We Have Not Correctly Framed the Debate on Intelligence Reform
Abstract
Over the last decade, our intelligence community has failed us. It wasn't able to penetrate the al Qaeda terrorist organization, and we paid a high price for that failure. The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 were the first significant foreign attacks on the US mainland since the War of 1812. In the weeks and months leading up to 9/11, we failed to interpret, analyze, and share information gathered. Subsequently the intelligence community failed the President by presenting an inaccurate analysis of the quantities and capabilities of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). While there should be no doubt whatsoever that Saddam's intentions were to reconstitute his WMD programs and become a supplier of these weapons to the radical Islamist terrorists who are bent on the destruction of democratic and secular Western societies, the fact remains that the CIA did not have a single agent inside Iraq to verify the true state of these programs before coalition forces, led by the United States, attacked Iraq in 2003. Today, the intelligence community is struggling to stay ahead of a host of threats to our security--the insurgency in Iraq that is taking American lives daily, the continuing war on terrorism, and the nuclear threat posed by Iran and North Korea, to name but a few. And there is an intelligence breakdown every time an improvised explosive device is detonated in Iraq killing American soldiers and marines.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA485890
Entities
People
- Saxby Chambliss
Organizations
- United States Army War College