[billsimpson]

> they can't think their way out of a paper bag

Can you elaborate on this? Is this based on first-hand experience, media coverage, or some other source?

[jessaustin]

TFA alludes to some of this. The CIA grossly overestimated the strength of USSR, for decades. They are routinely surprised by the actions of rivals, allies, and others. A decade ago, when the FBI and military already had perfectly sufficient interrogation capabilities, the CIA hired a couple of dumbasses to develop a horrific kidnapping-and-torture regime that betrayed not only our values but also our security. Although they have emphasized the "threat" posed by radical Arabs for at least two decades now, the CIA has yet to develop human assets native to the Middle East in anything like the numbers that they had devoted to the Soviet Bloc.

Some would balance this shoddy record against the assumption that "well we have to have some top-secret intelligence-sabotage-and-kidnapping service." That simply isn't true. Through most of USA history we didn't have anything like that at anything like the CIA's scale. National leaders do need to know about other nations, but that work could be done better by normal non-classified and accountable researchers, who at least in the beginning would not be wedged so solidly in the pockets of the military-industrial complex. The sort of intelligence that enables military action has been really poorly executed by the CIA, and we'd be better off without it.