Newt Gingrich had denounced the folly of 9/11-inspired visa rules that prevent
the brightest young students from coming to the US to study. He argued for more
generous research budgets and against the “profoundly self-destructive” policies that
have recently led to a sharp reduction in the number of American scientists traveling
abroad to attend international conferences and symposiums.
The FBI refused to build its new communications system on the successful CIA
platform, a workable standard. It clung to outdated computers and data networks. (At
the time of 9/11, agents couldn’t even do Google searches.) After spending nearly $170
Million and promising Congress that its Virtual Case File project would be ready by the
end of 2004, the Justice Department’s Inspector General found that poor planning and
ineffective management resulted in a system that was nearly unworkable.
11. The Second Iraq War
The CIA, according to Bob Woodward (in Plan of Attack), became a force
pushing for war in part for perverse bureaucratic reasons. The Senate Intelligence
Committee report release in July ’04 denounced the CIA’s “group think” mentality that
led the Agency to “ignore or minimize evidence that Iraq did not have active or
expanding weapons of mass destruction programs.”
27
Newt Gingrich, Winning the Future: A 21
st
Century Contract With America
. Regnery, 2005.
28
See also the 2005 report of the Silberman-Robb Presidential Commission. The Commission was also
highly critical of the 15 US intelligence agencies for their performance in investigating WMDs in Iran,
North Korea and Libya.
Convention