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Central Intelligence Agency - CIA

The USA's CIA is usually surrounded in gossip and conspiracy theories associated with the USA getting its' will manifest through what can be considered unorthodox or underground means. What are your views on the CIA, is it a good or bad thing for a country to have within its borders?

From the CIA's web site:

The Central Intelligence Agency's primary mission is to collect, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence to assist the President and senior US Government policymakers in making decisions relating to the national security. The Central Intelligence Agency does not make policy; it is an independent source of foreign intelligence information for those who do. The Central Intelligence Agency may also engage in covert action at the President's direction in accordance with applicable law.
Ref. Source 4

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The fact that the President can issue orders for the agency to undertake covert operations helps to prove the conspiracy theories. The whole purpose of the CIA is, essentially, spying on other countries (disguised as "gathering foreign intelligence").
The CIA is also responsible for training, and possibly equipping, people like Osama bin-Laden. The CIA may also have played a role in bringing Saddam Hussein into power.
I think the gather of intelligence is a war tactic, and should be carried out by the military, by orders, on an as-needed basis, rather than having a redundant bureaucracy set up to continuously monitor foreign countries with no cause for suspect.

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Maybe you have not considered that the President of the USA is also considered the Commander n' Chief of the military and thus when he makes any decision he also wears that hat. You may also wish to think about the fact that a lot of retirees and transfers from special forces pass through the CIA at will. So, they may not use the army to secure a place, but they may use specific personnel on a need by need basis.

Based on history I believe the problem with the CIA, from what very little the public actually knows about it is this... their plans centered around short term and not long term planning. Thus you train a vigilante to act now, but never stop to think about that same vigilante turning on you years later.

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True. Anybody who is familiar with the Constitution will realize that the President has very little actual power beyond being the Chief Executive of the United States military forces, and being able to sign bills into law or veto bills to prevent them from becoming law.
However, I still believe the CIA is redundant. The President could just as easily issue the order to Army Special Forces, Navy SEAL's, Marines Special Ops, or Air Force Red Berets. Each branch of the military has their own special operations units, trained and ready to carry out covert operations. These units could be used to gather intelligence on the enemy, rather than having a whole agency set up to handle intelligence.

Since securing an area is something that only needs to be during times of war, why should non-war units be used? (Using "war" in a broad term, rather than just a Congressionally-declared war). If units need to be sent in to neutralize the enemy and secure the area for further units to move in, those operations should be carried out by military units, not by paramilitary units such as the CIA.

One of the things made popular by many movies is the deployment of operatives to engage in espionage, spy trades, and other devices. Rather than deploying CIA operatives into hostile territory to gather intelligence, why not deploy military forces into the area? Army Rangers are trained as scouting units, yet rarely see action as scouts (more generally, they are deployed on reconnaissance missions).

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Maybe the problem is that US military personnel may be too 'hard up' for a CIA type of job which may require intermingling, making friends, going out to dinners and getting set into the public rather than somewhere hiding at a distance looking in.

The best infiltrators usually do not look foreign as they are able to do 'dirty' work with a straight face and that is something that maybe one tracked soldiers may not be able to handle unless they are able to switch between Rambo and James Bond. All in my good ole opinion of course since I have not had any dealings with the CIA on a personal level.

Central Intelligence Agency - CIA

Good point. The whole purpose of boot camp, by any name in any country, is to "toughen up" the soldier to become a killing machine. Making CIA operations a true military operation would require a reorganization of military protocol, to allow those destined for special operations to go through a different training program.

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