CIA vs. NSA

Let me just put it this way.

The CIA was criticized by the 9/11 commission, the NSA was not. Why, because the NSA was actually listening to bin Laden's cell phone conversations.

Vigilant Guardian that is the name of the drill held the morning of 9/11. Norad was confused and thought the hijackings were part of the drill. This was the only way to ensure the planes freedom to rome for over an hour.

Normally after 5 minutes if you don't respond the jets are on your ass in no time, over an hour is impossible without intervention.

Originally posted by wiggy
Take into consideration, that you only hear about each agency's screw ups. You do not hear about the missions that are completed succesfully.

a few of the nsa's uber succesess have been the revelation that the missle gap much postulated by the joint chiefs and the cia were simply not true, and that infact the gap was in the usa's favour.......although this didnt last long it was a triumph for the whole corona project at a time when the cia was telling anyone who would listenthat the only way to get solid info on yor enemy was spies and dirty tricks.....prosaicaly called HUMINT

Being a member of this site will mean you have less than a 0 chance with both agencies.CIA ops personnel tend to drift into the job from various proffessional backrounds with interests related to there needs.I haven`t known anybody to have been recruited that wanted a specific job in the CIA/NSA from high school age.Some areas they will look at people for IT work etc at school age but for ops most recruiters will not accept somebody who has shown signs of fantasies of being a spy.The agency likes Grey people as in people who don`t think it`s so special to be in CIA/NSA they tend to be able to keep there mouths shut rather than people who have always wanted to be a spy they tend to have a need to boast about it.

Both agencies are misrepresented to some degree in popular culture due to the lack of accurate information available. Body of Secrets is an excellent book about the nuts-and-bolts operations of the NSA, and there are a few that describe a typical case officer’s life in the CIA, but aside from that people pretty much let their imagination run free when it comes to the two.

One important thing to keep in mind is that neither agency is primarily focused on employing super squirrel-ninja operatives who operate with impunity and the coveted "license to kill". If you go with the NSA, chances are you will end up at NSA headquarters analyzing the massive amounts of data brought in worldwide, or at some listening post around the world with a set of headphones glued to your head. If you choose the CIA, you are likely going to end up either at Langley as an analyst or in a US embassy somewhere going out to recruit local spies. That is not to say that there isn’t some energy spent on employing super-squirrels, on the contrary from what I understand the CIA’s SAD/MSP was established along those lines. But it also looks like most of the people they employ come from US or international special operations teams, and already have established skill sets. If you want to join the CIA to fulfill some kind of Splinter Cell-esque fantasy, than you more that likely are going about it the wrong way.

As for the white sheep/black sheep analogy - the CIA has drawn a lot of controversy, and some of it rightly so. Some corruption will inevitably come when people lose accountability, this is human nature and seems inherent to the intelligence world where people change their identities as a matter of course. But the CIA is much more actively involved in foreign policy than the NSA is; by nature the NSA is a much more passive agency. The types of covert activates it is typically involved in is establishing listening posts and abilities around the world as well as developing technology that allows them to monitor communications more effectively. This is all fine and dandy, and it serves a very important purpose, but you aren’t likely to spark an international conflict by listening to OBL’s cell phone calls to his mother. The CIA on the other hand, is responsible for political and character assassination, inciting and funding uprisings, proxy wars, and regimes among other things. As you can see, the stakes are a little bit higher. Also, as another poster pointed out, we only hear about the failure, while the successes stay under the radar for the most part. Ultimately, as I understand things anyway, the NSA may come up with foreign policy suggestions based on the information it receives, as will the CIA, but responsibility falls primarily upon the CIA to actually execute covert action.

Originally posted by Gazrok


Sounds to me like he's a Japanese "Case Officer". Sat analysts would be in Langley...

His skills seem ideal for a Case Officer. It is kind of a desk job though, with the only real risk being in "first contact".

The Case Officer's job is to recruit and coordinate foreign citizens to spy on their nation (often bribes, criminal protection, etc. etc.). It's the foreign citizens who do the "James Bond" work. Whereas the Case Officer is more like "Felix" from the Bond flicks...

That concludes Intel101 for today...

Somebodies been believing to many films.That hasn`t been the case for decades.Case officers no longer work in foreign countries.Tech now allows them to monitor from afar.

Originally posted by NinjaCodeMonkey
Vigilant Guardian that is the name of the drill held the morning of 9/11. Norad was confused and thought the hijackings were part of the drill.

This sounds more like the Mother of ALL Royal F***-Up's than an intentional act on the part of the CIA to let the terrorist hit us. If this is what happend, it just shows us another example of Incompetence gone too far. I thought you were saying the CIA was in on the 9/11 plot and KNEW what was coming. I'm still extreemly pissed that they screwed up, but I feel better knowing that the CIA wasn't planning to see 5'000 innocent Americans die.

Can we get a new CIA?

It sounds like people don't have faith in their government. Their doing the best they can. We should be supportive and not critizes.

Originally posted by ghost

Originally posted by NinjaCodeMonkey
Vigilant Guardian that is the name of the drill held the morning of 9/11. Norad was confused and thought the hijackings were part of the drill.

This sounds more like the Mother of ALL Royal F***-Up's than an intentional act on the part of the CIA to let the terrorist hit us. If this is what happend, it just shows us another example of Incompetence gone too far. I thought you were saying the CIA was in on the 9/11 plot and KNEW what was coming. I'm still extreemly pissed that they screwed up, but I feel better knowing that the CIA wasn't planning to see 5'000 innocent Americans die.

Can we get a new CIA?

More likely there was a person in CIA feeding info to the Terrorist and were informed that would be the day of the drill allowing the terrorist to attack at the right time.If that were the case CIA protocol wouldn`t allow that info to be made public as the person responsible would once ID`ed would nolonger be walking this planet.CIA rather than being embaressed deal with moles in a more secretive way than public prosecution.

Somebodies been believing to many films.That hasn`t been the case for decades.Case officers no longer work in foreign countries.Tech now allows them to monitor from afar.

Nope, not movies.

This was the case about a decade ago when that was a career aspiration of mine. Also, you can't achieve first contact electronically, or build trust electronically. That requires face to face contact. A case officer needs to be right there. No amount of tech is ever going to change that. It might make it easier to monitor, on trips back to Langley, etc., but you still need the face to face to first recruit your agents. If done electronically, you'll never know if they've been compromised (i.e. Blackwidow is no longer your agent, but a disinfo officer feeding you BS through the same screen name... ).

Originally posted by alias101
It sounds like people don't have faith in their government. Their doing the best they can. We should be supportive and not critizes.

Well... You can only be lied to soo many times before you start taking it personal.

I am sure there are tons of great,honest people working for the Govt., but too few of them are really in charge of anything.

I also do not know of any organization that should be supported unconditionaly and never criticised - not even my own.

Hmm.. why did this thread get moved too Below Top Secret - and why I have to log in sperately to read it - this makes no sense....

nsa is the best ever i work for it