How Smart Is the U.S. Intelligence, Anyway? - Tonight on NOVA - NY Times review

[groovedaddy]

'NOVA: THE SPY FACTORY'

It was not an intelligence failure that permitted the Sept. 11 attacks, it was a lack of imagination. The C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency had a lot of data but they failed to connect the dots — or share information.

The Soviet Union doesn’t even exist anymore, so it’s not really surprising that the government didn’t anticipate that the convicted C.I.A. mole Harold Nicholson would stand accused of continuing to sell secrets to the Russians from jail by using his son as a go-between.

And, oddly enough, it’s not an absence of information that mars “The Spy Factory,” a “Nova” documentary about the National Security Agency to be shown on Tuesday on most PBS stations, it’s a failure of imagination.

The film, written and co-produced by James Bamford, the author of a number of books about the intelligence establishment, including “The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret N.S.A. From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America,” buries interesting insights in an old and hackneyed documentary format, with ominous voice-over narration and spooky sound effects.

At times the tone is so lurid and foreboding that the film seems like a “Dateline” exposé of sexual predators.

http://tv.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/arts/television/03spy.html?th&emc=th

[DCKit]

1. "...tone is so lurid and foreboding ... seems like a “Dateline” exposé..."

Should get a lot of eyes then. "Lurid" is nearly as popular as "Manufactured Celebrity" with 'Murkin viewers.

[bemildred]

2. Bureaucracies do not think, they react to events, inefficiently.

For thinking you need small groups that are not emotionally torched out. The problem here is not so much the lack of information as the lack of ability or willingness to take information seriously. Nobody really gives a shit about the public good, we make a fetish out of self-interest. Then we are surprised when things go to Hell. Like the magic hand of the market was somehow supposed to keep it right. You might as well believe in the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny.

[Kaleva]

3. Ike ignored reports of a massive German build up.....

and thousands of Americans died during the Battle of the Bulge. Eisenhower just wouldn't believe that Germany was still capable of launching an offensive late in the war.