on, but we have killed a very big rat. >>

The violence in all likelihood will get worse.

The problems I have with characterizing anyone, even an enemy, as a "rat" are on many levels, perhaps interrelated.

First, it dehumanizes the enemy, which purportedly is what the enemy has done to us.

Second, it is a grave strategic error... to characterize Zarqawi as a "rat" is to engage in the same kind of propaganda (of course, you weren't propagandizing- but were you to have been doing so, say on al Jazeera, it would have constituted the same type of error) that the U.S. psy-ops crew did in describing Zarqawi as "fumbling with an AK-47" as they did both on release of some of his tapes earlier, and in describing footage recovered after his death. Characterizing an enemy as inept is just bad tactics given the string of attacks Zarqawi pulled off, deft hand with an AK-47 or no. The U.S. release of that footage while Zarqawi was still alive struck me with dismay, much as General Michael Hayden (successor to the eminent Porter Goss as head of the CIA) struck me with dismay when he characterized his typical opposite number in a major terrorist syndicate as "some idiot in a cave in Waziristan."

Presumably, the 'idiot' could have rightly replied that Gen. Hayden was lacking in foresight himself, because he was (prior to Mr. Bush's elevation of Gen. Hayden to the highest post in our intelligence organization) most widely known as the man who intercepted a phone call from a known al Qaeda operative in the U.S. (who was soon to engage in simultaneous suicide and mass homicide) stating "tomorrow is zero hour."

Unfortunately, the call was conducted in Arabic, and back then the NSA's zeal for wiretapping significantly outran its 'humintel' capacities (ie, Gen. Hayden's huge expenditures on snooping equipment meant that translators could not be afforded). As a matter of fact I had heard that one reason Gen. Hayden was better suited as head of the CIA, rather than of the NSA, was that the CIA's traditional focus on 'humintel' meant that he could not run up the budget so much on wiretapping devices and other gadgetry known only to a select few outside of AT&T operating rooms. Which is an odd commendation, but likely salved the conscience of a fiscal conservative or two. (There is erroneous thinking here too, but I won't go into it.)

Perhaps Gen. Hayden, on 9/10/01 and prior, thought English was the lingua franca of terrorists, even those whose birthplaces were Saudi Arabia and other points east.

I do not say this to criticize Gen. Hayden, who brings to the CIA a wealth of experience in wiretapping skills. I merely say that I do not overestimate those who underestimate their enemies.

-z


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poster:zeugma thread:654613
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060610/msgs/658083.html