[ZeitgeistSurfer]

If the CIA and Department of State closed tomorrow, we would be a more secure and better informed country. Private intelligence sources used by multi-national corporations who operate worldwide generally supply higher quality, unbiased intel. DOS has always been a vipers nest of careerists who care not a whit for the country, only their own perks. There are some high quality intel organizations in the government (e.g. DIA). However, the vast majority of the $50B spent yearly on the ‘intelligence community’ yields little tangible return (with the possible exception of what are called ‘national strategic means’ - satellites.)

[SamuraiScot]

If the CIA and Department of State closed tomorrow, we would be a more secure and better informed country. . . DOS has always been a vipers nest of careerists who care not a whit for the country, only their own perks.

Both CIA and State seem to be filled with people who "go native" to copy all the wrong people—namely, the Communists, the Arab terrorists, academics, and reporters. (Am I being redundant?)

It's a matter of national survival that these organizations, which operate like parasitic city-states, be destroyed from the ground up and get rebuilt using entirely different people. Reading about the track record of CIA and DOS makes you think that the best minds there know a lot about things that don't matter, and nothing about the things that do.