Congratulations Nigeria on your New Democracy! 

The New Leader of the Opposition Party has Become the President of Nigeria!

Since 1999, Nigeria has been ruled by one major party—People’s Democratic Party, led by Goodluck John.

On March 31, 2015 , Goodluck met his bad luck when Buhari of the opposition All Progressive Congress defeated him by a wide margin. What this election victory portends for the Nigerians is a period of economic and political stability which they have not had for some time. Buhari was once the military ruler of Nigeria from 1983-1985 so he is quite familiar with the use of military force to extricate ISIS associated with the Boko Haram group that has been terrorizing the northern part of Nigeria where the unemployed youth have been heavily recruited. At the same time, he will attempt to maintain some economic stability in the Niger Delta in order to suppress the indigenous militancy groups that have arisen when citizens from that region believed they did not receive their proper share of oil.

The election of Buhari should presage a much needed period of economic and political stability in a country rife with Christian-Muslim divisions and poverty. A certain amount of gratitude should also be expressed to the South African Mercenaries who fought on behalf of the Nigerian Military and inflicted serious military defeats against Boko Haram. Although somewhat controversial in nature, South African “mercs” are still one of the most effective fighting forces in all of Africa.

Clearly, it will take some time for Buhari to instill the necessary mechanisms he will need to attain his goals. But even if political patronage and oil subsidies will be required, that is a small price to pay for peace in Nigeria. I wish all my Nigerian readers the best for a prosperous and safe decade of peace.

Andreas Lubitz, Germanwings Co-Pilot, Appeared 100% Flightworthy, Airline [Lufthansa] Says

NY Times, March 26, 2015, Alison Smale and Jack Ewing.

This unbelievable tragedy of a single pilot purposefully crashing his plane into the rugged French Alps was clearly a premeditated act on the part of Andreas Lubitz, a 27 year old German national with 626 hours of experience. As I started to bring myself to the realization that this young man had contrived to kill himself along with his passengers and crew mates, I found myself using the word ‘terrorism’ instead of ‘suicide’.
Why?
For whatever underlying psychological issue that was festering in Andreas’ mind, be it ideological or personal, he understood all too well that this premeditated act of ‘mass murder/suicide’ would be reported in the world’s media as ‘frightening’ act which would instill exactly what most terrorists want: “fear”. He also understood that this horrible type of death, crashing in an inaccessible, hostile mountain terrain would make the salvage of the wreck increasingly difficult to attain and, therefore, prolong the search for all the missing bodies and airplane parts. I am certain that the culprit, Andreas, learned from the Malaysian Airline disappearance that this type of Kamikaze act would garner world attention for days, if not weeks and months. His name would be emblazoned, rightfully or wrongfully, in immortality. 

Andreas realized that he could clear the mental and physical exams however abridged or faulty they might be. He had learned that having had a ‘medical problem’ in Phoenix Arizona [whatever that might have been] was standard for the course, and his employers would never dismiss him for those medical reasons. In effect, Andreas, in my humble opinion, like all good terrorists, studied the bureaucratic system in place to control pilot’s mental and physical health so extensively that he was able to ‘game it’. He knew exactly where the system was faulty and more importantly, he understood how to take advantage of it.

Whatever the reason for his ‘terrorist act’, I suspect it was far more personal, reflecting some serious psychological problem that had manifested itself way before the act of suicide. The reason I say that is that he was by nature ‘laconic’ as described by the traffic controllers and his co-pilot. However, despite the fact that he was described as ‘happy’ and ‘pleased to fly’ , I think there is something else.

For the most part, he had a lot of ambivalence about what he was actually doing and what it really meant to him and others. More importantly, he had personal psychological issues which should have been picked up in the previous ‘time out’ that he had in Phoenix, Arizona. In fact, I am certain that when the medical records are opened [which they must be because of the extensive nature of this preventable tragedy] we will discover some very pertinent medical/psychiatric information that would have given his employers a clear picture that they had employed a ‘walking timebomb.’ 

Normally, I would not have come out so soon in declaring my professional opinions, but I have seen, diagnosed and observed airline pilots who had the following series of problems that had been missed or purposefully overlooked: drunk; hungover; hidden brain tumors [common in Air Force/Navy Pilots]; suicidal notions; family/personal unresolved problems. et al.

A system no matter how well it appears to be controlled for safety is still as strong as it’s weakest link. In the airplane business that means the people who work on the planes as mechanics, service people, pilots, stewardesses; stewards, attendants, etc. No matter how well-run this complex system is considered [and the German Lufthansa Group is one of the best] it’s still very fallible. One can say that something like this could have been averted. But I am not certain.

What I do know is that Andreas was very young. He had still lived at home with his parents. He had a ‘medical problem’ for six months and then despite his quiet, sober appearance and the finding that he was 100% flightworthy, he was clearly not.  In fact, I will predict that his personal psychological problems will have been revealed very early on in his flight training career; but somehow, it was purposefully overlooked or ignored.  Lufthansa could be negligent if the corporation’s management/human resources ignored warning signals in Andrea’s record.

One way or another, Andreas, on that day, was so angry at himself and others that he had arranged in his mind to crash the plane in very rough terrain in France to payback the world or somebody [or people] for his personal failings and inadequacies. My deepest sympathies go to all the families who lost a loved one on that plane.This is another type of ‘terrorism’ that we have not yet come to identify or accept: The 21st Century Neo-Kamikaze Pilots working at commercial airlines worldwide.

The brilliant French novelist, Albert Camus said the following:
“An intense [personal] feeling carries with it its own universe, magnificent or wretched as the case may be.” 

Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Presidential Contender: A Study in Narcissistic Solipsism.

I love me! You love me! They love me! We all love me!  Even Princeton and Harvard Love Me! Even Harvard Prof. Alan Dershowitz [Israeli operative] thinks “I Am Uber Smart”! 

Sooo…who does not love me? 

Answer: The Veterans and Taxpaying Citizens of America.

By now every American has heard the clarion call from the Senate Halls and Liberty University that Ted “The Cross” Cruz has decided that the American citizens are worthy of having this native-born Canadian [Calgary] become the President of the USA. How fortunate we are to have such a stellar candidate. 

I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting with baited breath for this pronouncement. I can’t remember anyone who was so divine that he did not really have to be born in the U.S. proper to feel that he, and only he, should be the next leader of this amazing Superpower.

Oops! I have made a slight mistake. 

I was just informed that the miscreant Republican President Chester Arthur declared in a moment of a lapsed memory that he had been born in Vermont; but, he belatedly discovered that he really had been born in Canada---just like our divine Ted Cruz.  Heck, even John McCain was born in Panama Canal Zone. Let’s not be petty. Mexico and Canada are really part of the North American Hemisphere. It’s just a minor technicality. 

However, the full impact of Ted’s announcement did not hit me until he started to sing the praises of American virtue at Bob Jones Liberty University. So I quickly went to check out the fact that he must have signed up for military service as did the Democratic contender Jim Webb who volunteered to go to the Vietnam War and serve. I looked in every place on the internet and even some of the Army archives, YET I could not find Ted Cruz’s name anywhere. Maybe his voluntary military service to America had been misplaced [ it does happen from time to time].

I went to check if he had joined the Peace Corps like the great American War Hero, Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Yet there were no records that Ted Cruz tried to avoid Vietnam Military service as did the four Bush Sons---Marvin; Neil; George Jr; and Jeb. So if he did not try to avoid U.S. military service like the Bush sons, there was one other alternative that I had clearly missed. I looked up to find out whether Ted Cruz had become a Southern Baptist Missionary going into the dangerous Ebola ridden areas of Sierra Leone or Liberia. Or maybe he had gone with some of my Christian Missionary Association Pastors to the Malaysia or Indonesia?

Nothing! I found that he had not even volunteered for missionary work as a member of the 14 million devotees of the Southern Baptist Churches. I decided there was only one attribute to which I could assign his sense of divine destiny—his impeccable, radiating NARCISSISM! Now I felt that I may have come closer to understanding what Ted Cruz was really all about. He is a man who could not tell us enough about how much he loved himself and more importantly how much we Americans should love him. Then, I understood that Ted was just the logical extension of a thirty year pattern of Democratic [Bill Clinton and Obama] and Republican [Bush Jr] Sociopaths who had really never served our country but spent most of their childish lives [which extended into adulthood] learning how to tell people how wonderful they really were.

It is not easy to convince anyone especially oneself how wonderful one is if that one person had never really had a real job, created a functional business or served in our military. It becomes incumbent on one’s self to enter into a world of solipsism, repeating to oneself in a series of logical circles about self-love; based on nothing more than wishful thinking and self-delusions that one is completely wonderful and destined for greatness.

The beauty of a Ted Cruz candidacy is that it highlights that we have had nothing but paper tigers with daddy issues who have resided in the White House for the past thirty years. If you think that I am belittling the lack of impressive credentials that all three past presidents have had- simply look at their respective backgrounds. Two went to Yale—Clinton and Bush Jr. Two went to Harvard Graduate Schools—Bush Jr and Obama.

This crème de la crème came out with diplomas signifying much of nothing. They were all Ivy Leaguers who had never had to descend into the brutal struggles of everyday living. They never had to meet a payroll or a mortgage which they had bought with their hard-earned money. All three were spoiled children of a generation of absent fathers and maternal indulgences. None had ever created a job or a company with employees … they never really had to harden their callouses with manual work.

All three had one thing in common—they were bred and nurtured by our rarefied CIA organization that somehow attained the misbegotten notion that they were the keepers of the Republic. Wrong again! Two had no fathers [Clinton and Obama] and one never had a father at home [Bush Jr]. Absent fathers allowed for the psychologically sensitive CIA to move in and become the surrogate ‘daddy’ [cheap Freudian theory –but that’s how they work].

Now we have Ted Cruz who had a father. This father is really one piece of Cuban fanciful dreams. He claims that he was beaten by Batista’s ruthless thugs. Then as a result he joined the Castro Regime. Poor daddy Cruz now emphasizing that he had made a mistake to join Castro. More poignantly, he tells you that he also was beaten up by the Castro regime. In Cuban Spanish we call his father—Pobrecito! “Little poor one”!
Like Ted Cruz, the Daddy Cruz goes into desultory vocal rants about our American founding fathers and their genius. However, he forgets to tell us that unlike many of us grateful Cubans who came to this country and gladly served in the military, Daddy Cruz DID NOT!

Ted Cruz is the penultimate sociopathic candidate. Do nothing, say anything loudly and over again. And above all else: distort the truth! Please lets discontinue our thirty year streak of worthless men. It must be incumbent on us as citizens of this great country to find a candidate who had served our country selflessly and has had the experience of running a company, state or something that has proven his/her mettle along the way. 

I am grateful for Ted Cruz and his willingness to demonstrate unabashedly grandiosity without having shown any really substance. From Ted we can learn exactly what we do not want or need for our great country.

Let me end with the witticism of the former Journalist/CIA operative, William F. Buckley:

“I would rather be governed by the first three hundred names in the Boston telephone book than by the Faculty of Harvard University.” 

Bibi’s Re-election Marks the End of Ashkenazi Zionism after 65 Years!
Now Israel will be dominated by Sephardic/Orthodox Jews! Amen!
As many of you know by now, I am not a fan of Bibi. The reasons are multiple and well spelled out in my past blogs. But I came to a belated realization that with Bibi’s reelection, we Ashkenazi will no longer feel the need to tie ourselves to Israel.  Ashkenazi [particularly Polish] founded Israel as an experiment in creating a state where we, Polish and other Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe and the former Austria-Hungary Empire would no longer be harnessed by fears of Cossack Horsemen trampling down our lives.

This Ashkenazi experiment which was hatched in Poland, where many Jews including members of my own family arose like a serendipitous phoenix from the ashes of WWII.  However, from the very creation of the State of Israel in 1948 we, Ashkenazi really were out of step with our new country’s surroundings where desert and Arabic permeated the surface and culture of the region. When Madagascar was offered to us as an alternative, we turned it down. Clearly, Saudi Arabia was not offered to us. The land that greeted our original pioneers was filled with swamps and malaria.

The one group of Jews who felt at home in the desert and spoke not only Hebrew but Arabic as well were the Sephardic Jews. They lived with their neighbors who were predominantly Muslims.

These Sephardic Jews who had dispersed from Spain during and after the Spanish Inquisition populated the Magreb—North Africa – and became prominent physicians [Rambam] and merchants in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and even Afghanistan. These were the true Jews who understood that they did not need a Holocaust in order to settle what was considered the Holy Land because they all grew up with the clear impression that one day they would all naturally make an exodus to Israel and settle there.

This Sephardic dream came true for them. Now they are becoming the majority in Israel in both population and in the national security service. They speak better Arabic than Bibi or any of his Ashkenazi predecessors. However, they have never been given the appropriate recognition for their native talents and incredible contributions to Israel in particular and in the world in general. Now, Bibi’s ravaging tantrums awoke the savage beast which had always been lying quietly in the doorsteps of Israel—the Sephardic Jews who are primarily Orthodox and have been willing to support Bibi at all cost.

Now, I say that we, Ashkenazi, can leave Israel knowing fully well that the social liberal experiment of saving Jewish lives had worked. It is time for the real Jews of that desert region to take over with their new Messiah, Bibi Netanyahu. Bibi has done what no other American Jew could have done--- separated Polish Born Zionism from Sephardic Orthodoxy. He could never realize what he had done because he is not that smart.

I and my fellow American Jews, most of whom are Ashkenazi can surrender Israel to the comforting hands of the native Christian and Muslim Israelis as well as the Sephardic Orthodox Jews. All I ask is for Israel to get rid of its agents of influence in America as well as its useless Mossad. If not, then as an American I find myself more than willing to roll them up and send them back to where they belong—a dream state of non-reality which was in the past primarily supported by the America and the Christian Fundamentalists.  That was then, now, everyone in America is disgusted with Bibi and his entourage of neocon chicken hawks.

So Shalom! 

Don’t ever come back to the USA and ask us to help you out.. again… and again…..

And as the Sephardim know all too well, we should say more appropriately---Salem Alechim!

“Peace be with you”… in Arabic!  

Back to the Future: Chinese  President Xi Jinping Invokes the Mao Ethos in Order to Control China and Fight Corruption in the Military/Industrial Complex!

For some time now, my readers in Asia have been asking me to write something about the present changes in China. A few days ago, a low level military officer made an official statement that “the former vice chairman of the central military commission was responsible for the sins of the father.” [Stratfor, March 10, 2015.] On the surface this seems to be somewhat of an innocuous statement. Who really cares what a Chinese soldier might have said about the past corruption in the military? Unfortunately, for those who had worked for the previous two presidents of China—Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin—this soldier’s disingenuous statement widely publicized all over the Chinese media was a clear warning shot from current President Xi.

In order for Xi to maintain a steady net growth of about 7% per year, he must get rid of hundreds of thousands of military officers who had placed their rice bowls into the private sector which replenished them very well. Xi is using an old technique mastered by Mao who would allow a poem or an esoteric reference in some daily newspaper to hint at the massive changes he was about to make. President Xi has been forced to utilized the questionable legacy of Mao in order to maintain his Communist Party control over a very rapacious capitalist system replete with political cronyism and financial corruption.

I am in no position to decide the merits of what Xi is doing. I am not a China scholar yet I consider myself a disciple of such illustrious China scholars as Dr. Richard Solomon [MIT, Kissinger Staff] and Prof. Lucian Pye [MIT]. Learning from them, I believe I possess some sensibilities regarding the fluctuating nature of the Chinese society.

After reviewing Dr Richard Solomon’s brilliant study of Chinese behavior during and after the Chinese Cultural Revolution [“Mao and The Cultural Revolution”], one point comes back repeatedly. That is the Chinese ambivalence toward a Confucius society based on moral principles of behavior toward one another which is in complete contrast toward Mao’s constant need for revolutionary change.

This crisis of ambivalence is being played out today as Xi uses the Maoist slogans and methods in an attempt to reform a society of 1.3 billion people. There is no question in my mind that Xi will purge the remnants of Hu’s $1.7B unsightly personal fortune [Forbes Magazine].  At the same time, I have this compelling feeling that Hu, his family and members of his extended family will have to go through the Kabuki [sorry for the mixed metaphor] of a corruption trial. In addition, I believe Jiang who was president before Hu will also try to retain his nefarious power base while Xi attacks him and his coterie of political sycophants [Chinese and Foreigners].

Through this past year of political purges, Xi has declared that he is like Mao in the process initiating another cultural revolution. This time, however, he will make certain that student cannibalism and chaos will not result from these national and local political purges. The number of effected people ranges in the hundreds of thousands. In my humble estimate, I think that Xi’s purges will probably number in the millions by the time he decides the anti-corruption campaign is over.

So what does this mean for Hong Kong and America?

I think Xi will continue to ignore the precepts of democracy as the youth of Hong Kong understand it. Xi will use Hong Kong as a laboratory for showing the world what he intends to do with the semblance of a democratic society that impinges on the Maoist ethos of centralized control. There will be more student protests and more confrontations, until Xi eventually exhausts the students of their elan vital.

America is not a clear and present danger for Xi right now. However, that caveat only applies as long as we as a nation state do not interfere with the internal dynamics of his Maoist Revolution. If he suspects that we are in any way creating dissension and taking advantage of his extension of power, he will reactivate the Spratly Island crises with a bravado that we have not yet seen [ read my vintage Pax Pacifica novel].

His present foreign policy concern should be the rise of Japanese Nationalism with its concomitant rise in military power in the China Sea. One must remember that in a blog I wrote about one year ago, I mentioned that Japan has the second largest navy in the world.  That military fact could disturb Xi’s strategic expansions into the China Sea and Indian Ocean.

Xi is one busy leader engaged in garnering both his internal and external control of the increasing larger Chinese Military and its ancillary divisions of corruption and political cronyism. At the end of his purges, I estimate that Xi will be in complete charge of his country; as well as, his Communist Party. No one would dare mimic Mao, unless he was about to understand that he would become a target of derision and hate. Xi is neither afraid nor concerned about his personal safety. A man not afraid to die is one very dangerous man.

Only one man ever defied Mao twice. He was able to come back and rule China effectively. That man’s name was Deng Xiao Ping! However, there is no new Deng! It will take a long time for someone like him to arise. We will have to go back to the future!

One might even say in Chinese:
President Xi is in a position of tu quiong bi xian

[pronounced too chyoong bee hsien]:

Meaning--- He has nowhere to hide! 

The dagger is exposed!

Hillary Clinton’s Private Emails at the State Department: Unfathomable and Criminal.

Her Actions Implicate Career Foreign Service Officers [FSOs] who should have stopped her from the very beginning. 

Including the following FSO Professionals:

• Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.

• Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy.

• Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell.

• Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

One of the more unfortunate parts of writing my blogs is to highlight the miscreant behaviors of many professionals with whom I had a very successful past experience. When Under Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger recruited me into the State Department in the late 1970’s, I had the good fortune of getting to know two exceptional Foreign Service Officers [FSO]s: Pat Kennedy and Eric Boswell. Both were men of the highest integrity and moral convictions. They were as far as I was concerned the best of the FSOs. Yet these FSOs worked under a very strange situation. Most if not all of their bosses were political appointments who tolerated the Foreign Service and more often than not, continuously complained about them.

From the very beginning of my career, I was a strong advocate for the FSOs. I felt that they were not trained properly at their Foreign Service Institute. I had insisted that courses in negotiations; as well as more sophisticated instruction on terrorism and international crises management should have been provided. In general, most of the FSOs acted extremely professionally, especially overseas when they were left alone to do best what they were trained to do-foreign diplomatic overtures.

I must now emphasize that there was always one major security element that was continuously enforced by the State Department Office of Management and the Office of Diplomatic Security. That security issue was none other than protecting at all times national security cables, letters, information; and anything that was literally written during working hours.These restrictions were so severe that I remember if I had left even a non-classified paper on my desk accidentally, I would be appropriately disciplined the next day by someone from Management [Pat Kennedy] or his equivalent in the office of Diplomatic Security [Eric Boswell or his surrogate]. That was the basic ethos of the professional Foreign Service—maintain security at all times and at any cost; no matter what was written during working hours. Personal communications were completely prohibited. At the end of each time I had served in the State Department, I had to sign a piece of paper that stated that I had not taken or received any Classified Information upon my departure.

Then along came Hillary Clinton!

What can I say that I have already not said about Hillary numerous times? Her husband and she are the perfect duo for a “Folie A Deux”—each trying to outmatch the other for blatant sociopathic behaviors; as well as criminal activities.

A couple years ago when the Benghazi Affair had occurred, I had already earmarked Pat Kennedy and Eric Boswell as the two primary FSOs who had to have known about this fiasco of prevarication. They were placed on leave with pay.

Now, I point to these two gentleman once again.

Pat was and probably still is the most thorough administrative manager I have ever met. He must have known about Hillary’s blatant flaunting of Diplomatic Security; as did her Assistant Secretary of State, the Honorable Eric Boswell [who had been a Deputy to the Director of National Intelligence]. Then there is the recently retired Ambassador William Burns who had attained the highest accomplishment of a FSO: Career Ambassador. Last but not least, is Thomas Pickering, one of the brightest FSO’s with whom I had the pleasure of working with in several different administrations. He was and still is a very clever, wily FSO who knew how to create or untangle a very complex embarrassing diplomatic faux pas.Tom had to know from the very beginning of his investigation into the Libyan fiasco that Hillary was not using the appropriate channels of communications in either the Arab Springs or in Benghazi.

Now the time has come for these gentlemen to step forward and tell all that they know about their ersatz boss, the woman who played the role of a Secretary of State. In addition to the fact that Hillary had accomplished nothing but garnering bonus miles at a large expense to the American public, she had been in complete violation of the national security laws throughout her tenure. Her use of private emails places a stain on all the professionals in the State Department; bar none!

As for Hillary, she will hopefully receive her just punishments. However, my concern is for the blatant silence and absence of moral outrage from any of the aforementioned professional FSOs. Hillary has not only corrupted her personal future and reaffirmed the doubts that all decent Americans had about her from the very beginning of her official appearance in the folly of Bill’s House of Cards.The Foreign Service confronts a moment in history where they will stand up and explain itself as to whether they had been collusive or remain silent and by implication remain the co-conspirators. If ever the FSOs are to assert their tenets of professionalism-it is right now! Failing that, they will forever remain the effete, non-professional supernumeraries that will always be dominated by political cronyism.

Allow me to end with a  quote from the Arthur Koestler, an author who spoke out:

“Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion [of FSO professionalism].”  

DCI John Brennan has Stepped Forward and Courageously Initiated a Complete Long-Needed Reorganization of the Staid CIA!
Congratulations to Brennan and David Cohen [Deputy Director] and Good Luck.

For over six decades the once venerable CIA, the off shoot of the OSS during WWII, has been divided into two artificial divisions—DDI [analysts] and DDO [covert operatives]. How this came about is not as relevant as the fact that DCI John Brennan realized a simple fact: that the agency was too ossified to be able to anticipate the immediate or distant future. Many of us who had been trained by the then forward looking CIA [as well as DARPA] at the Phd program in Political Science at M.I.T. already knew this long ago. The problem lay not in the high quality of the personnel recruited out of the OSS; nor those recruited out of their respective military services-- Don Gregg; Jim Lilly; Paul Redmond; Fritz Ermarth;  etc—it lay in the artificial structure of the agency itself.

I cannot discuss in detail the inner workings of either the DDO, nor the DDI;  but I can say that for the thirty five years that I worked with [not for] the CIA, I had noticed an erratic pattern of performance both in the analytic and covert operative divisions. As a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in four different Presidential Administrations, I would receive all types of reports about an adversary’s psychological profile; some were good, many were not accurate. Similarly, I would sit down with their analysts and discuss the strategic trends in a particular area and I was, for the most part, completely unimpressed. There were many cases where their analyses were completely incorrect, and I would have to go directly in the combat areas to make my own assessment.

I concluded after some time that I could not change the way the CIA worked so I went into the informal business of developing my own off-line intelligence back-up system. Usually, I would pick up some random individuals from the DDO, DIA, NSA, MI and congeal them into an effective team. Other times, I would request a CIA operative who might have known my adversary because that particular individual had a personal, somewhat debauched background in concert with my potential target. 

However, the recent appointment of Dan Cohen to become the Deputy Director of the CIA, an expert in economic and psychological warfare was a very impressive moment for me because it denoted the simple fact that DCI John Brennan was in the process of initiating a major change in both the culture and efficacy of the future CIA. My cursory understanding of Brennan’s reorganizational changes are described very well in the following article [Associated Press, March 6, 2015.]:

“He [Brennan] lamented that there is often no single person he can hold accountable for the spying mission in any given part of the world.”

That one point is so crucial that I really cannot emphasize it enough. More often than not, I would have to dismiss a CIA Station Chief for one or another reason, knowing full well that I was not being told the entire truth; or they were trying to play mind/bureaucratic games with me. 

John Brennan goes on to elaborate his rightful concerns:

“There are a lot of areas that I would like to have better insight in to, better information about, better access to.” Brennan said, “Safe havens denied areas. Whether because we don’t even have a diplomatic presence in a county, or because there are parts of countries that have been overrun and taken over by terrorist groups and others.”

As I had predicted after the 9/11 attack, most of USG’s intelligence focus was mis-directed and led to an erosion of both the analytic and operative sections of our entire intelligence community.

Now, the hard work of reorganization begins. I have had the privilege in the past of re-organizing several of the State Department’s offices—Regional Medical Office [RMO]; Initiate a Family Liason Office [FLO]; Hostage Survival Course; Senior FSO Seminars; Reorganize USIA; creating the Office of Public Diplomacy , etc. This was done in concert with many talented FSOs and other agency personnel.

Reorganization of such a large institution is replete with bureaucratic resistance to change; and the immutable force accompanied by turf wars. Yet with bulldog persistence and a surgeon’s skillful precision, many things can be accomplished once the desire for change has been publicly articulated.

In the words of Sam Cooke, “A Change is Gonna Come.”