Got enough information?

[tw]

Originally posted by Tobiasly
And how exactly do you know they have spies in country? How do you know we don't?

Read books by ex-intelligence officers. It takes a decade just to build an effective intelligence network. We had almost none in 1990s Iraq. We have even less today since we have no embassies there. We cannot recruit. We cannot contact local sources. Our intelligence people sit outside the country hoping something will filter out. We have fallen back upon electronic methods. However other nations such as Germany et al, have little trouble supporting agents inside Iraq. They have an embassy there. Their people are not denied access. Every nation spies. Spying is even about requesting information from a reporter about what is happening inside government as well as buying secrets. Israel even has spies in the US - as we all fully are aware from news stories.

This is not new. Much of what we learned after 11 Sept was because we suddenly had access to so much in-country middle east intelligence from other friendly nations such as France. In some countries we have excellent intelligence. Iraq is not one since we have no one there that can contact local spies - essential in recruiting and contacting information sources.

Do we have one spy in country? Maybe. But one is too close to zero and too little information to be relevant.