Slashdot Mirror
IT at the CIA
neocon writes "The current issue of the CIA's Studies in Intelligence (unclassified edition, natch) has
an article on the state
of IT within the CIA, titled 'Failing to Keep Up With the Information Revolution', which
looks at how the agency has fared in staying up to date both with information security needs
and with promising new technologies."
As far as I can tell, the author's main concern is that the CIA is not keeping up with the private sector due to security constraints. All I can say is, thank God. Any recent security poll will tell you that corporations have multiple security incidents per year, even if they take an active interest in security. Do we really want the CIA to publish a statement saying some script kiddie is publishing the names of suspected terrorists?
less technical assets, more people in the field.
And you're qualified to make that assessment how exactly?
You'll have that sometimes...
1983 Marxist revolt in Granada missed
1989 Czech border reforms missed
1989 E. Germany fall missed
1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait missed
1991 Coup attempt in USSR missed
1992-94 Islamists in Somalia missed
1993 Bombing of WTC missed
1998 African Embassy bombings missed
1999 Attempt on DDG Sullivans missed
2000 Bombing of Cole missed
2001 WTC/Pentagon missed
Of course, it it always easier to look at the flaws of something rather that the strengths in the same area. How many things did they not 'miss' and actually have an unskilled civilian populace know about it?
Support Israeli punk bands. Man Alive.
Like any govermnet agency, CIA is going to screw up from time to time. But even if they had everything they wanted, they STILL couldn't be omniscient.
Part of the problem is that CIA can't publicly talk about their successes much, for fear of jeapordizing personnel or methods. And even when they DO publicly make accurate predictions, often they're ignored.
The perfect example of this happened in 1983. The CIA released a report called "Terminal Giants". It was either ignored or written off as "Reagan-esque right wing propoganda" by the media and leftist politicians. The prediction of the report? That the USSR's economy was dying because of excessive military spending, and that the Soviet Union could collapse within ten years.
Nobody believed them. And to this day, CIA still doesn't get credit for that prediction.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
And what happened this memorial day weekend?
What happened at the millenium celebrations?
You can only compile a list of the misses, not hits. You have absolutely no idea what they've prevented.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!