Esquire magazine is calling Admiral William “Fox” Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, a man of great complexity and “strategic brilliance.” The Washington Post’s Thomas Ricks reports that Fallon is vehemently denying it all.

That’s because the article makes the argument that it’s only Fallon who has the foresight to stop an “ill-advised” invasion of Iran by President Bush. Fallon — who of course would be loath to speak ill of the President publicly – calls the piece “poison pen stuff.”  But as Ricks points out, Fallon undoubtedly cooperated for the piece, allowing an Esquire reporter to accompany him in trips to Afghanistan and Egypt. Read Ricks here.

There is a growing disconnect between get-tough-at-the-border political rhetoric and public policy that has not been sufficiently funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection division. The result, according to the Washington Time’s Jerry Seper, is local communities devoting precious law enforcement resources to rounding up undocumented immigrants. (more…)

The Washington Post leads today with the Senate passing a bill to reform the Consumer Product Safety Commission. With a 79-13 vote and no threatened Presidential veto, the bill has a very good chance of becoming law. On the other hand, the Senate now must reconcile its bill with the House’s substantively different version.

Annys Shin runs down the key points of contention between the bills. For example, the Senate gives protection to workers who blow the whistle on their corporate employers while the House doesn’t. Understanding Government will continue to monitor the progress of CPSC reform and whether the promises of the Senate legislation can be implemented and enforced by the government. Read Shin here.

Another key sticking point of the CPSC bill is what should go into a public database of unsafe products on the market. As the Wall Street Journal’s Jane Zhang reports, the politics and practicality of public disclosure is an issue also besetting the United States Department of Agriculture.

Richard Raymond, the department’s undersecretary for food safety, told the House Appropriations Committee yesterday that he couldn’t release the 10,000 businesses that sold meat since recalled from the now-closed Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co.  Raymond said that that in order to name names he needs approval from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. The OMB says they’re still looking at the issue.  Read Zhang here.

A key part of government’s post-9/11 restructuring was the creation of a National Intelligence Board. Borne out of CIA and FBI inability to share information that could have thwarted the terrorist attacks, the 16-member board includes the leaders of all key intelligence and security agencies, including the CIA and FBI.

The board’s job is to confirm National Intelligence Estimates on the biggest security issues of the day. And as Walter Pincus and Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post explain, the board is on the fence as to whether a release a declassified version of an NIE on Iraq security to the public. The recent unclassified NIE on Iran’s nuclear capability had significant and immediate policy repercussions.  If the new Iraq report is released, it will come out right before David Petraeus testifies to Congress in April on the surge’s progress.  Read DeYoung and Pincus here.