There is a big difference between politicizing intellience and pointing out that there may be precious little intelligence to politicize. Fred certainly has his views, but whatever they may be the fact remains that US intelligence has a hell of a time going after hard targets like Iran. Identifying gaps and – in light of post Iraqi Freedom discoveries – pointing out that thinking ‘worst-case’ or (my appologies) out-of-the-box is not out of line. If I may be so bold, it is that kind of agressive challenge that has long been lacking in IC oversight. The standard drill is to come over every so often to look at what all the money bought; I don’t ever recall anyone asking me how right I was or why – if I was constantly wrong – I couldn’t do my job. As we attempt to deal with an aspiring nuclear (war) capable nation hell-bent on wiping the earth clean of infidels, we ought to be welcoming these challenges now, so that we don’t have to have the discussion about “how come you never . . .” later.