CIA Sincerity

You and your like are trying to make a war with the help of people who just aren’t interested.

They want enough rice. They don’t want to be shot at.
They want one day to be much the same as another.
They don’t want our white skins around telling them what they want
--The Quiet American, Graham Greene

The tongue reposes in papyrus pleas,
saying, Surely—magnificent, that "surely"—
goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, my life, forever
--Forever, John Updike
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This week a federal judge denied secrecy to the CIA in their efforts to shield one of their agents against an eavesdropping lawsuit the agency's "diminished credibility" (CIA Committed Fraud in Eavesdropping Case):

"A federal judge has ruled that CIA officials committed fraud to protect a former covert agent against an eavesdropping lawsuit and is considering sanctioning as many as six who have worked at the agency, including former CIA Director George Tenet."

"The judge also criticized CIA Director Leon Panetta, saying he's given conflicting accounts about what should be revealed in the case. The ruling led to the unsealing Monday of more than 200 unclassified versions of classified filings in the 13-year-old case.

'The court does not give the government a high degree of deference because of its prior misrepresentations regarding the state secrets privilege in this case,' Lamberth ruled."

"CIA spokesman George Little offered a brief response to the case, saying that the agency takes its obligation to the U.S. courts seriously."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Ranger posits that it depends how one defines the word "seriously," in the Clintonian sense of parsing meaning.

Following the CIA today is like watching a cheesy BBC spoof on government boobs and their various malfeasance.