The World best Spy Agencies... (not really...)

0699 said:
So what is their ratio of success to failure? Seems to me that usually we only hear about the failures...
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That's true. However, I've read a few articles/seen a few interviews with former employees who say the CIA has gotten away from its traditional role of recruiting spies. Losing "trade-craft" skills or what not and focusing more on traditional military roles, i.e the drone campaign.

Like I said, I don't have a dog in the fight, just some observations I've made. 1. Former employees saying they don't know how to spy anymore which leads to 2.) A major spy ring busted in the Middle East? Kind of makes sense, I suppose..
 
TH15 said:
That's true. However, I've read a few articles/seen a few interviews with former employees who say the CIA has gotten away from its traditional role of recruiting spies. Losing "trade-craft" skills or what not and focusing more on traditional military roles, i.e the drone campaign.

Like I said, I don't have a dog in the fight, just some observations I've made. 1. Former employees saying they don't know how to spy anymore which leads to 2.) A major spy ring busted in the Middle East? Kind of makes sense, I suppose..
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I assume the sourcing for all this info above is press? :hmm: How much do you know about PSYOPS or covert influence?
 
lindy said:
I assume the sourcing for all this info above is press? :hmm: How much do you know about PSYOPS or covert influence?
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I'll try to find the exact sources for you. Bob Baer is a main source for this case, though. There are plenty of articles he's written on the subject. I never said I knew anything about anything, like I said, I've just made observations based off of what I've read.
 
TH15 said:
I'll try to find the exact sources for you. Bob Baer is a main source for this case, though. There are plenty of articles he's written on the subject. I never said I knew anything about anything, like I said, I've just made observations based off of what I've read.
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I know man...just busting yer chops on the last day of 2011. "not being an a-hole" is on my resolution list for next year.
 
pardus said:
I gave up on ever hoping to attain that years ago! :D
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My last civilian eval at work noted my tendency for directness in written communications and I recently received a verbal counseling that the negative tone of my emails was blamed for lowering morale on my team. Um, the reality is that my "boss" (two echelons above me) is micromanaging us and is a single point of failure (all decisions are made by the boss) resulting to total apathy by the team. So I called the boss out on it and demanded the best I could for a mission statement along with a "commander's intent" (purpose, direction, motivation).

Needless to say it has not gone over well and now I'm considered a shitbag troublemaker (cause I provide unvarnished opinions based on experience) but the team loves me.
 
lindy said:
My last civilian eval at work noted my tendency for directness in written communications and I recently received a verbal counseling that the negative tone of my emails was blamed for lowering morale on my team. Um, the reality is that my "boss" (two echelons above me) is micromanaging us and is a single point of failure (all decisions are made by the boss) resulting to total apathy by the team. So I called the boss out on it and demanded the best I could for a mission statement along with a "commander's intent" (purpose, direction, motivation).

Needless to say it has not gone over well and now I'm considered a shitbag troublemaker (cause I provide unvarnished opinions based on experience) but the team loves me.
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I walked that walk once, didn't end up well for me career wise, but morally I'm happy with the stand I made.
 
pardus said:
I walked that walk once, didn't end up well for me career wise, but morally I'm happy with the stand I made.
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I'm trying to curtail my assignment (3 and 1/2 years early) because this place is so f'd up but the USG has threatened to charge me $32K to recup PCS costs. Bad thing is the issue (micromanagement, single point of failure, stovepiping, etc) is well known by damn near everyone but yet the situation has gone on for 18 months with the end being 18 more months. The Peter Principle is alive and well within the USG, at least in my organization.

My boss is NOT supportive of my Guard stuff either and actually claimed they could deny me going on orders for 3 months! I could go on and on and on...
 
That's fucked up. Sorry to hear that. 32K is a lot of money!

I bet you could hire some ex KGB guy for a lot less than that to "fix" your problem :-"

I'm pretty sure Border Patrol has discriminated against me because of my Guard service. I think they've thrown me out of the hiring process because of it. I'm not quite sure yet.
 
TH15 said:
I'm surprised to see the CIA that high with all of the shit going on with them right now. Losing a drone in Iran, having spy rings busted in multiple countries....
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It may have to do with them doing multitudes more work in denied environments. I'm sure Iran would lose a couple drones too, if they had a couple hundred of them in the air at any one time. If the CIA wanted some apologetics in the eyes of a Canadian magazine, I'm sure they would just "out" all the foreign networks they currently track both in the US and abroad. It's better for us to know that we're good and let other people (who still wipe their ass with their hand) think they are the best, because of course, a Canadian news source says so.
 
lindy said:
I'm trying to curtail my assignment (3 and 1/2 years early) because this place is so f'd up but the USG has threatened to charge me $32K to recup PCS costs. Bad thing is the issue (micromanagement, single point of failure, stovepiping, etc) is well known by damn near everyone but yet the situation has gone on for 18 months with the end being 18 more months. The Peter Principle is alive and well within the USG, at least in my organization.

My boss is NOT supportive of my Guard stuff either and actually claimed they could deny me going on orders for 3 months! I could go on and on and on...
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So get this shit:

My request to curtail was officially denied yesterday. I was a "tad" pissed. So today I go in with a huge f'ing attitude and the boss summons me to the office (fourth time in 6 months) to inform me that the positions are being converted to Emergency Essential and due to my Guard affiliation, I will be transferred at USG cost.

Good for me but this decision was apparently made back in mid-Dec. I feel like I've been butt raped, which is now a crime according to the FBI. Swing away Holder, swing away.
 
I just stumbled upon this article. It is quite lengthy, but offers a lot of insight as to how the intel community (namely CIA) gets a bad reputation, when reality its the leaders who call the shots. Most of you probably know most of what's in here but it's a good read.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/03/intelligence?page=0,1

First paragraph:
"Presidents Make Decisions Based on Intelligence."
Not the big ones. From George W. Bush trumpeting WMD reports about Iraq to this year's Republican presidential candidates vowing to set policy in Afghanistan based on the dictates of the intelligence community, Americans often get the sense that their leaders' hands are guided abroad by their all-knowing spying apparatus. After all, the United States spends about $80 billion on intelligence each year, which provides a flood of important guidance every week on matters ranging from hunting terrorists to countering China's growing military capabilities. This analysis informs policymakers' day-to-day decision-making and sometimes gets them to look more closely at problems, such as the rising threat from al Qaeda in the late 1990s, than they otherwise would.
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cback0220 said:
Are you implying that the President is a foreigner?
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I don't buy into the Area 51 UFO junk, armed NSA agents runnig amok all over the US, CIA officers running drugs, however, I do wonder why there is a controversy over his birth certificate...or his college years...or his church attendence...or his religion...or...

Heck man, when Clinton was in power, the only real controversy was whether he was killing his former associates! Just imagine though the blowback IF BHO was not really born in Hawaii: everything he signed, ordered, represented would have no authority. Pretty scary so, in my opinion, it's better for the country, nay Cback, the world, to let it go. The damage to our country and international relations would be too great.
 
lindy said:
I don't buy into the Area 51 UFO junk, armed NSA agents runnig amok all over the US, CIA officers running drugs, however, I do wonder why there is a controversy over his birth certificate...or his college years...or his church attendence...or his religion...or...

Heck man, when Clinton was in power, the only real controversy was whether he was killing his former associates! Just imagine though the blowback IF BHO was not really born in Hawaii: everything he signed, ordered, represented would have no authority. Pretty scary so, in my opinion, it's better for the country, nay Cback, the world, to let it go. The damage to our country and international relations would be too great.
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Do you think that the Clintons would have let that slide? Really? I think the controversy with his religion is pretty fucking stupid. I don't like the Presidents policies, however it doesn't help to overturn them if the only leg you have to stand on is that you sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist.
 
WTF man? You disagree with my post but don't comment? :mad: (Edit: posted this before Cback gave a retort. However, I still consider him a prostrate checker so that stands.)

Prostrate checker. :-x Moon River!

 
cback0220 said:
Do you think that the Clintons would have let that slide? Really? I think the controversy with his religion is pretty fucking stupid. I don't like the Presidents policies, however it doesn't help to overturn them if the only leg you have to stand on is that you sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist.
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Let what slide? The killings/suicides?

Reading Is Fundamental. I didn't say jack or shit about believing that stuff just that it's odd to me there is SO MUCH junk out there on the interwebs and in the ether that is anti-Obama. Why? The content of the controversy is really irrelevant but the amount is what intrigues me.
 
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