Re: Mission Possible

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwared from: Dan Verton <Dan_Verton () computerworld com>

This story is absolutely incorrect. Sept. 11 had very little to do
with the CIA's failure to adopt technology faster and everything to do
with the intelligence community's push during the past decade or more
to invest in technological espionage solutions at the expense of human
intelligence capabilities. I don't know of one intelligence expert who
would argue this point. While the CIA may be slow to integrate
technology, there is no lack of investment. There has been, however, a
severe lack of focus on HUMINT, including some very restrictive
policies on dealing with HUMINT sources put into motion during the
Clinton administration.

Dan Verton




InfoSec News <isn () c4i org> on 01/14/2002 04:12:18 AM

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Subject:  [ISN] Mission Possible

http://www.herring.com/vc/2002/0118/908.html

By Justin Hibbard
January 18, 2002

It took just 90 minutes from the moment the first jetliner ripped
through the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11
before a TV anchorperson uttered the words "failure of intelligence."
In the hours that followed, the phrase shot through the media,
eventually finding its target: the U.S. intelligence community and its
lack of technological prowess.

"For many years, our intelligence technical capabilities were the
standard of the world," U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D: Florida), chairman
of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters on the
day of the attacks. "We have fallen behind, and we need to close the
gap and reassert our leadership."

The sound bite had a familiar ring to anyone who had hung around the
Central Intelligence Agency in 1999. That year, nearly the same words
were spoken by supporters of a plan to start a CIA-funded
systems-integration firm called Peleus. Proponents argued that the
agency was failing to keep up with new technologies like sophisticated
Internet search tools being developed by small, innovative companies.
In February 1999, Peleus was founded, given an annual budget of $30
million, and ordered to seek risky startups that could keep the agency
stocked with futuristic, James Bond-like gear.

[...]

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