We have talked repeatedly about the guerrilla war that the CIA, long a Democratic stronghold, has conducted for years against the Bush administration. Increasingly, that war is breaking out into the open, and we are sorry to see that our old friend (and Deacon's former roommate) Paul Pillar appears to be playing a key role. Robert Novak reports:

A few hours after George W. Bush dismissed a pessimistic CIA report on Iraq as ''just guessing,'' the analyst who identified himself as its author told a private dinner last week of secret, unheeded warnings years ago about going to war in Iraq. This exchange leads to the unavoidable conclusion that the president of the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency are at war with each other.

Paul R. Pillar, the CIA's national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, sat down Tuesday night in a large West Coast city with a select group of private citizens. He was not talking off the cuff. Relying on a multi-paged, single-spaced memorandum, Pillar said he and his colleagues concluded early in the Bush administration that military intervention in Iraq would intensify anti-American hostility throughout Islam.

The Bush-CIA tension escalated Sept. 15 when the New York Times reported a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that was circulated in August (not July, as the newspaper reported), spelling out ''a dark assessment of Iraq'' with civil war as the ''worst case'' outcome. The NIE was prepared by Pillar, and well-placed sources believe Pillar leaked it, though he denied that at Tuesday night's dinner.

For President Bush to publicly write off a CIA paper as just guessing is without precedent. For the agency to go semi-public is not only unprecedented but shocking.

The CIA official spokesman said Pillar's West Coast appearance was approved by his ''management team'' at Langley as part of an ongoing ''outreach'' program. However, the spokesman said, Pillar told him that the fact I knew his name meant somebody had violated the off-the-record nature of his remarks. In other words, the CIA bureaucracy wants a license to criticize the president and the former DCI without being held accountable.

Through most of the Bush administration, the CIA high command has been engaged in a bitter struggle with the Pentagon.

We have said how much we admire Pillar, but it is sad to see him participating in the Agency's backstabbing of the President they are supposed to be serving. While I haven't read Pillar's report on Iraq, it is also a little hard to see how it could have contained anything especially revelatory. An invasion of Iraq might stimulate anti-Americanism in the Arab world? Really? Who knew? But what, exactly, did the CIA propose to do about the anti-Americanism that was already rife in the Arab world?

And I don't see what possible justification there could be for leaking the report after the fact--except, of course, that it was another blow in the CIA's war against the Bush administration. No wonder Bush takes information he receives from the Agency with a dose of skepticism.

Posted by John at 07:00 AM  |    |  

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/mt/mt-diespammers.cgi/8040

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The CIA's War Against President Bush:

» CIA's Rogue, But Not the Way the Old Libs Feared from Democracy Project
When I was in high school in the '70s, the news was filled with reports about the CIA and rogue missions. This was mostly an orchestrated effort (we can say that with more confidence post-Rathergate/Mapesgate) by big media and Senate... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 07:29 AM

» The CIA's War Against President Bush from The Pink Flamingo Bar Grill
Consistently one of the most wrongheaded agencies the CIA has probably been filled by the same group of people that were parading around the streets during the 60's trying to get the N. Vietnamese to win the war. The strategy of the young protesters ... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 09:54 AM

» The CIA and Partisan Politics. from Out Of Water
Powerline once again points out the self serving bureaucrats within the CIA and their blatant efforts to hurt the Bush Administration. I’m continually amazed by the politics involved in the intelligence community. Classified information that ... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 10:46 AM

» dissent from It's All Semantics
I must disagree with Hindrocket's characterization...dissent can be seen as a positive development for the Bush Administration. It crumbles one of the primary pillars of the "Bush lied" advocates' claims... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 12:24 PM

» The CIA: Still Working Against the Administration from Secure Liberty
The CIA's history of working contrary to the interests of Republican administrations continues to be a problem. I wrote previously about the CIA's funding of liberal studies. Now, from Power Line, The CIA continues its war against President Bush.... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 02:22 PM

» Porter Goss, Call Your Office from Solomonia
DCI Goss needs to go in and kick a little butt, because it looks like the ideologues in his newly assigned agency are getting way out of control. There have been frequent stories of an anti-Bush culture in the CIA,... [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 03:59 PM

» Iraq intelligence blogtoon from Error Theory
Check out my blogtoon about publishing classified intelligence. [Read More]

Tracked on September 27, 2004 08:10 PM

» online poker from online poker
In your free time, check out the sites in the field of online poker texas holdem phentermine [Read More]

Tracked on February 12, 2005 01:23 AM