PrintNovember 16, 2010
A First Intelligence Reform: Fire John Brennan
The intelligence community has impaled itself on the horns of a strategic dilemma. On the one hand, the tactical collection, surveillance, and targeting matrix represents a real-time, global capability -- arguably a "gold standard" of technology (see National Geospatial Intelligence Agency). On the other hand, the analytical side of Intelligence seems to have been suborned by politics and political correctness. Indeed, our technical intelligence capabilities are hostage to a national assessment process that cannot, or will not, provide a clear picture of the enemy or the threat.There are more than a few symptoms of this malaise. Most obvious are appointments like Leon Panetta (CIA) and Janet Napolitano (DHS), more notable for their political connections than any background in intelligence or national security deliberations. Both were selected, no doubt, for their political reliability, not their expertise or management skills. Yet analytical corruption is not limited to...(Read Full Article)
