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Funny story, but clearly an adolescent fantasy. "Charles I. Andersen Music Company" -> CIA isn't going around cutely inserting their initials into covert front

by trotsky 16y ago

Funny story, but clearly an adolescent fantasy. "Charles I. Andersen Music Company" -> CIA isn't going around cutely inserting their initials into covert front companies. "careful investigation of the garbage bags from that office revealed that the CIA had suddenly felt it necessary to send all of their documents through the shredder several times" -> CIA used burn bags during this era, the idea that they would have been throwing away single shredded documents of anything sensitive is pretty silly - the weaknesses of shredding were well known to them. I fully understand that it's popular to portray US intelligence as full of bumbling incompetence due to ones politics, but I think in reality that's rather rare. Wasteful? Often. Machiavellian? Sure. Misguided? Plenty of examples. Chronically stupid? Nah.

DuncanIdaho 16y ago
Indeed, while CIA ain't that smart or capable like some people believe (aliens? flying saucers? mind controlled drones?), they are also not as moronic and bureaucratic as others believe. They probably are significantly bureaucratic as any organization of their scale is - or they are constantly stepping on their own toes. What I really wanted to add is - that most of their (and other intelligence agencies round the world) agents are not tall muscular black shaded gorillas like you see in movies. In US case they're the diplomats, they might be 3rd party governmental officials, or indeed your university professor.
MichaelSalib 16y ago
I fully understand that it's popular to portray US intelligence as full of bumbling incompetence due to ones politics That conflicts with the evidence available. We know that in the last few years, CIA officers went to Italy and conducted an illegal operation that was trivially easy for Italian police to reconstruct. Why was it so easy? Because the CIA officers checked into airlines and hotels using their real names. Why did they do that? Because they wanted to collect the frequent flier points. This is an organization that clearly employs a lot of people who are...not skilled at spycraft. This is not a question of politics.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  I heard that during the Vietnam war, all agents were issued the same Rolex watch, which was designed for the purpose of agents bribing their way out of trouble, should the need arise. The taxi drivers figured this out and started just taking agents to the CIA safehouses without needing to be told where they were.

by trotsky 16y ago

DuncanIdaho 16y ago

Indeed, while CIA ain't that smart or capable like some people believe (aliens? flying saucers? mind controlled drones?), they are also not as moronic and bureaucratic as others believe. They probably are significantly bureaucratic as any organization of their scale is - or they are constantly stepping on their own toes. What I really wanted to add is - that most of their (and other intelligence agencies round the world) agents are not tall muscular black shaded gorillas like you see in movies. In US case they're the diplomats, they might be 3rd party governmental officials, or indeed your university professor.

MichaelSalib 16y ago

I fully understand that it's popular to portray US intelligence as full of bumbling incompetence due to ones politics That conflicts with the evidence available. We know that in the last few years, CIA officers went to Italy and conducted an illegal operation that was trivially easy for Italian police to reconstruct. Why was it so easy? Because the CIA officers checked into airlines and hotels using their real names. Why did they do that? Because they wanted to collect the frequent flier points. This is an organization that clearly employs a lot of people who are...not skilled at spycraft. This is not a question of politics.

stcredzero 16y ago
I heard that during the Vietnam war, all agents were issued the same Rolex watch, which was designed for the purpose of agents bribing their way out of trouble, should the need arise. The taxi drivers figured this out and started just taking agents to the CIA safehouses without needing to be told where they were.