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There is also the interesting case where spies and intelligence can be TOO good. It goes something thing like this: - Spy for Country X picks up intelligence
by alexpotato 6y ago
There is also the interesting case where spies and intelligence can be TOO good.
It goes something thing like this:
- Spy for Country X picks up intelligence that Country Y is about to do crazy thing A. This information is 100% true and correct.
- Country Y is not in the habit of doing crazy things like A.
- Given that, the government of Country X thinks "This must be false because country Y would NEVER do such a thing."
- Country Y then goes and does thing A.
There are MANY instances of this throughout the history of intelligence services and I always think of this type of scenario every time I hear "well spies are just terrible."
- dylan604 6y agoOr the more common case where the information is so good that acting on the information would reveal the source/means of the information allowing the spied upon to eliminate the source so no action is taken.
- carapace 6y agoWeren't the plans for Operation Market Garden discovered by the Germans in a crashed plane and ignored? Something like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden
- int_19h 6y agoThe biggest one of those was Stalin's refusal to believe that Germans would attack the USSR, even when it was so imminent that all alarms were going off (and duly reported to him as such).
- redis_mlc 6y agoEven without plans, the Allies crashed a bunch of gliders and the Germans unexpectedly had tanks positioned in the area. (Glider tow pilots generally did not use the correct air speeds when avoiding flak and enemy fighters, resulting in horrific losses. Often soldiers would jump, and the high airspeeds would instantly rip off their parachutes and equipment.) The Germans in WW2 were not an army you wanted to fight with on equal terms.