Whack OUR Mole

Last week, I cited AmericaBlog's post re: Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, who'd been successfully "turned" by Pakistani authorities and was informing on his erstwhile Al Qaeda buddies until Team Bush proudly announced that HE was the reason for ramping up the terror color code during the Democratic National Convention...thereby blowing his cover.

Well, it seems that no less an expert than Richard Clarke contends that infiltration of terrorist cells is the BEST way to prevent future terrorist attacks:

The best way, however, to stop such attacks is through intelligence penetrations of terrorist circles. Only last month, almost four years after 9/11, did the administration agree to create a National Security Service within the F.B.I. to enhance our ability to perform such penetrations. It will be more years before this service is fully operational.

No wonder Team Bush was out to get him--he makes way too much sense...

By the way--the only way to actually GET moles into terrorist circles is to either turn them, like Pakistan did (and lord only knows what measure of stick and carrot they used) OR, you find willing allies among people who can do this FOR you...the latter requiring a measure of respect--which isn't exactly forthcoming from folks who see images from Abu Ghraib, or hear stories about Guantanamo...or understand how broken things have gotten in Iraq. No, those things tend to turn folks AWAY from us.

Let's hope the damage isn't irreversable.