What Kind of Man We're Dealing With

This morning features a drooling report from Mary Louise Kelly on a shady character from the CIA who now serves torture-boy Negroponte who Kelly fawned over back on September 11th. She's doing a background "report" on Joe DeTrani and her remarks need to be read to be believed:

• "...you get a sense of what kind of man we're dealing with from a passage on page 268 of the book Charlie Wilson’s War; it was a bestseller a few years back. So our scene is 1984 and the CIA was trying to convince China to become the major arms merchant for rebels in Afghanistan. As the book tells it, that deal was sealed thanks to the efforts of a brilliant young CIA station chief in Beijing. His colleagues called him 'Broadway Joe,' a tribute to his New York roots and big personality. 'Broadway Joe' persuaded China that selling weapons to Afghan guerillas would be the best way to stick it to the Soviets. 'Broadway Joe' was Joe DeTrani."

Then from DeTrani's friends and colleagues we hear that he is "full of life, just a terrific, pleasant person, fun to be with," that he "brings a lot to the table," and that he's "got the credentials; people will listen to him." Kelly finishes the report with a stirring note that "the North Korean regime is vulnerable; US intelligence ought to be able to penetrate it. That’s a mission for which Joe Detrani, aka "Broadway Joe" would seem to be tailor made."

Take another look at those fawning descriptions and recall that she is talking about a man who helped get the weapons for some of the most vile criminals imaginable--the very people who later leveled the embassies in Africa and the World Trade Towers in New York (would she describe that as "sticking it to the Americans"?)