As someone who's spent literally YEARS in a SCIF and actually worked at the NSA - I think blanket assertions that intel agencies crapped the bed are a little overdone.
Lets not forget - other countries actually HIDE things as well.
I thought their job was to find hidden things, possible threats in adversary nations? No good HUMINT or SIGINT in China now?
My last year in the military I worked at NSA in a SCIF and the following 27 years had interaction with intel communities in the US and overseas. I ve seen and worked with the databases , assets they can all access now. ( Im sure I was exposed to a small portion of them based on need to know) I had just a TS SCI clearance so didn't even begin to see the super secret really high tech stuff. And now with cell phones, greatly increased computer capacity any govt official in nation like China doesn't fart without them knowing. But Im just bored and rambling again.
