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Home Front: WoT
CIA Information sources
2007-11-04
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden revealed this week, in defending agency interrogations of terrorists, that more than 70 percent of the intelligence used in a recent national estimate came from questioning captured terrorists. "The last six years have shown us that the best sources of information on terrorists and their plans are the terrorists themselves," Mr. Hayden said in a speech Tuesday in Chicago.

Calling the intelligence "simply irreplaceable," he also noted that the elicited information "is the sole reason we have rendition, detention and interrogation programs."

Fewer than 100 of the most hardened captured terrorists have been put through interrogation since 2002. "Of those, less than a third have required any special methods of questioning," Mr. Hayden said.
And only three have been waterboarded. Puts the issue in a new perspective.
The CIA director said the National Intelligence Estimate confirmed that the danger of another major al Qaeda attack against the U.S. is real. Al Qaeda aims "to execute a spectacular attack that would cause mass casualties, massive destruction and economic harm," he said.

Mr. Hayden noted that the estimate was less certain about one key element of al Qaeda plans: the presence of group operatives inside the U.S.

The CIA director's comments are a tacit admission that the agency continues to have a difficult time planting spies inside or close to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
Posted by:Nimble Spemble

#2  Besoeker,
Don't be so sure. Remember there was an Egyptian who was a language teacher at Ft. Bragg that turned out to work for AQ (this was before 9/11).

The best intelligence we tend to get (this was true in the Cold War too) is when insiders "come in from the cold". See "Agent Solo" during the Cold War.

This requires patience and a good deal of luck. This seems to have happened in Iraq, but not in Pak land.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al   2007-11-04 13:27  

#1  The CIA director's comments are a tacit admission that the agency continues to have a difficult time planting spies inside or close to al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

Tacit admission, or blinding flash of the obvious? I'd venture al Qaeda hasn't penetrated JSOC just yet either. If Mike Hayden said, you can take it to the bank.
Posted by: Besoeker   2007-11-04 07:31  

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