"one of our best customers"

"'It's the hardest thing for a service like ours to put its finger on, Johnny: the human groundswell before it has stirred, the vox populi before it has spoken.  Look at Iran and the Ayatollah.  Look at Egypt in the run-up to Suez.  Look at the perestroika and the collapse of the evil empire.  Look at Saddam, one of our best customers.  Who saw them coming, Johnny?  Who saw them forming like black clouds upon the horizon?  Not us.  Look at Galtieri and the conflagration in the Falklands, my God.  Again and again, our vast intelligence hammer is able to crack every nut except the one that matters: the human enigma.'  He was pacing at his old speed, matching his footsteps to his bombast.  'But that's what we're cracking now.  This time we can preempt.  We have the bazaars wired.  We know the mood of the mob, its subconscious agenda, its hidden flashpoints.  We can forestall.  We can outwit history.  Ambush her--'

He grabbed his telephone so fast it scarcely had time to ring.  But it was only his wife, asking whether he had yet again put the keys to her car in his pocket before he left for work.  Luxmore tersely acknowledged his crime, rang off, tugged at the skirts of his jacket, and resumed his pacing."

-- John le Carre, The Tailor of Panama