“American intelligence works to meet the needs and follows the lead of American policy makers. There is actually a formal framework for national intelligence priorities agreed upon regularly at the National Security Council level. When policy makers validate a need to better understand, say, the level of corruption in a particular state or the intentions of a friendly but balky ally, what is it they think they are asking the intelligence community to do? And when they read a responsive, incisive report, where do they think it came from? Theres a real danger here. The American signals-intelligence community is being battered at home from extreme left and extreme right, and its being battered from abroad for just being extremely good. Beyond receiving new policy guidance, I fear that community will now take new blows and be conveniently labeled by some as excessive or unconstrained or out of control. At the end of High Noon, Gary Cooper throws his marshalls badge into the dust, stares his way through the crowd, joins Grace Kelly in a buckboard and drives off in disgust. Lets hope something similar doesnt happen with our intelligence professionals.”
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 06:46:31 +0000
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