He confessed!

By now, I'm sure that you've heard the news: Before war broke out in Iraq, Al Qaeda's Ibn-Sheikh al-Libi was seized in Pakistan, flown to Egypt, and tortured until he "confessed" that Saddam and Osama were working together. This bogus "confession" played a key role in the administration's case for war.

I have no doubt that the Powers-That-Be knew full well that the information had no validity.

This episode is, of course, no laughing matter -- yet it reminds me of a grim joke, one of the few jokes ever concocted about the spy trade. This one goes back to the Cold War days...

The heads of the CIA, the KGB and Mossad go hunting. They engage in a contest: Which of the three can enter the forest and bag a bear in the shortest time?

The CIA chief goes first. He calls for satellite recon. Bear-like imagery is analyzed in Maryland. The famed Unit 566, a paramilitary team specializing in bear-related covert operations, is dispatched to the forest. Using night-vision goggles, they track the beast down. Using highly sophisticated ultra-sound devices, they incapacitate the animal and deliver him to the three spy chiefs. "Operation Bruin" takes a mere six hours. (After the bear receives a memory wipe, he is allowed back into the forest.)

The KGB chief goes next. Lacking sophisticated technology, he simply shoots anything that moves. Then he starts lobbing explosives. Soon, he has blown up half the forest. Finally, he returns to camp, proudly displaying a smoldering bear carcass. The whole excusion lasts a mere three hours.

The Mossad chief goes next. He disappears into the forest -- and returns twenty minutes later. In one hand, he carries a rabbit -- a terribly bruised and beaten rabbit.

"He confessed!" announces the Mossad head. "He IS a bear."

So what modern lesson do we draw from this joke? Perhaps this: The neocons have replaced our high-tech espionage apparat with something that is starting to look a lot like Mossad.