![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisyphusshruggedthe qualities that make a trusted associate: NSA nominee Steven Hadley
Ignored the threat of terror in favor of a push for missile defense? check.
Allowed al Qaeda to go unpunished for the murder of US citizens on the Cole? check
Ineffective manager? check.
Ignored warnings from the CIA that the case for WMDs in Iraq was shaky and arranged for the President of the United States to lie to the world about it in his State of the Union address? check.
Sounds like a terrific choice.
Just so you don't think that no-one is taking the fall for all this failure, however, the CIA is being gutted for providing the information about WMDs that the White House - erm - misinterpreted, despite being warned multiple times by the CIA that their conclusions were suspect.
Mr. Hadley is moving up.
The Post, ever mindful of balance, describes Mr. Hadley's record as "Mixed"
As Hadley characteristically sat silent in the front row during the ceremony announcing Rice's nomination, Bush yesterday called Hadley a "man of wisdom and good judgment" who "has earned my trust."
...
Some administration insiders have faulted Hadley for allowing Pentagon officials to rewrite the summary of decision meetings more to their liking -- or for permitting policy disputes to fester. For instance, on May 14, 2002, when the administration was debating what to say to the North Koreans at its first high-level bilateral meeting, State Department representatives, led by Deputy Secretary Richard L. Armitage, believed they had secured the approval of Hadley to adopt the middle-ground approach, known as option 2.
But during the meeting, Hadley announced he had looked at option 2 but really favored option 3, the more hard-line approach, according to the notes of one attendee. Armitage recovered and said he wanted what he called "2b" -- a combination of 2 and 3. The inconclusive result allowed the hawks on North Korea policy to build more support for their position, according to officials involved.
The Sept. 11 commission, which relied on extensive interviews with administration officials, portrayed Hadley as not effective in resolving several policy issues, such as the question of whether to retaliate for al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 and the issue of how to use an unmanned drone aircraft, the Predator, that was being refitted with Hellfire missiles.
Hadley concluded that a policy toward al Qaeda should be framed within the context of regional policy, delaying final decisions from April 2001 until just before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the report said.
On the Predator, the report said Hadley attempted at one point to hurry along preparation of an armed system, directing the CIA, Defense department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have it capable of being armed no later than September 2001, and to have the cost-sharing arrangements in place by Aug. 1.
The push backfired. Rice told the commission that Hadley's attempt to dictate a solution failed and she had to intervene.
The lowest point for Hadley in the first term came when he accepted blame for the error in the State of the Union address, in which Bush pointed to evidence that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium in Africa. Hadley acknowledged that he had received two memorandums from the CIA calling the evidence weak, and that he should have removed the 16 words about the alleged procurement from Bush's speech.
"I failed in that responsibility," a shaken-looking Hadley told reporters in July 2003, after the CIA memos were discovered.
Ignored the threat of terror in favor of a push for missile defense? check.
Allowed al Qaeda to go unpunished for the murder of US citizens on the Cole? check
Ineffective manager? check.
Ignored warnings from the CIA that the case for WMDs in Iraq was shaky and arranged for the President of the United States to lie to the world about it in his State of the Union address? check.
Sounds like a terrific choice.
Just so you don't think that no-one is taking the fall for all this failure, however, the CIA is being gutted for providing the information about WMDs that the White House - erm - misinterpreted, despite being warned multiple times by the CIA that their conclusions were suspect.
Mr. Hadley is moving up.
The Post, ever mindful of balance, describes Mr. Hadley's record as "Mixed"
