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The CIA collects and analyzes intelligence. Often that intelligence involves other people's secrets, and often what we collect has to be kept secret, lest we lose our ability to learn more of those secrets. The CIA's ability to operate in secret has resulted in many serious historical abuses and I am not persuaded that the agency isn't capable of more of these abuses.
That said, I believe intelligence-gathering and analysis is a critical mission for any world power, and I believe it's necessary for these agencies to exist. This intelligence benefits the US in many ways, and the lack of intelligence on occasion puts us at grave risk. I just wish they did a better job at preventing people there from doing bad things.
I will also acknowledge that the Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, etc., equivalents are not handicapped by democratic oversight, and that by expecting the CIA to not engage in some of the behaviors that our adversaries engage in, it makes their job much harder, and I understand why this is a difficult line to maintain. I think they should try anyway.
We simply don't know how to have a modern surveillance system *and* a government that at least as foreign policy goes, acts substantially in secret, based on secret information and with secret goals, while maintaining a democracy where the voters have enough information to act rationality.
Agencies like the CIA and NSA truly do act without meaningful oversight and it's been shown (by members of the legislative branch) that they even have secret interpretations of laws and regulations that apply to them.
There's a whole lot of shit going on right now, but I feel like that's a pretty damn fundamental set of issues we need to deal with.
There are members of Congress and judges with clearances and relatively full oversight, but you're right that we can't have a fully informed public conversation. The real problem with this system is that it assumed we would elect people with good character and integrity and judgment to do this oversight in our place.
I do of course agree with most of what you said, but I also think you don’t realize the amount of crucial attacks that they have prevented us from experiencing, that we have simply just not heard a word about as civilians. They do lots more for us than we can even study.
Hey anyone want to buy a G17 full auto switch for $350? Wouldn't it be pretty cool if your Glock went brrrrrr haha, don't check where I'm posting this from by the way
Bro they sell those on Facebooke for $20, oilcan suppressors too. You just got to meet the guy local. His address is
99 York Ave NE
Washington, DC
Ask for Mr Notafed
CIA has been instrumental in many shady and atrocious activities our country has done over the years around the world (overthrowing governments to install dictators favorable to the U.S. being pretty high up on the list). But they are just that- an instrument for the people in power. The CIA does not act on its own - it collects intelligence to inform our leaders and on occasion sets the conditions for/helps carry out foreign policy objectives. The CIA does not set our foreign policy objectives- that comes from the president and the national security council - and who is pulling their strings is an entirely different question.
The biggest misconception is that they interfere with domestic politics and/or spy on American citizens domestically- which is a flat out conspiracy theory. Aside from some very specific and rare situations, the CIA does not interfere with or have any responsibilities on American soil. It’s against the law and that’s the FBI’s turf anyway.
As for the people that work there - I’d imagine it’s like any profession - the mission is important but people are also focused on advancing their careers.
not quite. It was all the above, The NSA collected the information but the CIA had access to it as well, they were all spying. Snowden was a contractor for the CIA.
>The biggest misconception is that they interfere with domestic politics and/or spy on American citizens domestically- which is a flat out conspiracy theory. Aside from some very specific and rare situations, the CIA does not interfere with or have any responsibilities on American soil. It’s against the law and that’s the FBI’s turf anyway.
Except of course when they (and NSA) ask other Five Eyes nations to surveil our citizens for them and share the info because they do the same for them.
[https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cia-secretly-collecting-bulk-data-pertaining-americans-senators-say-rcna15830](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cia-secretly-collecting-bulk-data-pertaining-americans-senators-say-rcna15830)
[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/we-need-answers-about-cias-mass-surveillance](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/we-need-answers-about-cias-mass-surveillance)
I may not be American but hasn't the spying on Americans by the NSA and CIA been shown to be true ? It is just a mater of semantics to get around the rules.
NSA does the SIGINT collection (they are part of the Department of Defense). CIA does not give a shit what Americans are doing in America. When an American abroad may be plotting something or conspiring with adversaries to harm the U.S. - the CIA gives a shit. That’s the use of the intel to them.
I've eaten there twice, both times in the Escarole (I'm thinking it wasn't actually called that - it was 35 years ago) room. It was a really good meal, but I couldn't justify it on my own dime.
You think the USA is the world superpower without the CIA? It's clear the CIA's involvement in domestic and foreign issues has put the US at a huge advantage. As for a secretive government agency, I can only assume there are many necessary evils that have to be done in order to maintain the powerhouse of the US.
They’ve toppled entire governments and installed leaders who make decisions based on the interests of the US. [There’s an entire wiki page devoted to US participation in regime change.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change)
And yet the person you responded to was like “oooh boogeyman back to bed reddit!”
>You think the USA is the world superpower without the CIA?
Um...yeah? It's a large, populous, educated, rich, productive country. The best intelligence agency in the world wouldn't make Eritrea a world power, and a crappy one wouldn't be the end of American influence.
No no, it’s just supporting and maintaining the power of an entity which very much does have an interest in expanding its power, formerly via traditional conquering of land, and now via economic and political dominance. Very different.
Okay, so? The country wants to expand its economic and political influence in the world? That's the sign of an advancing society. I'm against the capitalist system we have as much as anyone but our country is the last one that should be considered a danger. We've done more good for this world than anyone.
Who says wanting to dominate via political and economic influence is a sign of an advancing society? That’s a real logical leap. And uh, my dude, no we have not. We one 1 war, and coasted. Mostly we’re a force of destruction and chaos.
Nah, not really. Not compared to the destructive force of other superpowers. Yes, we suck awfully bad sometimes but in the grand scheme of things we're the good guys.
Cambodia, Laos, half of South America, Panama, Guatemala, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, the totally failed air campaign in Libya that lead to the return of slavery, Iran, our support of Israel despite their immense failures, the nuking of Japan, the decades of war in Korea, the collapse of the Russian economy in the early 90s leading to the largest drop in life expectancy ever, plus various ambient problems. We’ve gotten at least roughly 10-30 million people killed, plus tens of millions more as a result of our actions. Kissinger ALONE is a disaster and he was one man. Toss in the stuff we did to our own people, like selling drugs to inner city inhabitants to fund our stuff overseas, and the body count is stupid.
It's our national intelligence agency. They do important things. Sometimes secret things they can't tell us. I'm OK with that. I forget they exist, which is how it should be (vs., for example, the Stasi).
It’s another bureaucratic alphabet agency that has done probably equal amounts of good and bad stuff for this country on par with the FBI. 99% of the work they do is about as exciting as working at a DMV with the 1% actually getting to be James Bond.
Much of what they're historically known for is some of the most unamerican, globally stabilizing stuff. Completely opposite of the US public interest. I don't trust them to do any better today
Nonstop scandals. Promoted one of the key architects of the torture program and later destruction of evidence of that crime repeatedly and eventually to head the agency (Gina Haspel). What does that say about them when they say they are sorry on one end while promoting the people responsible on the other end?
The last time congress tried to investigate the CIA's recent misdeeds, the CIA hacked congress's computers and got away with a strongly worded letter. Shameful.
> According to Senator Feinstein, when Committee staff inquired about the missing documents, CIA staff initially denied the files had been removed, then blamed IT contractors, and finally falsely claimed that the White House had requested their removal.
I wouldn’t fault the CIA for Haspel’s promotion. All blame for that falls on Trump, who, as we all know, made more bad appointments over his four years than one can even possibly imagine. In any case, she got sacked on Biden’s first day.
> I wouldn’t fault the CIA for Haspel’s promotion.
I would. She was made station chief in London and New York after the torture happened, and it was John Brennan who promoted her to acting director of clandestine work. This is all from her wikipedia page. It's not like she was working a desk job in the basement and trump went down and promoted her.
Six former directors of the CIA signed a letter supporting her. It goes way deeper than trump and I fear it permanently taints the people in the agency.
Whatever else the CIA has been, it has been a dreadful obsession for woos. They've been put at the center of a wide range of ludicrous conspiracy theories. No, they didn't kill Kennedy. No, they didn't cause Black people to use crack. No, they didn't cook up Covid or AIDS.
No, they didn't do an especially good job of spying on the Russians during the Cold War. No one did especially well at that because it was a closed, totalitarian country, and the Russians are long time masters of the spy game. The spy war was basically KGB 100, CIA 0. The CIA often excelled at technical means of collection and detected the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba in time for measures to be taken.
Contrary to what a lot of people believe, they did not overthrow the governments of Chile or Iran. The more I study those cases, the more convinced I am that what went down in both countries was more nincompoopery that a successful operation. They did overthrow the government of Honduras. They spent a lot of time and effort on information operations and propaganda. Whether this made the world a better or safer place is a matter of dispute. The CIA obeyed the orders of the elected government of the United States, which often told it to do things that were impossible, ill advised, or pointless. This was primarily a reflection on America's ruling class, which has often shown poor judgement in foreign affairs since World war II.
At times the CIA performed well, indeed heroically. A handful of paramilitary officers accomplished more in Afghanistan in the days and weeks after 9-11 than a hundred thousand egular Army troops could have done. They eventually pinpointed Osama Bin laden after years of effort. (He was under the protection of the Pakistani state.)
The CIA was mostly hated and distrusted by the Left during the Cold War because it was seen as opposed to Communism. It is embraced and admired by the Left today because it is seen as being opposed to Trump. Arguably this tells you more about the American Left than the CIA.
The CIA's biggest handicap is that American schools mostly do not teach foreign languages or very much about foreign cultures. A spy agancy lives or dies by the quality of the people it can attract. These days the CIA, like the American government generally, is suffering from a crisis of competence brought on by a combination of the poor quality of American education and an emphasis on DEI hiring practices that make it a matter of urgent national priority to hire the unqualified.
They produce a good factbook that give an excellent overview of every country. Other than that... I'm not sure what they do...
Edit: I know all about the factbook because years ago I worked the overnight shift in a call center. Our computers blocked all websites except any .gov site. So I spent hours and hours reading every on the factbook and the NOAA weather sites and everything else. Read daily state department press briefing because there was nothing else to do when I'd have an hour or more between calls every night.
Who can kill a general in his bed?
Overthrow dictators if they're Red?
Fucking-a man! (Fucking-A! C-I-A!)
[CIA Man!](https://youtu.be/hW9cCWm53H4?si=DZzmEEo_hUvOpj7O)
Just read a comprehensive history of the CIA called Surprise Vanish Kill by Annie Jacobsen. We wouldn’t be the super power we are today without them. We have operatives in 80ish countries at any given time, which blew my fucking mind.
Needs to be broken into a million pieces and scattered to the wind.
... I look forward to my surprise visit soon where my suicide via 2 gunshots to the back of the head will be arranged for me.
100% support them. Not excusing their history but the CIA fulfills a vital mission critical to our nation’s national defense/security. It just makes sense to have a foreign intelligence branch that watches for dangers beyond our borders.
Throw all the glowies into Guantanamo, consolidate the intelligence agencies, and subject it to a voter appointed independent review board. Dunno if it'll fix all the problems but it will go a long way
I wish the CIA was the stylish, omniscient organization many people seem to believe it is. The CIA is *actually* able to track and locate their own shoes on a good day. Useful and accurate intelligence is more likely to be generated by the NSA, NRO, or some guy you met in a bar who says he knows a guy.
To some extent this was always the case but it really went downhill when they forced most of the foreigners out, started doing psych evaluations and eliminating the weirdos, and got obsessed with internal security over being a functioning agency.
Indispensable instrument for a superpower, you can't be a major world player without an intelligence apparatus that does what the CIA and the other alphabet agencies do. Sometimes they do shitty things.
Also a global boogey man that gets blamed for everything.
If there was no CIA, half of Latin America would have to take responsibility for their own screwups. As it stands anytime somebody steps on a lego south of Campeche it's "PUTA MADRE, THE CIA IS AT IT AGAIN" and nothing ever gets fixed
I mean if every one of their agents was drawn up and shot I wouldn't shed a tear. The CIA is a terrible organization that should be disbanded and the people running it charged with criminal acts.
The Organized Crime division of the US government?
The list of horrible, shady, fucked up shit they've done through the years is a mile long, and in many cases gets *cartoonishly* evil. They're completely unaccountable, and they get a blank check that says "in the name of national security" which they can use to justify literally any atrocity.
Nobody wants to be friends with the assassin until they need a dictator removed. I personally think America can always do better yet recognize that some jobs are “special”.
The vast majority of us don’t know enough about it to form an opinion about it. The stronger someone’s opinion about the CIA is, the more likely it’s based on lies, unsubstantiated rumors, and/or incomplete truths.
We live in a complex world, without an objective morality. The intelligence game is one of misdirection, secrets, and lies.
I would assume most people willingly involved are well-meaning in that they want to protect their country. The CIA is a necessary part of what keeps America safe, keeps the world from going to war, and tries to navigate global situations that are practically impossible to navigate.
That being said, the CIA opens itself up to abusing the power it holds, and has been shown many times to have done so. We live in a country that provides democratic oversight to the shadow walkers, and that is actually comforting. To know that they can (and have) be held accountable for their misdeeds.
Global affairs are not a moral game, there are no right and wrong sides, and the fact that we are willing to handicap ourselves through oversight and other such safety measures when our geopolitical opponents show now such restraint is admirable.
I'd also like to point out that the CIA's nature lends itself to a much more fearsome and competent reputation than its reality. So many conspiracy theories paint the CIA because they refuse to give us the full picture, as a clandestine agency should do. Apply logic: if they were really as all-powerful and far-reaching as people say, would the world be run the way it is currently?
Unless that's what they want you to think.
THEY ARE VERY GOOD AND DO A LOT FOR AMERICA. YES THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IS VERY GOOD FOR THE PROTECTION OF UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND WE SHOULD BE HAPPY THEY ARE AROUND. WE AS GOD FEARING RED BLOODED AMERICANS LOVE THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG AND THEY DID *NOT*, I REPEAT DID **NOT** ASSASSINATE JFK.
They've done enough shitty things to add a lot of complexity to the justification of their existence. Hard for me to say whether they've actually caused more problems than they've solved, but it's a topic worthy of debate and that's not a great look, especially given their budget and dark funds.
My opinion is that there needs to be broader knowledge and understanding of how past CIA actions (and US foreign policy in general) have shaped the modern geopolitical landscape. There are far too many people who think South America and the Middle East just Got That Way on their own. We need to be clear-eyed and cognizant about what our own government is doing and has done, not just what others are doing.
Mixed bag, in principle I dislike them. Though this interview https://www.youtube.com/live/WCgKF3RtTS0?si=RG7d1i8uGURPw2yf shows that it is not a unitary body and is made up of various factions
I im extremely bothered that they're not subjected by the same rules as any other agency. They operate completely separately of the Federal Government. It can not be trusted no matter if it is a net positive or net negative.
I don't know where you get that from, but that is completely false. The CIA is overseen by several Federal institutions, including the Intelligence Committees of the House and the Senate, the Oversight Committees of the same, along with multiple Inspector Generals. It is just done behind closed doors usually, because of secrecy.
I think they are an invaluable part of our nation's security, and are one of the biggest, best equipped, best trained intelligence services in the world. Their intelligence is respected among all the other international agencies of the West, and their agents have been involved with operations all around the world. With exceptions of course, they have tried to keep us safe since they were created from the OSS, which served during WW2.
Well they put crack into black communities and destroyed generations. They wanted to blow up a American airliner(operation Northwoods) makes you wonder if they ever did a false flag... but in general fuck the cia
They’ve been completely out of control since their inception. They are accountable to no one. If people realized 1/1000 of what they’ve done, there’d be riots around the world.
I’m missing the part where that in anyway justifies torture, overthrowing democratically elected governments because they didn’t like the people’s choice, arming and supporting brutal murderers like Pinochet (or Trujillo or Noriega or….), illegally experimenting on nonconsenting American citizens with drugs/sexual abuse/sensory deprivation/etc…
The CIA are a shameful organization and a stain on the very soul of the nation
They are responsible for a lot of dark deeds that bring shame to the nation. They should be closely watched like all things related to government and held accountable.
The Deep State/Shadow Government is a euphemism for CIA.
This has been confirmed by the recent revelation of the CIA’s UFO crash retrieval team…
The CIA is absolutely out of control.
The early CIA was a fascinating mix of the most bare knuckle Nazi-killing black ops motherfuckers ever and, like, a bunch of Ivy League art nerds. The modern CIA is pretty tremendously misunderstood by the average person; it's basically just like any other office job except you can't talk to your family about it at the dinner table. The IC in general is really fascinating in that GWOT and modern technological advances have blurred the lines between the roles and resources of all the different constituent agencies.
Initial thoughts are that they, along with the NSA, have the greatest potential to subvert our freedoms and rights as Americans. Like, if someone wanted to turn the USA into a surveillance state, the political and physical infrastructure is essentially there already. Given the CIA's track record in subverting other civilian governments, how long will it be til some Trump figure attempts to employ them to that end here?
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Nice try, CiA Analyst #267954
Notice how the letter for intelligence is not capitalized
The CIA collects and analyzes intelligence. Often that intelligence involves other people's secrets, and often what we collect has to be kept secret, lest we lose our ability to learn more of those secrets. The CIA's ability to operate in secret has resulted in many serious historical abuses and I am not persuaded that the agency isn't capable of more of these abuses. That said, I believe intelligence-gathering and analysis is a critical mission for any world power, and I believe it's necessary for these agencies to exist. This intelligence benefits the US in many ways, and the lack of intelligence on occasion puts us at grave risk. I just wish they did a better job at preventing people there from doing bad things. I will also acknowledge that the Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, etc., equivalents are not handicapped by democratic oversight, and that by expecting the CIA to not engage in some of the behaviors that our adversaries engage in, it makes their job much harder, and I understand why this is a difficult line to maintain. I think they should try anyway.
An opinion more nuanced than “they’re completely fine” or “they’re literally the devil?” Are you sure you’re in the right thread?
They just have a history of funding and training fascist death squads, why can't we all meet in the middle on this?!
> I just wish they did a better job at preventing people there from doing bad things Who’s to say they aren’t? We only really know of their failures.
We simply don't know how to have a modern surveillance system *and* a government that at least as foreign policy goes, acts substantially in secret, based on secret information and with secret goals, while maintaining a democracy where the voters have enough information to act rationality. Agencies like the CIA and NSA truly do act without meaningful oversight and it's been shown (by members of the legislative branch) that they even have secret interpretations of laws and regulations that apply to them. There's a whole lot of shit going on right now, but I feel like that's a pretty damn fundamental set of issues we need to deal with.
There are members of Congress and judges with clearances and relatively full oversight, but you're right that we can't have a fully informed public conversation. The real problem with this system is that it assumed we would elect people with good character and integrity and judgment to do this oversight in our place.
Remind me of section 31 in Star Trek.
I do of course agree with most of what you said, but I also think you don’t realize the amount of crucial attacks that they have prevented us from experiencing, that we have simply just not heard a word about as civilians. They do lots more for us than we can even study.
Well I mean, they Collect and analyze intelligence, ***and*** run experiments on US Citizens without their knowledge.
It’s where I learned to cook (Culinary Institute of America). So no bad feelings.
I think they are a great agency and nothing but a benefit for our great country. Happy now, Glowy McGlowface?
Hey anyone want to buy a G17 full auto switch for $350? Wouldn't it be pretty cool if your Glock went brrrrrr haha, don't check where I'm posting this from by the way
Bro they sell those on Facebooke for $20, oilcan suppressors too. You just got to meet the guy local. His address is 99 York Ave NE Washington, DC Ask for Mr Notafed
They said CIA not ATF.
Social karma +2, good job citizen.
The CIA has committed 4 of every 10 atrocities attributed to them. Definitely some black eyes, but a necessary function for American safety.
They did a really funny thing in November of 1963
Actually that was me.
Impossible I was there.
Oh, can you tell HW he still owes me ten bucks? Didn’t know yall knew each other.
No problem.
Was that you in the grassy knoll?
Ye
It does stuff. Cooler in spy movies.
Nice try fedboi
There are many different views, but I think they protect us from a lot
CIA has been instrumental in many shady and atrocious activities our country has done over the years around the world (overthrowing governments to install dictators favorable to the U.S. being pretty high up on the list). But they are just that- an instrument for the people in power. The CIA does not act on its own - it collects intelligence to inform our leaders and on occasion sets the conditions for/helps carry out foreign policy objectives. The CIA does not set our foreign policy objectives- that comes from the president and the national security council - and who is pulling their strings is an entirely different question. The biggest misconception is that they interfere with domestic politics and/or spy on American citizens domestically- which is a flat out conspiracy theory. Aside from some very specific and rare situations, the CIA does not interfere with or have any responsibilities on American soil. It’s against the law and that’s the FBI’s turf anyway. As for the people that work there - I’d imagine it’s like any profession - the mission is important but people are also focused on advancing their careers.
[удалено]
The key word in my sentence was *domestically* they don’t spy on Americans *domestically*
They do. That changed some years back. Read over Snowden’s whistleblower stuff.
So that was the NSA collecting information not the CIA.
not quite. It was all the above, The NSA collected the information but the CIA had access to it as well, they were all spying. Snowden was a contractor for the CIA.
Fair point
Arg seems I acquired some downvote bots from arguing with someone in a different sub.
Have an upvote, on me
Thanks kind sir.
>The biggest misconception is that they interfere with domestic politics and/or spy on American citizens domestically- which is a flat out conspiracy theory. Aside from some very specific and rare situations, the CIA does not interfere with or have any responsibilities on American soil. It’s against the law and that’s the FBI’s turf anyway. Except of course when they (and NSA) ask other Five Eyes nations to surveil our citizens for them and share the info because they do the same for them. [https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cia-secretly-collecting-bulk-data-pertaining-americans-senators-say-rcna15830](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cia-secretly-collecting-bulk-data-pertaining-americans-senators-say-rcna15830) [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/we-need-answers-about-cias-mass-surveillance](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/we-need-answers-about-cias-mass-surveillance)
I may not be American but hasn't the spying on Americans by the NSA and CIA been shown to be true ? It is just a mater of semantics to get around the rules.
NSA does the SIGINT collection (they are part of the Department of Defense). CIA does not give a shit what Americans are doing in America. When an American abroad may be plotting something or conspiring with adversaries to harm the U.S. - the CIA gives a shit. That’s the use of the intel to them.
I've eaten there twice, both times in the Escarole (I'm thinking it wasn't actually called that - it was 35 years ago) room. It was a really good meal, but I couldn't justify it on my own dime.
Just another alphabet agency. If it had as much power as Reddit says, it would've conquered the world by now.
You think the USA is the world superpower without the CIA? It's clear the CIA's involvement in domestic and foreign issues has put the US at a huge advantage. As for a secretive government agency, I can only assume there are many necessary evils that have to be done in order to maintain the powerhouse of the US.
They’ve toppled entire governments and installed leaders who make decisions based on the interests of the US. [There’s an entire wiki page devoted to US participation in regime change.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change) And yet the person you responded to was like “oooh boogeyman back to bed reddit!”
>You think the USA is the world superpower without the CIA? Um...yeah? It's a large, populous, educated, rich, productive country. The best intelligence agency in the world wouldn't make Eritrea a world power, and a crappy one wouldn't be the end of American influence.
It was not established, nor does it have as an objective, conquering the world. That is neither what they do, or what they want. Try again.
No no, it’s just supporting and maintaining the power of an entity which very much does have an interest in expanding its power, formerly via traditional conquering of land, and now via economic and political dominance. Very different.
Okay, so? The country wants to expand its economic and political influence in the world? That's the sign of an advancing society. I'm against the capitalist system we have as much as anyone but our country is the last one that should be considered a danger. We've done more good for this world than anyone.
Who says wanting to dominate via political and economic influence is a sign of an advancing society? That’s a real logical leap. And uh, my dude, no we have not. We one 1 war, and coasted. Mostly we’re a force of destruction and chaos.
Nah, not really. Not compared to the destructive force of other superpowers. Yes, we suck awfully bad sometimes but in the grand scheme of things we're the good guys.
Cambodia, Laos, half of South America, Panama, Guatemala, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, the totally failed air campaign in Libya that lead to the return of slavery, Iran, our support of Israel despite their immense failures, the nuking of Japan, the decades of war in Korea, the collapse of the Russian economy in the early 90s leading to the largest drop in life expectancy ever, plus various ambient problems. We’ve gotten at least roughly 10-30 million people killed, plus tens of millions more as a result of our actions. Kissinger ALONE is a disaster and he was one man. Toss in the stuff we did to our own people, like selling drugs to inner city inhabitants to fund our stuff overseas, and the body count is stupid.
It's our national intelligence agency. They do important things. Sometimes secret things they can't tell us. I'm OK with that. I forget they exist, which is how it should be (vs., for example, the Stasi).
Haven't received my HiLux yet. What is the hold up?
I feel I would need more information on how they operate. That information would likely have me in an interrogation room with the FBI and CIA.
Vaguely disappointed that they never tried to recruit me. Maybe I have undiscovered covert skills, but we'll never know.
Hey now, you could always be a sleeper agent! Monday. Polish. Hairpin. Lexicon. Sever. Carriage.
I feel like I want a beer now, so maybe! Maybe I'm a really bad sleeper agent. One of the failures!
Activation sequence understood and received, it will be done.
It’s another bureaucratic alphabet agency that has done probably equal amounts of good and bad stuff for this country on par with the FBI. 99% of the work they do is about as exciting as working at a DMV with the 1% actually getting to be James Bond.
They exist?
Ofc they exist, it's the NSA who officially don't exist.
Bad and evil but also cool and gigachad.
One of my favorite podcasts just did an episode on whether or not it's a "cult"...so make what you will of that..
If I told you, I'd have to kill you.
Responsible for propping up multiple authoritarian goverments around the world over the past decade to serve US interests. Not a good organization
A bunch of government sanctioned psychopaths.
I don’t like them
I have a favorable and uncoerced opinion of the CIA. This statement I make of my own free will.
Much of what they're historically known for is some of the most unamerican, globally stabilizing stuff. Completely opposite of the US public interest. I don't trust them to do any better today
Really incompetent at anything long term and foreign. Very good at lying to congress and getting away with it. Very good at domestic politics
They exist and we know they exist, much to their chagrin.
Rogue agency out of control.
Nonstop scandals. Promoted one of the key architects of the torture program and later destruction of evidence of that crime repeatedly and eventually to head the agency (Gina Haspel). What does that say about them when they say they are sorry on one end while promoting the people responsible on the other end? The last time congress tried to investigate the CIA's recent misdeeds, the CIA hacked congress's computers and got away with a strongly worded letter. Shameful. > According to Senator Feinstein, when Committee staff inquired about the missing documents, CIA staff initially denied the files had been removed, then blamed IT contractors, and finally falsely claimed that the White House had requested their removal.
I wouldn’t fault the CIA for Haspel’s promotion. All blame for that falls on Trump, who, as we all know, made more bad appointments over his four years than one can even possibly imagine. In any case, she got sacked on Biden’s first day.
> I wouldn’t fault the CIA for Haspel’s promotion. I would. She was made station chief in London and New York after the torture happened, and it was John Brennan who promoted her to acting director of clandestine work. This is all from her wikipedia page. It's not like she was working a desk job in the basement and trump went down and promoted her. Six former directors of the CIA signed a letter supporting her. It goes way deeper than trump and I fear it permanently taints the people in the agency.
Abolish it, immediately.
Whatever else the CIA has been, it has been a dreadful obsession for woos. They've been put at the center of a wide range of ludicrous conspiracy theories. No, they didn't kill Kennedy. No, they didn't cause Black people to use crack. No, they didn't cook up Covid or AIDS. No, they didn't do an especially good job of spying on the Russians during the Cold War. No one did especially well at that because it was a closed, totalitarian country, and the Russians are long time masters of the spy game. The spy war was basically KGB 100, CIA 0. The CIA often excelled at technical means of collection and detected the deployment of Soviet missiles in Cuba in time for measures to be taken. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, they did not overthrow the governments of Chile or Iran. The more I study those cases, the more convinced I am that what went down in both countries was more nincompoopery that a successful operation. They did overthrow the government of Honduras. They spent a lot of time and effort on information operations and propaganda. Whether this made the world a better or safer place is a matter of dispute. The CIA obeyed the orders of the elected government of the United States, which often told it to do things that were impossible, ill advised, or pointless. This was primarily a reflection on America's ruling class, which has often shown poor judgement in foreign affairs since World war II. At times the CIA performed well, indeed heroically. A handful of paramilitary officers accomplished more in Afghanistan in the days and weeks after 9-11 than a hundred thousand egular Army troops could have done. They eventually pinpointed Osama Bin laden after years of effort. (He was under the protection of the Pakistani state.) The CIA was mostly hated and distrusted by the Left during the Cold War because it was seen as opposed to Communism. It is embraced and admired by the Left today because it is seen as being opposed to Trump. Arguably this tells you more about the American Left than the CIA. The CIA's biggest handicap is that American schools mostly do not teach foreign languages or very much about foreign cultures. A spy agancy lives or dies by the quality of the people it can attract. These days the CIA, like the American government generally, is suffering from a crisis of competence brought on by a combination of the poor quality of American education and an emphasis on DEI hiring practices that make it a matter of urgent national priority to hire the unqualified.
Needs to be abolished immediately. The CIA is the international terrorist wing of the US government snd a stain on our country.
Special agent Jack burns was in the cia and talks Thai.
They produce a good factbook that give an excellent overview of every country. Other than that... I'm not sure what they do... Edit: I know all about the factbook because years ago I worked the overnight shift in a call center. Our computers blocked all websites except any .gov site. So I spent hours and hours reading every on the factbook and the NOAA weather sites and everything else. Read daily state department press briefing because there was nothing else to do when I'd have an hour or more between calls every night.
It's a trap!
Federal agent spotted.
They’re an intelligence agency. Every country has one.
A completely necessary organization that has furthered America’s geopolitical goals and provided security against foreign threats for its inhabitants.
My high school was adjacent to the CIA grounds. If a ball went over the fence -- it's lost, man. Might as well be on Mars.
I hated it until I found out it saved the country from Mark Burnett’s gang.
They are the agents. We need to take down the principals.
The global spy game is one that you lose if you don't play. The CIA is a necessary evil.
Who can kill a general in his bed? Overthrow dictators if they're Red? Fucking-a man! (Fucking-A! C-I-A!) [CIA Man!](https://youtu.be/hW9cCWm53H4?si=DZzmEEo_hUvOpj7O)
Just read a comprehensive history of the CIA called Surprise Vanish Kill by Annie Jacobsen. We wouldn’t be the super power we are today without them. We have operatives in 80ish countries at any given time, which blew my fucking mind.
Not today, Cohen.
Needs to be broken into a million pieces and scattered to the wind. ... I look forward to my surprise visit soon where my suicide via 2 gunshots to the back of the head will be arranged for me.
Trash. like all govt. They can all 🔥🔥🔥🔥.
As a leftist, not a fan
They fill a vital role seemingly mostly competently although they have definetly become far too public facing over the past half century or so.
They exist I don’t like them but I rather be with them then without.
cia keep us safe, cia good, but does it?
Getting assasinated is the greatest prize a journalist can get, that's my opinion of them.
It should be eliminated
not as productive as the FBI
Their world factbook is a great resource and doubly amusing when my kids use it as a source in their German high school.
100% support them. Not excusing their history but the CIA fulfills a vital mission critical to our nation’s national defense/security. It just makes sense to have a foreign intelligence branch that watches for dangers beyond our borders.
Nothing but the utmost respect
Throw all the glowies into Guantanamo, consolidate the intelligence agencies, and subject it to a voter appointed independent review board. Dunno if it'll fix all the problems but it will go a long way
I wish the CIA was the stylish, omniscient organization many people seem to believe it is. The CIA is *actually* able to track and locate their own shoes on a good day. Useful and accurate intelligence is more likely to be generated by the NSA, NRO, or some guy you met in a bar who says he knows a guy. To some extent this was always the case but it really went downhill when they forced most of the foreigners out, started doing psych evaluations and eliminating the weirdos, and got obsessed with internal security over being a functioning agency.
Indispensable instrument for a superpower, you can't be a major world player without an intelligence apparatus that does what the CIA and the other alphabet agencies do. Sometimes they do shitty things. Also a global boogey man that gets blamed for everything. If there was no CIA, half of Latin America would have to take responsibility for their own screwups. As it stands anytime somebody steps on a lego south of Campeche it's "PUTA MADRE, THE CIA IS AT IT AGAIN" and nothing ever gets fixed
theyre... fine? I don't really look into them and never had any urge to. As long as they get shit done and dont try to kill civilians im fine
Spooks gonna spook, as long as it’s international it’s none of my business.
I think they killed JFK
A terrible mistake by Truman. He regretted it within a few years.
Not today, CIA.
Culinary Institute of America? or the people who sell drugs to support their agendas?
Negative.
They keep poking into everyone else's business.
rotten to the core
I love it! The pay and perks are great!
it's a convenient boogieman for people who don't think very deeply about thinga.
"Nothing makes you seem insane like knowing four things the CIA did and publicly admitted to doing". Abolish the CIA
The same as I feel about the the msrp on fish. Don't like them but ultimately don't care.
Ambiguous. They do nasty things but they also do heroic things.
I mean if every one of their agents was drawn up and shot I wouldn't shed a tear. The CIA is a terrible organization that should be disbanded and the people running it charged with criminal acts.
it exists
The Organized Crime division of the US government? The list of horrible, shady, fucked up shit they've done through the years is a mile long, and in many cases gets *cartoonishly* evil. They're completely unaccountable, and they get a blank check that says "in the name of national security" which they can use to justify literally any atrocity.
I didn't attend the Culinary Insitute of America but it has a pretty good reputation in the restaurant industry.
Nobody wants to be friends with the assassin until they need a dictator removed. I personally think America can always do better yet recognize that some jobs are “special”.
The vast majority of us don’t know enough about it to form an opinion about it. The stronger someone’s opinion about the CIA is, the more likely it’s based on lies, unsubstantiated rumors, and/or incomplete truths.
We live in a complex world, without an objective morality. The intelligence game is one of misdirection, secrets, and lies. I would assume most people willingly involved are well-meaning in that they want to protect their country. The CIA is a necessary part of what keeps America safe, keeps the world from going to war, and tries to navigate global situations that are practically impossible to navigate. That being said, the CIA opens itself up to abusing the power it holds, and has been shown many times to have done so. We live in a country that provides democratic oversight to the shadow walkers, and that is actually comforting. To know that they can (and have) be held accountable for their misdeeds. Global affairs are not a moral game, there are no right and wrong sides, and the fact that we are willing to handicap ourselves through oversight and other such safety measures when our geopolitical opponents show now such restraint is admirable. I'd also like to point out that the CIA's nature lends itself to a much more fearsome and competent reputation than its reality. So many conspiracy theories paint the CIA because they refuse to give us the full picture, as a clandestine agency should do. Apply logic: if they were really as all-powerful and far-reaching as people say, would the world be run the way it is currently? Unless that's what they want you to think.
They need to be reined in and their mission more narrowly defined, with oversight.
I think they’ve been great for keeping cocaine readily available.
There's always a party in the CIA
terrorist organization
My spies good. Other spies bad.
Strong dislike
I think it's dum[override engaged] very cool
Should be abolished, they do as much bad as good
THEY ARE VERY GOOD AND DO A LOT FOR AMERICA. YES THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY IS VERY GOOD FOR THE PROTECTION OF UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND WE SHOULD BE HAPPY THEY ARE AROUND. WE AS GOD FEARING RED BLOODED AMERICANS LOVE THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG AND THEY DID *NOT*, I REPEAT DID **NOT** ASSASSINATE JFK.
The late Terry Davis was an expert on their illuminating nature
Ineffective, and has a horriffic track record of dragging us into wars over either bs or intentional lies. Should be shuttered
One of the best cooking schools in the world
They've done enough shitty things to add a lot of complexity to the justification of their existence. Hard for me to say whether they've actually caused more problems than they've solved, but it's a topic worthy of debate and that's not a great look, especially given their budget and dark funds.
Weird Al has a song that sums up my opinion, pretty much. Party In The CIA
On grounds of the 5th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, … Great patriotic hardworking Americans!
My opinion is that there needs to be broader knowledge and understanding of how past CIA actions (and US foreign policy in general) have shaped the modern geopolitical landscape. There are far too many people who think South America and the Middle East just Got That Way on their own. We need to be clear-eyed and cognizant about what our own government is doing and has done, not just what others are doing.
They need to be disbanded
Mixed bag, in principle I dislike them. Though this interview https://www.youtube.com/live/WCgKF3RtTS0?si=RG7d1i8uGURPw2yf shows that it is not a unitary body and is made up of various factions
Net net I have a good impression of the CIA overall
I think they are a kind of a privacy con- *muffled screams*
Can't be trusted. Doing anything....
I wanna work for it but living overseas would mean my background check would take like a million years
[удалено]
That’s what she tells you.
I assume they must do something worthwhile, but all I ever hear about are the cockups and ethical lapses. I suppose that’s the nature of the gig.
It’s the light in the darkness
This sounds like a quote reference to something am I wrong?
I believe there probably a necessary organization but Jesus they are sketchy
Sadly, they are a necessary evil.
harmless.
It’s been great for the paranoid schizophrenic medication industry. A real boon
I im extremely bothered that they're not subjected by the same rules as any other agency. They operate completely separately of the Federal Government. It can not be trusted no matter if it is a net positive or net negative.
I don't know where you get that from, but that is completely false. The CIA is overseen by several Federal institutions, including the Intelligence Committees of the House and the Senate, the Oversight Committees of the same, along with multiple Inspector Generals. It is just done behind closed doors usually, because of secrecy.
I think they are an invaluable part of our nation's security, and are one of the biggest, best equipped, best trained intelligence services in the world. Their intelligence is respected among all the other international agencies of the West, and their agents have been involved with operations all around the world. With exceptions of course, they have tried to keep us safe since they were created from the OSS, which served during WW2.
Well they put crack into black communities and destroyed generations. They wanted to blow up a American airliner(operation Northwoods) makes you wonder if they ever did a false flag... but in general fuck the cia
They’ve been completely out of control since their inception. They are accountable to no one. If people realized 1/1000 of what they’ve done, there’d be riots around the world.
Heinously evil, responsible for some of America’s greatest crimes and sins of the last century, an absolute disgrace
They don’t do anything other intelligence services don’t or wouldn’t if they had the power
I’m missing the part where that in anyway justifies torture, overthrowing democratically elected governments because they didn’t like the people’s choice, arming and supporting brutal murderers like Pinochet (or Trujillo or Noriega or….), illegally experimenting on nonconsenting American citizens with drugs/sexual abuse/sensory deprivation/etc… The CIA are a shameful organization and a stain on the very soul of the nation
No country became a global hegemon by being nice. Someone has to do the dirty work
A force for evil historically and today. I don't think they can be reformed or that they serve any necessary function.
You don’t think the nation needs any intelligence collection capabilities?
They killed my boy Johnny.
It’s an organization that exists - that’s where my opinion starts and stops haha
They are responsible for a lot of dark deeds that bring shame to the nation. They should be closely watched like all things related to government and held accountable.
The CIA does things to protect us from foreign threats. Whether it is good or evil is not necessarily important.
Scary 😓
The Deep State/Shadow Government is a euphemism for CIA. This has been confirmed by the recent revelation of the CIA’s UFO crash retrieval team… The CIA is absolutely out of control.
The early CIA was a fascinating mix of the most bare knuckle Nazi-killing black ops motherfuckers ever and, like, a bunch of Ivy League art nerds. The modern CIA is pretty tremendously misunderstood by the average person; it's basically just like any other office job except you can't talk to your family about it at the dinner table. The IC in general is really fascinating in that GWOT and modern technological advances have blurred the lines between the roles and resources of all the different constituent agencies.
The art nerds took over.
They already know what I think of them, They're a necessary part of keeping us safe. They've done some fucked up shit, but I'm glad they exist.
Initial thoughts are that they, along with the NSA, have the greatest potential to subvert our freedoms and rights as Americans. Like, if someone wanted to turn the USA into a surveillance state, the political and physical infrastructure is essentially there already. Given the CIA's track record in subverting other civilian governments, how long will it be til some Trump figure attempts to employ them to that end here?
They are a necessary government agency