Is the CIA a ‘Bloated, Dysfunctional Bureaucracy’?
Are Brad Thor’s latest blog posts hyperbolic charges against the CIA as former CIA Director Michael Hayden suggested when he remarked, “From my point of view Brad Thor’s accusations is (sic) pure fantasy.”
Thor claims that the CIA is in a “vicious war against the Department of Defense … and had leaked to the New York Times the names of Americans covertly providing force protection to our troops in Afghanistan.” In an earlier post he stated that the CIA is “impotent” and “better resembles a pack of jilted, jealous teen-aged girls.” He went on to write that “the sad fact is that the CIA is a bloated, dysfunctional bureaucracy whose usefulness to America has long since passed.”
Although not “pure fiction,” Thor has wrongly connected the dots. Granted, like any other bureaucratic organization, the CIA has issues to address, but the men and women of this agency are the ones who have kept Americans safe.
Thor does not seem to differentiate between the intelligence missions of the military and the CIA. Military intelligence is geared toward gathering tactical information by going out to localities to see what is happening on the ground. The CIA handles the strategic end — i.e., the big picture — to enable policy decisions.
With that said, both former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former Bush Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend told Pajamas Media that when the policy changed from counterterrorism to counterinsurgency, the entire intelligence architecture had to be retooled. Townsend points out that currently, the CIA and military participate in joint ventures where the “CIA has developed the capability both operationally and analytically to support military tactical operations.”
There certainly doesn’t appear to be a turf war between the agencies as evidenced by Secretary of Defense Gates’ comments about Michael Hayden’s leadership at the CIA. In June of 2008, Gates said, “In Iraq and Afghanistan countless lives have been saved through intelligence efforts that have led to the killing or capture of terrorists. … I would argue that there has never been a better fusion of military operations and intelligence in the history of warfare.”
It is very easy for Thor to imply that the agency has “made mistake after mistake after mistake.” How can the agency defend itself? People make false claims because the failures are publicized — not the successes. Hayden explained that Thor “is shooting the wounded because the Agency can’t fire back at him. The facts that would prove him wrong are actually secret and classified.”
Um, I would never deny that CIA agents are patriots who devoted their lifes to the protection of the country, but that doesnt mean that the organization isnt almost satirically inefficient and incompetent. It was the CIA who told us in the mid 80ies that the soviet union was an economical superpower and who told us only some years ago that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The quality work of the CIA prior to the Iraq war had its share in discrediting the war and we shouldnt forget that all our agencies never had a clue about 9-11.
Maybe its indeed unfair because the CIA has important successes that cannot be presented to the public to correct the picture, but the CIA had some embarrassing and significant failings in front of all our eyes and therefore judgements like the one stated in the headline above are hardly surprising.
That’s the difference between intelligence and law enforcement. When the FBI nabs even a half-assed teenage terrorist, they make sure that it’s on the front page of every newspaper. When the CIA does a normal day’s work, it’s a potential felony to tell those same newspapers.
That cluster-you-know-what at FOB Chapman was a lot more than a “mistake” caused by “the need to take risks”.
It was the result of an almost inconceivable, yet all-too predictable, combination of ignorance, arrogance and hubris on the part of a female officer who’d been assigned to the clandestine service from the “analysis” department. If you care to learn the scandalous details, go here:
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201004/dagger-to-the-cia
The ideological make-up of the Agency is, sadly, not much different from the other big Federal bureaucracies — a lot of (though not enough) tough, dedicated and brave people down at street — or boot — level, but the people become more and more “conventionally”-liberal, careerist, risk-averse, and generally useless the higher they climb up the bureaucratic greasy pole.
That “anonymous” is me. Sorry, I clicked “submit” prematurely, and I don’t think “anonymous” comments ought to be posted. (Although now that I think of it, most commenters do hide behind silly pseudonyms. A bit like Agency officers, come to think of it…)
“Military intelligence is geared toward gathering tactical information by going out to localities to see what is happening on the ground. The CIA handles the strategic end — i.e., the big picture — to enable policy decisions.”
The CIA handles “the big picture?” Um, like the fall of the Soviet Union, the threat assessments of Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, the attempts to capture Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, and the “Slam Dunk” statement that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq? Those big picture items? Let’s not even talk about the Bay of Pigs or, worse, Vietnam.
I’ve always believed that the CIA’s time has come and gone and that it is nothing but a leftover from the Cold War. Perhaps it’s about time we have a form of the British Intelligence Services, with the FBI in charge of gathering all domestic intelligence, the department of defense gathering all military intelligence, and the State Department gathering all foreign civilian intelligence? After all, it’s those three agencies that will have to act on any major intelligence the CIA collects, so why not put them in charge of directly gathering that information? But the CIA has now morphed into a paramilitary/civilian agency that is capable of conducting its own military operations, and that doesn’t sound too safe to me. But, like all agencies in Washington, once they are created they are never eliminated. We’re stuck with them. Hope their “big picture” future is better than their past.
The CIA’s comic ineptitude is well known, but its bureaucratic roots are deep. Every administration comes into office vowing to make the CIA more efficient, more “intelligent.” Every administration is defeated by this giant and slothful, politically correct bureaucracy.
“the failures are publicized — not the successes”
This cannot be repeated too often. A completely successful covert operation is one that the public never, ever hears about.
Now, it would seem that one misses the point, those officers in the field deserve our full support, however, those back at headquarters like Panetta, retired deputy Kappes,
and ops chief Sulick who sent them on these impossible missions, who leave them open
to legal vulnerability, those are at fault.
Since the KGB had the decency to come-clean it is high time for America’s blood-soaked intelligence agencies to do the same. It is high time we found out what they know about–
What really happened on that fateful day on September. Why did Osama Bin Laden deny his role in the incident? Do they have any documents about dynamite being moved into the World Trade Center and who might have been behind it.
Who was really behind the assassination of Archbishop Romero? What does “The Company” know about this they are not telling?
We have yet to see a full accounting of the death camps in Europe the agency sponsored during the Bush genocide in Iraq. How many are still in operation? What did they cover up at places like Gitmo and AbuGharib? Closing those places is not nearly enough. A full accounting of the holocaust that occurred within is necessary in order to proceed with the de-Bushification of America.
What is going on with that slick piece of jingoistic cold war propaganda known as the moon landings? Many questions remain about where those astronaut movies were really filmed. Do they know the real location? Do they know what happened to the money poured into that project? Could we find out how much of that money the Bush family received?
Who was behind the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X? Many questions remain about all of these. What does the company know?
How about the botched assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II by a “communist.” Was this event staged as an attempt at a propaganda coup?
What do they know about the crash in Roswell in 1947? Official propaganda organs repeat like a mantra–It was a weather balloon–it was a weather balloon. What are we not being told.
I have many other questions for “The Company,” but this is a good start. Does anybody have anything else to add?
Yeah — there’s a wise old saying: “When three people tell you you’re drunk, best to go lie down.”
Hey, Apostle of Love — I’ve got another bit of good advice for you: you should get together with Pam Toll (#16, below). I’ve no doubt that both of you would have an immense amount of terribly pressing matters to discuss….
My problem with the CIA is that ever since Britain conned Eisenhower into assassinating the first democratically elected leader in the Middle East, the prime minister of Iran, the culture at the top of the agency set by the Dulles brothers has not been in alignment with the values of ordinary Americans. Truman told the British to go fish. Why? Because the cause of economic empire, and the cheap oil that goes with it, tramples on the very freedoms we hold dear for anyone else unfortunate enough to sit on top of some resources the shadowy forces behind the throne of the American empire that isn’t even supposed to exist within our Constitution want. The CIA, through its actions past and present, has done much to undermine the very cause many of our troops sign up to defend. And, in doing so, it has made that cause, and our troops, vulnerable to attack.
The first democratically elected Prime Minister in the Middle East was David Ben-Gurion of Israel in 1948; Mosaddegh was not in office until 1951.
Sorry, but I’m not buying it. The CIA is just another big, government bureacracy that has failed on virtually all of the “strategic” issues. The Soviet Union collapse took them completely by surprise. Same with 911. It’s obvious we have no clue regarding the status of nuclear weapons in Iran or North Korea. We know nothing about the Chinese China. We have no counterintelligence — China and Russia still taking us to the cleaners. Our human intelligence capabilities were gutted long ago. We were losing in Iraq until Petraeus took charge — the CIA had nothing to do with it. The US needs to clean out the CIA house and start over. Get some consulting help from the Mossad. Whatever.
Yes,the success stories are there but never heard about.
Yes,there are many fine men and women that have dedicated their lives to our safety and this needs to be recognized and appreciated.
Yes,there is a stagnant bureacracy that needs a desperate overhaul.
Yes,there is ideological jockeying and crosstalk that makes many look foolish.
And most of all yes, “get some consulting help from the Mossad.” (JR, above comment.
Having worked with the Completely Incompetent 4$$#0135 as an intel officer in Iraq, I admit I’m biased against them. I never saw much value added from their reports, and their analysis sucked – the magic 8-ball was more much better and cheaper on the taxpayers. Their analysis reminds me of the witch scene in Monty Python: Quest for the Holy Grail. Giving the organization more money will only worsen their problems – but that seems to be the only solution Washington will ever present.
With only a few exceptions (trolls), great comments. JJ@2 beat me to what I wanted to say.
The CIA has too many progressive ideologues in its midst who seek to disembowel the US by leaking secrets to our enemies. Inept presidents have been afraid of taking apart the CIA and rebuilding it after the Church commission partially neutered it. And Bush should cleaned house after the leaks during his admin.
Lets get a rubber n float this summer.. you never did contact me back.. Peaches. heheh
Let us agree that executing Quassem by Baathists that included the the likes of Saddamm
Hussein, directed by the same folks, Copeland and Eigleberger, that gave us Nasser was
a bad move. AJAX was a success, the problem is the Shah forgot the lesson and antagonized the same folks that made the ’53 coup possible, the mullahs and the merchants
Unfortunately the CIA remains in a Catch 22 situation where only their failures are publicly denounced and used by their critics to club them over the head. To add insult to injury, the critics now resort to innuendo and half truths to further denigrate. If the agency responds then they risk betraying sources or confidential information. Yes unfortunately the agency has at times become a government bureaucracy, however in its defense, that now seems to be the only means to survive countless congressional oversight commissions, committees, presidential bosses, left and right political factions.
Hopefully now and in the future, the agency will continue to attract true intelligence professionals whose goals are not monetarily or glory driven but in maintaining the security of this great nation. Here is a “thank you” from John Q. Public for your successes and continuing efforts to protect us all.
Let me see, you state: “Yes, the CIA has issues to address, but the men and women of this agency are the ones who have kept Americans safe,” hmmm…
Did you know that not one person was fired after the fiasco of 9/11? 3000+ American dead; billions of dollars of damages; huge lingering costs associated with our Second Day of Infamy and not one person was held accountable. Do you have any idea what you are talking about (facts) other than your feelings?
For example, our country spends approx. $67B+ (yes, billion) a year on intelligence and related functions yet the dysfunction and bureaucracy of the Agency is so well known that the vast majority of the”good” guys from the SOF community won’t talk with them, much less work for them directly. The situation is so bad, and has been for so long, that the Agency is forced to hire legions of Operators from Blackwater, Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and other companies to keep their own operatives safe in the field. Gee, do you think there might be a leadership problem at the Agency when virtually the entire Special Forces community cumulatively says “no, I won’t work directly for you”. It is 2010, and these problems are over a decade old and little has changed…
Brad Thor has done a terrific job of identifying a few of the problem (leadership) people at the Agency with the hope that the remaining hardworking, loyal, patriots there can get on with their jobs. Don’t fool yourself, more heads need to role and the sooner the better.
I suppose that in your opinion and Mr. Thor’s that the CIA and possibly certain CIA personnel should bear the blunt of the responsibility for the 9/11 attack. The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that “… none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al Qaeda plot. ACROSS THE GOVERNMENT, there were failures of imagination, policy, capabilities, and management.” It was an American failure with all agencies, CIA, FBI, State Dept, Immigration, state and federal government responsible. Did not hear anyone was fired from these agencies. In addressing problems within the Intelligence Community the Commission Report stated that the INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY as a whole struggled up to 9/11 to collect and analyze transnational terrorism intelligence while working in the confines of an overwhelming number of priorities, flat budgets, an outmoded structure, and bureaucratic rivalries. In one of Mr. Thor’s blogs criticizing the CIA he cited a report written by a senior military intelligence officer Major General Michael Flynn calling for “sweeping changes to the way the intelligence community thinks about itself” with an implied inference that the report concerned the CIA. However if he had read the report he would have realized that MG Flynn’s report was a critique of military intelligence meant to spur changes in the military intelligence culture.
If you read Ms. Cooper’s article, MG Flynn had told her that he was satisfied with intelligence information being furnished by the CIA.
Do u think the CIA headquarters is aware of the amount of STREET abuse here in the usa and abroad that the Agents are possibly a part of in a private capascity? I mean how much abuse is a person on the homeland suppose to take cause some dipwad tells the Walgreens pharmacist that the CIA wants to dispense PAM TOLLS medications and that the drugs brought in are not sold at the store. Isnt there interests in international spying not pharmacy disbursement? And how crazy do they want citizens to be that REPORTED THIS REAL EVENT that STILL GOES on in PARK FOREST IL and surrounding areas.. I am a witness labled unfit to testify because i IDENTIFIED THE PERPS who did this and then the CIA went on to hire them.. Just HOW CRAZY AM I .. compared to THAT?
Like most people, I have no first hand knowledge of spies or their agencies. I do have first hand knowledge of government employees and government outfits. The CIA is a government outfit staffed by career civil servants. Therefore it has to be inefficient, hidebound, mainly interested in ass-covering and run by committees using a cook-book of procedures.
Industrial espionage? Different story I would guess.
The political problem the CIA is going to have in this is the Plame/Wilson affair. The agency lost its natural constituency, Republicans and conservatives in general, by assisting liberal Democrats, others further to the left, isolationists, and anti-Israel types.
As Obama himself is just starting to learn, attacking your friends and befriending your enemies for short-term gain is a very successful tactic–for the short-term.
That term is now ending for him, and it ended for the CIA several years ago. When you’ve destroyed your friends, where do you go for help when your enemies attack? Republican politicians would be insane, stupid, and/or naive to extend any help to the CIA, knowing perfectly well the agency will turn on them the minute it gets the chance.
By the way, this is not the first time we’ve been through this. If Richard Nixon. E Howard Hunt, first Chief of Covert Actions for CIA’d Domestic Operations Division and James McCord, Director of the Technical and Physical Securiy sections of the CIA’s Office of Security.
In short:
Ooops…accidentally sent it. To continue after the 1st sentence of the final paragraph:
By the way, this is not the first time we’ve been through this. If Richard Nixon were alive, you could ask him about E Howard Hunt, first Chief of Covert Actions for CIA’d Domestic Operations Division and James McCord, Director of the Technical and Physical Securiy sections of the CIA’s Office of Security, and how they helped him out with the whole Watergate thing.
Well, in 1974, Nixon was gone, and the Republicans were destroyed at the polls. In 1975, the Democratic Senator Frank Church convened his famous committee, and proceeded to destroy the CIA and the FBI. Among others to be disgraced by its findings was one W. Mark Felt, aka “Deepthroat,” who was indicted and convicted on charges stemming from Church Committee revelations.
And therein is the problem. The CIA was castrated by Frank Church, but its critics are generally unwilling to let the CIA rebuild. It’s like a bunch of chickenhawks telling the German Army in the 1930s that, despite being only allowed to field 100,000 troops by the Treaty of Versailles, it should be able to fight the standing armies of the French, British, Russians and Poles all at once while keeping the war off of German soil. Then, when it can’t, they scream “u r teh useless LOL!”