We Spend $68 Billion a Year on Intelligence Agencies—and They Don’t Really Work

[Demeter]

5. the best "Intelligence Agency" in the world is useless IF

the people who get the information are idiots or have a hidden agenda that does not conform to the public desire.

The US govt. intelligence agencies have several apparent purposes:

1. information about the US population (for what purpose: suppression of dissent and terrorizing those likely to complain)

2. information about technology, domestic and foreign (industrial espionage)

3. information about political leanings of our allies (because we don't have any real allies, and cannot trust the ones that say we are allies in public) real spying, in other words

4. information about any dissent OUTSIDE the US borders (because such dissent might shave corporate profits, or divert resources that the US feels entitled to)

5. and lastly, intel on foreigners planning to attack US citizens, corporations, or property.

It is #5 that gets the least resources, and is the only justifiable purpose. Furthermore, would-be terrorists are least likely to be working out in the open and available to surveillance by computer, satellite, and telephone taps. To discover would-be terrorists, boots on the ground, trained, high-risk boots, are needed. This costs money, and personnel.

And the biggest threat to the current regime is domestic dissent. We all know it. We agitate for regime change, for an overriding policy change that makes the US much less aggressive globally. WE ARE THE ENEMY!