[JohnGalt]

Ruby Ridge occured under the Bush watch and the Branch Davidian ambush was well in the works before Clinton got there. The federal law enforcement agencies have become rogue gestapos, answering to nobody-- witness no resignations from the CIA or FBI after 9/11.

[goldstategop]

Of course there is a political aspect to intelligence work. In giving federal agencies expanded powers to deal with new and emerging threats to the United States, care must taken to ensure the agencies remain responsible to elected officials for the fulfillment of the responsibilities entrusted to them.

[norton]

The post-Vietnam emphasis, in intelligence and other areas, was determined by the victorious socialists still in a sweat from their decade long anti-war, anti-military, anti-anyone-but-them campaigns.

Intelligence was literally turned around, the protesters and their overseas allies were not guilty by definition.
The agencies who had once tracked them were deemed to be biased and that bias was reversed in short order.

Real intelligence, strategic intelligence, was to be available via satelite. Tactical intelligence via sensors and intercept.
Lack of adequate regional and language experts played a large role in devolution into electronic wonderment.

Domestic intelligence gathering shifted 180 degrees from the left to the right. Relegious and patriotic groups were targeted as likely opponents of anything the new government managers and new educators might approve of.
(The rise of 'born again' fundamentalism didn't help.

Spooks know what they are expected to find, they know where their bread is buttered. Recruits in those days probably came from the same background as did their masters in any event. And, much like the current Hague Tribunal, results can be made to follow ideology and not necessarily fact.

That's why we got Ruby Ridge and Waco; the movement to finally prove fundamentalism and "right-wing' anything as evil had been in progress since late in Nixon's term.