Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Wednesday AM: Natives still restless
UPDATE Weds AM: Former UPI colleague Eli Lake (now of the N.Y. Sun) has a piece today about ongoing Israeli efforts to disrupt al-Manar, the Lebanese TV channel affiliated with Hezbollah (Link doesn't seem to be working ATOW). I linked yesterday to an interview with al-Manar boss Abdullah Qasir carried by Asharq al-Awsat.
Lake's piece notes that "Psy-ops are increasingly a critical part of how advanced countries fight asymmetrical war," adding that part of the Israeli campaign is designed to "sanction" (errrm, that might be a synonym for "bomb") the Lebanese people "to the point where they understand the terrible price that the country will pay for allowing Hezbollah to work in its midst."
While U.S. operations aim at "winning hearts and minds," writes Lake, "the Israelis for now are content with terrifying the friends of their enemy. 'Part of this is to instill fear,'" he quotes a former senior Israel Defense Force official as saying.
I'm still leading with my story about concern on Capitol Hill over the way Congress oversees the activities of the nation's highly secretive intelligence agencies. My story focuses on the House, because I think the bill being pushed by Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is a straw in a gathering wind. But there's also some feeling among veterans of the intelligence committee in the other chamber that the oversight process is just not working there either.
The views of Charles Battaglia, John Moseman and L. Britt Snider at this forum the Center for American Progress organized last month got too little attention at the time. They are well worth a read. Moseman's comments (page 13) on the importance of leadership are particularly worthy of note.
There are two Senate hearings likely to be interesting this morning -- both at the same time, of course.
At the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, plans to "rake (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) over the coals," as one observer put it to me, about weaknesses in their safeguards against forged documents.
Over at Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction will present his "lessons learned" report on contracting and procurement.
Bowen is a master of, erm, understatement. His bottom line? "The contracting and procurement effort in Iraq substantially improved over the course of the Iraq relief and reconstruction program," he writes. Hmmm. That is probably one way of looking at it.
It is not now widely remembered that Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., once championed the idea of putting this gentleman in charge of overseeing the spending of Katrina relief funds.
I finally got around to reading Sheryl Gay Stolberg's piece about the Bush/FEMA/Paulison event down in Miami Monday, and she made a very shrewd observation -- the president said nothing about hurricane preparedness. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Looked at from the point of view of a horrid cynic who had somehow wormed his way into the White House public affairs shop, this is a twofer. They get pictures of the president at the National Hurricane Center -- which will look soooo much better than those ones of him mucking around with musicians did last year, if there's a big storm. But -- at the same time -- if there is a big storm, and the response is still… imperfect, you have given no hostages to fortune. There will be no promises to come back to haunt you.
Ker-ching. You have to admire the way these (hypothetical) people operate.
Lake's piece notes that "Psy-ops are increasingly a critical part of how advanced countries fight asymmetrical war," adding that part of the Israeli campaign is designed to "sanction" (errrm, that might be a synonym for "bomb") the Lebanese people "to the point where they understand the terrible price that the country will pay for allowing Hezbollah to work in its midst."
While U.S. operations aim at "winning hearts and minds," writes Lake, "the Israelis for now are content with terrifying the friends of their enemy. 'Part of this is to instill fear,'" he quotes a former senior Israel Defense Force official as saying.
I'm still leading with my story about concern on Capitol Hill over the way Congress oversees the activities of the nation's highly secretive intelligence agencies. My story focuses on the House, because I think the bill being pushed by Reps. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is a straw in a gathering wind. But there's also some feeling among veterans of the intelligence committee in the other chamber that the oversight process is just not working there either.
The views of Charles Battaglia, John Moseman and L. Britt Snider at this forum the Center for American Progress organized last month got too little attention at the time. They are well worth a read. Moseman's comments (page 13) on the importance of leadership are particularly worthy of note.
There are two Senate hearings likely to be interesting this morning -- both at the same time, of course.
At the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, plans to "rake (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) over the coals," as one observer put it to me, about weaknesses in their safeguards against forged documents.
Over at Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction will present his "lessons learned" report on contracting and procurement.
Bowen is a master of, erm, understatement. His bottom line? "The contracting and procurement effort in Iraq substantially improved over the course of the Iraq relief and reconstruction program," he writes. Hmmm. That is probably one way of looking at it.
It is not now widely remembered that Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., once championed the idea of putting this gentleman in charge of overseeing the spending of Katrina relief funds.
I finally got around to reading Sheryl Gay Stolberg's piece about the Bush/FEMA/Paulison event down in Miami Monday, and she made a very shrewd observation -- the president said nothing about hurricane preparedness. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Looked at from the point of view of a horrid cynic who had somehow wormed his way into the White House public affairs shop, this is a twofer. They get pictures of the president at the National Hurricane Center -- which will look soooo much better than those ones of him mucking around with musicians did last year, if there's a big storm. But -- at the same time -- if there is a big storm, and the response is still… imperfect, you have given no hostages to fortune. There will be no promises to come back to haunt you.
Ker-ching. You have to admire the way these (hypothetical) people operate.
