Monday, February 21, 2005
Corrupted Intelligence
RAY MCGOVERN, TOM PAINE - I served under nine CIA directors, four of them at close remove. And I watched the system work more often than malfunction. Under their second hat as Director of Central Intelligence, those directors already had the necessary statutory authority to coordinate effectively the various intelligence agencies and ensure that they did not hoard information. All that was needed was a strong leader with integrity, courage, with no felt need to be a "team player," and a president who would back him up when necessary. (Sadly, it has been 24 years since the intelligence community has had a director, and a president, fitting that bill.)
Lost in all the hand wringing about lack of intelligence sharing is the fact that the CIA and the FBI have been kept separate and distinct entities for very good reason-first and foremost, to protect civil liberties. But now, under the intelligence reform legislation, the DNI will have under his aegis not only the entire CIA, whose operatives are skilled at breaking (foreign) law, but also a major part of the FBI, whose agents are carefully trained not to violate constitutional protections or otherwise go beyond the law.(That is why the FBI agents at Guantanamo judged it necessary to report the abuses they saw.). . .
Gen. William Odom, one of the most highly respected and senior intelligence professionals, now retired, put a useful perspective on last summer's politically driven rush into wholesale intelligence reform. In a Washington Post op-ed on August 1 he was typically direct in saying, "No organizational design will compensate for incompetent incumbents." . . .(link)
Lost in all the hand wringing about lack of intelligence sharing is the fact that the CIA and the FBI have been kept separate and distinct entities for very good reason-first and foremost, to protect civil liberties. But now, under the intelligence reform legislation, the DNI will have under his aegis not only the entire CIA, whose operatives are skilled at breaking (foreign) law, but also a major part of the FBI, whose agents are carefully trained not to violate constitutional protections or otherwise go beyond the law.(That is why the FBI agents at Guantanamo judged it necessary to report the abuses they saw.). . .
Gen. William Odom, one of the most highly respected and senior intelligence professionals, now retired, put a useful perspective on last summer's politically driven rush into wholesale intelligence reform. In a Washington Post op-ed on August 1 he was typically direct in saying, "No organizational design will compensate for incompetent incumbents." . . .(link)
