Systemic problems

June 19, 2002 10:02 AM

Systemic problems lead to catastrophic failures. More money for the "war on terror" or more government power from the Patriot Act cannot make up for incompetence, poor policy directives and bungling. How many more of these must we see before everyone agrees that a thorough investigation leading to proper reforms is the only remedy?
posted by nofundy (4 comments total)

Wow. You should have mentioned the article includes accusations of loose background checks and espionage in the FBI. One translator was actually a member of one of the groups she was hired to translate communications from:

"Later, Edmonds said, the woman approached her with a list dividing up individuals whose phone lines were being secretly tapped: Under the plan, the woman would translate conversations of her former co-workers in the target organization, and Edmonds would handle other phone calls. Edmonds said she refused and that the woman told her that her lack of cooperation could put her family in danger."

Edmonds was fired for "disruptiveness," of course. This is fucking insane.
posted by mediareport at 11:14 AM on June 19, 2002

We don't need an investigation, it would just be turned into a big political game on Capitol Hill. I can't really think of where to start in dealing with this problem. Getting out of Saudi Arabia would be a good start. Dropping sanctions on third world countries imports and exports would be good as well. Neither will happen.
posted by insomnyuk at 11:24 AM on June 19, 2002

I don't think that an independent commision made up of outside experts without partisan agendas wouldn necessarily turn it into a political game. It's the current House/Senate joint investigation that I worry about. I do think that pulling out of Saudi Arabia and fixing our foreign policy would help in the long run, but the current members of Al Qaeda and friends are going to keep coming for us, if for no other reason than revenge for Afghanistan. An independent commision could help to figure out the details of how our intelligence services need to be repaired to deal with the immediate threat. And they do need to be repaired.

Safire had an interesting piece recently on the current investigation.
posted by homunculus at 12:32 PM on June 19, 2002

Homonculus: I should have been more specific, because it is the joint congressional investigation which I am highly skeptical of. There would be a better chance with an independent commission, although I think it is almost impossible to make anything 'truly' independent, unless they appoint the people from counterpunch.org and anti-war.com, the far left and far right wings of the anti-war movement :)
posted by insomnyuk at 2:28 PM on June 19, 2002