Secrets of Saddam's nuclear programme hidden under tree

"At the same time, Libyan sources have told GIS that they believed that it was possible that the bulk of the “heavy engineering” of Iraq’s strategic weapons programs had been undertaken for some years in Libya, rather than in Iraq itself. This included weaponizing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) payloads (biological, chemical and nuclear) for deployment on ballistic missiles, including the NoDong 1 systems acquired from North Korea (DPRK) in 2000."

A picture from Hitler hiding his war making in another socialist country, Russia).

It sure is easy to sit outside and scoff.

Yep. Sure is. I am able to look from the outside and see all the mistakes, misinterpretations, the interagency and interdepartmental squabbles. Have the intel agencies done some good? Of course they have. But, when the chips were down and threats were imminent, they have all (collectively) dropped the ball - and then waste valuable time pointing fingers at each other instead of fixing the problem.

When YOU are the one on the hotseat with all the information it isn't quite so simple. Then you have a jillion little bits of information, all pointing in different directions.

If I were responsible for the job, I'd do the job or find someone who could. I'm NOT the person responsible for all the bureaucratic bullqueeze that gets in the way of the job getting done.

You are also listening to hundreds of intelligent people, analysts and agency/service officers and heads, all with different opinions.

And along with the "differing opinions", how many analysees (sp?) are driven by political or bureaucratic motives? Turf protection, credit, glory?????

It is rare when you have a source of information inside the enemy's camp.

Someone, then, is obviously failing to do their job.

Even then you have to wonder how reliable he is.

This is why you try to have multiple sources, so that you can cross-verify information. This is where analysis comes in: Can my source's info be verified by other intel obtained?

My point is - our current system is broken and needs to be fixed. Burying our heads in the sand will only make matters worse.

My point is - our current system is broken and needs to be fixed.

My point is that few critics have a point, and little knowledge of the system.

Unfortunately, a large, centralized intelligence apparatus, while more effective than our present "system", is very dangerous for a democracy. I'd prefer to retain something like the present "system", so they can watch each other as well as outside threats.

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