Close down the Agency and just go with INR?

Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy has a great post here about another case where US policymakers (Condi Rice) said a political outcome abroad -- (Hamas' election victory in the Palestinian Authority) couldn't have been predicted when in fact their own intelligence experts did predict it.

"I don't know anyone who wasn't caught off guard by Hamas' strong showing," Condi said after Hamas won the Palestinian elections. But INR -- the State Department's in-house intel shop -- more or less predicted the result.