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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| CIA is going into spy business (really) |
| 2005-09-24 |
| The CIA is working to improve overseas spying through more high-risk operations and less reliance on foreign intelligence services, according to CIA Director Porter J. Goss. "The CIA credo is that the U.S. must always have the place of primacy among our interests," Mr. Goss said of CIA plans to conduct more "unilateral" spying operations. In a meeting Thursday with CIA employees, Mr. Goss was critical of the agency's Directorate of Operations, which intelligence officials say has been opposing reform efforts by Mr. Goss and his key aides. The No. 2 official in the directorate, Robert Richer, resigned in protest last week because he disagreed with Mr. Goss' operations-related reforms. Mr. Goss said the CIA is "doing better" at conducting unilateral operations and is working to place more spies around the world under different disguises than in the past. "When I say we need to be global, this is an admission that we are not in all of the places we should be," Mr. Goss said. "We don't have this luxury anymore." |
| Posted by:Captain America |
| #8 The disintegration and feminization of the CIA begun under Stansfield Turner crippled US intelligence for years. There need to be an awful lot of girlie men swept from the Agency to be replaced by ruthless, competent individuals who really DO put our national interests first. Fully concur with #7...we need much tighter interagency cooperation. |
| Posted by: Old Marine 2005-09-24 20:29 |
| #7 I suspect that this is laying the groundwork for a permanent SOCOM military-style ground operative division. In the Cold War, the vast majority were information gatherers, with literally only a dozen or two James Bond types doing all that work. The need today is para-military agents working in a combined resource. They act as liason to the agency, as ground operatives with other non-military and military personnel, and mostly as "free-lancers", floating operatives, adaptable to many missions. Their operational groups are mission specific, and they do the I/O with agency support as needed. Optimally, most major missions would have one along, and inter-agency consensus would be reached at the debriefing so that there would be clarity about who did what to whom, why, what was gained, and where do we now stand? |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-24 20:20 |
| #6 An American might get in at Splodeydope level, but promotion prospects might be limited. "Abu Billy Bob, here are the plans for the big attack. What do you think?" Yeah, right. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2005-09-24 19:24 |
| #5 Well good luck with that. As the CIA itself stated, groups like Al Qaeda would be impossible for an American to infiltrate ** cough ** Johnny Taliban ** cough ** Adam Gadahn ** cough. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2005-09-24 12:50 |
| #4 You may laugh at this, but it is deadly serious. The CIA has been sliding downhill for some time now. The conventional wisdom was that the world was one big happy family and we could trust others to look out for our interests. Now that wisdom is being dumped (thank God) in favor of the Reagan model: Trust but verify. There must be a ton of CIA retirements coming or Gos would nt have got initiative running. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-09-24 10:48 |
| #3 I would rather they just officially declare their real business ("cocktails on the embassy party circuit"), and stay out of the way of the real intel organizations. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2005-09-24 09:32 |
| #2 Unfortunately, it is a return to an old policy. The Tranzies who infiltrated the buearucracy and who still breath within its walls have loyalties beyond the Constitution. |
| Posted by: Chineck Angitch6709 2005-09-24 09:32 |
| #1 "The CIA credo is that the U.S. must always have the place of primacy among our interests," That's not a change of policy, I hope? |
| Posted by: VAMark 2005-09-24 03:24 |