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The President of the United States is Clueless About His Own Intelligence Agencies

"You mean we don't just use Google Earth?!" Barry thought to himself in astonishment.

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  May 29th, 2009 at 07:30 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Barack Obama went to Five Guys today for a burger. There he met a government employee who worked for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — a spy agency within the Pentagon that, you’d assume, contributes information to the President’s Daily Briefing.

One problem, Barack Obama had never heard of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Had Obama been President Bush, the national networks would have broken in to normal programming to highlight the fact.

Is Barack Obama even getting real intelligence briefings? Given how he’s handled GTMO, etc. maybe he isn’t. That would certainly explain why the man charged with keeping this country safe has never heard of one of his own spy agencies.

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COMMENTS

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  • http://brockwayfamily.spaces.live.com/ Erick Brockway

    Oh drat, I’m not a lefty journalist.
    Wonder what MR. Brian Williams had? I bet he’s full of it on tonight’s newscast.

  • WarEagle01

    ; they produce any and all maps for briefings given to Barry by other intelligence agencies. They are also responsible for updating all of the tactical mapping data, both paper and electronic, used by the guys in the field and in the air. In terrain like Afghanistan, having up-to-date geographical data is an absolute lifesaver.

  • gazill

    of the title would have been more accurate.

  • smitty

    You know since thats whats important right now

  • izoneguy

    Obama was on the NGA cover for this qtr.
    I guess he did not get his copy

    https://www1.nga.mil/Newsroom/Pathfinder/0703/Pages/default.aspx

    https://www1.nga.mil/Newsroom/Pathfinder/0703/Documents/19966%20MayJune09%20Pathfinder%20v6[LR].pdf

  • red4ever

    Considering how much his advisers probably realize that little Barry is not up to the task of actually being President, it is possible that Big Rahm stops all the briefings at his desk. It would not be outside the realm of possiblity in that case that the President doesn’t actually get the briefings. The advisers read them and feed the remarks into TOTUS. That is all that Obama needs.

  • Aaron Gardner
  • smitty

    Since Idiot Joe broke TOTUS this weekend, Barry hasn’t been getting his briefings.

  • smagar

    Lots of NGA folks work there.

    It’s possible that President Obama didn’t realize that the imagery he sees in his Presidential Daily Brief comes from NGA. IIRC, it’s CIA people who do the PDB—maybe Obama figured the CIA collected the images.

  • smagar

    Lots of twenty-somethings just out of college work for NGA at the Navy Yard. Exactly the kind of crowd that Obama likes.

    I’ll bet he had a lot more luck finding a table that I do when I go there for lunch.

  • froid

    … we DO use Google Earth an awful lot.

    –
    gnfnrf

  • smagar

    NGA has lots of data that’s not available through Google Earth.

  • smagar

    Prior to DESERT STORM, our photo interpreters (the people who zoom in on images and determine if that “dot” you see behind the building is a Winnebago or a water buffalo) and mappers were spread among a variety of agencies.

    1n 1996, the DOD created the National Imagery and Mapping Agencies, which combined all these imagery-related functions into one organization. The two biggest organizations that combined into NIMA were the DMA and the National Photo Interpretation Center, or NPIC.

    Since then, the field of Geographic Information Services (GIS) has matured, to the point that it’s a de facto third discipline. GIS specialists take maps or images and overlay useful information on them (e.g., colored lines that show which roads on the map can support heavy vehicles, shaded areas that show which neighborhoods in the town are friendly VS unfriendly). Those kinds of products are called “geospatial intelligence”—intelligence information shown not on a Powerpoint brief, but on a geographically-recognizable background that allows you to see not only WHAT is happening, but WHERE it is happening.

    To account for GIS’ rise, NIMA renamed itself as “NGA,” the National Geospatial intelligence Agency. In order for NGA to have the same three-letter acronym as other intel agencies—CIA, DIA, NRO, INR—NGA left the “I” in intelligence silent.

    The rest of the NFIC (National Foreign Intelligence Community) has had loads of fun over this, at NGA’s expense. “Wow! That building has HUNDREDS of imagery analysts in it, all scanning the world….and you still can’t find the missing “I” in your name.”

    Yeah, it’s corny…but it works!

  • bart

    the plumber? Is that like “snaking” a drain pipe? Does he owe any taxes? He embarrassed “The One.” He’s toast.

  • tjexcite

    nt

  • 38585

    http://www.army.mil/-news/2009/02/12/16803-obama-kaine-make-historic-visit-to-fort-belvoir/

    “Kaine and Obama were met at the Fairfax County Parkway connector construction site by Installation Commander Col. Jerry Blixt and deputy installation commander for base realignment and closure and transformation, Col. Mark Moffatt.

    Local officials have been trying to complete the project for approximately two decades. Kaine said completion of the project is critical to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is under construction at Fort Belvoir’s north area, according to Media General News Service. ”


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