Deep Cover
BY JAMES TARANTO
Best of the Web
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Our item yesterday on journalists who knew Valerie Plame was with the CIA before Bob Novak "exposed" her brought a very amusing comment from reader Stephen Wyse:
So everyone knew Valerie worked for the CIA, but no one
knew she was a secret agent? Given the increasingly
notorious ineffectiveness of our Central "Intelligence"
Agency, it's only a matter of time before they start
using "CIA analyst" as a cover. "Hi, I'm a CIA analyst
and I'm writing an op-ed piece for the Times about
weapons of mass destruction. You don't happen to know
where there are any, do you?"
On a serious note, check out this report from today's Washington Post:
<<<
The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.
The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.
The existence and locations of the facilities--referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents--are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.
>>>
Remember how upset the Angry Left pretended to be about the so-called outing of Plame? The sound you don't hear is their outrage at the Post's exposing something that really is covert and vital to national security.
opinionjournal.com
washingtonpost.com |
