
How the CIA Forgot the Art of Spying - DiabloD3
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/cia-art-spying-espionage-spies-military-terrorism-214875
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leroy_masochist
It bears pointing out that Russia's economy is 7% of the size of the U.S.'s
and highly leveraged to natural resources, its population is shrinking, its
industrial base is a shambles, and it's dealing with multiple societal crises
(alcoholism, AIDS rate upswing, brain drain, etc).

I'm not saying that to be a US-triumphalist; most Russians are great people.
And the country has some great things going for it (STEM education, athletics,
etc).

My point is, during the Cold War, the US and its allies were engaged in a
tooth-and-nail fight against the USSR and its allies to win a very public
argument about whose system was better. This is no longer the case. People in
some countries might wish their leader was a macho man like Putin, but nobody
in their right mind wants their country to become more Russia-like.

So, who cares if the Russian security services are best-in-class? Who cares if
their cloak-and-dagger game is head and shoulders above that of our spies?
They're the tip of a spear with a rotting shaft.

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matt4077
We're involved in a new "fight of the systems". Instead of Capitalism vs.
Communism, it's Democracy vs Authoritarianism. There are a number of countries
following the example set by Russia and China, such as Turkey, Hungary, the
Philippines and Poland. Others are flirting with the idea, such as the US,
France or South Africa.

The problem is that these systems work a lot better than Communism ever did,
especially if you look only at economic indicators, and only at the part of
the population that doesn't complain.

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zigzigzag
France?

You appear to be describing any set of policies you don't like as
"authoritarianism". There's nothing anti-authoritarian about the French
politicians who are publicly committed to handing ever more power to the EU,
for example.

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mherkender
Le Pen is France flirting with authoritarianism.

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bootload
_" The new kind of spying, the kind my colleague was jumping into, was done by
officers based in military compounds, only able to leave with a Glock on the
hip, in armoured personnel carriers, guarded by armed men and women in
uniforms with the American flag sewn on the arm."_

Forget the scenario, it's worse than that. The biggest failure of the CIA,
replacing seasoned field-officers with desk jockey Analysts and ^zero
fieldcraft^. [0] Fieldcraft was a casualty post-911. [1]

[0] Bob Baer, "Dagger to the CIA" ~ [http://www.gq.com/story/dagger-to-the-
cia](http://www.gq.com/story/dagger-to-the-cia)

[1] Bob Baer, “The place is broken” ~
[http://www.salon.com/2004/05/12/baer_2/](http://www.salon.com/2004/05/12/baer_2/)

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huffmsa
When your adversary is motivated by low-level zealotry, there really isn't
much traditional tradecraft can do.

Sure you can find fringe members, set them up, then pat yourself on the back
when you arrest them for attempting to detonate the fake explosives in Time
Square that you gave them like the FBI does.

But broadly, the techniques developed through the hyper educated European IC
lineage to persuade other hyper-educated IC members that their particular 19th
Century theory of economics and government is wrong aren't going to work
against an illiterate opium farmer who's principles come from a 10th Century
manuscript.

Hell, this is the meta-theme of Daniel Craig's James Bond.

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rdiddly
They had my attention for a few paragraphs, until the Russia FUD started. It's
clear a lot of people in the military industrial complex miss the "good old
days" of the Cold War, when there was a clear enemy to supposedly justify
their existence and their jobs. Turns out America is its own worst enemy - who
knew? But the fact that Russia's back on its feet (barely) obviously looks
like an opportunity to some people, to start projecting the blame outward
again. Hard to tell which writers are unquestioningly swallowing and
unwittingly repeating the propaganda and which ones are actively part of it
and probable intelligence assets, but the fact itself that there's so much of
it, seems like a minor victory for the intelligence community.

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kardos
Broken link

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csydas
Just you I think. Loaded fine on my mobile using wifi

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kardos
Huh. Right on, it works on mobile and not on desktop...

Edit: Turns out HTTPS Everywhere was rewriting it to use
[https://secure.politico.com](https://secure.politico.com) rather than
[http://www.politico.com](http://www.politico.com) and that broke the link.

