

How U.S. Removed Half a Ton of Uranium From Kazakhstan - chuck_taylor
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/20/AR2009092002881.html

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th0ma5
Was this supposed to be a secret? I had heard something that we're losing
intelligence cred because we can't keep secrets (wrt the CIA torture)

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jhancock
How do you mean "losing intelligence cred"? Do you mean that when CIA agents
go to a spy conference, the Russians and Chinese look down at them?

The story is interesting history. I don't see any reason why having this
information available at this point reveals anything useful to our the U.S.'s
enemies. The U.S. made it perfectly clear it was on a mission to secure
nuclear weapons and materials after the Soviet Union fell. The fact that it
actually did secure some weapons and nuclear material simply shows they were
at least partially effective. To me that increases credibility.

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plinkplonk
I would guess (like in everything else) Intelligence agencies have a ranking
order and people in the business know who is good , who is very good and who
is terrible. I guess it could be considered "cred" of a kind.

Like programmers might say "Google used to be very cool 5 years ago but these
days is just a cube farm", I can imagine people in the spy business saying
"The Americans were really good, but after they got into Iraq and Afghanistan,
they've been slipping" or something like that.

How people like us ever get to hear an opinion like that is a different
question entirely.

