http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/01/opinion/01mon4.html?th&emc=th
Editorial Trustworthy Intelligence Published: August 1, 2005 The common-sense precautions that the national intelligence director, John Negroponte, has ordered to avoid more poorly sourced, poorly vetted intelligence like the reports on Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction are welcome and long overdue. They should lead to better intelligence estimates based on reporting from all 15 spy agencies, looking carefully at the reliability of sources, acknowledging information gaps and reporting dissent. The most remarkable aspect of last week's Congressional testimony on the new procedures by Mr. Negroponte's deputy, Gen. Michael Hayden, was the acknowledgment that analysts were often prohibited from examining the nature and reliability of sources used by their own and other intelligence agencies. That kind of bureaucratic blinkering should not happen again. Under Mr. Negroponte's new orders, all of the agencies he oversees are required to share any doubts about intelligence sources with the analysts and agencies who produce the official National Intelligence Estimates. Since some of these estimates are available to interested members of Congress, more carefully vetted findings should make it possible for conscientious lawmakers to challenge politicized uses of intelligence. That is important, because none of Mr. Negroponte's changes can prevent the White House from selectively using intelligence to justify bad policy decisions. Washington has so far been willing to look at failures in intelligence reporting leading up to the war in Iraq, but has consistently shied away from the more delicate issue of how political leaders used those reports. The intelligence failures on Iraq will not be fully understood, and the right lessons learned, until Congress insists on a thorough investigation of what happened after those faulty reports left the analysts' offices and went to the policy makers. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hu77v9t/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122911070/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
