Comments on: CIA II: ‘Legacy of Ashes’ Book Review

By: DLS

DLS — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:36:53 +0000

Losses, Shaun. Two esses.

Echo Somebody. There should be flashing signs to satisfy you, Shaun.

C … I … A … CIA ….

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:07:50 +0000

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say we should disband them, but they sure have a lousy track record. Because so much of what they do is classified, its easier to cover up their failure to predict important world events or to protect this country. Its almost impossible to have any accountability, which leads to rogue operatives.

By: Somebody

Somebody — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:45:18 +0000

Well you've prolly watched too many movies but never the less lets say they are all from Ivy league schools. Now I can see why the progressives Really hate the SOBS and want to disband the CIA.

By: Rudi

Rudi — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:32:35 +0000

Let them all go to Law school sorta like the FBI

I believe most do go to Ivy League colleges. The myth of LeCarre and Bond ignores most are just “pencil necked geeks”. Valerie Plame could be the typical agent.

By: Somebody

Somebody — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:59:13 +0000

Good lord. I have a good one for yas. Why dont we make all CIA agents wear uniforms with the word CIA and there name above each pocket. Let them all go to Law school sorta like the FBI and make sure they pass the whistleblowing progressive test before we send them out in the field with a copy of the constitution in one hand and habeus corpus in the other hand.

Then they can go up to the terrists or whomever isdeemed the bad guys this month and say “Scuse me could you point me out to Osama Bin Laden and while your at it could you show me where your WMDs are at so we can bomb you with Happy bombs?”

By: Book Reviews

Book Reviews — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:22:01 +0000

[...] Daylight Atheism wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptCIA learned of the Berlin Wall fall, Soviet collapse on CNN. Although it may not be the best metaphor, if the Central Intelligence Agency had been a baseball team during its 60-year history, its record would be something like 5 wins and … [...]

By: kritt11

kritt11 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:16:52 +0000

Thanks Shaun- the book sounds fascinating. I'm not sure if the CIA should be abolished, but it does sound as though any attempts to hold the agency accountable (sometimes this has not even been attempted) for its massive failures have not succeeded. I agree that Tenet's medal of freedom was an outrage.

The very secrecy in which the agency is cloaked simulaneously protects it from, and invites blame for our foreign policy blunders. But part of any reform must begin, as you have stated, with a far better understanding of the peoples and events we seek to influence.

Surface level probes are often worse than useless, they are dangerous as we have seen with their failure to predict 9/11 or the missing WMD's. Its been extremely frustrating to see the problems resulting from a lack of independence from political pressure, and a lack of accountability for its disasterous mistakes.