Posted on 07/14/2004 8:26:40 AM PDT by John Jorsett
Reuel Marc Gerecht's phenomenal article on the sorry state of US intelligence in the Weekly Standard has one major theme: that the CIA lacks the operational methods to penetrate its targets. He describes the heart of the problem as a reliance on recruited foreign agents of indifferent quality as the metric for promotion within the organization. A kind of bizarre sales target without a point or even a purpose.
Under this system, thousands of agents were recruited abroad neither for their intelligence-reporting potential nor their operational utility. They were put on the books--case officers often referred to the sport as "collecting scalps"--because that is how CIAoperatives earned promotion. With some exceptions--extraordinary handling of foreign agents could win you bonus points--the "head count" was the way to professional success. For most case officers, the Cold War was a backdrop for the constant search for an easy "developmental," somebody who could be quickly turned into a "recruitment" for the annual performance report.
It was busywork, a carnival on the periphery while the inner sanctum of the enemy remained inviolate. Nor is there is any bureaucratic probability that things will change. Those in charge today owe their positions to being agent bean counters par excellence -- salesmen of the month -- and are unlikely to alter the game.
The relatively young men who are poised to become the most senior officers of the clandestine service will likely be overwhelmingly from the Near East Division ... These men gained their professional identities in the 1980s. The odds aren't good that they think it necessary to overturn the structure that promoted them.
Yet Gerecht says the only way in to the enemy cave of secrets is by dedicated Americans willing to do it themselves, the riskiest of propositions and not the normal way of doing business. "And there is simply no way that case officers--who still today are overwhelmingly deployed overseas under official cover or, worse, at home in ever-larger task forces--can possibly meet, recruit, or neutralize the most dangerous targets in a sensible, sustainable way." You can't have Americans doing illegal things: what would the Supreme Court say? What is needed is:
a small group of men who seed themselves into these organizations. Some, probably most, of these men would need to be actual case officers--CIA employees--not foreign agents the CIA has recruited.
America needs spies. American spies. It is, of course the last thing either the CIA will do or Congressional oversight will demand. The Standard article goes on at great length to describe how the metrics of intelligence success have been politicized to the point that the issues being debated bear no resemblance to the requirements of the service. The September 11 Commission, for example, will focus on all the wrong things: on irrelevant trivia or upon grand, symbolic dicta. It is with a tinge of bitterness and not a little irony than Gerecht closes by saying:
Tenet, like Casey, will be damned for the wrong things. And if another 9/11 happens, we will start all over again, with more committees, investigations, recriminations, and blue-ribbon recommendations. Another director will come, and the Agency--in the press at least--will again be reborn. We can all be thankful, of course, that bin Ladenism will in the end be defeated not by the prowess of American intelligence, but by the democratization of the Middle East. Otherwise, we would be effectively defenseless against a small, tightly knit platoon of holy warriors who live to kill and die.
Or at least, that's the hope.
It's not possible to run a clandestine intelligence or "spy" service under the kind of public (and Congressional) scrutiny to which the CIA is subject. Doing so guarantees the agency will create performance metrics that are sensitive to that scrutiny.
It's pretty obvious that the CIA started downhill when it opened its kimono to the Church committe in the 70's.
It's probably no longer possible to turn the tide, so the only hope is to create a new "spy" agency which is not, never, ever discussed in public (e.g., like NSA until the 80's).
Poliical correctness, and the mad ambition of liberal politicans, hurt the CIA badly in the 1970's.
Yet by the 1980's, the CIA Moscow Station was running more agents against the Soviets than at any time in history, including Tolkachev and Ployakov. Of course this was all destroyed by Aldrich Ames trachery, but the point is with competent professionals it can be done.
You are probably right. History suggests that after a certain point broken organizations cannot be fixed. That's especially true of government bureaucracies.
The best thing to do would be to start a new spy agency and phase the CIA out of business.
Maybe we could call it the OSS, from back in the days when there were actually some committed people working there.
It is unfortunate that we only get to hear about the failures of the CIA and not their successes, of which there are many.
Maybe we've already got one.
I mean, if we knew they existed, what good would they be?
Maybe we've already got one.
I mean, if we knew they existed, what good would they be?
They probably use the same "Civil Service" criteria as other governmental agencies, such as the Post Office????
That's a good trick - two identical posts with the same time-stamp...
ping
ain't it ironic? if they do their job well, nobody talks about them,praises them or criticizes them. when they have
any small mistakes, they get jumped all over because that's the only stuff the public hears. It has to be the only US government operation in existence that gets any scrutiny at all any more. If the democrats focused on public school failures like they do on the CIA, all the schools would close tommorow and be outsourced to India.
Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Intelligence Organizations each collects and processes intelligence relevant to their particular Service needs.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - provides accurate, comprehensive, and timely foreign intelligence on national security topics to national policy and decision makers.
Coast Guard Intelligence deals with information related to US maritime borders and Homeland Security.
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) - provides timely and objective military intelligence to warfighters, policymakers, and force planners.
Department of Energy performs analyses of foreign nuclear weapons, nuclear non-proliferation, and energy security-related intelligence issues in support of US national security policies, programs, and objectives.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - prevents terrorist attacks within the United States, reduces America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimizes the damage and recovers from attacks that do occur.
Department of State deals with information affecting US foreign policy.
Department of Treasury collects and processes information that may affect US fiscal and monetary policy.
Federal Bureau of Investigation deals with counterespionage and data about international criminal cases.
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) provides timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security.
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) - coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the CIA.
National Security Agency (NSA) - collects and processes foreign signals intelligence information for our Nation's leaders and warfighters, and protects critical US information security systems from compromise.
All the responsibilities of the CIA, DIA, NSA, NRO, and NGA are concerned with intelligence.
I have never been a spook, but my perception is that the American taxpayer is paying for a helluva lot of intel and I question whether we are getting our money's worth.
It may be time to pull the plug on CIA. Transfer that part of it worth saving to DIA and recreate the OSS, using active duty intel, specops and linguists seconded on 3 to 5 year tours. It is critical that we get back into the HUMINT business.
You don't really think that all those solitary, simple looking, country talkin' gents traipsing about gathering "crop & harvest estimates" are only reporting on the volume of corn, cattle, chickens, pigs, wheat, bananas, soybeans, etc. that have to travel over the roads, bridges, ferries, planes, boats, ships, trucks, trains, etc to the various depots, stockyards, train stations, sea & river ports, airports, truck terminals to be shipped by people who run the country and make payments to all those who control the access of all this might be of value to just a desk in DC to go in some seldom looked at report do you? Of course, it takes analysts who know what to look for and other people to actually read/listen to what the analysts say and other people who give a damn to actually use what this intel adds up to. Its grunt work that has no sexiness to it at all. But its how its done. And if it works right, nobody even knows you were there.
Sorry about the long sentence. It was done for effect...lol.
Gerecht, and Wretchard, misunderstand the potential for placing American intelligence officers inside enemy networks. They are most often sealed along lines of blood kinship. It's a challenge indeed to break into a network that one must be born into.
I have nothing to say about Gerecht's claimed problems with the Agency, only that his solution is indicative of too many hours spent with John LeCarré and Sean Connery. I suspect that these two writers have not much experience of agent handling.
If you want to see how such tightly sealed networks can be taken down, the saga of La Cosa Nostra across the stage of the 20th Century is a good case study with plenty of available information in open sources. Worth noting that the bad guys win a few games and sets, and the occasional match.
I know these writers mean well, but they have proposed one problem (which may or may not exist but is not the whole problem by any means, even if it does), and one solution (which is an unrealistic solution, even for the stated problem).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Oh, you made me laugh. :-D
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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