Intelligence Reform at What Price?
By Douglas Farah
John A. Kringen, the CIA's director of intelligence, had an interesting piece Monday in the Washington Post on the steps being taken within the intelligence community to minimize "group think" and find new ways of monitoring and assessing long-term strategic threats. He presents an optimistic view of an agency in rapid transition, and that is without question, important.
But there is one telling phrase in his op-ed that hints at the serious crisis the DI is facing: "The DI is building bench strength with highly qualified recruits to meet the demands of strategic global coverage. We brought in more new analysts in fiscal 2005 than any year in our history."
The truth is the DI has lost decades, if not centuries, of experience as older analysts have fled through the door, many from senior positions. Not all change is bad, but what is left is essentially a group of young and undeniably intelligent people with little real-world experience and little historic knowlege of issues that they must now be analyzing and briefing on.
The new recruits are being taught to "specialize," for brief periods, on subjects often so narrow that they are unable to see or read information on related topics. Then, after a few months or at most a couple of years, they move on, and their brief institutional memory goes with them. The full blog is here.
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