Billmon: Finger to the Wind

Ken Silverstein at Harper's and Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker give us some more details on the life and times of Brant Bassett -- a.k.a. "Nine Fingers," the CIA operative who lent a bit of Austin Powerish international-man-of-mystery flair to Brent Wilkes's poker and prostitution parties, which otherwise read like something from the script of Porky's II.

Or, to quote a T-shirt from an Alaska bar that used to be (and maybe still is) famous in certain elite drinking circles: Liquor in the front, poker behind.

But I liked Nine Fingers a lot better before he had a name, when we could imagine him tracking Bin Ladin across the scorching sands of Baluchistan, or running a mole inside the Russian embassy in Islamabad, or refusing to cry out as Hezbollah kidnappers cut off his pinkie and mailed it to the CIA station chief in Beirut along with their ransom demands. You know, spy shit. With someone who looks like Harrison Ford, except craggier.