The Human Factor: Inside the CIAs
Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture by
Ishmael Jones
Sounds Like The Real Deal To Me, Alas
After spending decades as a deep cover officer in the CIA, Ishmael Jones
conveys a true feel for the facts of real clandestine work. He tells his story
straight and with dry wit.
Personal Review: The Human Factor: Inside the CIAs
Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture by Ishmael Jones
I have always had a sort of amateur interest in the CIA. I served in the
Peace Corps, in Tunisia, from 1968-70, and had my first brush with REAL
spies trying to worm information from me. (I didn't have any!) Many years
later, I realized that one of them had even gone so far as to create an
extremely lavish fake identity before inviting a couple of us Peace Corps
Volunteers for lunch, and then vanishing. I started to think that these Real
Intelligence Guys were kind of Stupid.

Back home, much later, I decided to apply for a job with the CIA, more or
less out of curiosity. The first two questions (THE FIRST TWO!)
concerned drug use and homosexuality. Since I had smoked pot in
college (and inhaled), and I was also attracted to other men, I simply threw
the form away. As the years went by, though, it did occur to me that being
gay and living in (say) Cairo would make an EXCELLENT cover story.
Nobody would wonder why I was living in Egypt; they would all assume
that I was chasing the same guys Cavafy was! But the brilliant
bureaucrats at the CIA managed to make this excellent cover story
disqualify me!
Later on, I had a "friend" who dropped broad hints that he had worked in
intelligence-gathering. He lived in a foreign country for 12 years and never
bothered to learn the language! He was also, to put it mildly, a bit of a
nincompoop! Like everyone else in the CIA, he missed the Khomeini
revolution in Iran. Hell, I was in Iran at the time and was a BIT more clued-
in, since I had listened to Iranian friends playing Khomeini tapes during
long car trips...
So that's the background I bring to this book, and I hadn't read more than a
couple of chapters before I said to myself: Yes. Layer after layer of
incompetent managers who manage to prevent our spies from actually
going out and SPYING. Before you even CONTACT someone with
information, you need 43 signatures from various managers in various
bureaucracies. (I made up the number 43!)
So, in other words, if you're staying in a Paris hotel and a top informant on
Al-Qaeda knocks on your door, you have to say, "Hold on, chum, I'll get
back to you," and then go looking for MANAGEMENT APPROVAL to talk
to this piece of scum.
This sort of nonsense is probably worse than GM. It cannot be reformed.
It needs to be discarded, and replaced by (gasp) an organization of SPIES!
Further notes as I finish reading this book.
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