Alex Finley bemoans the loss of human intel at U.S. spy agencies in How the CIA Forgot the Art of Spying at Politico.com.
Back in the heyday of spycraft -- the cold war -- both the Soviets and the U.S. were busying themselves with lots of clandestine activities. Watch a few episodes of "The Americans" on FX to get a flavor of what that might have been like, although those of us who weren't in on it have no idea how realistic that fictional TV show is. But one has to imagine that disguises, drop boxes, and blackmail were ordinary tools of the trade. Here are some excerpts from Finley's article:
Over the past 15 years, this “global war on terror” mindset has become the default at the CIA. After accusations that it was stuck in the Cold War, the agency began to trade concealment devices and human sources for military hardware. Under a directive from President George W. Bush, it expanded its ranks to fight terror. It bulked up its abilities to track and target a dispersed enemy fighting an asymmetrical war. Gone were the days, it seemed, of risky brush passes in a heart-pounding, adrenaline-filled four-second period when an officer was “black”—meaning free, just for a moment, from hostile surveillance and able to pass a message to an asset. The Cold War was over; we had a new enemy to defeat. ...
The end of the Cold War left the agency untethered. Without a well-defined enemy, the CIA couldn’t figure out its mission. ...
The attacks of September 11 gave the agency a clear new mission—but one that pulled officers even further from traditional tradecraft. The new enemy operated in the rough terrain of failed states scarred by years of war; the old way of doing things—hobnobbing with the international community to get information on a state actor—was no longer adequate. As a colleague once said to me, “Terrorists don’t go to cocktail parties.” The agency set about reforming itself.
The counter-terrorism game was afoot. And the tools of the trade consisted of satellites, drones and the communication intercepts. Meanwhile, the Russians are still spying on us the old way andthe new way.
But what's this? Apparently, old fashioned spycraft is alive after all -- practiced by the Israelis:
The spy provided intelligence involving an active ISIS plot to bring down a passenger jet en route to the United States, with a bomb hidden in a laptop that U.S. officials believe can get through airport screening machines undetected. The information was reliable enough that the U.S. is considering a ban on laptops on all flights from Europe to the United States.
Donald Trump is being accused by the msm of outing this human intel product. However, the msm itself is as much to blame if not more.
So if Russia's goal is to generate discontent and disrupt the foundation of America, they don't hold a candle to the Democrats and the msm.
One more thing: Watch an interview with Alex Finley on C-Span here
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2:58 PM 5/17/2017
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