Daily Brief: HBO Go to Go, Rats Are Dirty, And More

The persistent incompetence of the CIA:
An internal CIA study has found that its longtime practice of arming rebel insurgents is rarely effective in bringing about the desired ends in a troubled region (story). The report was inconclusive in regard to the efficacy of putting out fires with gasoline.

Because stuff in Iraq wasn’t already bad enough:
From 2004 to 2011, American soldiers in Iraq who encountered old chemical weapons from the Saddam Hussein era are becoming sick (story). The sick soldiers can take solace in the fact that they shouldn’t have even been in Iraq to begin with.

Turns out, rats are dirty:
A new study has found that NYC subway rats are infected with an ‘alarming number of diseases” including the deadly hantavirus and some diseases never before seen by science (story). So if a subway rat offers you a bite of his sandwich, say no.

HBO:
HBO announced today that their streaming service HBO Go will be available as a standalone subscription in 2015 (story). For young, budget-conscious consumers who prefer streaming to big bundled television packages, this will change nothing, since 99% of them are already using their parents’ HBO Go password.