Journal wowbagger's Journal: Spys have forgotten what business they are in.... 1
I have a saying, paraphrasing The Man With No Name: "when a business forgets what business it is in, that business is a dead business."
For example, Polaroid made their money on instant photography - that was their business. They forgot that, and got the idea they were in the self-developing film business, and so chose to ignore the digital photography business, because it wasn't self-developing film. Kodak moved in, and look where Polariod is now.
Likewise, the various intelligence gathering agencies - the NSA, the CIA, the FBI - were in the business of "Protecting America". However, they have lost sight of that, and now believe they are in the "intelligence gathering" business. And just like a miser who just amasses wealth for wealth's sake, and lives in a hovel and eats beanie-weenies, they have lost sight of the idea that the reason we gather information is so we can use it!
Instead, the spooks are so busy "gathering information" that they never share it, nor act on it - "My God man, if we act on this information, we might compromise our assets! We might not be able to gather any more information! No, we will just protect our assets, kept this information secret, and see what happens."
Yes, if the spooks have some double-aught sooper sekret spy stuff that lets them read the bad guys' brains, and they read that a guy is planning on flinging some poo at an embassy, and revealing the intel will compromise the secrecy of their brain scanner, they SHOULD site on the information - flinging poo is not worth losing that intel asset. But there is a world of difference between flinging poo and flinging PETN guys! - screw the secrecy of your "asset" and DO YOUR DAMN JOB!
In short, intelligence agencies: YOUR BUSINESS IS NOT GATHERING INFORMATION - YOUR BUSINESS IS PROTECTING THE US! IF YOU FORGET THAT YOU WILL GO THE WAY OF ANYBODY WHO FORGETS WHAT BUSINESS THEY ARE IN!
And I, for one, DON'T want to see what happens if you should go out of business!
Isn't that the Military's job? (Score:1)
FBI's job is to investigate federal crimes, e.g. crimes that cross state boundaries.
CIA's job is to gather intelligence and pass it on to US politicians. I would argue that a lot of negative issues have occurred when the CIA has gone beyond that and tried to actively defend the country.
the NSAs job is to, umm, be scary I think. Apparently their charter involves keeping US information secure.
A Spy's job is to gather information. If that information turns out to implicate some nation of trying to screw the