Exactly. And Garak manipulated Sisko even though the ultimate outcome is what Sisko wanted.
What? No, not Bashir. Sloan and other Section 31 staff who identified themselves as Starfleet Internal Affairs should have been locked up for impersonating Starfleet officers.
Well, for starters, scale. Sisko didn't invent or cooperate with a disease attempting genocide.
And second, Sisko and Starfleet intelligence has a chain of command that reports up through Starfleet Command to the Federation president and presumably a legislature. Sisko and Starfleet intelligence's actions may be secret from rival powers and the general public, but they do ultimately report to civilian authority. Section 31 has either a mole or moles, bugs, or both inside the Federation president's office. There is no oversight there.
And Sisko picked Garak knowing that Garak would use methods that would get the job done that Sisko couldn't stomach on his own. A fine balance there.
And why Garak needs to be thrown off the station.
With all of Garak's faults, he helped saved the Alpha Quadrant from Dominion rule.
Garak was a weapon, Starfleet and Sisko both knew this. If you don’t control the weapon, someone else will.
Duplicitous, underhanded, and murder are so great that every interstellar power should have an agency dedicated to it!
Ideally, no. But if others are playing that game, you almost have to.
Garak was a loose cannon. He wasn't controllable and too dangerous to keep around.
The text of the show says otherwise.
What? Why, exactly? Sisko (and Sisko said he cleared it with Starfleet Command) said they wanted Romulus in the war. Garak got Romulus in the war. He should get a medal, not be kicked off. (Well, not really a medal because it might come out exactly why he got it and that would embarass all concerned - Garak, Sisko, the Federation.)
The pre-credits scene was actually on DS9, when Bashir was getting ready to leave for his medical conference. Everything else until the end of the episode took place on Sloan's holodeck.
The text of the show seems to say that this power is completely useful and Section 31 tactics are fine so long as the heroes do it. And I completely disagree with that.
Because he's untrustworthy, duplicitous, and owes no loyalty save to himself. That's why.
It's still a matter of the ends justifying the means and that is about as slippery a moral slope as can be.
I disagree with the franchise trying to rehabilitate Space Hitler. Life goes on.
Space Hitler at least had an excuse off being from a separate timeline and completely different moral system.
A real super secret agency would not even HAVE uniforms. Reminds me of Omega selling watches that say James Bond 007 on the dial. /s Yeah, secret agents always wear their code names and service numbers on their person so they can be identified if they're ever taken prisoner. /sYes, they even had the ridiculous black uniforms they'll still have 200 years later. Nothing screams "Hey, I'm a black-ops secret agent!" like an all black uniform. Not inconspicuous at all.
I will next time I see them.
Garak is not a good character, one I would omit in a heartbeat, next to Q, Trelane, Quark and Okona.
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