resignation story, and is the first (AFAIK) to suggest the obvious truth that Tenet’s resignation is the result of a lost pissing match between he and the administration.

I imagine it went something like this: Chalabi and other Iraqi expats had been discredited in the CIA for years, though there was a continued relationship. They worked with them, but the CIA likely had a very low confidence in what came from these folks. (Coincidentally, this would explain why information about WMD would not have provoked stronger action previously as well – it would have been irresponsible to “move” based on the information through discredited sources). When Bush and in particular Cheney, Perle, and Wolfowitz came to town, Chalabi gained a new status and all of a sudden information that was floating around but not enough to justify a US committment became the gold standard. The world also got a lot more binary at that time, and it is likely that the adminstration forced Tenet’s hand on this by saying “but he still works for you, right?” rather than understanding that in intelligence, you can have people you don’t trust on the payroll. This was probably always a source of tension between the CIA and the Bush admistration, and Tenet probably tried to put things right (according to the CIA point of view) now that it’s becoming clear that Chalabi’s interests have not been concurrent with US interests for some time. He lost.

was back in the news yesterday, as the Justice department in the US released supposedly damning information about Padilla and his supposed dirty-bomb intentions. Here’s the wire story: Suspect Sought to Blow Up Buildings.

Something has been bothering me about the whole thing though. Well, lots has been bothering me, in particular holding someone indefinitely without charges and only grudging and very limited access to counsel. But that’s not what’s bothering me since yesterday. I think the “evidence” that is supposed to show that Padilla is a Very Bad Guy is a joke. Not that it’s weak, or figuratively a joke – I think it’s really a joke. I think someone is playing Ashcroft for a fool on this whole thing.

Read this description from the wire story. Padilla et al were, “to locate as many as three high-rise buildings that had natural gas. They were to rent two apartments in each building, seal all the openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings simultaneously at a later time.”

That’s not a terrorist plot, that’s Fight Club (the book and in particular the movie)! Go take a look at the screenplay and do an in-page search for “HISS” to find the relevent passage.