by Eric Dondero

Many in the non-interventionist and weak on defense wings of the libertarian movement like to call for a scaling down of the CIA and even abolishment.

Anarcho-libertarian Jacob Hornberger, at FFF:

How about just abolishing the CIA... Not only are the CIA and the military the source of America’s foreign-policy woes, not only are their actions subjecting Americans to a perpetual threat of terrorist blowback, not only are they bankrupting our country financially with their ever-growing expenditures, not only have they shamed our country with their torture, but they also just happen to pose the biggest threat to the freedom and well-being of the American people.

Well, we now have a pretty good idea as to what such a policy of abolishing Intelligence Services would look like.

Obama's scaled-down Intelligence services and greatly reduced emphasis on National Security, has just given us two huge foreign policy blunders in two days.

From the NY Times "Obama Faces a Stark Choice on Mubarak":

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, testified before the House of Representatives on Thursday morning that there was a “strong likelihood” that Mr. Mubarak would step down by the end of the day.

American officials said Mr. Panetta was basing his statement not on secret intelligence but on media broadcasts, which began circulating before he sat down before the House Intelligence Committee.

And then there's this as reported by Jake Tapper, ABC News:

The director of the Office of National Intelligence James Clapper today told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – which seeks Egypt to become an Islamic state ruled by sharia law – is “a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”

A CIA director who gets his intelligence from watching Katie Couric on CBS and CNN's Anderson Cooper, and a director of of National Intelligence who compares the Radical Islamic terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood to the Rotarians and Lions Club.

With Obama administration officials, you're seeing the face of cutting back on National Security and Intelligence Services.