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noreply@blogger.com (M Noman) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:22:00 +0500

What government agency doesn’t need a good public affairs officer? It’s a rough world out there, with lots of critics. You never know when someone might try to cut your budget or demand a Congressional investigation.

So much the better if your PAO has a twice-weekly column at the Washington Post, and does the flacking for free. I’m speaking here of David Ignatius, Post columnist and author of spy novels. Let’s examine, shall we?

On December 13, Ignatius wrote a eulogy for Gen. Saad Kheir, the former head of Jordan’s General Intelligence Department. In the course of one 750-word column, Ignatius manages to work in a shameless plug (”I got to know Kheir five years ago when I was researching a novel about the Middle East called ‘Body of Lies,’ which was later made into a movie that starred Leonardo DiCaprio”); insert the mandatory spy-novel cliche (Kheir is described as a “brilliant but emotionally wounded” spookmaster); and gloss over the GID’s dismal human rights record. But it’s all for a good cause: Kheir, Ignatius tells us, “was among the greatest Arab intelligence officers of his generation,” orchestrating a series of “masterful” penetrations of Palestinian groups and al-Qaeda.

Jordan’s masterful spy agency, huh? It now turns out that the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence officer in Afghanistan was a double agent, recruited by the GID and brought to Afghanistan to penetrate al Qaeda. He carried out the terror group’s mission instead.

A few weeks after publishing his column on Kheir, Ignatius paid a holiday visit to Afghanistan, where he met soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. Man, the soldiers of the 1-17 must have been psyched: They probably thought they were just going to have a USO visit from some cheerleaders, but they got to meet the author of Body of Lies.

“It’s not a place any of us would want to spend the holidays, but in conversations with soldiers here, I didn’t hear any complaints,” Ignatius wrote in an upbeat Christmas Eve column. Hmm, nothing about the replacement of a popular 1-17 company commander? Or the pre-deployment training snafus? No, for that, you’d have to turn to a story published a few days earlier by Army Times’ Sean Naylor, who schools Ignatius on how war reporting is really done.

In fairness, Ignatius was on a visit with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, so he probably didn’t get the chance to ask too many probing questions. But even by the standards of foreign-affairs blowhards, this is pretty dismal stuff. Back in July, Thomas Friedman and his “moustache of understanding” accompanied Mullen on a visit to a model school in the Panjshir Valley. But even Friedman didn’t walk away convinced that Afghanistan was ripe for nation-building.

I don’t fault Mullen for bringing 0p-ed columnists along on his trips. Heck, it’s a smart move, especially when you’ve got a credulous hack prestigious columnist in tow. Little wonder that pages 7 through 10 of The Intelligencer, the bulletin of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, are reprints of Ignatius’ columns. [I'm not bashing the Post here: If you want to read something smart about the Jordanian affair, go read Joby Warrick's piece on the ties between Jordanian and U.S. spy agencies.]

With massacres at military bases, clandestine wars in Pakistan and Yemen, and attempted bombings here at home, we need well-sourced intelligence reporters more than ever. We need journalists and columnists who are willing to probe deep, and present uncomfortable truths. Too bad in Ignatius we’ve got a stenographer to power, instead.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/washington-post-intel-opinionators-epic-fail/#ixzz0flfiqDqh

Muhammad Noman Ahmed

Humble's Communication Group

government agency