McCain is influenced by a circle of hardline Republican legislators and congressional staff as well as disgruntled former Agency officials "who all had these long-standing grudges against people in the Agency," the former senior intelligence officer said. "They think the CIA is a hotbed of liberals. Right-wing, nutty paranoia stuff. They all love the military and hate the CIA. Because the CIA tells them stuff they don't want to hear."

Thus the dependence of Cheney on military intel rather than the CIA. Rank more effectively shuts people up.

I recently listened to a podcast on NPR's Fresh Air, about a former CIA operative Robert Baer and his new book called "The Devil We Know". This guy was a CIA operative for 30 years, and knows what he is talking about! Robert Baer argues that Iran is an up-and-coming — and often misunderstood — superpower, with strong influences throughout the Middle East. Baer's previous book, See No Evil, was the basis for the George Clooney film Syriana.
The clip is about 38 minutes long, and is well worth the time to listen to it, if you really want to know what the hell its all about! Click on this link

I was listening to NPR while he was on. It was very enlightening.

His books shed a lot of light on the problems we have created for ourselves in the Middle East. The Bushes were more than willing to work and negotiate with the Taliban until the Taliban turned them down on the oil pipeline the Bush's wanted to build across Afghanistan.

Funny how 9/11 and the invasion of Aghanistan followed relatively shortly after that pipeline negotiation failure. Draw your own conclusions.