Iraqi intelligence archives have political warfare value. Use them.

The US has recovered massive Iraqi secret police and intelligence archives detailing a vast international network of paid agents of influence.

These archives should be exploited not only for their intelligence and law-enforcement value. They should be put to work immediately as badly-needed weapons in the floundering political warfare campaign against the terrorist enemy.

According to the Washington Post, the files “contain not only the names of nearly every Iraqi intelligence officer, but also the names of their paid foreign agents, written agent reports, evaluations of agent credentials, and documentary evidence of payments made to buy influence in the Arab world and elsewhere.”

The agents of influence were not “formal intelligence agents,” but “prominent personalities and political figures who accepted money from Iraq as they defended Hussein publicly or pressed his causes.”

US officials won’t name the individuals. They should. Iraqi agents of influence should be identified so that the public in the US and around the world will know who has been skewing news reports, intelligence analysis, political statements, and diplomatic initiatives on Saddam Hussein’s behalf. The agents are part of the enemy camp. The only way to neutralize their effectiveness is to expose them. Now.