[eatbuckyballs]

The NSA is primarily charged with Signals Intelligence, Where as the CIA is Human Intelligence. So it's actually a pretty clear line. They also have their own security clearance process (though they tend to recognize each others in join work).

The Department of Homeland security is a bit different, they're charged with domestic operations and support (TSA).

The FBI is a Domestic Detective agency for lack of a better description. They're charged with being the Federal investigative force vs relying on varying state and city groups.

So yes, theres plenty for all of them to spy on / work on. Each have their own laws and limitations. That's why they're incestuous and work together on many projects.

[kabdib]

Add to this list the Secret Service for financial fraud related things (as well as protecting government officials), including credit card fraud, phone fraud (at least in the 80s), and the odd whatever-the-hell-we-feel-like-doing fear-based thing (e.g., Steve Jackson Games).

Rule of thumb: If something contains the word 'Cyber' in it, it's gonna be clueless, bureaucratic and political, and utterly incompetently done.

[drzaiusapelord]

>Rule of thumb: If something contains the word 'Cyber' in it, it's gonna be clueless, bureaucratic and political, and utterly incompetently done.

Yet somehow Chinese and Russian cyberwar programs are pretty effective. Sounds like the US needs to catch up.

[bediger4000]

Yet somehow Chinese and Russian cyberwar programs are pretty effective.

1. That vaunted "effectiveness" may be Just Another Missile Gap, i.e. a realistically non-existent threat used to drum up fear in the USA, to get greater funding from a terrorized public.

2. Lots of analysts say that both China and Russia tolerate unofficial hacking/cyberwar groups, as long as the targets are outside of China and Russia respectively. With some small amount of guidance done surreptitiously, the governments take advantage of a huge number of semi-criminals to serve "national security" needs without attribution.

3. Because of (2), ISO-9001, CMM level N don't apply. Faster coding. Similarly, Script Kiddies, Honkers and Nationalist Hackers don't do clearances, much less compartmentalized projects (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_clearance#Compartmente...) - this means that more people are available, from very diverse backgrounds, and they can collaborate and communicate as necessary.

Unless the USA is willing to quit being bureaucratic to the point of paralysis, it will never catch up.

[snowwrestler]

It doesn't seem like a clear-cut line to me; aren't Internet communications "signals"? Isn't that why the NSA has taken the lead on Internet intelligence operations up to this point? So how will what the CIA is planning to do be qualitatively different from what the NSA is already doing?

I agree with the parent; there is substantial overlap in capabilities and responsibilities among the agencies that do intelligence work for the U.S. government.

These overlaps led directly to the mistaken Iraq invasion. DOD and CIA reported very different things about the Iraq WMD program, and the U.S. leadership could choose which one they wanted to believe. Cheney and Rumsfeld convinced Bush to listen to DOD, and we all know how that worked out.

[pdkl95]

> The FBI is a Domestic Detective agency

The FBI changed their task to "national security" recently, and are now part of the "intelligence community" club.

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/fbis-main-mission-now-not...