Comments on: Wrong!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 08 May 2006 03:50:35 +0000

There are totally different rules for reliability between the two communities and totally different ground rules for collection.

I was totally disappointed with the apparent lack of information at the beginning of Afghanistan in what would have been an ideal environment for some of the things we did covering Eastern Bloc training exercises.

They wouldn’t have generated much, which would have made anything significant and we didn’t seem to have the equipment and support deployed. It looked like a purely HUMINT show and we didn’t have the necessary net in place.

I don’t know if we even have the resources available anymore to do a decent job.

The purges are the big problem. It takes years to develop sources and seconds to lose them. The Plame outing made the job more difficult than ever, as sources would have been rolled up in the target area.

By: phinky

phinky — Mon, 08 May 2006 02:27:40 +0000

Don’t forget the HUMINT-SIGINT rivalry. The CIA is composed mostly of HUMINTers, while Gen Hayden’s background is in the SIGINT community. I wonder how that will affect morale at the Agency. It won’t help because the purges will continue.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 07 May 2006 21:42:34 +0000

I would really be interested is a list of Negroponte’s successes before I appointed him to to pick up lunch. The Central American death squad & Iran Contra didn’t work out. He wasn’t at the UN or Iraq very long.

Is it too much to expect that we will occasionally appoint a “winner” to an important post?

By: Scorpio

Scorpio — Sun, 07 May 2006 21:24:30 +0000

Naw. It’s just that Negroponte won’t feel like he’s one of the Big Dogs until one of *his* cronies gets an appointment.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 07 May 2006 20:07:44 +0000

The man was DirNSA when they started the domestic spying program, so they really don’t want him having to testify before a Senate committee, if they have any sense.

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 07 May 2006 19:38:54 +0000

Well they have the skewers ready for his confirmation hearing! OUCH – gonna be an interesting wrangle to pin him down on SOOooo many matters of importance.