Re: U.S. Intelligence Failure in Georgia

From:john.podesta@gmail.com To: rscottlilly@hotmail.com Date: 2008-08-14 20:31 Subject: Re: U.S. Intelligence Failure in Georgia

You should do an oped for the post on this. On 8/14/08, Scott Lilly <rscottlilly@hotmail.com> wrote: > > > Denis, > > I have it on good authority that the DNI was completely caught off guard by > the Russian invasion. He was, according to my information, watching CNN with > his mouth wide open. > This is a collosal failure of U.S. intelligence. > > The word inside the community is that overhead and other resources were so > fully tasked on Iraq and Afghanistan that little was left for the South > Caucuses. That indicates that the security costs presented by the Iraq > occupation are even more profound than believed by many of us who worried > about that issue. > > But even that explanation is insufficient to explain how the Russians could > have prepared for such an operation and executed it without our being > alerted. They clearly constrained radio and telephone communications, > covered their efforts to raise unit readiness and set a carefully planned > manuever into motion without tripping a single trigger of U.S. information > collection--all this despite the fact that we had U.S. military forces in > the target country. > > The fact that we had so little monitoring raises serious questions about > whether the administration was exercising an appropriate level of scepticism > about Russian intentions. Their desire to recover their lost possessions in > the region--at least Georgia and Azerbaijan--have been widely known and pre > date Putin. > > For more than four decades the Republican party has cast itself as heirs to > the traditions of Wiston Churchill and cast Democrats as naive about our > enemies and unwilling to use the force necessary to protect the nation's > interest. The administration's performance with Russia indicates that they > more closely approximate Neville Chamberland than we do. > Scott Lilly 3110 North 17th Street Arlington, VA 22201 -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com