the best intelligence agency in the world??

Hey guys,
Which intelligence agency do you think is the best in the world? Why do you think that what you choose is the best?

Israel Mossad
U.S CIA
Russia KGB ( now KSB )
British MI 6


Welcome your opinions and reasoning for it !!!

Hmmm tricky question.

I would say the best inteligence agency should be the one we rarely heard of but effected all of us. I should say in the 80s-90s it would be the Chinese inteligence community as we never heard of them but lately we found out that they were extremely active.

Now? probably the Indians

Inteligence is supposedly be accurate, discreet and low profile

wdl1976 said:

Hmmm tricky question.

I would say the best inteligence agency should be the one we rarely heard of but effected all of us. I should say in the 80s-90s it would be the Chinese inteligence community as we never heard of them but lately we found out that they were extremely active.

Now? probably the Indians

Inteligence is supposedly be accurate, discreet and low profile

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WHy do you think that Chinese intelligence community was the best ? How did they effect all of us? How come Indians are the best right now?

I think that the Chinese are very skilled in intelligence; I've heard that they have penetrated the ROC pretty well. A few months ago some ROC agents were arrested in China (or Vietnam? ) and they suspected that it was because of a Chinese agent in the ROC's intelligence. They also have gotten into the US pretty well too but haven't (as far as we know) had much success in getting anything long-term going.

The Israelis certainly have a good reputation but that might be a bad thing. The Russians are certainly very very experienced and usually outsmarted the CIA during the Cold War days, although both sides had many victories. I certainly don't have a very high opinion of the CIA although I would like to join.

Finn McCool said:

The Israelis certainly have a good reputation but that might be a bad thing. The Russians are certainly very very experienced and usually outsmarted the CIA during the Cold War days, although both sides had many victories. I certainly don't have a very high opinion of the CIA although I would like to join.

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CIA certainly needs reform as it's been a political tool for too long. They are definitely not the best out there. I would say the best for actual intelligence gathering and analysis (making use of pertinent information) as either the Isreali Mossad, or the U.S.'s DIA. DIA is the highly effective wing of the U.S.'s intelligence community. MI6 is up there as well.

I remember there was an article before. The FBI listed what is the most effective espionage unit in the world, and number one in the list is a Chinese organization known only as "007" (no joking on the name), ahead of Mossad and all the other groups.

crobato said:

I remember there was an article before. The FBI listed what is the most effective espionage unit in the world, and number one in the list is a Chinese organization known only as "007" (no joking on the name), ahead of Mossad and all the other groups.

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China's intelligence efforts are rather unusual. They are pretty open about things in their collection methods. They foster relationships, and build bridges with friendships. This way they attempt to collect alot of small pieces of information. And the end result is to put alot of these small pieces together to build a bigger picture. I've read similar things from FBI open sources. This way to go about intelligence takes alot of time and is manpower intensive.

It depends on what kind of intelligence. The West is great in all the big hardware, i.e. Echelon, but not so good when it comes to people out in the field in non-Western countries. Anyone can buy there way into getting information.

Look at Iraq. There are only six people out of a thousand in the US embassy who speak Arabic fluently? I've read in the CIA it's a worse situation. The FBI had only one and I think that guy got fired for being a whistle-blower. Someone certainly dropped the ball. Either because of the lack of forseeable vision of what resources are needed and/or plain simple prejudice. The movie, "The Good Shepard," shows how the birth of the CIA started by recruiting upper class US citizens from well-off families as agents because it was thought they had more to lose from foreign competitors so they would end up being more loyal in the end. Supposedly in China, the joke is US "spies" are easy to spot because they're never anything "Chinese." Added to that reports that Chinese language fluency is lacking too in the intelligence services.

Ever see the Frontline documentary, "From China with Love?" You watch that and it says the CIA and the FBI are frustrated and have no direct intelligence regarding China.

AssassinsMace said:

Ever see the Frontline documentary, "From China with Love?" You watch that and it says the CIA and the FBI are frustrated and have no direct intelligence regarding China.

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I don't think you're ever going to get the real story from fictional movies or TV documentaries. The intel community in all nations are a totally different entity than anything out there. All nations in the west spend ungodly amounts of dough on all kinds of intelligence gathering, intelligence analysis, and intelligence dissemination. Based upon how many westerners are conducting business in China, you'd be foolish not think that some of them are gathering information for many intelligence agencies for different Western nations around the world, including the USA. China is actually an easy counterintelligence target due to the fact that they are so hungry for any type of technical info they can get their hands on.

Whether or not the USA is actually exploiting this is somehting that will be an unknown. I definitely think it's happening myself. It goes without saying that China appears to be aggressive in their intelligence gathering.

Sea Dog said:

I don't think you're ever going to get the real story from fictional movies or TV documentaries. The intel community in all nations are a totally different entity than anything out there. All nations in the west spend ungodly amounts of dough on all kinds of intelligence gathering, intelligence analysis, and intelligence dissemination. Based upon how many westerners are conducting business in China, you'd be foolish not think that some of them are gathering information for many intelligence agencies for different Western nations around the world, including the USA. China is actually an easy counterintelligence target due to the fact that they are so hungry for any type of technical info they can get their hands on.

Whether or not the USA is actually exploiting this is somehting that will be an unknown. I definitely think it's happening myself. It goes without saying that China appears to be aggressive in their intelligence gathering.

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Ironic because people do tend to look at the spygame as if it were like the movies when in actuality it's really more about people examining data. I don't think the US has many, most probably no spies in sensitive positions in China. Where would they be? If these Westerners were in China in "disguise" as employees or tourists... that's what I was talking about how it's a joke. They stick out like a sore thumb. You think they can walk in inconspicuously anywhere? The government would certainly keep its distance from domestic companies that have foreign employees which is not many in the first place. And how would they embed an agent with a ficticious background in the government? Now that's Hollywood! Really, if there's a problem with finding Chinese language fluent employees in the CIA and the FBI, how many of them look or are in fact Chinese and will choose and make it to the field? That's why most likely the US has no spies in sensitive areas in China. Ergo, why US intelligence on China is so bad.

US intelligence agents out in the field are more about paying people off for intelligence which can be highly unreliable and questionable in the first place but the safest route if you're paranoid which is a part of the spygame culture. Tom Clancy even said it was more about sitting behind a desk in Langley than agents in the field.