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This is an unpopular opinion here, but this article clearly suffers from reporting bias (successful projects don't get declassified) and selection bias (they fo
by noslenwerdna 3y ago
This is an unpopular opinion here, but this article clearly suffers from reporting bias (successful projects don't get declassified) and selection bias (they found ~5 unethical/failed projects out of how many in CIA history)?
There are clearly classified programs that we know of that were wildly successful: the atomic and hydrogen bombs, U2 spy plane, reconnaissance satellites, and probably more that I can't think of now.
I would be interested in how this compares with other countries with intelligence programs of similar size. Could one find a handful of examples of unethical/failed projects from China, France, Russia, or the UK?
- Trombone12 3y agoA program is not some discreet, one time, thing, it's an extended process involving many many decision points: It's pretty flippant to pretend that statistic reasoning developed for when you draw things out of a hat is equally valid when talking about the chances you will produce a 20 year long enterprise of illegal human experimentation.
- justinclift 3y ago> successful projects don't get declassified Is that really the case?
- noslenwerdna 3y agoI was thinking if it's still in use, presumably it would not get released? Upon thinking about this a little more, it's possible that a project was successful, but it became public (like the atomic bombs) or it is just obsolete and superseded by another project.
- avgcorrection 3y agoBombing two cities is definitely a great success as far as making bombs is concerned.