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scheeseman486 • today at 8:47 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

> It makes parts of the CIA look incompetent to the public. This is rare.

Iran–Contra? Their cyber espoinage tools getting swiped? The self-admission from the US administration that the CIA failed to properly recognize and prepare for the tactics used in 9/11, in spite of ample forward warning?

Like most intelligence agencies, their unaccountable power often gets mistaken for actual intelligence. That power makes them dangerous, but it doesn't make them smart.

Replies

defrost • today at 8:54 AM

They also totally missed India's second round of nuclear weapon development and were blindsided by the tests:

U.S. Intelligence and India's Nuclear Tests: Lessons Learned

  August 11, 1998 98-672

  The U.S. Intelligence Community did not have advance knowledge that India intended to conduct nuclear tests beginning on May 11, 1998.

  Although intelligence agencies cannot have foreknowledge of every significant development in world affairs, many observers (and senior intelligence officials) believe that, in view of the election of an Indian government committed to "inducting" nuclear weapons, much greater attention should have been given to indications of impending nuclear tests
~ https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/98-672.html
DANmode • today at 6:22 PM

> Their cyber espoinage tools getting swiped?

Pretty sure that was some of their own more-corrupted people leaking - at least, one of the times.