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Most damaging US intelligence failure -- Oman Tribune - the edge of knowledge: "US spy agencies still live under the shadow of disastrous intelligence failures that paved the way for the Iraq war . . . In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq 10 years ago, the CIA and other intelligence services confidently asserted that Saddam Hussein’s regime had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Their findings backed up the White House’s strongly-held conviction that Saddam was a menace who had to be toppled by force. But it turned out the intelligence community was “dead wrong in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction,” according to an official inquiry, the Silberman-Robb report. The spy services failed to collect solid information, botched their analysis and reached conclusions based on flawed assumptions instead of evidence, making it “one of the most public - and most damaging - intelligence failures in recent American history,” the 2005 report said. Despite a desperate search for Saddam’s arsenal after the 2003 invasion, no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were found, puncturing the whole case for the US-led war and igniting global outrage. “This thing has done us lasting damage,” said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at the RAND Corporation think tank. “It really significantly erodes the credibility of US intelligence in these areas,” said Jenkins, a former Green Beret who has advised the government on security. Since that humiliating episode, the country’s 16 spy services have sought to bolster intelligence-gathering efforts around the world and added vetting procedures to their analysis to avoid any repeat of the Iraq experience, former CIA officials and analysts said. . . ." (read more at Agence France-Presse/Oman Tribune link above)

French Intelligence Agency Forces Wikipedia Volunteer to Delete Article; Re-Instated, It Becomes Most-Read Page On French Wikipedia | Techdirt: " . . . There is also the interesting question of how a national intelligence service only found out about the article now, several years after it was first added: this hardly suggests a firm grasp of what's happening in the online world. That's confirmed by the fact that the deleted article is, of course, back on line, in French and a dozen other languages. Moreover, the DCRI's ham-fisted attempt to censor an extremely obscure Wikipedia page that hardly anyone ever visited, has achieved exactly the opposite effect: in the last few days, the page has been viewed over 45,000 times. This is how the article about the not-so-secret military installation now concludes: "As a result of the controversy, the article became the most-read page on the French Wikipedia. It was translated into multiple other languages. The French newspaper 20 minutes noted it as an example of the Streisand effect in action."

White House released Benghazi emails (pdf)
http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/white-house-benghazi-emails.pdf

'Underwear bomber' was working for the CIA | World news | The Guardian: "A would-be "underwear bomber" involved in a plot to attack a US-based jet was in fact working as an undercover informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged."

Congressional Oversight? Corker: Congress Doesn't Know to what Extent NSA Surveilling Americans | Washington Free Beacon: "Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) told Fox News Sunday even he was not sure to what extent the National Security Agency kept tabs on Americans, adding he wanted the NSA to brief Congress “from top to bottom” to explain the programs in place and help ensure appropriate oversight."

Russia Expels U.S. Diplomat - WSJ.com: "In an episode that appeared more costume party than spy thriller, Russian authorities detained American Ryan C. Fogle near a Moscow park late Monday, according to Russia's spy service—which said he was wearing a dirty-blond wig and carrying "special technical equipment" as well as several pairs of glasses and "a large sum" of cash."

Stop Thinking That Tech Hacks Will Fix Our Surveillance Problems | Wired Opinion | Wired.com: "The Snowden leaks have led to renewed, even frantic, interest in finding the best ways to protect privacy and resist the government’s blanket monitoring and collecting of our data. A recent Pew Research poll shows, for the first time, that more people are concerned about the status of their civil liberties than about threats from terrorism."

MADRID: Report: Ex-HSBC man says US advised he go to Spain - Business Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com: "A man wanted by Switzerland on suspicion of stealing confidential banking information now being used by international financial investigators says U.S. officials warned him he was in danger and advised him to go to Spain, a newspaper reported Sunday. Herve Falciani, a former employee of global banking group HSBC, was arrested in July after he left France by sea and tried to enter Spain through the northeastern port of Barcelona . . . In a lengthy interview published in El Pais newspaper, the 40-year-old is quoted as saying that he was cooperating with U.S. Justice Department officials when he was told to head for Spain. "They told me that from that moment my life was at risk," Falciani says. "They told me the only safe place in Europe was Spain."

What the FBI's UFO Memo Shows About American Intelligence | Danger Room | Wired.com: " . . . There are lots of so-called “raw” intelligence reports like this. You can go through tons of them in the CIA’s reading room. (Whose website asks, incidentally, “Do UFOs fascinate you?”) On their own, many of them are as lurid as they are unverified. Sexy as secret intelligence reports sound, just because an intelligence or investigative agency writes up a report like that does not mean the agency vouches for the credibility of such reports. Former CIA analyst Nada Bakos recently recalled for Danger Room the shoddiness of intelligence ahead of the Iraq war that resulted in part from policymakers mining raw reports for evidence to suit their pet theories. . . ."

Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room | CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov): "Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room - Do UFOs fascinate you? Are you a history buff who wants to learn more about the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam or the A-12 Oxcart? Have stories about spies always fascinated you? You can find information about all of these topics and more in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room. . . . " (read more at link above)


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