Description
Basing his text in large part on a study he authored in 1997, published by the National Institute of Public Policy, Odom (a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former director of the National Security Agency) considers recommendations for the reform of American intelligence activities and organization. Among his suggestions are granting more intelligence oversight authority over all the diverse intelligence organizations to the Director of Central Intelligence; eliminating CIA obstructionism in expanding military intelligence capabilities; recognizing the need to have national managers for the separate disciplines of signals, imagery, and human intelligence; and taking counterintelligence activities out from under the provenance of the law enforcement agencies. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Security depends on intelligence. A leading authority discusses basic problems in American intelligence and how to fix them William E. Odom is the highest-ranking member of the United States Intelligence community ever to write a book outlining fundamental restructuring of this vast network of agencies, technology, and human agents. In the wake of 9/11, Odom has revised and updated a powerful critique he wrote several years ago for staffs of the U.S. congressional committee overseeing the vast American intelligence bureaucracy. His recommendations for revamping this essential component of American security are now available for general readers as well as for policymakers. While giving an unmatched overview of the world of U.S. intelligence, Odom persuasively shows that the failure of American intelligence on 9/11 had much to do with the complex bureaucratic relationships existing among the various components of the Intelligence Community. The sustained fragmentation within the Intelligence Community since World War II is part of the story; the blurring of security and intelligence duties is another. Odom describes the various components of American intelligence in order to give readers an understanding of how complex they are and what can be done to make them more effective in providing timely intelligence and more efficient in using their large budgets. He shows definitively that they cannot be remedied with quick fixes but require deep study of the entire bureaucracy and the commitment of the U.S. government to implement the necessary reforms.
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