The FBI, the CIA and other intelligence agencies continue to struggle to plant agents in, or recruit them from, deadly Islamist terror organizations here and abroad.
The FBI, for example, did not have under way a single active investigation this past spring of al Qaeda or any Islamist group anywhere in the United States...Enemies, by Bill Gertz, , Washington Times, 9/20/2006, an except from Enemies, How America's Foes Steal Our Secrets -- And How We Let It Happen
It's no wonder Charles McCarry's latest book, Old Boys, depicts the retired generation as the heroes, and the new generation in American intelligence as more interested in protecting their asses than winning the intelligence war. He must have taken his lede from stories like Bill Gertz's, a depressing excerpt from the investigative reporter's new book.
The FBI and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community was woefully unprepared after September 11 to track down terrorists by penetrating the dark world of al Qaeda.
The nation had extremely limited capabilities in human intelligence-gathering -- the real stuff of spying. These shortcomings remain five years later...(Gertz, continued)
Satellites and drones are amazingly proficient technologies, but you can't substitute for an agent inside. Of course, that might muss somebody's hair, and someone might have to learn another language.
Luther
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