The CIA What Now?

[Cramulus]

related: there's a good Vice Magazine podcast interview with Michael German, an an FBI agent specializing in counterterrorism. German talks about what's wrong with the FBI

http://www.vice.com/read/the-vice-podcast-inside-the-fbi


the tl;dr version - German says that being asked to assess and address threats is too big of a scope - it encourages them to magnify every threat. You can't expect somebody to report honestly on how important their work is. So he thinks the intelligence community should have a risk assessment wing and a totally separate wing tasked with addressing those threats.

He also has some insight about how the FBI has been mismanaged - partly because being a field agent is attractive to people who like police work and "getting the bad guys", whereas the management career track attracts climbers, people who like 'being the boss'.

He also mentions how a lot of the bizarre enforcement issues we've seen recently originates from a very old discussion about what the difference is between a domestic terrorist and a national security threat. A national security threat is something that originates from a group overseas... so a domestic group can categorically never be a security threat. That's ultimately why things like taking videos or photographs are "suspicious activity", especially if you're a Muslim, whereas organizing anti-government protests are not "suspicious".

There are real things which harm communities, but they are not considered a "threat" because they are domestic in nature. So what does national security actually mean? He points out how the FBI identified "environmental rights activists" as a higher threat than white supremacists, even though white supremacists kill way more people. 


all in all, a good listen; I found it very insightful

[The Johnny]

Caught your post on Facebook. Wow.

Oh, great. More shenanigans....

'Slush fund'? USAID under fire for paying Afghan, other governments to pass laws
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/14/usaid-under-fire-for-spending-billions-on-questionable-foreign-programs/

Oh, so the same thing that the UN, World Bank and IMF have been doing for decades? FACE OF EVIL.

[Junkenstein]

Seems USAID's a bit of a hot topic lately:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26997267

A US contractor who has been in jail in Cuba for more than four years has ended his week-long hunger strike.

In a statement released by his lawyer, Alan Gross said he suspended his fast because his mother, 91, had asked him to end it, but added that "there will be further protests to come".

Mr Gross, 64, began fasting on 2 April to protest against his treatment by both the Cuban and US governments.

He was jailed for 15 years for taking internet equipment to Cuba illegally.

"My protest fast is suspended as of today," Mr Gross said in the statement.

"There will be no cause for further intense protest when both governments show more concern for human beings and less malice and derision toward each other," he added.

The case of Mr Gross is seen as a major obstacle to better US-Cuban ties. The two countries have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1961.

Mr Gross was arrested in 2009 while working for a firm under contract with the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Cuba considers USAID's programmes as illegal attempts by the US to undermine the island nation's Communist government.

Cuba seems to have been proven right several times over. With the latest twitter fiasco I can't see this chap walking around free anytime soon. I doubt his hunger strike will do much to sway either government as at least one of them would probably be happier with him dead.

[Junkenstein]

Also, Cram, nice find. Was interesting to hear about how the FBI views themselves in relation to the larger issues. It's also quite interesting to see how this guy defines the other agencies and their scope of work.

As noted by the guy himself, the FBI clearly has very, very good PR.