Worse is the focus of America’s operations. Our enemies seek to influence our institutions and infilitrate them. America simply doesn’t play this game well because Americans do not understand foreign cultures.

Its interesting to note how much better and focused the military is than the agency.

Turner was a Christian Scientist who drank hot water with lemon instead of coffee or tea. The old boys preferred whisky in their water. They scorned Turner in word and deed. Turner wrote years later that his enemies within the clandestine service tried to discredit him with disinformation campaigns – “one of their basic skills”. Chief among these was a story that has persisted for a quarter century; that Turner was single-handedly responsible for the gutting of the clandestine service in the 1970s. The first deep cuts had been ordered by Nixon. One thousand covert operators had been let go by James Schlesinger. George Bush, under Ford, had chosen to ignore a recommendation from his own covert-action chief that 2,000 should depart. Turner wound up cutting precisely 825, starting with the bottom 5 percent on the performance charts. He had the president’s support. “We were aware that some of the unqualified and incompetent personnel whom he discharged were deeply resentful, but I fully approved.” Jimmy Carter said in a letter to the author.

Read two histories, get two different stories.

That was the same time many Yanks were finding out about the rape and torture and mass murder that their tax dollars had paid for, under the name “Operation Condor.”

It’s reasonable to think that the CIA got purged because Operation Condor had caused the government to lose legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens.

It was not only firing the clandestine service operatives but also those most experienced.

That also aspect of “traditional spying” was abhorrent to them.

Just Google it!