CIA Keeps Having Disastrous Failures

Comment by Jim Campbell

November 16th, 2018

Before we ask the question below, shouldn’t we start by asking what it doesn’t?

 

 

Be it the NSA, FBI, CIA and others, how can we trust any on them?

What Does The U.S. Government Keep Classified?

The CIA released a report on its failures prior to 9/11, yet parts of the report still remain classified.

So, what is the government hiding?

Please listen to the spymaster of U.S. spymasters in an interview before his death.

We know so little !

 

James Angleton who retired in 1975 as the head of counter—intelligence at the CIA. For more than 50 years, he was one of America’s top counter—spies, and as such, one of the most influential men in the world.

He is firmly convinced that, ever since the war, the Soviet Union has been engaged in a drive for world domination, and that the KGB has played a major part through its intelligence services.

 

By Julia Wilde

The Seeker

November 16th, 2018

Office Of Inspector General Report on Central Intelligence Agency Accountability Regarding Findings And Conclusions Of The Report Of The Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before And After The Terrorist Attacks On September 11, 2001.

“The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence requested that the CIA’s Office of Inspector General (IOG) review the findings of their Joint Inquiry Report…” (Source)

Security Clearance Frequently Asked Questions (Clearance Jobs)
“A security clearance is a determination by the United States Government that a person or company is eligible for access to classified information.”

5.1 million Americans have security clearances. That’s more than the entire population of Norway
“Critics of the country’s national security apparatus say Washington is addicted to secrecy.”

Report to the President
“Executive Order (E.O.) 12958, as amended, ‘Classified National Security Information,’ and E.O. 12829, as amended, ‘National Industrial Security Program.'”

How to fix it.

Front Page Magazine

November 16, 2018

Michael Ledeen

 

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that democracies would have a tough time with foreign policy, in large part because it was so hard for them to maintain secrecy. 

Recent events show how prescient he was.

Indeed, the story reveals one of the most chilling developments in the history of our secret intelligence services.

 

 

You wouldn’t know it from the “news coverage,” but the CIA’s global secret internet communications network was uncovered by Iranian spooks between 2009 and 2013 (that would be the first Obama term), thanks in part to Iran’s enlisting an American double agent who knew all about the system. 

A very big deal as Breitbart summarized:

The CIA officials were stunned at how quickly and thoroughly the Iranians penetrated the system, which relied on phony corporate websites.

One of the report’s cringe-inducing details is that once the Iranian double agent pointed out a disguised CIA website, Iranian intelligence unraveled the rest of the CIA network using Google searches for similar sites and monitoring traffic to those websites.

This was quickly followed by China’s catastrophic compromise of America’s spy network in 2011 and 2012, which culminated in the arrest and execution of about 30 U.S. agents and sources, essentially destroying the American network in China.

It seems the Iranians were in cahoots with the Chinese, and you should not be surprised to learn that the Russians were part of the anti-American operation.

Indeed, there seems to be no known limit on the global catastrophe, from the dozens of men and women who risked—and often lost—their lives for American security, to the knowledge our enemies gained about our sources and methods.  All over the world.

With dawning horror, U.S. officials realized that once Iranian or Chinese intelligence officials were able to pinpoint CIA assets within their own borders, they were almost certainly capable of zeroing in on similar digital signatures in other countries, former officials said.

Former officials said the fallout from the compromises was likely global in scope — potentially endangering all CIA sources that used some version of this internet-based system worldwide.

American agents were identified, rounded up, and executed.  There does not seem to have been the sort of drastic remedial action you might expect in such a disaster.  Instead, according to a bevy of former intelligence officials, there was a “near-total lack of accountability” in the intelligence community.

It would not be surprising if there were a lot more to this story. 

That “double agent,” for example, probably means that several CIA operations were penetrated. 

The agent may have had friends working on other projects. 

Such cases help explain why the CIA has an unenviably consistent record of almost always getting Iran wrong, from the revolution that removed the Shah in 1979, right up to the dreadful deal Obama cut with the mullahs, and to the current European campaign against the latest round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. 

We are now learning, for example, that the Iranian nuclear weapons program was bigger than we (the CIA, mainly) had believed.

What is to be done? 

Putting terrific leaders at the top of CIA obviously won’t do the trick. 

Mike Pompeo, a good man, was director for nearly two years, and there is still no sign that the Intelligence Community is significantly improved. 

I’m afraid we have to go back to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s prescription: shut it down and start a new secret intelligence service. 

It’s a big country, full of talented people. 

The analyses can be farmed out to think tanks and research centers, where much of the good work is done anyway. 

As for operations, much of the work should be done by the military, as General Flynn intended (this is one of the reasons CIA went after him, first at DIA and then again at the National Security Council.

And I have a scheme. 

Recruit young scholars and business people. 

Pay them to live abroad, and to befriend the next generation of leaders. 

That way, some years down the road, we will have agents in place who are on first-name terms with the top people.

My own experiences testify to the effectiveness of this stratagem. 

I went off to Italy as a graduate student, and assimilated into the Roman political and intellectual worlds.

One of the people I befriended was Bettino Craxi, then an unknown Socialist, who went on to become prime minister. 

One night it was urgent for President Reagan to talk to Craxi, who wouldn’t take a call from our Embassy late at night. 

But he did take a call from me, his old friend.  It worked out.

 We need these informal avenues. 

CIA at its best has them, but not nearly on the necessary scale.

It’s not hard but it’s urgent work. Faster, please.

Comments below by Dave the Differentiator:

The issue is developing trust between sources.

There was a complete break-down of the Trust and many people left to save their own life.

The Hillary Clinton email server is just one example of how America’s leaders have become traitors to the Country!

Then, we have the internal; corruption inside these “secret agencies” which are too numerous and refuse to share the Intel.

This gap in the sharing of information is a flaw that is difficult to overcome.

Then there is the sheer volume of the information available and how it is vetted.

The concept of combining the Control of all of these agencies came after the 911 incident and has not worked in an optimum fashion.

With 17 agencies and many contractors and not central clearing center the solution is not available.

The “Secret” programs have destroyed any trust between the various agencies and Branches of the military.

The Obama Administration allowed the use of selected “leaks” to the MSM which turned out to be a death sentence for certain operators which in turn lead to an additional complete break-down of TRUST.

America still has the best of the best in terms of training and performance of Operators.

America does keep a little too tight controls on these operators and needs to recognize the real world of humanitarian standards.

A very difficult task under the best of circumstances.

The facts will always be that certain other countries will have different standards of measurement and Rules of Engagement and because of the cultural differences I doubt if this out of balance cultural problem can ever be solved.

THE END