Fixing Intelligence… Again
Fixing Intelligence… Again
by Matthew Collins
Download the full article: Fixing Intelligence… Again
Winter was a cruel season for the US Intelligence Community. The Christmas bomb plot and suicide bombing of a CIA base in Afghanistan were high profile failures for our security services. What followed in the press was much accusation, counteraccusation, and ill informed conjecture. Cold war analysts used to say of old Soviet Union propaganda, those who speak do not know and those who know do not speak. The sentiment also applies to intelligence, whose dealings are understandably cloaked in a veil of secrecy. But when that veil is torn by failure, it is time for more public scrutiny of these activities.
The Christmas bombing was an analytic failure of the highest order. Familiar arguments about inter-agency cooperation and information sharing have been rehashed. Of course, analysts already have to sift through a voluminous mass of reporting already, so removing whatever stovepipes we have left will do little to solve this problem. The reality is that this was, first and foremost, a cognitive failure as were most strategic surprises, be they Pearl Harbor or Sept 11th. The president was correct in admitting as much, publicly. He should expect better and, indeed, deserves better.
Download the full article: Fixing Intelligence… Again
Matthew Collins spent eleven years as a Marine Intelligence Officer. He served with the British Army in Sierra Leone, Marine Corps Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom and served in the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Iraq office from 2005-2007. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and recently completed a Master’s of Strategic Intelligence from American Military University (with Honors). Opinions expressed are his own.
