AEI slaps Paul Pillar in the LATimes

[Cassandra]

It's no secret: The CIA plays politics
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-pletka21feb21,0,2183736.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

"GALLONS OF ink have been spilled since 2003 about how the Bush administration ignored internal predictions of post-war instability, terrorism and rising Islamism in Iraq. Intelligence, critics argue, was "cherry-picked" to bolster the argument for war. What much of the public doesn't realize is that the CIA's Monday-morning quarterbacks, who originated many of the complaints, are themselves handpicking intelligence to boost their antiwar cause.

This is a well-trodden road, littered with bitter treatises and interviews from ex-spooks and hangers-on such as Michael Scheuer, the "anonymous" author of "Imperial Hubris," and former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his ex-CIA wife, Valerie Plame. The latest offering comes from Paul Pillar, a former CIA deputy counterterrorism chief, in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs.

But Pillar, while rehashing every myth about the run-up to the Iraq war (and adding a few new ones), inadvertently lays bare a rarely discussed Washington truth: that the CIA itself is a political organization. Far from being manipulated by policymakers within the Bush administration (as Pillar alleges), it is the agency that has regularly and aggressively used its intelligence gathering and analysis to bolster preformed political opinions about hot-button issues from the Cold War to Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Prevailing CIA views shine through in briefings to the U.S. government, in backgrounders to reporters and in the selective leaking of classified information. The agency recruits (and rejects) outside assets based on its own political priorities. And why not? In a town where even first-graders hold passionate political views, it seems hardly surprising that a player so integral to sensitive policymaking would too. The only shock about the politicization of the agency is that officials bother to deny it."

Snide attitude, much?

[Canuckistanian]

1. They're scared, Pillar must be on the right track

Notice there's not a word about the high-level purges of the CIA by Goss & co.

[Roland99]

2. And who commandeered the CIA in the 80s when Casey was appointed?

[leveymg]

3. Danielle Pletka - not one of the biggest AEI cannons

But, she still has friends at the LAT, where she used to work as a writer in Israel.

Wikepedia:

Danielle Pletka (born June 12, 1963 in Melbourne, Australia) is the vice-president for Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Pletka researches topics related to the Middle East, South Asia, terrorism, and weapons proliferation, and is the AEI expert on Iraq. She was a senior professional staff member for Near East and South Asia with the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1992 to 2002 — where she was a chief aide to Sen. Jesse Helms. Prior to working with the Senate committee she was a staff writer for Insight Magazine from 1987 to 1992 and an editorial assistant with the Los Angeles Times and Reuters, working in Jerusalem from 1984 to 1985.<1> (http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.50/scholar.asp)

Pletka ranks as one of the early neo-conservatives, and is also an associate of Martin Indyk. Pletka has been at the forefront of the neocon war drumming against Iraq, and she has been a champion for Ahmad Chalabi <2> (http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040607fa_fact1).

Pletka is thought to be a likely candidate to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the second George W. Bush administration.

Professional History
Senior professional staff member for Near East and South Asia, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 1992-2002
Staff writer, Insight Magazine, 1987-1992
Editorial assistant, Los Angeles Times and Reuters, in Jerusalem, 1984-1985
Affiliations
Project for the New American Century – signatory to several PNAC statements
American Enterprise Institute
Committee on the Present Danger – Member <3> (http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=52&num=13695)
Coalition for Democracy in Iran – Supporter <4> (http://www.c-d-i.org/supporters.shtml)
External References

[Cassandra]

4. As soon as I saw her name on the Op-Ed...

I recognized it from having seen her spinning away on Washington Journal.