National Security and Intelligence

Washington Post intelligence reporter Dana Priest was online Thursday, Sept. 22, at 12:30 a.m. ET to discuss the latest developments in national security and intelligence.

Dana Priest covers intelligence and wrote " The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military " (W.W. Norton). The book chronicles the increasing frequency with which the military is called upon to solve political and economic problems.

The transcript follows.

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Dana Priest: Hi everyone. Weather is beautiful and holding in Washington. Wish I could say so for the rest of the country. Let's chat!

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Fairfax, Va.: How will Karzai's call Tuesday for an end to U.S. military actions in Afghanistan impact American's ability to fight the war on terror? Why would the person hand-picked by President Bush to lead Afghanistan now be asking us to leave?

Dana Priest: I think he's feeling pressure from inside, which is totally predictable. Unless the US can carve out a much more limited role for itself that is acceptable to him and others there, then being forced to leave Afghanistan could indeed have a major impact on being able to find and capture Al Qaeda that may have come back in. But I do think the US has lots of tricks up its sleeve (read: money and intel/security support to keep Karzai in power).

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St Brieuc, France: Dana,

Knowing, as we did after 9-11 at least, that bin Laden was such a menace to us in Afghanistan, can our politicians seriously have believed that taking out Saddam Hussein was urgent or useful?

Surely it was a dangerous distraction from what we should have done, namely finish the job in Afghanistan? Knowing that Saddam Hussein wasn't directly helping Al Qaeda, unlike Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and perhaps others, we went ahead and destroyed his (tyrannical) government, letting Al Qaeda sympathisers set up in the power vacuum that we created. I'm not supporting Hussein, far from it, but given the danger we were in, it seems even more like criminal negligence to me now.

As a U.K. ex-pat, recent events in London and Basra make me despair, all the more so as I felt it was utter folly from the start. But believe me, there's little joy in feeling I was right in this - I can't see where we go from here, except down. Show me I'm wrong, please!

Dana Priest: The only point I think you are wrong about is this: there were/are people in the administration, including Bush and Cheney, who believe/ed -- despite overwhelming intelligence to the contrary -- that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.

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Kansas City, Mo.: A number of polls show a large number of Americans out of Iraq. While I didn't agree with the reason to go in that seems like a recipe for civil war. Is there any hope to have other countries help out, as Kerry suggested last year? Was there ever?

Dana Priest: The chances were probably better in the beginning but would have meant creating a real coalition of relative-equals with our European allies, instead of the kind of coalition that the administration put together. That said, it's the worst time ever to try to get a greater number of countries involved. On the other hand, the cost of failure is probably so firmly evident that maybe, just maybe, those same allies might see the wisdom of jumping in---but only if it were to become a genuine coalition that shares risks and benefits. I don't see the administration as willing to take that step, and it's probably an outside chance anyway.

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Montgomery, Ala.: Inside the SOF there is little debate that Karzai is right on target. Indiscriminate searches and collateral damage from 500+ lb. bombs are not the answer to the problem of hunting Al Qaeda.

I never met a 500 lb. laser guided munition that could extract information from the local tribal leaders.

Get the BIG ARMY out of there and let SOF do the work.

Dana Priest: I couldn't agree more. What's needed now is precision, and I'm not even certain SOF is it. I would like SOF and CIA very much together.

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Knoxville, Tenn.: Karzai and his government keep blaming Pakistan for its security troubles. What is always missing is details and evidence. Do you think Karzai is shifting blame from his won failures on to Pakistan?

Dana Priest: Yes, to some extent. It plays well to his audience. But Pakistan, and its problematic control over the border, is also a problem.

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Los Angeles, Calif.: Do you think it's an impeachable offense to knowingly lie to the American public in order to launch a war of choice? The evidence was overwhelming that OBL and Saddam were mortal enemies, but Bush and Cheney used their positions to enact a policy of war that Cheney endorsed PRIOR to even taking office. Kindly explain what the American people should do to exact some sort of accountability, if not impeachment?

Dana Priest: I guess it's too late to vote them out of office, which is the obvious answer and -- to state the obvious -- the election results show that the majority of voters don't agree with you.

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Toronto, Canada: In an interview on September 18th David Wilkins, was asked about the "extraordinary rendition" of Maher Arar to Syria, even though he was a Canadian citizen on his way back to Canada. Wilkins was unapologetic. He said the U.S. had "no regrets" over this rendition. Rather he promised that more Canadians would be rendered.

Unbelievably, when asked there had been no American participation in the Canadian commission inquiring into the circumstances of Arar's rendition, he said: "I honestly don't know the answer to that. Were they asked? I don't know."

In response to Wilkins statement there have been calls up here to stop sharing any intelligence with American security organs. So, can we expect a retraction from Wilkins? Or a recall to Washington?

Dana Priest: I didn't see the statement so it's hard to comment. But I can make a couple of points with certainty.

First, a technicality: Arar was not a rendition. He was an "expedited removal" by the immigration office, not the CIA, which does renditions. The authority to conduct these is a lot clearer, and public, than the covert CIA renditions. However, having said that, one could still argue that the US broke the law prohibiting transfer of individuals (in any manner and by any US agency) to a country where that person is more likely than not to be tortured. Syria certainly fits that description.

Second, the US-Canadian intel relationship will not suffer much. It's probably pretty immune from all this and that's the nature of the beast. Unless political leaders in Canada were to pass some kind of law tying their hands, these embarrassments are the cost of doing business, in the eyes of intelligence officials. And I doubt Canadian lawmakers would ever pass such a law because that relationship is so valuable on terrorism/crime/worldwide economic matters. No, the ambassador will not be recalled. He probably doesn't know much about the inquiry, by choice; keeping out of it allows him to tell the truth when he says he doesn't know.

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Arlington, Va.: Ms. Priest - I want to send you some feedback on your book _The Mission_. Can you tell me how to reach you?

Thanks!

Dana Priest: Sure. priestd@washpost.com.

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Arlington, Va.: How close to civil war are the Iraqis right now? Has the situation worsened over the last week?

Dana Priest: Sadly, one could argue it has already begun with the set of bombings against Shiites in the last two weeks.

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Hemet, Calif.: "....to state the obvious -- the election results show that the majority of voters don't agree with you."

How do the 'election' results show that - almost 11 months later?

I have been led by media to believe that our president's approval rating has dropped severely in every category of measurement.

Dana Priest: Yes, because of Iraq and Katrina. There's been no new revelations regarding your premise: that Bush and Cheney lied to go to war. That's a pre-election charge, hence known to the voters before they re-elected them.

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Toronto, Canada: Hello, thanks for taking our questions.

Human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith says his client, Gitmo detainee Shaker Aamer, that he had negotiated the July 28th end of the hunger strike with Colonel Michael Bumgarner, the Camp Delta guard commander. According to Smith, Aamer said that Colonel Bumgarner promised that the detainees would henceforth be treated consistently with the Geneva Conventions, and that the second hunger strike was a response to the camp authorities not honoring that promise. Some press accounts suggest that this second hunger strike is more widespread than the first, and that the camp authorities are in a panic as to how to respond. Do you have any information on that? How seriously would it impact President Bush's "war on terror" if detainees starve themselves to death?

Dana Priest: I don't think it will impact his "war on terror," although it could further inflame certain Muslim populations. Today, one of the papers (I don't think it was Post) reported that the number of people on the hunger strike had diminished.

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New York, N.Y.: Re: al Qaeda - Iraq links.

You write that there is "overwhelming intelligence" against "a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda".

Are you kidding me???

Even the 9/11 Commission said exactly the opposite: it detailed many links between Al Qaeda and Saddam. The 9/11 Commission only said that there wasn't a "collaborative relationship" between the two. Indeed, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton went out of their way to say that there WERE links between them.

Sheesh. I can't believe you don't have a grasp of even the simplest facts.

Dana Priest: Well the White House allegation was of a collaborative, operational nature--not something vaguer. They continually linked SH with 9-11. That's the whole point. And on that point, zilch.

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Chesapeake Beach, Md.: Is the emergency assistance role of the military a positive cash flow situation for the Pentagon? I mean, the soldiers have to eat, drive, and do all the things that they normally do each day (and the Pentagon pays for that out of the defense budget). But when they get called up for disaster relief, there is usually a special funding bill to pay for their food, transport, helicopter fuel, etc.

Basically, does the Pentagon budget suffer or benefit from disaster relief missions?

Dana Priest: The budget doesn't suffer directly, no. But readiness, troop exhaustion, wear and tear of unit equipment, etc. does. How that gets replenished, or if it gets replenished is problematic when the force is stretched so thin that's there's really no down time, no time to recoup.

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Ottawa, Canada: Do you think that, given the financial situation the U.S. government finds itself in, that the missile defence system will be quietly shelved?

Dana Priest: Good question. No. It's a cornerstone of this administration's future defense aspirations.

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Bethesda, Md.: This is my weekly (for about a year now) question about when we'll see the promised Phase II of the Iraq Intelligence hearings (on the White House use). Never hear a peep about it. Congressional amnesia? Media complicity? Does national integrity matter to anyone anymore?

Dana Priest: Very snarky. The Republicans control the hearings, if you haven't noticed. The Democrats, who think this is the big GET, haven't produced anything of interest to hint that there's some unknown smoking gun. They haven't' been able to force the issue. And as for me, The Media, well I'm just here, feet on the desk, barefoot in fact, chomping on a bowl of cereal, TV turned to "Desperate Housewives," waiting, waiting for that government handout to come my way.

Arf.

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Fairfax, Va.: NAIVE QUESTION ALERT: Why does it seem that the solutions to the world's problems is military intervention? Wouldn't it be much cheaper - both monetarily and cost to human life - to provide educational and medical assistance to the third world countries? That way groups like the Taliban would have a much harder time winning the hearts and minds of the people. I've read that new recruits, after doing their tour of duty, can net something like $100K for school. I wonder how much money those in the Peace Corps are getting? We worry about the military meeting its enlistment goals. I don't think the Peace Corp ever got as big as originally planned.

Dana Priest: Ahem, natively speaking.

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Mountain View, Calif.: I'm sure you're tired of this question, but what is up with the Plame grand jury?

Dana Priest: Sorry. I just don't know. There's been nothing in the national media about it that I've seen either. I'm certain they are still working away, given all the bad press putting Judy Miller in jail has given the administration. (or maybe they consider it good press. hard to tell).

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Long Beach, Calif.: Considering the weak and virtually non-existent ties between Osama and Saddam, and the well documented ties between Saddam and the Reagan/Bush administration, shouldn't that make Reagan a part of Al Qaeda? It's much more factual, especially considering that Reagan was the founder of the Afghani Moujahadeen, to no small extent. YOUR THOUGHTS?

Dana Priest: Ha! I think you should join the ever-growing ranks of the "link analysis" professionals. Move over Able Danger!

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Cleveland, Ohio: Hi Dana.

Do you have any information about what Robert Richer discussed in the closed session with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday?

Dana Priest: His view of Goss' leadership of the CIA.

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Va.: Is the increasing use of consultants by the IC damaging morale among career employees?

Dana Priest: Yes, I think so. Why stay in if you can make twice as much outside. My understanding is a lot of younger employees are taking this option.

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Washington, D.C.: With the resignation of Robert Richer, the ADDO at CIA, and his testimony in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday which appeared to center on the lack of leadership within the CIA, do you think Congress will start becoming more concerned about what is going on at CIA? It seems that the agency (particularly the rank and file) is in a deep funk, having been used as a scapegoat for failures of the executive branch, being continuously maligned by those within the administration and suffering from an acute lack of leadership under Porter Goss. If all of this doesn't start some generating some concern from those Congressional committees that are suppose to be providing oversight, what will?

Dana Priest: Probably another attack, unfortunately. But who will they be able to blame then? Congressional oversight is really unbelievable on this issue. There just doesn't seem to be much. On the other hand, one gets the impression there's a conspiracy (oh no, did I actually write that) to let the CIA float into oblivion and the DNI/Pentagon step in in its place.

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Anonymous: Any realistic hope that the CIA will issue a unclassified version of its Inspector General report on 9/11?

Dana Priest: I think the Congressional committee will force them to do that.

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Boston, Mass.: The obvious utter lack of any serious planning, practice or clue about what to do in the event of a major natural or terrorist attack was made clear by Katrina. This has to be a red flag to our enemies that the U.S. is utterly undefended and ripe for an attack, but I don't see any serious effort to fix the problem before it results in attacks that never would have occurred otherwise. Why aren't our leaders in panic mode? Given our lack of any serious defenses, this makes Pearl Harbor look like a traffic accident in terms of threat to the American population, so where is the super Manhattan Project, or mobilization of the country to save ourselves?

Dana Priest: Rita will be the real test. Was the Katrina mess-up a series of bad decision, or a system failure that good decision-making could not have saved. We may know soon.

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Dana Priest: Thanks again for all the great questions. Too many to answer. Have a great week---until then. Best, Dana

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