I'll take the first hand, boots on the ground info over the watered down government reports any day.
Except we're on the internet, so it isn't always so clear if we're
really getting "first hand, boots on the ground" info. Bullshitters are legion on these forums. And even those guys, who know what they do, don't have the broad scope of knowledge the feds do. They too get most of their info from the same public sources as everyone else. I don't care who they are.