National Security and Intelligence

Washington Post intelligence reporter Dana Priest was online Thursday, June 1, at 12:30 p.m. ET to discuss the latest developments in national security and intelligence.

Priest was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting .

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: I'm in....let's begin.

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Raleigh, N.C.: Thanks for doing the chat. It's a great place for policy discussion; too many other chats, by their nature, are about politics.

The lefty blogs have been having some fun with Thomas Friedman for his recent pronouncement that the next 6 months will be crucial in determining the fate of Iraq. It turns out he's been periodically writing the same thing for a few years now. Someone compiled a list of them, and it got linked a bunch of places. "Wolf, wolf!!"

Which leads me to my question. In your opinion, has the "most important 6 months" happened yet, or is it still to come? If it's already happened, what do you deem the crucial period? If not, when do you think it will come?

Or is the whole question off base, as it presupposes that decisions by Iraqi and U.S. leaders could have done anything more than alter slightly the course of the mighty river of Iraqi's historical and societal trends?

P.S...don't mean to bash Friedman, just wanted to use his recent writing to set up the question.

Dana Priest: I do think the question is not answerable unless, in a way, it was obvious that the most important six months had already passed. That may sound illogical, but it's never been possible to predict what is going to happen there (I know many bloggers and pundits will take credit for doing so however). That said, since the violence continues to escalate and no political tipping point has emerged, I cannot fathom how things are going to turnaround at this point. But they could.

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East Cleveland, Ohio: Dana, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being high, how shocked would you be if the young students in Iran launched a Tiananmen Square-style protest within the next 12-to-18 months?

Dana Priest: 7. 7 being "fairly shocked." For this reason: the two governments are incredibly different. China is authoritarian and Iran is, well, less so. There are many more avenues for young people to express their political views, to protest, without going out on the streets.

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Oberlin, Ohio: Hi Dana, do you think the investigation into the Haditha violations of military code will proceed more rigorously than the one for the Abu Ghraib violations? I mean in terms of looking up the chain of command.

Dana Priest: Absolutely positive. Now, whether that will be made public, I'm less certain. That will probably take a fair amount of gumshoe reporting.

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Dallas, Tex.: Big one here:

My wife asked me this morning what would happen if the U.S. simply pulled out of Iraq. After five minutes of blustering about civil war (acknowledged, and far worse, that is), and Kurds and Turkey, and Shia and Iran, and al Qaeda in Saudia Arabia, and Musharraf in Pakistan I realized I had no idea. I know that no one does, but do you? What do the experts tell you?

Dana Priest: I think you're right. A civil war that Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Jordan and Syria either leap into or are drawn into.

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Las Vegas, Nev.: Listening to the going in Kabul recently if we (U.S.) pulled out now, would that country be any better than after the Russians left?

Secondly taking in what happened in Haditha, it seems like the Bush administration and U.S. military have learned nothing from Abu Ghraib and that is cover ups will get exposed?

Dana Priest: The main difference is that the Taliban, which we considered the enemy of our enemy--the Soviets--are now really our enemy and they have different intentions vis a vis the U.S. So they would be able to come back in full force and Al Qaeda would probably take advantage of that and move back too.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: I've always been a bit skeptical of the effectiveness of the position that Mr. Negroponte holds in terms of overseeing the CIA. As Gen. Hayden is the new "DCI" (if they still call that position that these days), do you see him working with Negroponte to clarify roles between Negroponte and himself?

Dana Priest: Oh definitely. Remember, Hayden was Negroponte's deputy and they were said to work quite well together. So I would imagine that's the plan. They have the legislation to guide them, but the real nuts and bolts will be worked out between them--and DOD.

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Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: In defense of the detention and spying practices of the last few years, members of the Bush administration will sometimes note that there have been no attacks since 9/11. But I wonder how much useful information has been extracted from the detainees and all of the surveillance taking place. How much, would you guess, have we gleaned from some of these questionable practices?

Dana Priest: Probably some important things earlier on, but that was now four years ago. On eavesdropping, I would guess that the most important intelligence has been gathered overseas. I still haven't even heard a whiff of anything really critical here, domestically, that we don't know about (Padilla, etc.)

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Munich, Germany: Do you see perhaps a troika developing between Cuba, Venezuela and China, which would use medical expertise, oil and industrial strength to exert more influence in the third world?

Cuba, together with Venezuela, has accomplished a bit of public relations coup by sending thousands of doctors to third world countries. For instance, Musharraf praised Cuba for its large contribution of medical help after the earthquake in Pakistan.

Dana Priest: I think you've spotted what we call "a trend." I can definitely see it continuing.

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Va.: Why did the New York Times print a picture of Gen Hayden with covert CIA employees on the front page?

Dana Priest: I would bet anything that they were not covert. The agency would never have allowed a news photographer into the building to do that. Still, it was a rare photo indeed.

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Rockville, Md.: After some thought - I watched Victory at Sea over the break - I wonder how we decide how many casualties in Iraq are "too many."

Is it a matter of government propaganda? Press coverage? Or just a profound shift in attitudes?

What confuses me is that we were able to keep going and win in WWII, but we have many who want to pull out of Iraq in the face of very light losses - compared. I don't think the White House has done enough to explain it all.

But it is bound to affect national security.

Dana Priest: Various experts doing polling on this subject, as, I'm sure, do the Democratic and Republican parties. But I think it's a shifting line, and depends, as you suggest, on what the American people believe the goal of a war is and how much sacrifice that goal is worth. The second part is not static. It changes over time and could blossom into a profound shift in attitude over time.

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Sugar Loaf, N.Y.: How do you view the trade-off between national security programs, and the public's right to know what the government is up to? I'm not willing to give up civil liberties for perceived security. If the government is doing something illegal, then we have the right to stop them.

Dana Priest: It's really on a case by case basis that I'd have to judge the issue. I do not accept a blanket trade-off, as some in the government suggest. That's one reason newspapers follow stories into the classified world. Knowing what we do as a nation in times of war, or in the name of war--much of it classified--is critical if we are trying to figure out whether a small group of people (the government) is acting faithfully on our behalf, following the rules we all agree on through our courts, our elections, etc, or are off on some other course.

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Laurel, Md.: What troubles me about the early reports of the civilian slaughter by Marines is that civilians were killed "in cold blood."

Is there any evidence to substantiate that? It sounds like a small team of Marines had overreacted to an IED attack that killed one of their comrades, in an area that had killed twenty others recently. So far as I can tell, the shootings occurred in four nearby houses right after the IED attack, and the Marines may have been taking small arms fire at the time.

The phrase "in the heat of battle" seems a lot more fitting than "in cold blood". But an anti-Bush press got it wrong again.

Dana Priest: I take great exception to your view that a so-called "anti-Bush press" would hype a story like this. I don't know if you have ever met or spoken to any reporter who has ever covered Iraq or the military, but this idea that the press is cheering for the other side is nuts. They are trying to assess things that happen under the worst circumstances--the fog of war combined with being targets of attacks themselves. Do you really think that if this incident was simply a reaction to an IED attack that the head of the Marine Corp would be traveling throughout Iraq, that one general's promotion would be put on hold and that the Bush would have weighed in publicly already? Come on.

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Boston, Mass.: If the military is beginning to mandate "core values" training, 2 questions: why are they not getting it before they're put in a combat position, and second, is this an acknowledgement that killing civilians is thought to be ok - military wide (since everyone will presumably be getting this training?)?

Dana Priest: It really varies from unit to unit. In Iraq, one commander would tell his troops that disrespecting Iraqis was tantamount to working for the enemy, in others, just about any action was okay if it could be considered "force protection." To the second part. No, no, no, killing civilians is not viewed as okay.

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Dana! What's your opinion of the fairly large funding cuts in the DHS grants to Washington and New York? Seems like they should be getting the majority of the money to me, but I'm interested in your expert opinion. Have there been a lot of plots uncovered that would have affected other areas (like the LA plot)? And how secure is Texarkana?!

Dana Priest: I can't find any rational explanation for shifting money away from the main target areas. Most experts thought DHS would take money away from smaller, rural places where, five years later, no real threat has been identified, and give it to DC and NYC, LA too. And it's suspicious that DHS won't release the names of the panel that made these recommendations. Could there be some pork-barrel politics involved? Impossible!

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Richmond, Va.: Do you see any political fallout for the administration from the big cuts in homeland security dollars for NYC and D.C.? I understand that homeland security presents pork barrel opportunities for members of Congress, but I don't understand why the administration doesn't seem more focused on protecting the small number of cities that might really be the targets of a WMD attack.

Dana Priest: There is a whole lot that DHS does and doesn't do that is not understandable.

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McAllen, Tex.: Do you think the new era in CIA going to be better that before? I mean, is the beginning of a really unity between the U.S. intelligence community?.

Dana Priest: I wouldn't go so far as to say this is the beginning of "a new unity" in the intel community overall. So many obstacles to that still exist. But, I do think the new CIA director will be good at knocking down some of those obstacles, sees the value in doing so, and is being welcomed as a relief by the CIA after a very contentious time.

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Fort Collins, Colo.: I keep hearing that the Senate and House will start to play a more active role in watching over national security agencies, but I don't seem to see any real action.

Is Congress actually holding any hearings at this time that provide effective oversight of national security activities such as warrantless wiretaps, phone call pattern analysis etc.? Are they doing things behind the scenes? Or is this just all a public relations campaign?

Dana Priest: This is such an important question and, unfortunately, it is just very hard to tell. No other committee on the hill bares the kind of unique responsibility that the intel committees do, given the fact that they alone are privy to so much classified information, the real activities that go on in their agencies. Yet they hold few public hearings. The meatiest hearings on the NSA program were not from the intel committees, but from Specter's Judiciary Committee. And the questioning of Hayden during his confirmation produced nothing useful. They claim they are doing a better job. I see no proof of that. But I admit it is hard to judge.

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Sonoma, Calif.: Seriously, I must have missed something.

We demand that Iran abandon its nuclear development program and we will agree to come to the negotiations table and discuss our demands that Iran abandon their nuclear development program.

Please explain what appears, on the surface at least, to be another Bushism.

Thank you.

Dana Priest: You could look at it that way. But you could also look at it another way: a dialogue, if undertaken, could lead to some surprises from either or both sides. Yesterday, Rice acknowledge the Iranian people's right to civilian nuclear power. That's interesting.

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Washington, D.C.: Dana,

The papers and TV were all filled with stories that said, basically, the Iraqis were "jaded," or "inured" to civilian deaths on a daily basis and Haditha would not have the impact of Abu Ghraib...

Do you buy it?

Dana Priest: not at all.

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Munich, Germany: Global warming has been making the headlines more often these days, even in the States. Do you think that the CIA is working to determine how this will affect the power balance between nations in the future?

I've read that the big insurance companies are already taking global warming quite seriously.

Dana Priest: I would certainly hope so. I do believe they follow such long-term trends and try to game them out. You can find assessments like that in the Global 2020 report, which is on their Web site.

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Palo Alto, Calif.: So, if the FBI is willing to raid Congressional offices, what's the likelihood that the NSA is monitoring Congressional wire and wireless communications?

Dana Priest: That's a far, far stretch, really.

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Washington, D.C.: What knowledge or specialized experience do you have that makes you qualified to discuss national security and intelligence matters? Have you ever held a clearance or been directly involved in national security making decisions?

Dana Priest: I'm a reporter, I don't now, and have never had, a security clearance. And as an observer, I'm never a participant either. Other than that, I covered the military for The Post for eight years, wrote one book on the military and have tried to write about the CIA and intelligence community for the past four years. The only reporters here who have the kind of direct experience you are implying are the two doctors on staff who write about medical issues. Finally, bio-wise, there's lots more on the web if you are still concerned, as you sound.

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Washington, D.C.: I haven't had a chance to read your book but its on the list. In your research going into it, did you find that when soldiers are placed in odd roles not based on their training that they were more or less likely to 'snap'? Or is this simply a grim, tragic consequence of war that is eventually bound to happen?

Dana Priest: Both. Much of my book is exactly on the issue of sending the military to do non-military jobs. I hope to get to it. Summer reading? hmm.

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Dana Priest: Okay, well, it's time to go--a half an hour ago. Hope to catch you next week if I didn't get to your question today.

Cheers, Dana

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