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Old 03-14-2012, 07:44 PM
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finnbow finnbow is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: MoCo, MD
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bhunter View Post
Amazing how Bush, who the left repeatedly deem an idiot, was able to supposedly hoodwink all the opposition into agreeing with him on invading Iraq. Who knew that WMD would not be found in Iraq? The real irony would be if they turn up in Syria. How good was our on the ground intelligence after the 8 years of Clinton?
Our "on the ground intelligence" has been pathetic for decades, particularly in the Mideast. Our satellite imagery and, to a lesser degree, signal intelligence have been excellent for a long time. However, we have limited ground assets in many parts of the world to provide context/meaning to the data.

Earlier in my career, I managed the construction of numerous high-tech government "spy-in-the-sky" facilities across Europe and the US. The technology was truly amazing for the time (early '80's), but the analysts/language experts with the responsibility for making sense of this signal intelligence were often bright mid-20's types with a couple of years at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA and another year or two of specialized training. I knew quite a few of them. I can attest to the fact that their German language skills (they analyzed signal intel from East Germany) were rudimentary at best. I can only imagine their Arabic is much worse, particularly with the number of dialects.

Here's a book recommendation if you're interested in the messy history of the CIA and its chronic incompetence.
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