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The repeated destruction of US humanint networks over the past 50 years is probably one of the single largest threats it faces. Between the dismantling of the C
by hyperion2010 7y ago
The repeated destruction of US humanint networks over the past 50 years is probably one of the single largest threats it faces. Between the dismantling of the CIA hint networks by ourselves and complete destruction of our Chinese hint network by the Chinese, the US is blind in a huge number of situations.
This is not about the quality of any one channel, it is about needing multiple channels with distinct provenance that can be used to cross-reference each other. The fact that this article even frames the question as it does means that they have completely missed the point -- there is no such thing as bad intel, only intel that you are too blind to know is inconsistent.
- markus_zhang 7y agoi think in todays world humanint is often overlooked. but sigint does take care most of the stuffs.
- RaptorJ 7y agoConsidering all the "good" the Dulles brothers did for the world, maybe this is for the best.
- lifeisstillgood 7y ago>>> complete destruction of our Chinese hint network by the Chinese, huh? what where when? I don't disbelief you but what was this complete destruction, when did it happen? (related to OPM at all?)
- anamexis 7y agoProbably a reference to this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spies-espionage.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spie...
- secfirstmd 7y agoAFAIK that is basically what has happened in Iran, China, Lebanon and a lot of Russia in the past 10 years.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoIt happened because the CIA used shitty encryption. Someone warned them before it happened and again while it happened, and they fired him for it. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/02/iran_cracked_cia_google/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/02/iran_cracked_cia_go...
- secfirstmd 7y agoIt's not just about encryption. That is the case for Iran and some of China. For the rest it was terrible tradecraft and counterintelligence issues.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoThe piece about Iran mentions them sharing it with friendly nations, which likely included Lebanon. I haven't heard of events like that in Russia recently, an arrest or two but nothing major. And the encryption seems responsible for most of the Chinese events, the "mole" seemed like an attempt to push the blame elsewhere. Most of the public incidents in the past ten years seems related to that CIA failure, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.
- ackbar03 7y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17771096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17771096 This was pretty big