Why is the very existence of spy agencies not being kept a secret?

I believe most of the new spy’s , in the world, are the lone wolf spy.

Their existence may be public, but all their comings and goings certainly aren’t. I mean, they have to at least appear answerable to their government, right? They have to have a public face as they exist off of taxpayer dollars.

Don’t you know NSA stands for no such agency?

Decoys, all. The real spy locations are Hallmark greeting card complexes.

The fear of those agencies and their work provides many rewards without any work being done.

Maintaining spy agencies is costly and dangerous. It is enough that potential enemies believe we have them. The fact they never find our agents will just make them more paranoid.

If I was a foreign power, I’d be more interested in what kind of technology is being hidden in Area 51, than in anything the spooks at the CIA are doing.

The public ones are partly there to generate an official public decoy or “honey pot”, and for other practical reasons. But of course there are others. And the full scope of the officials ones are secret.

It’s pretty clear at this point that the major factions vying for information and power at this point are not limited to nations, and in fact the nations seem to be more and more secondary official side-shows that similarly act as decoys and honey pots for attention, and to generate official stories to distract and satisfy most people.

Meanwhile, the real concentrations of power remain anonymous, diversified, and secretly pulling strings and quietly gathering information and wealth and power and so on.

For example, see the expose of RAND Corporation as a tool of the international corporatocracy in Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

It is. We’re just not very good at keeping secrets.

Why to Yakuza have offices in Japan? Why does Hell’s Angels have offices?

Headquarters are shells for meetings, budgets, and interface with the outside. The real work is distributed and quiet – or should be.

^^^ Hells Angels have club houses so they can sit on something that isn’t rumbling under their butt.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with…B

@ucme Jeeves the Butler?

USDA (Department of Agriculture) largest spy budget with little oversight.

I bet not in every countries. In some countries what you might suspect as “spy agencies” are established, organized, appear in public in/under different name that bear little to no relation to spying. Such agencies could also be a part of national millitary department of a country that doesn’t owe the public any knowledge about their military foundation.

I’m inclined to lean toward the idea of “decoy” agencies.

@LuckyGuy Bless ya cotton socks, no never had a Jeeves, not a bad guess though.