Forwared from: Dan Verton <Dan_Vertonat_private> 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 <isnat_private> on 01/14/2002 04:12:18 AM Please respond to InfoSec News <isnat_private> To: isnat_private cc: (bcc: Dan Verton/Computerworld) 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. [...] - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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