U.S. Spies After the Cold War

There was criticism about CIA reporting ahead of 9/11 too.

In 1995, the CIA was saying that aerial terrorism was only a matter of time, that terrorists would hijack commercial airplanes and fly them into skyscrapers. But they never told anyone on the morning of 9/10 what was going to happen the next day.

Is it fair to spend $80 billion on a system that can't do that?

A case could be made that we spend too much on satellites and other spy machines, which are unable to tell us what the North Koreans are doing in their underground caverns . . . and not enough on developing human agents abroad. A lot can be said for the small, agile, more nimble British model. Sometimes I wonder if we've created a bureaucratic monster, and one without a powerful leader.

• See photos of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
• See editorial cartoons about Afghanistan.

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