Wednesday, February 01, 2012

James Clapper's Absurd Testimony

What does Director of National Intelligence James Clapper think he is pulling off? In his testimony before Congress yesterday he is positing an campaign of attacks from Iran on the United States solely and exclusively on the absolutely ridiculous "plot" against the Saudi Ambassador of several months ago. That childish "plot" has been eviscerated by the press, by intelligence experts and by Iranian specialists. Clapper's  testimony stinks to high heaven of cover-up. the intelligence community botched this really stupid incident and now they are trying to create a causus belli out of it to look good by resorting to the "big lie." Like so much else surrounding U.S.-Iranian politics, facts don't matter as long as the spin artists and myth-makers are around. Let the brouhaha of scandal from a silly incident like the arrest of used-car salesman Manssor Arbabsiar for a plot that never happened die down, and then someone like Clapper comes along and revives it again in the abstract hoping that no one remembers the sordid and ridiculous details:

1. That no Iranian official was ever implicated. (Clapper, with no corroborating evidence says that Ayatollah Khamene'i "probably" knew)
2. That no one could figure out why the "Qods" force would carry out such a stupid and inept plot.
3. Why Iran would want to kill a Saudi national at all, and on American soil.
4. Why this wasn't plausibly a sting operation on the part of the FBI rather than an Iranian-generated plot.

and on and on. Clapper's testimony is an outrage and an affront to American intelligence (in both senses of the word), really. He should resign.