A multi-billion-dollar program launched by the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) after 9/11 to spy on terrorists and rogue nations is a
“colossal flop” plagued by “financial irregularities,” according to
senior agency officials cited in a mainstream newspaper exposé on the scandal-plagued initiative.
It took the government more than a decade but it’s finally—and
quietly—pulling the plug on the failed experiment, which was supposed to
collect intelligence on terrorists and nations considered enemies of
the United States. Nevertheless, the damage has been done. American
taxpayers are out at least $3 billion with little to show for it and
Uncle Sam is finally cutting the cash flow.
The anti-terrorism program is known as NOC because it gives CIA
operatives, often posing as business executives, non-official cover,
presumably to delve deeper and gather more intelligence. The goal was to
get the agents, who usually pose as diplomats abroad, out of embassy
offices and into foreign businesses, universities and other local
operations, the news story reveals.
The reporter evidently attended a NOC forum in which CIA agents spoke
of their cover jobs, false identities and how they were protected. The
general consensus was that the initiative was a disappointment that
gathered no valuable intelligence. A senior officer exchanged a note
with a colleague that read: “Lots of business. Little espionage.” A
former senior CIA official said “it was a colossal flop.” The sentiment
was echoed by a dozen former colleagues, the article says.
The reason this particular initiative failed is not uncommon among
government agencies—incompetence, mismanagement, waste…the list can go
on and on. Because of inexperience, bureaucratic hurdles, lack of
language skills and other problems only a few of the deep-cover officers
recruited useful intelligence sources, CIA operatives revealed in the
article. Sometimes the CIA didn’t send the right people with the right
cover and others were posted too far from where their targets were
located.
And like every bloated, secret government program with no oversight,
this one was “tainted by financial irregularities.” The story didn’t get
into much detail but it quotes a former senior CIA official and an
agency inspector general finding that some NOCs billed the CIA for
“unjustified time and expenses.” Few were forced to repay the money, the
sources said.
Officially, the CIA refuses to comment on this scandal-plagued
program that’s proven to be a money pit for taxpayers. “The agency does
not discuss publicly any cover techniques that it may employ,” an agency
spokesman says in the story. “The CIA does keep the congressional
intelligence oversight committees fully informed of its activities,
which are constantly evolving to meet the threats to national security.
And, while the details of the agency budget remain properly classified,
sequestration and budget cutbacks have affected the entire federal
government, including CIA.”
(Click link below to read more)
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013
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