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To collect intelligence about foreign nations so we are not taken by surprise.

It's relatively important.

And yet we seem to be taken by surprise, well, almost every time. The nature of the business is such that we just have to trust that they're actually doing something besides sitting on their collective asses in Langley and counting down the days to retirement.

I realize we need a foreign intelligence service, but I'm not sure we need this foreign intelligence service. There are 14 separate US government agencies that collect intelligence in other countries as part of their mission. We might be able to do without the CIA.

>. And yet we seem to be taken by surprise, well, almost every time.

Don't forget about the possibility of the two following scenarios:

1.) The CIA succeeded and therefore the US Government weren't taken by surprise - even if the general population were

2.) They knew about something and therefore prevented or countered it, therefore the public never heard about it.

3.) The CIA knew, and were ignored.

4.) The CIA knew, and didn't know that they knew.

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