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Challenges for American Intelligence
The
Hon.
Lee H.
Hamilton
May 6,
2004
In
the war on terrorism, many of our most important fights will not take place onopen battlefields; they will take place in the hidden world of intelligence. Thus it iscritical that the American people consider the daunting challenges
facing
our intelligenceagencies.The United States cannot protect itself without good intelligence. The
agencies
ofour intelligence community played a key role in our victory in the Cold War, and they are
now
the most important tools we have in preventing terrorist attacks. Quality intelligenceprovides
information
and
warning; disrupts terrorist activity;
frames
issues
for
policymakers; and anticipates the consequences of U.S. policies.The demands are huge and growing. For most of my years in Congress, theparamount intelligence task was clear: counting missiles and evaluating the Soviet threat.Today, policymakers want to know anything and everything, ranging from the actions
and
intentionsofevery government,to thetopicofconversationin acave
halfway
aroundthe globe, to the health of foreign leaders, to the
future
of oil prices. But the
fact
is the
intelligence
community cannot
do
everything
and do it
well. Policymakers must
do a
much better job of setting clear priorities, and they must leave politics out of the process
of
gatheringandanalyzing intelligence.
Just
as it
faces
unprecedented demands, the intelligence community isoverwhelmed by its own unprecedented capabilities. Technology allows us to collectmillions and millions of bites of data every minute: conversations are recorded,photographs taken,
tips passed
on,
communications
intercepted.
In
short, more
raw
data
is
collected than we could ever use. The challenge is
sifting
through the mountains of data;
analyzing
it; deciding what is important and what is trivial; coordinating agencies; andgetting the right information to the right person at the right time. This is appropriatelycalled
"connecting
the
dots,"
but that is not so easy when you collect so many dots.
To
succeed, we need to develop new capabilities. Part of this is getting people
who
understand and can harness these technologies. But another part is developingexpertiseinmany areas, including linguistics.
After
all, whatis the use ininterceptingamessage if you
can't
read it or place it in context? This takes more than recruiting Arabicspeakers. In a world of globalized threats, we need people who understand certainregions, cultures,
and
religions,
and who
can
translate
- and
analyze
-
messages
in a
host
of
languages: Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi,
Dari,
Kurdish,orSomali,tonameafew.Itwill
take
years to build up and maintain these kinds of skills.We also need better "human intelligence": people on the ground who can detect
and
alert us to terrorist plots, or people penetrating opaque countries like North Korea
and
Iran.
We
should
not
have exaggerated expectations about what
we can
achieve
-
we're not going to have a guy sitting next to Osama bin Laden in a cave. The good news
 
is we can
develop espionage connections
and
capabilities
for
less than
the
price
of a
satellite;
the bad
news
is
this capability only comes with time
and
great
difficulty.
We
should
not do
this alone.
Al
Qaeda
is
scattered
in
small cells around
theworld;
money
and
nuclear materials pass through global black markets; threats emerge
from unforeseen and
dispersed
conflicts.
Since
we
cannot
be
everywhere
at
once,
weneed to
work with
foreign
intelligence services
to
gather
information,
evaluate threats,
and
prevent attacks.
Our
knowledge
and
strength
is
multiplied when
we can
draw
on the
capabilities
and
resources
of friends.Ultimately, the
U.S. intelligence community cannot succeed without
the
support
ofthe
American people. This will take more public understanding
of the
methods
and the
mission,
and
less secrecy. When
we
over-classify information, people only learn aboutintelligence
in
leaked newspaper stories,
often
about intelligence failures
or
controversies.
We do
have
to
protect intelligence sources
and
methods.
But the
more
information
we
make public,
the
more people
can
understand
the
intelligence community,
and
the
importance
and
difficulty
of its
work.The basic paradox is that intelligence fits awkwardly into a democracy, but it isessential to protecting our democracy. The more light we can shine on this
process,
the
better
positioned
we
will
be to do the
hard work
of
setting priorities, allocating resources,
and
building capabilities
to win the
unseen battles
of the war on
terror.
 
ChallengesforIntelligenceinAmerican DemocracyInternational Spy Museum Exhibit Opening
The
Hon.
Lee H.
Hamilton
May
5,
2004
Good evening.
I am
pleased
to be
with
you to
mark
the
opening
of
this
exciting
new
exhibit: "The Enemy Within: Terror in America,
1776
to
Today."
Let me
focus
my
remarks this evening
on, 1) the
importance
of
intelligence,
and 2)
some
of the key
challenges
for the
intelligence community.
Importance
of the
Intelligence Community
First, a few words about the importance of intelligence to the United Statesgovernmentand theAmerican people.
Good
intelligence is essential to our national security. A superpower like the UnitedStates simply cannot survive without
it.
As a heavy consumer of intelligence and an observer of the intelligence community
for
decades,
I
hold
the men and
women
of our
intelligence agencies
in
high regard.They are highly talented people. They are dedicated to their work and their country.They
are
called upon
to do a
difficult,
and
sometimes dangerous,
job
with
the
knowledge
that
good work rarely
receives
outside recognition.The work of the intelligence community played a key role in our victory in the
Cold
War.
And on
September
11, 2001,we all
learned that
the
mission
for the
intelligencecommunity is as vital and urgent as it has ever been.Intelligence
is the
most important tool that
we
have
in
preventing terrorist attacks
-
at
home and abroad. Better intelligence is
everybody's
favorite
solution to preventingterrorism.Andintelligenceisalsoacrucial componentof ourworktocurb weapons
proliferation.
The stakes could not be higher.Policymakers simply mustbeabletotrust that they havethe
best
possibleintelligence as they deal with these new threats. Good intelligence does not guarantee goodpolicy, but poor intelligence can ensure bad policy.
If
apolicymakerhasquality intelligence, issuesare
framed;
decisionsare
clearer;
and
consequences can be anticipated.
Challengesfor theIntelligence
Community
Let
me now go
over some
of the
difficulties
and
challenges
for the
intelligence
community.
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