Amps in Their Panties, II

My first duty is to France.
I cannot shed French blood in a foreign cause
--Napoleon, in a letter to
Countess Maria Walewski (1807)

You keep hearing about these-a these-a terrorists masterminds
that get killed in the middle east.
Terrorists masterminds.
Mastermind is sort of a lofty way to describe
what these guys do, don’t you think?
--Underwear Goes Inside the Pants, Lazyboy

When the bully, gives a wedgie
Pray that they won’t ever tear
God bless my underwear, my only pair
--God Bless My Underwear,
Boy Scout tune
____________________

Yesterday Ranger postulated that foreign intelligence is a key weakness in any war project, but especially in the Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) and Counterterrorism (CT) realms.

Let us look at the facts surrounding the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan:


FACTS:

1. The attacks of 9-11-01 were not conducted by Afghanis or Iraqis
2. Saudi Arabians played a major role in planning, funding and executing those attacks
3. United States policymakers ignored these inconvenient facts
4. Saudi Arabia has an economic interest in controlling the price of their major commodity, oil
5. S.A. acts in the interest of S.A
6. U.S. intel in S.A. and Yemen is weak at best; faulty, at worst
7. The Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) keeps the oil market unstable and funnels cash to S.A.
8. S.A. wishes to remain autonomous S.A.
9. S.A. intel will favor S.A. interests

Now to the 2nd Underwear Bomber Manque (UBM), so toothsome a story that the Feds were not sure how they wanted to spin it. For the first two days, it was a major foiled plot. Then, it became another undercover coup, the double agent providing most of the wherewithal to make the dastardly plot (not) happen.

The reports agree that "an asset who is a Saudi works for the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Saudi intel presented the U.S. with a compromised model of the and improved 2nd Generation underwear bomb." The dud bomb is then played up to the extent that it causes as much fear as an Iranian and North Korean missile launch.

Ranger's analysis:

1. How much did the U.S. pay the agent?
2. For whom does he work?
3. To whom does he claim allegiance?
4. How do we know the origin of the dud device?
5. Did S.A. intel fabricate this piece to keep the U.S. in Yemen to protect S.A. dominance in the grid square?

These are key questions that need answers prior to the release of any intel claiming to be authentic. Are we being played like foolish amateurs? It seems a bit strange that the U.S. cannot find one single bomb maker in a place like Yemen.

The question of why the bad guys can't seem to get past airplane bombing attempts is a provocative one; it seems to show a poverty of imagination . . . or could it be something else? The U.S. is routinely played by foreign intel producers -- are we too stupid to even ask ourselves if the product we are consuming is even reality-based? Allies -- like adversaries -- should be constantly evaluated. All is fair in love and war.

Never trust foreign intelligence. This dictum applies to any country standing to benefit from playing us against ourselves.