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MORE IRAQI SPYMASTERS NABBED

Along with Tariq Aziz, the covert ops chief of Iraqi intelligence is in U.S. custody. Story from CNN

READ NEWT’S BLAST AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT here.

It’s little secret that many of the foreign service officers do not have much sympathy for the policies of the president they serve and politically, many of the career officials are far more attuned to the diplomatic worldview of the EU than the GOP. However, part of the problem is institutional – Foggy Bottom is a congenial place for loose cannons and heads of desk and assistant secretaries can, in the words of George Shultz ” wander off doing deals on their own “. Democratic presidents also have problems getting State to carry out policies but philosophically as a rule they are more in tune with the results State bureaucrats seek through acts of passive resistance and insubordination. A personal memoir worth reading on this topic is from Constantine Menges a neoconservative analyst who worked for the CIA and the NSC under Ronald Reagan, called Inside the National Security Council. Even if you disagree with Menges’ politics, he has anecdotes of interest to history buffs and political junkies.

NORTH KOREA REACTS WITH FURY and plays its remaining nuclear card card as it’s only ally, China, refuses to support Pyongyang’s belligerence.

North Korean threats to export plutonium in violation of the NPT could lead to a naval blockade of the regime by the United States and UN Security Council sanctions banning air flights and trade.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE reported today that ” mercenaries” exfiltrated several high level North Korean nuclear scientists through embassies in China to safe houses in the Washington DC area. One defector includes ” The Father of the North Korean Bomb “. The article emphasized that the agents were not U.S. government employees which indicates to me that high U.S. government officials in the national security or intelligence communities have leaked the information on the start of trilateral talks with Pyongyang.

The Bush administration is cleverly boxing the North Koreans in with multiple-levels of public and back channel diplomacy. The revelation that the highly secretive and brutal Stalinist regime could be successfully penetrated in such a manner is itself a political shock to the public prestige of Pyongyang.

SHIITE SITE: Not exactly. However Juan Cole, a Mideast scholar who I frequently am in disagreement with on H-Diplo shares my concern about the emergence of an Iranian kowtowing Sharia state in Iraq. Cole did reluctantly endorse the toppling of Saddam by American intervention in an article on HNN though he is generally exceptionally critical of the Bush administration, neoconservatives and Israel. With those caveats in mind he does have real expertise in Islamic studies and Mideastern cultures and you can sift through the politics to find useful observations.