What Caught My Eye Today

Air Force - Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders, holding them to account in a historic Pentagon shake-up after embarrassing nuclear mix-ups. Gates said his decision was based mainly on the damning conclusions of an internal report on the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of four Air Force electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads. The investigation found a declining trend in Air Force nuclear expertise — not the first time that has been raised as a problem, Gates said — and a drifting of the Air Force's focus away from its nuclear mission, which includes stewardship of the land-based missile component of the nation's nuclear arsenal, as well as missiles and bombs assigned for nuclear missions aboard B-52 and B-2 long-range bombers. This is one of those good news/bad news stories. The good news is that once the facts were in, Gates wasted little time in acting and did so in a dramatically effective manner--a rare feat in the Bush administration. The bad news is this. How did the Air Force leadership deteriorate so badly without anyone noticing until now? Perhaps now, the Pentagon will consult a dictionary and learn what the term 'oversight' means.

Iraq - A new Senate report gives a fresh shot of adrenaline to the election-year debate over the Iraq war. President Bush and his top officials deliberately misrepresented secret intelligence to make the case to invade Iraq, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee. I'm sure these new allegations have nothing to do with the fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee is stacked with Democratic senators. The committee says officials wrongly linked Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11 attacks and al-Qaida; claimed Iraq would give terrorist groups chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, and said Iraq was developing drone aircraft to spread chemical or biological agents over the United States. If any of this sounds familiar, there's a good reason. The report follows, by years, an earlier committee effort that assessed the quality of pre-war intelligence on Iraq and found it severely lacking. Given that the White House has already acknowledged that the intelligence it acted upon turned out to be wrong--thanks for that, by the way--I'm not exactly sure what purpose this new report serves.

Afghanistan - It would appear that the Senate Intelligence Committee has been busy this week. A second report issued by the committee says Pentagon officials concealed from U.S. intelligence agencies potentially useful tips from Iranian agents in 2001. Now that doesn't seem fair. I mean really, how trustworthy could those Iranian agents be. The report sheds new light on the mistrust and lack of cooperation by Cheney and Rumsfeld with the CIA and the State Department after 9/11. How much more light could there possibly be? The report said Defense Department officials refused to allow "potentially useful and actionable intelligence" to be shared with intelligence agencies. Always nice to see the same side being on the same page. With inter-agency cooperation like this, who needs terrorists?

Drugs - U.S. authorities seized a record 316 metric tons of cocaine last year, top officials said as they credited Mexico's increasing cooperation with helping force drug traffickers to raise their prices and try new smuggling methods. The record seizures have led to a 21% jump in the price of cocaine and a drop in the purity of the drug. The price of methamphetamine has jumped even more, thanks to a crackdown on U.S. labs and Mexican authorities doing more to stop importation of precursor material. Here I was thinking that I had it rough with rising gas prices. I never considered the burden these seizures were having on crack addicts. Federal officials said a key difference is an unprecedented level of cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico in combatting drug trafficking. Increasing levels of violence among drug cartels, particularly in northern Mexican border cities where police are routinely being targeted by the cartels, are proof that the government's latest efforts are working.

Hockey - The Detroit Red Wings captured their fourth Stanley Cup championship in 11 seasons with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Six of the Finals. The Red Wings have claimed the Stanley Cup 11 times in their 82-season history, the most among United States-based teams. And unless, you had access to the Versus television network, you missed most of the season and post-season, so you probably didn't even know that hockey season just ended.

Basketball - Speaking of sports dynasties, here's a match up that NBA officials have been salivating for. Following a 21-year separation, pro basketball’s pillars of power (otherwise known at the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics) will revive their rivalry Thursday night in Boston for Game 1 of a best-of-seven series drenched in nostalgia and stuffed with hoops history. The famed franchises, who have combined to win 30 of 61 championships, are squaring off in the finals for the 11th time and first since 1987. Gimme the Lakers in 6, though I won't be devastated if the Celtics pull this off. I'd love to see Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen get those championship rings that they deserve.