Intelligence Experts Among Us My goodness, who needs the CIA when you have op-ed columnists, cable news readers and the rest of the panoply of the 24-7 news culture? Consider Richard Cohen, Washington Post op-ed columnist, who today informs us that there was no way Saddam could have been running the insurgency from the bottom of his spider hole. In fairness to Richard, he did not come up with that lame brain-dead point all by himself...he's kind of borrowing it from lots of other people in the last news-cycle. That should make him feel better, because it's only plagiarism that keeps him from being a complete idiot.

I mean, what do these people think? (I know, they don't, but still.) That Saddam was spending all his time in a hole for the last six months? Cohen, obviously a trained counterintelligence analyst, says that since he only had two people with him, he obviously wasn't in charge of much. Maybe, Richard, his usual entourage of 60 would attract too much attention. Richard, who is not only a Skilled Counterintelligence Operative but quite the Comic, observes that the $750,000 found with Saddam is just what Paris Hilton uses in a Rodeo Drive shopping spree. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's about 1% of what was removed in cash from the Iraqi national bank before the 3rd Infantry entered Baghdad...some of which has been recovered. And considering the somewhat, ah, low standard of living in Saddam's Iraq, I think that would pay for a lot of hits on American troops...though of course it might not pick up too many Gucci's or Armani's, which is quite the comparison, Richard, you kill me.

Richard, Richard...first think, then write. Right now you are just writing. And the same to all your media friends.

Knowing something before you think is also a good idea. Try it by reading something other than the wire service.