A VERY THIN LINE
By Jim Marcinkowski on July 20, 2007 at 8:02 PM in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, CIA, Current Affairs, Pakistan
By Jim Marcinkowski and Kelly Raskauskas
Without sufficient caffeine, I opened yesterday morning’s NY Times to find my local legislator quoted in the front-page story, Bush Aides See Failure in Fight With Al-Quaeda in Pakistan.
“We have to change policy,” said Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee who has long advocated a more aggressive American intelligence campaign in Pakistan.
Suitably fortified with a second cup of coffee, I re-read the article.
Changing policy? Well, gosh! That’s a GREAT idea!! Though one wonders just how long Mr. Rogers thinks we haven’t been aggressive enough in Pakistan…
Less than a year ago, Mr. Rogers spoke at a Brighton (Michigan) Chamber of Commerce breakfast, touting his credentials as a member of the House Intelligence Committee. He called Afghanistan “a great success story” and Pakistan “a great friend.” He attributed reports of escalating violence in Afghanistan solely to Pakistan’s anti-terror efforts, and noted that progress in the region has been continuou s. He advised local business persons to disregard troubling media reports and made references to Pakistan as “our premier partner in the war on terror.” He concluded this disengenuous dribble with a tear-jerking story of how he carried a message from an undercover CIA officer operating in the tribal areas back home to his wife and small children. (Apparently this CIA officer was so undercover he was unable to communicate with the world and had to rely on a congressman to deliver clandestine messages!). The crowd ate it up.
So what exactly IS the story, Mr. Rogers?. He advised local business persons to disregard troubling media reports and made references to He concluded this disengenuous dribble with a tear-jerking story of how he carried a message from an undercover CIA officer operating in the tribal areas back home to his wife and small children. (Apparently this CIA officer was so undercover he was unable to communicate with the world and had to rely on a congressman to deliver clandestine messages!). The crowd ate it up.So what exactly IS the story, Mr. Rogers?In 2006, you brandished your membership in the House Intel Committee as a license to disagree with news reports, ’cause you had super-secret inside information that things were just swell in Pakistan.
In 2007, though, we find that you’ve apparently been (super-secretly?) fighting the good fight to CHANGE our intel policy in Pakistan… um, that would be the same intel policy that you thought was right on target last fall.
Oh, dear. Flip-flop is SUCH an unpleasant word. And there is such a thin line between being “a great politician” and a stone-cold liar.
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