26 November 2011
Robert,
Not surprisingly your feelings about CIA [Robert Steele: Iran Arrests Twelve CIA Agents] have been echoed by Bob Baer whose principal area of operations was the Levant. As in this ABC interview: Former CIA Agent: U.S. Has Lost Its Spy Mojo [includes short video]
“But former senior CIA officer Robert Baer told ABC News this week that the loss of assets was more than a mere setback, and not an isolated incident but part of a disturbing pattern.
“When you lose your entire station, either in Tehran or Beirut, that's a catastrophe,” said Bob Baer, a legendary CIA agent whose Middle East exploits were fictionalized in the George Clooney film “Syriana.” Baer said the disaster was due in part to a new generation of agents that has forgotten, or never learned, the traditional methods of intelligence gathering.
“They don't understand tradecraft,” Baer said. “And we have lost our touch in espionage.”” (Emphasis mine)
Further support for your assessment comes from that Huffington Post article by Abraham R. Wagner titled “An Intelligence Estimate on Iran” in which notes with dismay that the National Intelligence Council (NIC) under ODNI appears unable to formulate accurate National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) on anything.
The fact of the matter is that the big four (CIA, DIA, NGA, and NSA) of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) appear to have lost the ability to do anything easily and well. The ineptitude demonstrated by their builder of collection platforms, the NRO, over the years might well be contagious.
In my opinion the big four and NRO are plagued by several problems including lack of effective congressional oversight, lack of interest by successive Presidents, and by a creeping amateurism in the leadership, but also increasingly in the work force of these agencies.
Election Reform is as important for the IC as it is for the rest of our hijacked government. Keep up the good fight.
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