To the Point

The CIA and Ahmad Chalabi

The CIA failed to predict the Korean War with China, the Russian invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, or the final collapse of the Soviet Union. Now, the Agency-s under fire for September 11 and the nonappearance of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No person better embodies their alleged weaknesses than Ahmad Chalabi, who reportedly helped launch the invasion with bogus intelligence, and is himself now under suspicion of informing Iran that the US cracked its secret code. With the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet, is it time for an intelligence tsar independent of the White House or Congress? Warren Olney gets informed perspective from journalists, intelligence scholars, and former officials of the CIA and National Security Council. Making News: State Department Amends Report on 2003 Terrorist Attacks On April 29, the State Department claimed that the US was -prevailing- in the war against terror, but today-s Los Angeles Times reports that assessment is in for a change. Josh Meyer, who wrote the story, says critics, like Congressman Henry Waxman, allege that politicization of the report has rendered it ineffective. Reporter's Notebook: Alexander Hamilton, Considered As the nation mourns the passing of Ronald Reagan, Republicans are struggling to keep his memory alive. One strategy is to put his face on Americans' currency. But Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Jackson are all poor candidates for replacement. So the Reagan Legacy Project proposes replacing Alexander Hamilton, whose image is on the $10 bill. That idea is firmly opposed by historian Willard Sterne Randall, author of "Alexander Hamilton: A Life.