Internet Searches Reveal CIA's Secrets

GabrielF writes "In another blow to the reputation of the agency that just can't seem to get anything right, the Chicago Tribune used web searches and various commercial online databases to uncover a treasure trove of information about the CIA. The Tribune found the identities of over 2600 CIA employees (including an undisclosed number of covert operatives) as well as the locations of over two dozen CIA facilities across the U.S., internal telephone numbers, and information on 17 aircraft."

Comments

"the locations of over two dozen CIA facilities"

[kfg]

You would prefer that they were really a completely secret police?

KFG

Covert Agency?

[thedletterman]

What the hell happened to the spy agency? CIA Agents now chat away on unsecure cell phones, check into foreign hotels using GSAs (US gov't issued credit cards), and leak every other intelligence briefing to the press. They might as well start a group on MySpace and issue bumper stickers and T shirts. The fact that Google can catch sensitive information means these guys have failed the test of keeping our government's secrets secure.

The CIA trained Arabs to be terrorists.

[Futurepower(R)]

Quote from the Slashdot story: "In another blow to the reputation of the agency that just can't seem to get anything right..."

That depends on the definition of "right". CIA employees get more money and promotions if there is more trouble in the world. So, they make trouble. For example, the CIA trained Osama bin Laden and other Arabs in the techniques of terrorism.

U.S. citizens should not expect that ANY U.S. government secret agency actually does what it is supposed to do. The secrecy allows the purpose to drift off course, until it is the employees who determine what happens, not the policy makers.

Government leaders, such as U.S. congressmen and women, are allowed to know only the public relations information about the secret agencies, not what is really happening. In the name of secrecy and covert operation, the secret U.S. government agencies are allowed to lie. They place lies in newspapers and magazines the same way other P.R. is placed.

A government that sometimes acts in secret cannot be said to be a democratic government, because the citizens cannot supervise what they don't know.

--
Before, Saddam got Iraq oil profits & paid part to kill Iraqis. Now a few Americans share Iraq oil profits, & U.S. citizens pay to kill Iraqis. Improvement?

Re:The CIA trained Arabs to be terrorists.

[tenchiken]

The above link is just plain wrong. If you bother to do your homework, and look at the recent book "The osama Bin Ladin I know" which was hardly written by a friend of the Bush administration the leading authority on Bin Ladin, Peter Bergan, completly debunks this particular liberal wet dream.

Not that they guy we ended up supporting (because the pakastani's supported him) was that much better, but please remember that Bin Ladin was first and foremost a financer during the Afgani conflict... He was there because he had jihad money in the first place.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled group-think

Give him time

[randyjg2]

The CIA is changing. Give them time.

The following article explains some of the issues behind the Tribune article
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/26366

The agency is ... complicated, and often the left hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Its the nature of the beast it's riding. (well, technically, it's in the belly of the beast, or perhaps the cloaca if you are HQ)

I have no doubt Goss is horrified. He just took over the CIA, and what GS manager would enjoy an outsider showing him a clear look at his department? And Goss hasn't had a chance ot fix things yet. THat is, if that's his goal...with the CIA, who knows?

By the way, didn't Goss inherit an agency that was once run by George Bush? It would explain a lot.

The CIA has other problems as well. The worse is that it facing some competition from private firms like StratFor(sorta like the US Post Office and Federal Express). It can't be much fun to be a world famous secret agency and having to explain to the Intelligence committee why you are being scooped by some small company in Austin,

For those of you who haven't heard of it, StratFor (http://www.stratfor.com/) is a private intelligence firm, with several hundred thousand customers, that is the CIA for multinationals and private individuals. It is considered somewhat more accurate than the CIA. http://seekerblog.com/archives/20050313/is-stratfo r-credible/

Hmm.. if the CIA is getting rid of people, that means they are hiring. I would like to apply as an intelligence analyst, or maybe an In Tel Q VC... (There is a rumor the easiest way to apply for a job with the CIA is write in on your computer and wait for ADVISE to pick it up. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0209/p01s02-uspo.htm l).

Re:What a waste

[encopitt]

Ummm.. you're muddling information like a regular Rush Limbaugh. Look at the date under the picture: Valerie Plame, February 14, 2006 That's about 4 weeks ago... exactly how does that prove that her identity as a covert operative was widely known? And Scooter deservers to be prosecuted for LEAKING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. That is a crime after all. I wonder what it would take for you sheep to start coming to your own conclusions based on available evidence, rather than spouting off inconsistent, incorrect, and irrelevent bullshit from the Rove spin machine?

Curious about the CIA? Read these books!

[Anonymous Coward]

For anyone who is really interested in what the CIA does can read plenty about them. I think it is fair to say that it is kind of like a global covert police force for the US Elite. The CIA supports terrorism, US dollar hegemony, the global drug trade, US oil domination, assassinations, death squads, and who knows what else. Contrary to what most people believe, it does function in a domestic fashion. Also it appears that there is another group that is somewhat CIA, but has more plausible deniability called The Enterprise created under the former director (and Reagan campaign manager) William Casey.

Dark Alliance
Gold Warriors
Inside the Company: CIA Diary
Thy Will Be Done, The Conquest of the Amazon
The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush
The Outlaw Bank
Deep Politics and the Death of JFK
Plausible Denial
Cocaine Politics
The Politics of Heroin
The Iran-Contra Connection
Crossing the Rubicon
The Haunting of America
Secret Agenda
Killing Hope
JFK by Fletcher Prouty
The Secret Team by Fletcher Prouty
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
The Third Option by Ted Shackley
Powderburns, Cocaine, Contras and the Drug War
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Turner and Christian

German intelligence not much better

[pdschmid]

Germany had two intelligence agents in Baghdad during the war. Their identities are fully known to the press which has tried not to reveal them. What happened?

• Both agents were doing everything but keeping a low profile in the days before the evacuation of the German Embassy in Iraq. Apparently they had no problems mingling with the press.
• Both had websites with pictures of their current postings. For example, one guy showed himself with his family at his new post in Australia.
• Their websites had guestbooks. Other agents left "well concealed" messages on there. For example, one post ended with "greetings from Pullach". The CIA equivalent of that would be "greetings from Langley".

Pretty bad...

Re:Disinformation

[arivanov]

Neither.

In fact - unqualified.

They did not perform any attempt to cover their mobile usage and had no clue whatsoever about the level of precision mobile location records from GSM can yield in a high density urban environment. Italians love to talk so the GSM coverage in their cities is one of the densest in Europe.

All the judge had to do is subpoena the Italian GSM operators.