Useless

It is mildly scary to read things like this:

CIA WAS WARNED OF ATTACK: A blistering CIA report outlines the mistakes the spy agency made which should have prevented an attack that claimed the lives of seven agents at a U.S. base in Afghanistan in December 2009. The CIA was warned that the assailant was a double agent. In spite of this, it failed to take necessary security precautions that could have prevented the attack by the double agent from Jordanian intelligence, suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawj. “He had confirmed access within extremist circles, making a covert relationship with him—if he was acting in good faith—potentially very productive,” CIA Director Leon Panetta wrote agency employees. “But he had not rejected his terrorist roots. He was, in fact, a brutal murderer.”

Judging by the amount of money we spend on the CIA and the relative poverty of our foes, I'd say their track record is pretty unimpressive. My gut instinct is that the CIA is bloated and stupid like most large corporations, which is why shifty cells of terrorists are basically able to run circles around them. They're set up to protect themselves from KGB infiltration and to wear down other large spy services, not deal with these run and gun terrorist groups. NY City PD would probably be better at their job than they are.