The Limits Of Intelligence Gathering: Kenyan Govt. Warned A Year Before Attack That Terrorists Were

[unhappycamper]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131001/08291424711/limits-intelligence-gathering-kenyan-govt-warned-year-before-attack-that-terrorists-were-targeting-westgate-mall.shtml

The Limits Of Intelligence Gathering: Kenyan Govt. Warned A Year Before Attack That Terrorists Were Targeting Westgate Mall
from the too-much-data,-too-little-response dept
by Tim Cushing
Wed, Oct 2nd 2013 7:38am

The narrative in place is that national intelligence agencies need tons of intrusive surveillance programs in order to detect terrorist threats and respond accordingly. Unfortunately, the narrative fails to hold up to scrutiny, prompting these intelligence agencies to ask for some credit to be given for all of their hard work, post-tragedy.

The Boston Marathon bombing is just one example. The head of the NSA, Gen. Alexander, has played up his agency's extraordinary hindsight, which allowed it to rule out the chance of another bombing. This occurred at roughly the same time that the only surviving perp was being taken into custody. Plaudits and such but one would think tapping the backbone of damn near everything would result in more prevention, which Americans would unanimously agree to be the preferable to crystal clear hindsight.

This problem isn't limited to just the NSA. Reports from Kenyan intelligence officials obtained by Al Jazeera (but hosted at Public Intelligence) indicate that government and intelligence agencies had almost a year's advance notice that such an attack would take place.

The documents start with the intelligence agency (NIS - National Intelligence Service) noting it had performed a "security survey" that had identified "key installations and shopping malls" as potential terrorist targets. This was performed in 2011 and the findings passed on to government agencies, along with the security agencies guarding prospective targets. From that point, it details the intelligence it had gathered that indicated an attack was not only imminent, but very specifically targeted.