Unable, and a Danger: the CIA

Through Moonbat Central we learn that the CIA is perhaps a clueless as the 9/11 Commission, at least regarding terrorism.

A few selected items:

National Geographic's recent special on 9/11 reflected the CIA's spin on the world. It was filled with conjecture based on bad sources, and a few outright falsehoods. As is the case with so many CIA products, it avoided the distinction between what we know and what the U.S. government wants to believe. In doing so, it gave the impression that we know things that we do not.

(Snip)

The program quoted the CIA line that Osama bin Laden escaped to Pakistan. Not only is there no evidence for this, but there is no evidence of bin Laden's continued existence after November 2001. This, after the world's most thorough manhunt. The several bin Laden tapes have never been credible, and no reputable person claims to have seen him.

(Snip)

The CIA would have us believe that private entities like al-Qaeda manipulate vast state intelligence services—not the other way around. Not surprisingly, the CIA draws evidence for this view from the intelligence services of states like Syria, Egypt, and yes, until 2003, Iraq. These state agencies dish up intelligence from terrorists outfits because they have infiltrated every one. They manipulate the groups against other state rivals and against us. And yet the CIA still assumes the information is disinterested.

(Snip)

Experience demonstrates that the CIA often thinks it has the upper hand while being taken for a ride by foreign services—hostiles and "friendlies" alike. When we have actually come upon intelligence windfalls, like Germany's Stasi files, we have discovered that nearly all the CIA's agents were actually were working for the other side. Most recently, the CIA's vaunted ROCKSTARS operation in Iraq—on the basis of which part of the April 2003 attack was planned—turns out to have been managed by Saddam.

The whole article can be found at Claremont and is written by Angelo Codevilla. Frankly, although I didn't post it here, the best quote concerned the CIA's 'case managers,' who are basically administrators--never been there, never done that, and don't have a T-shirt. But they have the attention of the National Geographic...