Bush is nominating Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense. Given the administration’s history of postmodern intelligence analysis, this 1991 article on the debate over his performance at CIA is disconcerting:

[T]he Gates period produced a rash of complaints that, on controversial issues like Nicaragua, El Salvador and Iran, the agency tailored its reports to fit White House policy rather than providing objective conclusions. In the world of intelligence analysis, that is the ultimate sin.

Sounds like he’ll fit right in!

Also, here’s the conclusion to the Walsh Iran / Contra Report’s chapter on Gates, who was a subject of the investigation:

Independent Counsel found insufficient evidence to warrant charging Robert Gates with a crime for his role in the Iran/contra affair. Like those of many other Iran/contra figures, the statements of Gates often seemed scripted and less than candid. Nevertheless, given the complex nature of the activities and Gates’s apparent lack of direct participation, a jury could find the evidence left a reasonable doubt that Gates either obstructed official inquiries or that his two demonstrably incorrect statements were deliberate lies.

Even if he wasn’t charged, how many Iran-Contra figures do we need in the executive branch? Elliot Abrams, John Negroponte and Otto Reich weren’t enough?