Militarization of Counterterrorism. After the past week's news, you'll be delighted I'm sure to learn from the Post's Walter Pincus, that the "Pentagon's Intelligence Authority Widens":

[A former Pentagon intelligence official] added, noting that there had been no congressional oversight of CIFA, that the Defense Department is "too big, too rich an organization and should not be left unfettered. They rush in where there is a vacuum."

A former senior counterterrorism official, also familiar with CIFA, said, "What you are seeing is the militarization of counterterrorism." ...

CIFA's new authority will give the agency the ability to propose missions to Army, Navy and Air Force units, which combined have about 4,000 trained active, reserve and civilian investigators in the United States and abroad. ...

By comparison, the FBI recently disclosed it has about 11,000 special agents overall, about 4,929 of whom are assigned to terrorism investigation.

This no oversight thing is going really well for the administration and the Pentagon. But at what point does the cure become worse than the disease?

Posted by Laura at December 18, 2005 11:35 PM