Monday, July 19, saw the release of an investigative report by The Washington Post which concerns the health of the intelligence services of the US Government. The report is titled Top Secret America, and it has created a huge stir. The findings of the report are already being contested by big players in the intelligence field. The Intelligence Community, which evidently is a proper noun, is painted in a fairly negative light by Top Secret America. Source of article – Top Secret America by the Washington Post causes intelligence row by Personal Money Store.
The portrait Top Secret America paints is not the greatest
Top Secret America took two years for The Washington Post to put together. The amount of agencies, bureaus and contractors working on intelligence has grown exponentially since September 2001. The intelligence field is about secrecy, and the total cost and activities of all these groups may not be knowable. The report also claims the intelligence community is not well suited to efficiency, consensus, and lacks enough focus to be truly effictive. The piece contains references to a recent interview with Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, who bemoans the lack of focus and clear info from the intelligence field.
Intelligence Community fires back
There was a response issued soon after the report from the intelligence field. The national Director of Intelligence, David Gompert, easily issued a press release that condemned the report for not being truly reflective of the Intelligence Community, and the community itself was constantly working on improving itself.
What effect the report can have
It is hard to know what effect, if any, the report could have. The nature of the intelligence business is that it is clandestine. If a spy operation goes well, the success of the mission might never see the light of day. However, the U.S. Intelligence Community has had some spectacular failures. For instance, there was the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and also the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Christmas bomber nearly pulled his plot off, and authorities were tipped off about him. The Fort Hood shooter, a U.S. Army Major, had been communicating with anti-American groups. The intelligence field may have some very visible blemishes, but it is hard to keep faith when you can’t see the successes.
Citations
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/ (PDF)
Martin Rogen 
Aug 09, 2010 @ 01:09:00
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