Fast Draw – U.S. Intelligence Failed

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In Israel this failure surprised no one. Many local experts have predicted this total failure of U.S. intelligence efforts.

This led to the attack on the embassy in Libya and may lead to many additional attacks. “The Americans collect a lot of information but they can’t reach any useful insights,” said one Israeli expert. And now another major disaster joins the rest.

Even though there have been some warnings concerning the extremist ISIS organization in Iraq, the U.S. failed to predict the group’s rise to power. “Ever since the withdrawal in 2011 the U.S. intelligence network in Iraq lost the viewpoint of its field personnel,” this according to senior CIA officials.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

More and more senior U.S. defense establishment officials admit that they were unprepared for the crisis in Iraq. Ever since the withdrawal the CIA’s presence was reduced mostly to Baghdad, losing the rest of its wide network of informants. That, according to them, was the main reason for the failure to detect the ISIS advances.

So U.S. intelligence failed time and time again. The U.S. has massive amounts of raw data gathered using advanced sensors and human sources, but they can’t seem to be able to process it all. This has grim implications for many countries around the world, including Israel.