Via Tom Elia, a Chicago Tribune report by John Crewdson that shows the CIA in a rather unflattering light when it comes to issues of state secrecy:
When the Tribune searched a commercial online data service, the result was a virtual directory of more than 2,600 CIA employees, 50 internal agency telephone numbers and the locations of some two dozen secret CIA facilities around the United States.
Only recently has the CIA recognized that in the Internet age its traditional system of providing cover for clandestine employees working overseas is fraught with holes, a discovery that is said to have “horrified” CIA Director Porter Goss.
…Not all of the 2,653 employees whose names were produced by the Tribune search are supposed to be working under cover. More than 160 are intelligence analysts, an occupation that is not considered a covert position, and senior CIA executives such as Tenet are included on the list.
But an undisclosed number of those on the list–the CIA would not say how many–are covert employees, and some are known to hold jobs that could make them terrorist targets.
…A senior U.S. official, reacting to the computer searches that produced the names and addresses, said, “I don’t know whether Al Qaeda could do this, but the Chinese could.”
…Although the Tribune’s initial search for “Central Intelligence Agency” employees turned up only work-related addresses and phone numbers, other Internet-based services provide, usually for a fee but sometimes for free, the home addresses and telephone numbers of U.S. residents, as well as satellite photographs of the locations where they live and work.
Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, the senior U.S. intelligence official replied that “I don’t have a great explanation, quite frankly.”
The official noted, however, that the CIA’s credo has always been that “individuals are the first person responsible for their cover. If they can’t keep their cover, then it’s hard for anyone else to keep it. If someone filled out a credit report and put that down, that’s just stupid.”
One senior U.S. official used a barnyard epithet to describe the agency’s traditional system of providing many of its foreign operatives with easily decipherable covers that include little more than a post office box for an address and a non-existent company as an employer.
Which is why I support shadow goverments and the kinds of secret intra-agency cabals UNCONSCIONABLY exposed by Robert Redford in 3 Days of the Condor.
And I know a certain pea coat-clad operative who is actively working to bring back an intelligence agency that actually works — though, in a sign of the times, he has taken to calling hit squads “retirement counselors”.
Plus, he’s not averse to enlisting the help of tubers, should the national security situation call for it.
tolja.
it is much easier (read cheaper) to clear someone CIA than, ummm, some other agencies.
caveat emptor.
and of course, CIA culture is different than other agencies too.
It is not, for example, a violation of your oath to tell someone that you work for CIA.
At management levels, they have very little esprit des corps, imho.
Look at the title of Risen’s book.
Who do think holds the accesses of nearly all the leaker-traitors of NSA spyscandal?
What does that tell you about the quality of our CIA operatives? With Plame/Wilson being an “open secret” and the CIA’s inability to infiltrate our enemies, I guess it comes as no real surprise.
Build your own cover, and keep you fucking mouth shut about it.
So Scooter Libby is going to jail for 30 years because he gave a reporter access ot the internet?
Thank God for the DIA and the NSA…
I pray to God that we have an actual secret intelligence service somewhere, that I’ve never heard of, and never will hear of.
Robert – why do posit such a hope? Are you going to be in the same location 5 minutes from now? Just go with the gentlemen who arrive…
Major John, I’ve never seen you before and I don’t know what you’re talking about. Robert who? Protein what? I’m sorry, you must have me confused with someone else.
TW: this was just a test
But zat nice shorty big head fellow on Alias seemed so computer literate…
Call themselves journalists? They didn’t even post a .pdf of the search results…
[puts on sunglasses]
Gentlemen, look right here, please.
Hmmm.
The more I read about the CIA the more I expect to see Abbott & Costello appear somewhere in the story.
I blame Al Gore.
Apparently Jeff’s kid started a blog a while back.
http://sonofnotproteinwisdom.blogspot.com/
On the subject of dolphins, his post sheds new light on the topic ….. I think.
http://sonofnotproteinwisdom.blogspot.com/2006/02/dolphins-in-pea-coats.html
Man, that’s pretty sad.
Major John  Shocking Revelation in the Libby/Plame Discovery Papers! Looks like the CIA was right all along…
The CIA has been Keystone Kops since its inception. In resources, we’ve always had the best intelligence agencies in the world. In terms of quality of officers, tradecraft, creativity, we’ve not been in the top five at any time.
Hmmm.
Personally I blame the lack of assassinations.
If the people who irritate America were being assassinated on a regular basis, they’d no longer be a problem. Plus those people who might become annoying would have a reason for second thoughts on the subject. And those people marked for assassination, but not yet assassinated, would be on the run and wouldn’t have time to annoy America.
And what the hell. It’s not like there aren’t enough jackholes in the world that nobody would miss a few hundred of them.
Assassination! Good for America. Good for you. Good for the sinuses; because a good assassination always clears the air.
Call your senator now!
…
Ok. I’m being humorous about it. Frankly it’s starting to sound reasonable so that’s a worry.