Veteran Intelligence Professionals for SANITY--11th Briefing Memorandum Issued Since 2003

I am proud to have contributed my writing, thinking and speaking efforts from time to time to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPs for short) since its inception in 2003.

The above photo of VIPs founder Ray McGovern and myself, taken while we both spoke on a panel at the National Air Disaster Alliance Foundation's recent conference in Washington D.C., is rare in the sense that it shows us in a light-hearted moment. Unfortunately VIPs efforts are anything but light-hearted. Members of the group have been forced out of retirement and would be so happy if their efforts were no longer needed.

VIPs came together when the country's actual intelligence agencies became politicized in the run-up to the Iraq War and no one was telling it like it is. (Actually if you were reading carefully, you would have found veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus and maybe a couple others were trying, but their stories were buried on page 19 or thereabouts of their newspapers.) Led by a handful of retired CIA and other intelligence analysts (who were trained to read this carefully), the group has grown to include former professionals from all of the intelligence and security community, including former military officers. A loose confederation of individuals who analyze and then share information and ideas through e-mail, newsletters and blog networks, write individual opinion pieces and who also (at least some of us do this) speak publicly and participate in public panel discussions, VIPs has also issued almost a dozen memos over the last four years intended to provide more honest intelligence briefings.

Directed at government policy makers at key times during the run-up and prosecution of the Iraq War (but unfortunately it's not known what, if any, effect they've had on the targeted audience), VIPs memos were/are also published for purposes of educating the public on national security issues. One thing that can be said with the certainty of hind sight, is that the group's assessments and dire warnings have proven to be grounded in reality and have turned out far more accurate than anything the Bush Administration put on paper.

VIPs' latest memorandum entitled, "Denouement on Iraq: First Stop the Bleeding" builds on the latest National Intelligence Estimate and was targeted at and delivered to the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader a couple days ago.

Because we are at such a crucial stage in the Iraq Quagmire (and with more free time since my campaign for congress ended), I intend to devote more of my efforts to helping VIPs get the word out (i.e. the purpose of my blogging here). There's no doubt that the bulk of their prior assessments have fallen on deaf ears amongst the highly politicized officials and government leader audience they were intended for, but for the future of the country, that has to change. We've got to put sanity back into U.S. foreign policy so that this ad hoc group of former intelligence professionals can dissolve and go back to more normal retirement roles. You may notice I've even taken the liberty of changing the small "s" at the end of our acronym to "SANITY" in all caps, just for emphasis. The good thing about our loose confederation and lack of bureaucracy is that it didn't require convening a board meeting for me to do this. But after four years already, I ask myself why we still need to emphasize the need for a return to sanity. How much more of this insanity must we endure?