Blue Crab Boulevard

Is This Really A Bad Thing?

The New York Times, an ever reliable conduit for leaking details about the US war on terror comes out today with a story that a special unit in the CIA formed under the Clinton Administration to hunt Osama bin Laden has been dismantled.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Agency officials said that tracking Mr. bin Laden and his deputies remained a high priority, and that the decision to disband the unit was not a sign that the effort had slackened. Instead, the officials said, it reflects a belief that the agency can better deal with high-level threats by focusing on regional trends rather than on specific organizations or individuals.

"The efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever," said Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. "This is an agile agency, and the decision was made to ensure greater reach and focus."

The decision to close the unit was first reported Monday by National Public Radio.

Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.

"This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

The loading of the objections at the front of the story are, of course, typical of the Times reporting of late. Here's the part that caught my eye.

In his book "Ghost Wars," which chronicles the agency's efforts to hunt Mr. bin Laden in the years before the Sept. 11 attacks, Steve Coll wrote that some inside the agency likened Alec Station to a cult that became obsessed with Al Qaeda.

"The bin Laden unit's analysts were so intense about their work that they made some of their C.I.A. colleagues uncomfortable," Mr. Coll wrote. Members of Alec Station "called themselves 'the Manson Family' because they had acquired a reputation for crazed alarmism about the rising Al Qaeda threat."

Intelligence officials said Alec Station was disbanded after Robert Grenier, who until February was in charge of the Counterterrorist Center, decided the agency needed to reorganize to better address constant changes in terrorist organizations.

Now, that sounds like the special unit may have felt themselves to be just a bit too special to me. It makes me wonder if the people might not need to get a little broader focus. Tunnel vision can be a bad thing, too.

Media, Observations | Gaius Monday, 3 July , 2006

By Roland Hesz, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 1:27 am

they had acquired a reputation for crazed alarmism about the rising Al Qaeda threat.”

So, in effect, the danger of al Quaeda was known years before 09/11, but was missed as being “alarmism”?
By Gaius, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 5:12 am

THere’s a difference between being a careful assessor of threat and potential and being crazed and obsessive about it.
By Roland Hesz, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 5:43 am

some inside the agency likened Alec Station to a cult that became obsessed with Al Qaeda.

acquired a reputation

Now, we know how others had seen them.
Not what they were.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were labeled obsessive because noone would believe that the US could be attacked.

Neither you, nor I have seen them. We only know that “some” has seen them as crazy, obsessed, uncomfortable people.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 6:00 am

AJ Strata has a good take on this. This is a unit that failed to do what it was chartered to do.
By Roland Hesz, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 6:12 am

The failure I did not deny.
In this area everyone has failed so far.
At least, I haven’t seen Osama being caught on the news.

Maybe now they are not really fired up to find him?
By Donna, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 7:29 am

Wow, we’ve gone from ‘get him dead or alive’ to ‘why bother’ now that the ‘cancer has metasticized’.

Oh, goody, now the industrial-military complex has its clearly established role of prominence for the forever-future, the ‘war on terror’ being such a logically and deliciously suitable long-term replacement for the lost [through success] cold war focus.

Once again, the whole world is a big game-board to any who have their build-up of chips and want to play. [Dear God, let my children and grand-children know how to celebrate life and find the moments to witness your Creation, even though they may live their lives under a cloud of fear-mongering. Amen]
By Gaius, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 8:26 am

Donna, they aren’t stopping the hunt for him. They are disbanding a unit which did not produce results. Huge difference.
By KMan, Tuesday, 4 July , 2006 @ 3:02 pm

[Dear God, let people whose minds are filled with broad ranging conspiracy theories and who use important-sounding words like "industrial-military complex" in place of actual substantive THOUGHT be relegated to a place in our society that gives them no power over or responsibility for other citizens.]