Friday July 1, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

What a terribly stupid error.
Not to know whether or not the new President of Iran was a hostage taker, not to know who he was even before he won, while he was still a candidate.
It is like not knowing that Kurt Waldheim was responsible for the deportation of the Greek Jews from Salonika.

Not to have vetted Ahmadinejad and have the Intel out there and ready is a scandal.
It tells us, once again, how little time the US spends analyzing what is really happening in Iran.

This could never have happened in a European country or in any other Arab country. We know exactly who is who and which Saudi prince supported al Qaeda causes.
The US government has never really made it a priority to try to predict and understand the happenings in Iran. It is all bad.
The US government never invested in Intelligence gathering and analysis around Iran.
To this day there are still less than one hundred Persian speakers/analysts in the FBI. Getting more is not a priority, neither is their work given much value.

Benign neglect. That is what put the US is in this embarrassing situation.