How much can you trust government agencies in times like these? With so many competing intelligence agencies, quite possibly sitting on the brink of WWIII, I don't think it's outlandish for an official source to lie, intentionally or not.
Unfortunately, most public debate about intelligence organizations must be rooted in speculation, as we don't have reliable information about their activities.
That is a cynical take, but there's plenty of truth there. Intelligence agencies in general are the purest distillation of the worldview that the ends justify the means.
Thing is, they're not, as we discovered when the Snowden revelations came to light. Intelligence agencies do, in fact, operate without proper oversight, and are run by means of informal channels to private interests with overseas assets to protect. That's been true since the Dulles brothers.
Nobody should be jumping to conclusions at the point the Senate intel committee has said they're sure during committee hearings and NSA/FBI/CIA have issued a joint report?
What do you consider a reasonable standard if the intel community saying their findings isn't it?
I won't downvote you, but I have a really hard time believing you (and prefer to entertain the possibility you didn't have complete insight into the intelligence agencies). Thank you for replying though, it's interesting to hear alternate perspectives on the topic!
It's certainly possible that intelligence agencies are mistaken or deliberately lying. We can't possibly know if that's the best interpretation of the evidence they may or may not have. They have been correct in the past as well.
The best and only thing the average citizen can really do is try to put people in office who can intelligently parse classified information and evidence from intelligence agencies.
I am also wondering, is it smart for an intelligence agency to tell the truth when they say "We don't know how much was leaked"? Or is this a large lie in order to lower, I don't know, someone's guard. I mean, it doesn't make sense to me.
What do you people think intelligence agencies do? I'm surprised how far some people are taking the feigned ignorance/outrage. The NSA is reading the traffic from the biggest web communities in the world? Major shocker there. And now we're trying to make a scandal of an intelligence agency discreetly taking an object that may contain data that compromises national security? Things like that are why clandestine services exist in the first place: making sure we have a way into major communication channels when necessary, and making sure sensitive information is kept from prying eyes. These are basic functions for meaningful intelligence. Do we think the CIA just sits around in Langley all day?
though that's always the problem with non-opensource-secret-intelligence information. we either trust the government/system/organization, or we do not.
I'm not sure we have enough information right now to make a judgement either way.
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