Hi all ! This is the article which has appeared in Korea Herald on 1st June'99. Failure of CIA : Blow to USA ! Western countries are pouring billion of dollars and countless efforts every year to keep their intelligence agencies alert and provide them information well ahead before that happens. Satellites are placed in the orbit to augment the spies on the ground with the help of well-established network all over the world. Some of these satellites have been focused only on the rough states recognized by their mentor, United States of America. Unfortunately, the well-endowed spy agency, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been unsuccessful several time, and caused chilled in the political relations between western world and other countries, in providing the vital information correctly. The CIA has come again under the ire of Clinton Administration. There have been many instances when this well-endowed spy agency failed in furnishing the correct information and brought embarrassment and incompetence in her credit. There have been several incidents that attached much political importance when CIA failed to inform Washington in advance or even to alert it. What뭩 the biggest intelligence failure that has embarrassed them the most ? Probably, India뭩 nuclear tests exactly one year before the bombing of Chinese Embassy in crisis-ridden Yugoslavia. Indian nuclear tests which made fool not only the CIA but the spy satellites also which roam over the Indian air space 24 hours round the clock. At that time, Clinton administration claimed that to be the century뭩 most sever mistake by CIA, which could not give any clue about the preparedness of India뭩 nuclear tests at Pokhran last year. CIA, the world's most respected spy network, is coming under intense scrutiny for its alleged "goof-up'' that resulted in the disastrous bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO warplanes. In the wake of the Belgrade bombing, there is a danger that policy may be in tatters unless there is some rapid damage control. And the `fall-guy' stigma may be attached to the CIA which had already come under fire for its incompetence to alert Washington about India's nuclear detonations last May. In recent years, the CIA has been blamed for several instances of "intelligence failure.'' The followings are among them: * July 3, 1988: US warship Vincennes shoots down an Iranian A300 Airbus over the Persian gulf mistaking it for hostile warplane. Two hundred and ninety people were killed. *Feb 3, 1991: US missile hits Baghdad bunker killing scores of Iraqi civilians. Pentagon claims it thought the target was a military installation. * June 25, 1996: Blast at Khobar Towers Dhahran, Saudi Arabia kills 19 Americans. * May 11, 1998: India carries out nuclear tests in Rajasthan catching everyone by surprise. * Aug 7, 1998: US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania hit by bombs. * Aug 20, 1998: US cruise missiles hit pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan alleging that it was linked to terrorist activity--claims that are swiftly undermined once again disputing the `questionable intelligence.' *Aug, 1998: US failed to detect the test firing of the Taepodong 1 missile dubbed as the launching of the satellite over Japan by North Korea. *The most recent, in fact began earliest, is the Chinese spy on the US Nuclear Labs which went unnoticed for over two decades. Despite the clouds over Sino-US relations after the bombing of Chinese embassy and the angry rhetoric, NATO's military commanders seem unfazed. They claim that civilian casualties are minuscule compared to the concentrated bombings that are now going on. At least a dozen air strikes have gone awry during the past seven-and-a-half weeks of NATO campaign. Embarrassed US and NATO officials blamed bad intelligence for bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade that had provoked worldwide outrage and fury in Beijing. Pentagon officials told that NATO's laser-guided bombs were mistakenly aimed at the Chinese mission because the CIA gave military planners incorrect information about the target. Despite the political storm that has erupted with furious Chinese protests in front of the US embassy in Beijing and American consulates in other Chinese cities as well as triggering off passionate debates at the UN Security Council, US and NATO officials remain unmoved in their resolve to persist with Operation Allied Force which has crossed two months of bombing campaign. Increasingly, military analysts in Washington have been evaluating the "efficiency" of America's wondrous hi-tech military gadgetry. Despite NATO's claims that after more than 5,000 bombing missions and using more than 15,000 missiles and bombs all over Yugoslavia, civilian casualties and mistakes have been few. Yet, these mistakes when they have occurred have been deadly and costly. NATO bombs and missiles have hit civilian refugee convoys, civilian residential quarters and hospitals. Spy by Chinese on the American Nuclear weapons� laboratories and the leakage of the secrets about W-88, America뭩 most advanced tactical nuclear weapons made the Clinton administration embarrassed the most. The spy activity which began two decades ago have left the American policy makers in doldrums as it has raised the alarms about the US security and their interests in Asia and other regions. Did you lik it?^^ Thanks for reading.. Bye for now~ Sanjeev.:)