Huh?
Deadly Attack in Libya Was Major Blow to C.I.A. Efforts
By ERIC SCHMITT, HELENE COOPER and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
WASHINGTON — The attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans has dealt the Central Intelligence Agency a major setback in its intelligence-gathering efforts at a time of increasing instability in the North African nation.
Among the more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from the city after the assault on the American mission and a nearby annex were about a dozen C.I.A. operatives and contractors, who played a crucial role in conducting surveillance and collecting information on an array of armed militant groups in and around the city.
“It’s a catastrophic intelligence loss,” said one American official who has served in Libya and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the F.B.I. is still investigating the attack. “We got our eyes poked out.”
Phi Beta Iota: We can only shake our heads in sadness. There are a few extraordinary Non-Official Cover (NOC) officers, but they are the exception rather than the rule. CIA is incompetent at clandestine and covert operations. This has been known since at least 1992, but has only become more and more evident since 9/11. CIA is not only addicted to official cover as a simple bureaucratic solution totally at odds with its mission, it is demonstrably incapable of learning how to do non-official cover. Of the 21 companies it created when it was flush with money (so flush it now pays domestic housing allowances and reportedly also gives SES bonuses on a quartely basis), it has been forced to close 20 of them. Our internal view is that CIA was taken out as a Mossad initiative, and more CIA stations will be rolled in the Middle East in the next few months, always via false flag attacks. CIA has no Plan B. DIA is incapable of being Plan C, and SOCOM's “push ups done silently” are frightening in their naivete. CIA, DIA, and SOCOM still do not “get it.”
See Also:
Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP
Chuck Spinney: Israel To Bomb Iran Soon + RECAP
CIA Re-Direction of Clandestine Operations
DefDog: Mystery Drone in Pakistan–And No HUMINT
DefDog: Petraeus at CIA Strike Two
Iran claims to break CIA spy ring, arrests 30
Journal: CIA Blows–Blackwater, $5M Bar Bill, and Reprise of Rendition Atrocities
Journal: CIA Continues to Ignore Published Critics
Journal: CIA Ghosts of Khost Ride Again….
Journal: CIA Leads the “Walking Dead” in USA
Journal: CIA Links to NYC Mosque Controversy
Journal: CIA’s Poor Tradecraft AND Poor Management
Journal: IndyMedia Wanted Poster on CIA Renditioners–Significant for Two Reasons
Journal: Loch Johnson on It’s Never a Quick Fix at the CIA
Journal: Mel Goodman on CIA Myths
Journal: Reflections on Integrity UPDATED + Integrity RECAP
Journal: The Truth on Khost Kathy
Marcus Aurelius: CIA on the Margins of Syria, Choking the Chicken
Marcus Aurelius: Khost Kathy Rides Again – Who’s to Blame?
Marcus Aurelius: Petraeus on Sabbatical at the CIA
Marcus Aurelius: Rule One for Spies – Do Not Work Out of Embassies . . . Hmmmm
Marcus Aurelius: The Pentagon’s New Defense Clandestine Service
Mini-Me: General Mike Flynn on Intelligence — Earnest Advance or Better Kool-Aid?
Reference: Fixing Intel–A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan
Reference: Military HUMINT in Iraq
Reference: Reinventing Intelligence
Reference: Reinventing Intelligence, From Truth, Power
Review (Guest): Failure of Intelligence–The Decline and Fall of the CIA
Review: A SPY FOR ALL SEASONS–My Life In The CIA
Review: Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA
Review: Dark Alliance–The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion
Review: Denial and Deception–An Insider’s View of the CIA from Iran-Contra to 9/11
Review: Legacy of Ashes–The History of the CIA
Review: Lost History–Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’
Review: Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy–The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul
Review: Secret History–The CIA’s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954
Review: See No Evil–The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism
Review: Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Review: Spies for Hire–The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
Review: Spymaster–My Life in the CIA
Review: The CIA in Iran–The 1953 Coup and the Origins of the US-Iran Divide
Review: The Human Factor–Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture
Review: The Very Best Men–Four Who Dared–The Early Years of the CIA
Richard Wright: Ancient History – When the CIA was Serious…
Richard Wright: Bound for Failure
Richard Wright: Tactical Intelligence Killing Strategic Intelligence
Robert Steele: Clandestine Operations 101 + Personal Comment
Robert Steele: Iran Arrests Twelve CIA Agents
Search: humint [Human Intelligence] HUMINT + Meta-RECAP
Search: humint spectrum full spectrum
Search: the death of humint + HUMINT RECAP
Secrecy News: CIA Culture In Detail
U.S. Intelligence Community as Land of Make Believe
Yoda: In with Flynn, Out with What? Can He Effect Change Clapper Could Not?
2011 Open Source Agency: Executive Access Point
2010 Fixing the White House and National Intelligence
2009 Intelligence for the President–AND Everyone Else [Full Text Online for Google Translate]
2008 Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power (Full Text Online for Google Translate)
2000 ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World
