Quotes about Intelligence Reporting

Robert Baer

The CIA should best serve the U.S. by being an unbiased reporter of the truth and if it were a fighting organization, that would affect its ability to analyze and report intelligence.

Lee H. Hamilton

Moving from general intelligence to specific targets is the most difficult part of the intelligence business.

Gina Haspel

When developing intelligence assessments, initial tactical reports often require additional collection and validation.

Yoweri Museveni

Some intelligence officers filed reports saying that this is a dangerous group, but at one level it was not forwarded, it was just ignored.

Raymond Kelly

You have multiple intelligence agencies. They all ultimately report to the director of national intelligence but, you know, it never comes in neat packages. So you have to make judgments on what you have, and it's not easy to do.

Eleanor Roosevelt

My husband [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] always said the President of the United States had the best information in the world on which to base the government's decisions as to policy in foreign relations. Part of this was because of the efficiency of the intelligence reports he received. Over the past few years, however, the CIA has become an agency not for gathering information and reporting it to those who make policy and take action, but it has itself made policy and taken action. And by so doing it has involved the government in situations from which no administration could quickly extricate itself.

The CIA did not have a long tradition. It was created after WWII when the OSS was are espionage organization had been disbanded In the early days of the Cold War, the CIA went rogue and engaged in covert activities without the knowledge and approval of the President and his cabinet. General Maxwell Taylor conducted a thorough investigation and the agency was brought under control. There hav been several more incidents since then and every few years there have been additional scandals of unauthorized operations which were harmful to American interests and values. In a democracy it is always hard to control a secret organization. Actually, at the beginning of WWII, we had almost no espionage capability and President Roosevelt had a series of friends who provided him with intelligence until William Donavan had time to establish the OSS which did such a wonderful job.

Reince Priebus

Instead of talking about accomplishments, we are talking about stupidity and intelligence reporting that is based on facts that's not coming out of the actual heads of these intelligence agencies. And we are sitting here talking about it. And it is a shame, and it needs to end.

James R. Clapper

We have lots of challenges around the world, and I have no doubt the intelligence community will continue to watch them, monitor them, and report on them. The issue is, with all of our other distractions here in Washington, particularly, will the appropriate attention be paid to each one of these issues?

Michael Hayden

An intelligence analyst may attribute an attack to al Qaeda, whereas a policy maker could opt for the more general 'extremist.'

Ron Wyden

There has been a culture of misinformation among the intelligence leadership.

See {634917} for a recent example of lying under oath to the Senate.

John Major

Well, I think there's a distinction between sexing-up the intelligence and sexing-up the presentation of the intelligence.

Intelligence Reporting Quotes