The National Embarrassment Known in Some Circles As "Stansfield Turner"

The national embarrassment known in some circles as "Stansfield Turner" resurfaced a couple of days ago. In a manner analogous to a plastic mole in the local carney's Whack-a-Mole game, Turner pops up from time to time, sprays some vitriole, and ducks back into a hidey-hole.

As Jimmy Carter's CIA Director (and doesn't that say just about everything you need to know?), Turner dismantled a huge portion of the organization. Not surprising, since he's also advocated dismantling the entire Agency.

Powerline observes:

It's interesting, isn't it, that for the last six months, the newspapers have breathlessly repeated the claim that the identification of a single non-covert desk employee of the CIA, Valerie Plame, somehow did great damage to American security interests. Well, if the neutralizing of a single "agent" is so newsworthy as to dominate the papers and the evening news for months, how about firing one-quarter of all the CIA agents -- the really covert ones, I mean -- in the world? Wouldn't that compromise our security to an almost unimaginable extent? How much publicity should that act of folly generate, in comparison to the meaningless Plame farce? And how much did it receive? That comparison speaks volumes about the agenda that drives mainstream journalism.

It behooves you, it goes without saying, to read the whole thing.