One of my defenses of government in the types of conspiracy theories that get batted around here on HN is that government is staffed by people who are just as s

One of my defenses of government in the types of conspiracy theories that get batted around here on HN is that government is staffed by people who are just as stupid as the rest of us, all the way up to the top. The vast majority of people I've met working in government are upstanding, want to do the right thing by their position and the people, but they have just as much highs and lows of average intelligence as the rest of the population. If your one decision maker is on the low end of that spectrum then there is the potential for ridiculously stupid acts to occur. There's no reason this shouldn't apply to GCHQ (and NSA) just as much as it applies to the rest of government. Is it truly impossible that an agency that never operates under press scrutiny would be unfamiliar with which of their actions would exacerbate press scrutiny? I don't know the org. structure for GCHQ but NSA falls under DOD and so there is definitely some familiarity with the idea of "Public Affairs", even if NSA typically never has to engage in such.