CIA Promoted Agents After Mistakes

Talk about failing up. When CIA agents commit grave errors, they’re more likely to get promotions than pink slips or any other punishment, according to an investigation by the Associated Press. The pattern applies to several high-profile cases: after a German citizen was mistakenly detained and taken to a secret prison in Afghanistan, causing an international incident, the analyst responsible for the error got promoted to a top job in the agency’s Counterterrorism Center. Others were promoted after leaving a detainee to freeze to death. But the CIA says officers have to be allowed to take risks in order to do their jobs effectively.