Dumbed-Down Intelligence

Weekly Standard: From Capitol Hill To Langley, U.S. Intelligence Is In A Sorry State

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Michael Tanji.

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Recently a six-man jihadi cell in New Jersey was arrested while allegedly planning an armed attack on a military base. In California a jury is now deliberating the fate of a naturalized Chinese-American, who the government alleges worked as a spy for China. Per various media reports, Russian intelligence activity against the United States and its European allies is back to Cold War levels. You would think that if ever there was a time to focus our intelligence community on clear and present dangers, it would be now.

Think again.

Congress is now debating the merits of turning the intelligence community loose against global warming. There is precedence for this: In 1997 then-director of Central Intelligence Deutch established an "Environmental Center" in the CIA's analysis directorate. Since climate change is now an official threat (according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), what better time to take resources away from the fight against al Qaeda?

Speaking of former CIA directors, there have been numerous comments made about George Tenet's inability to get people, places, and dates right in his new memoir. Kind of makes you wonder just how concerned he was about facts, accuracy, and standards during his tenure as head of the U.S. intelligence community. I personally know of no former colleague who would operate in such a slipshod manner. But in a bureaucracy, such disregard for core principles from the leadership eventually becomes part of the institutional culture.

While we are on the topic of the CIA, did you know that the majority of the workforce there has been on the job for only five years? Twenty percent have been on the job for just about one year. Some of these people are filling new positions but by and large they are filling billets emptied by professionals who received their security clearances when the new kids on the block were learning how to walk.

A recent survey of National Security Agency employees noted that the vast majority of them do not trust their bosses as far as they can throw them. How bad can their leadership be? Despite the key role that NSA's capabilities plays in the war on terror, they still cannot write a check for equipment without first getting approval from Pentagon overseers. This was an authority that was taken from them years ago, and their continued inability to effectively field new systems that actually work suggests that they should not receive that authority back any time soon. The inability of NSA management to perform basic planning functions now has them flirting with the prospect of not having enough electrical power to run operations or storage for all the data they are vacuuming.

We should start to remedy this dismal intelligence situation by accepting the fact that while we live in dangerous times, not every problem is a national security problem. There may be security implications to many issues, but primacy for all the world's ills does not fall on the shoulders of Defense Secretary Gates or DNI McConnell. Figuring out how to address pending humanitarian crises does not require people skilled in military science.

Building up the capabilities of our intelligence and security apparatus also requires that we rebuild trust in the system. Seasoned veterans and new hires both need to be confident that their leadership will not undermine them by bending to political whims or burden them with administrivia. People who cannot be trusted need to be fired (or aggressively encouraged to enjoy their pensions). Nothing buoys morale more than the elimination of dead weight.

To a certain extent you can hire your way out of the manpower problem, but only if you do it smartly. You need the mid-careerists to return as employees — not contractors. Fix the leadership problems and the people who fled will start to think about reuniting with their Uncle Sam. If we get smart about pay, personnel, and quality-of-life issues — pay-banding, flexibility in assignments, and dispersing operations outside the D.C. area — then the prodigal sons and daughters will form a line to get back in.

Functionally speaking, the intelligence community needs to reduce its dependence on the hierarchical, industrial-age model. We see signs of progress in efforts such as Intellipedia and classified blogs, but such efforts are still the exception to the rule. With subject-matter expertise across the board at an ebb, we need to leverage knowledge and experience regardless of what agency it happens to reside in. Recently announced inter-agency exchange programs might help, but none of the similar programs in the past ever worked to any serious extent.

One can derive a certain amount of entertainment criticizing congressional Democrats for wanting to lump polluters in with terrorists (though maybe then they would start to warm up to the idea of coercive interrogation techniques), but if we do not rescue our intelligence community from its current death spiral, its degradation will be so complete that it will become incapable of effectively executing any mission we give it, environmental or otherwise.

Unless we are prepared to delineate national security threats from issues-of-national-concern, and make the serious, systemic changes that are necessary to bring about real reform and extract top-notch performance, we should declare a moratorium now on expressing surprise at any future intelligence failures.

[clestes-2009]

So what do you expect? You Weekly Standard dudes jump into the Bush admin business with both feet, stand behind Douglas Feith while he bypassed the CIA and the NSA and told them they were useless. You stand and watch while Geo Tenet takes the blame for 9-11, all the while knowing that the CIA had been talking about Bin Laden for years.

You twist facts to suit your vision and ignore those that don't and after YEARS of *** the intelligence community over, you go "Gee, no one trusts them."

How monumentally selfish and cowardly the Weekly Standard is. No wonder 75% of the country laughs everytime you open your mouth.

[cofmanaaron]

"Since climate change is now an official threat (according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), what better time to take resources away from the fight against al Qaeda?"
That has to be the most moronic statement I've ever seen on cbsnews.com. I guess Michael Tanji never took a High School Science class, unless it was "I ain't decended from monkeys" class at a Christian school. That is because global warming is a danger in the eyes of all the world's emininent scientific minds. I guess Michael Tanji believes the Nobel prize to be an award for movie actors. And if you're trying to bash Congress, why are you pointing out the devolution of the intelligence agencies under the blunderer-in-chief's(Bush's) years of a free hand?
Maybe there is so little intellectual intelligence in the executive branch as a whole due to Bush's cronyism cancer that the intelligence agencies are the only places with people smart enough to see the problem and have any credibility. Then again Bush would just fire anyone who disagreed with him anyway. IF you don't think climate change is a problem, build a new house right on the coast. If you're wrong, then you'll lose your house to rising sea level and stronger storms.

[tejasdemo]

Yea, the Weekly Embarassment is BIG part of the problem !!!!

[matter77]

Good article. Thanks.

[ubrew12]

The article says:"Since climate change is now an official threat (according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), what better time to take resources away from the fight against al Qaeda?"

Al Qaeda kills as many Americans, each year, as lightning strikes. Since lightning strikes are likely to increase dramatically in the future, I think the CIA is on the right track in being concerned about this national threat.

Actually, no I don't, but someone in Gov't should be taking Warming JUST that seriously. BTW, shouldn't Tanji mention that the REASON all the people in the CIA are so young is that the rest of them fled the agency when GW Bush lobotomized it in the lead up to Iraq? Anyone with half a brain could see where that was leading.

[cfin5]

There are many military strategies that have been used thru out history against an enemy. One is "If you can't beat'em,....join'em,.....and THEN you will beat them. When you have done that...... You give them some wild goose chasing chorse to keep them busy to increase the effects of your subversive tactics with less interruption. I think our nation is in more trouble than I have previously thought.

[johnshaft4]

If AEI/AIPAC traitor Zionists Feith, Perle, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Wurmser would not have cooked the "intelligence", we would not be in the Iraqi nightmare. Why haven't these traitors been indicted for treason?

[docadams3]

Facts only get in the way. By keeping our intelligence community weak, politicians have a free hand to make up what they want.

[sclaires]

I would believe that the intelligence coming into the CIA and NSA in this day and time is not complete. At one time both of these organizations were "respected" in that they were able to gather proper and reliable intelligence for the government. But, now both agencies are hog-tied by Congress and 1600 PA Ave. They are not able to have the undercover operatives now that they had at one time. And, then 1600 PA Ave blew the cover of one operative because her husband was on the wrong side of the political fence. Of course we must not forget the Iraq debacle where the people of the United States were told that there were WMDs in Iraq which turned out to be totally wrong. It was only an excuse to spend billions of dollars on a war that was totally unnecessary and where over 3000 of our men and women have died. No, let our intelligence communities operate where they can gather proper information without being hindered by bureaucratic interference.

[ubrew12]

Given what Bush has done to the EPA, FEMA, DOD, and other government bureaucracies, why should the CIA be off-limits? We await our next Katrina with respectful resignation.

[gtc64]

Intelligence follows events to analyze cause and effect. The effects of climate change on the U.S. national security are real and need to be studied and briefed to government officials so educated decisions can be made.

[cfin5]

gtc64......... There wont be a need for national security anymore if our intelligence people go on wild goose chasing "save the earth" safaris. That job would be better suited for the department of energy or the like. One more slip up in finding nuclear threats to us and KABLOOEY! That is where your REAL global warming problems lye and instant at that.