Pickering misspoke.JohnStOnge wrote:And now there are 18. Was kind of half watching the TV while getting ready to shower yesterday and heard a former US ambassador refer to "18 intelligence agencies" when talking about the consensus that the Russians made efforts to influence the election. Backed the TV up to listen to it again to make sure I heard right. Yep. He said "18." The guy is Thomas Pickering, indicated as "Fmr. U.S. Ambassador to Russia."
Wonder which one the LA Times missed.
He's a well known guy, and DoS's version of an "ROTC" is named after him. The latest batch of Pickering Fellows got caught in the hiring freeze but they've been grandfathered in.
Like I said before (and am now repeating in the style of YOU)-
There aren't really 18 or 17 intel "agencies". Hard intel comes from about six main sources that are tasked with collection. The rest are just synthesizers that use the products of the few.
Saying we have 18 intelligence agencies is like lumping police departments and militias in with DoD and saying we have 20 branches of the military.












