Looks like I choose a good week to start blogging

Spies! Say the word and watch the reaction among America's newspapers. In this case, the question is whether the Pentagon ought to have their own cadre of men in grey. The principle argument against Pentaspooks is that they are not subject to the same oversight rules that limit the CIA's covert activities.

Exactly -- but that is a suitable justification when oversight all too often means rejection of anything remotely risky. The CIA is in its current state because people like Nancy Pelosi hold their moral values above the safety and security of America (remember her plan to let Iran essentially take over Iraq's election by blocking any covert assistance to pro-US Iraqi candidates? Still think every hostile intelligence service in the world wasn't sending her flowers for taking away US influence there?)

The real lesson here is that spying is sometimes not a pleasant business. Since the Church commission threw a wet blanket on the company's operations, they have operated bravely with one arm tied behind their back. Let Rumsfeld free the spies if only to show what he can do, unemcumbered. If he fails to show any benefit from unrestricted spying without the oversight that Congress requires of CIA, then I will stand corrected. If, however, he shows that war (and by extension, the art of tasking agents) is a game that favours the bold, I hope to hear calls in Congress for a new relationship with our intelligence services, one built on respect and trust.