| Topic Name: |
Studies in Intelligence |
| Message Name: |
Baseball scout |
| Date Posted: |
03/10/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
A former boss once described the role of intelligence in planning air strikes thusly:
"The intel officer tells the pilot WHERE to drop the bomb, not HOW to drop it."
All these years later I still think this is the best way to describe intel's proper role in most issues, including policymaking. |
| Message: |
I also read that recently in one of Jack Davis's Occational Papers (fairly recent one, maybe "Improving CIA Analytic Performance Analysts and the Policy Making Process, Vol. 1, no. 2").
Analysts are enablers or facilitators. While they (we) perhaps greatly influence policy decision making, we don't make the decisions.
|
|
