Politics
& Government The State of
Things
.
.. The
State of Things: Intelligence Quotient
An Interview with Retired CIA Intelligence Officer,
State Senator Gerry Gossens [D-Addison]  | Retired
CIA Intelligence
Officer & State Senator
[D-Addison]
Gerry
Gossens |
Gerry was born in Henderson, Texas on October 27,
1933. The son of a pipeliner, he spent a good part of his youth
moving from place to place as his dad worked on oil pipelines, first here
in the U.S. during WW II, and later, beginning in 1947 in Saudi Arabia and
Lebanon. As it turned out, Gerry spent all of his high school years
in the Middle East, as well as the summers between his studies while he
attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he graduated with a
B.S. in Marine Engineering in 1956. After a three year hitch with
the Air Force, he returned to Beirut, this time as a field officer with
The Agency. Gerry also has two daughters, one of whom served in the
Peace Corps in Niger in the mid-'80s, and one of whom is currently serving
in Ivory Coast, where Gerry recently paid a visit as part of a trip that
included a stop in Tunisia, one of his old duty stations. On Friday
morning, November 2nd, Senator Gerry Gossens and DownStreet editor
Lou Colasanti met at Rosie's and talked for more than an hour ...
about his early experiences, his views -- both then and now -- on American
policy in the Middle East, his hitch in the Air Force, his years with the
CIA, and his take on bin Ladin, al Qa'ida, and the current crisis.
We taped the interview, thinking we'd pull a few choice quotes to present
in print. But Senator Gossens was so forthcoming, and so much of
what he had to say was worthwhile, that we decided only after the fact to
run a more than 30-minnute segment of the audio. Remember, we met at
Rosie's, so the background sounds can be a little distracting. But
we've cleaned it up as much as we could, and it's definitely worth
listening to. ... If you prefer to read rather than listen,
what follows are some excerpts from the interview. But if you want
to hear more, simply click on either the Real Audio Stream or the Windows
Media link, immediately below. Contents
of the Interview with retired CIA Intelligence Officer,
State Senator Gerry Gossens [D - Addison County]
- On how he became interested in the politics of the Middle East
- On
his hitch in the Air Force
- On a recent return to
Saudi Arabia
- On the current State Department Travel
Advisory
- On the current media coverage of the climate
overseas
- On some earlier experiences in the Middle
East
- On the current actions and rhetoric of the War
on Terrorism
- On The Agency and the need for human
intelligence
- On the role of the military in policy
decision-making
- On the difficulty of fighting
terrorism
- On American policy and traditional
societies
- On the current state of The Agency and
"real-politics"
- On a recent trip to Israel
- On
the Taliban, bin Ladin and al Qa'ida
- On American
troops in Saudi Arabia
- On the balance between
intelligence and public information
- On the role of
intelligence
click
here to continue ... .
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