[tonycavanagh]

Trying to get intelligence agencies to work together has always been a major problem.

In North Ireland we had too many agencies without a unified command structure.

There was Army Intelligence, RUC Intelligence, MI5, MI6, special Branch Irish and English section and a host of other units.

The problem was of turf who was responsible for what, and there were cases of operations being run by one agency get entangled in a operation run by another agency.

And when the terrorists started to use drug money to fund there operations then it involved all the drug agencies.

Which added to the confusion.

[TruthNtegrity]

Oh, throw in a couple more 3-letter agencies, and you can say we have the exact same problem here

The "stovepiping" of intelligence often gives whoever is asking the quesitons the answers they want, not "just the facts". Add to that the problem of comparing information in another data base because you don't have the clearance, and you begin to get the picture. The fact that anything gets done in America is probably a major miracle.