Note
the article today in WaPo by Walter Pincus regarding two of the analysts that provided flawed intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War.
George Norris and Robert Campos, primary rocket analysts with Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), were instrumental in the sleight-of-hand that passed for incompetence on the aluminum tubing research.
Yet these two analysts received lump-sum cash payments as performance awards three years running -- in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
What the f*ck?
In the REAL world, where people are terminated for fluff ups that cause losses in the range of ten dollars let alone BILLIONS and human lives, these two would be out on the street.
But somehow these two analysts "missed" published data about aluminum tubing that would have killed any reference to the Iraqi tubing as precursors for weapons. And somehow these two remained in NGIC long enough to continue to draw performance awards.
But here's the rub: we know government bureaucracy grinds S-L-O-W-L-Y. Even in a Fortune 100 organization, getting a lump sum performance award isn't something that happens on the spur of the moment, must be submitted and approved well in advance -- and that doesn't include the overall budgeting processes prior to award requests. Surely the Army is S-L-O-W-E-R than the average Fortune 100 company, given the size of the organization.
So when exactly did the request for the performance awards get placed? Who requested them? Who approved them?
My money is on an award approval date prior to 23-JUL-2002. What say you?
And exactly whose fingerprints are all over these awards and aluminum tube misinformation?
[Note to Jonah Goldberg: dude, you could do a lot better for that family of yours by signing up with Army intel, from the looks of it. Maybe you could ask for a transfer from the 101st Keyboard unit to NGIC...they certainly won't mind your inability to find data and use it properly, might even pay you for it.]