Intelligence

Award-winning leadership in the Intelligence Community gives Beth the experience and insights to offer ways to improve America’s national security.

The United States tends to react to unexpected events with a combination of fear, political recrimination, and bravado—not a particularly effective mix when it comes to evaluating and responding to potential crises.
The U.S. Intelligence Community has played a critical role in predicting Putin’s invasion and countering Moscow’s disinformation campaign as the Biden administration purposefully released intelligence on the Kremlin’s plans and troop movements leading up to the invasion. But what are the challenges of intelligence gathering and analysis in response to a fast-moving crisis?
“I think we should stop teaching ‘truth to power’,” a CIA analytic instructor once told me. That was more than a decade ago, when I ran the Agency’s new analyst training program. My first reaction was shock and surprise. After all, it is central to the CIA ethos and is literally carved into the wall of its lobby, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”