thanks for the heads-up Dajjal.
FReeper FRiends, #25 is a must read.
“Not knowing these basic tenets is symptomatic of a lack of deep knowledge about your principal adversary, and that is unacceptable," says Michael Sheehan, an NBC News terrorism analyst.Senior FBI officials argue on the tapes that it's not necessary to have expertise in Arab culture — even in terrorism — to run the FBI's war on terror. It's leadership that matters most, they say.
Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg of ignorance folks...
Things are just as bad, if not worse, overseas where even incoming CIA station chiefs often have less knowledge of the local culture, politics, and religious ideology than seasoned expatriates or their local contacts already there.
By the time they find they find their feet, open their eyes, develop an understanding and build the kind of contacts needed to succeed in the parts of the world where personal one on one relationships matter (their ties and trust are focused on the individual, not their title or position), Washington usually rotates them back home and then off to another assignment.
And then there are the problems of cooperating with foreign intel instead, relying on them (with their own agenda tainted manure) while we're still scratching our heads wondering why our own intelligence is not living up to expectations....