:: Deepquest ::

US intelligence agencies suffer from a poor analytical process influenced by presumptions and biases, and poor data collection capabilities, according to an unclassified report just out from the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The Commission, created by executive order a year ago, is chaired by former federal judge Laurence Silberman and former Virginia governor and US senator Charles Robb. Their report constitutes a depressing assessment of current US intelligence capabilities, in spite of all the money hastily poured into these agencies since the 9/11 atrocities.
The report is focused on the US ability to assess threats posed by nuclear proliferation and chemical and biological weapons programs throughout the world. Using the Iraqi WMD debacle as a starting point, the report observes that intelligence analysts were “wedded to their assumptions about Saddam’s intentions.”

It adds that the “CIA’s and the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) spies, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) eavesdroppers, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) imagery experts” had “collected precious little intelligence for the analysts to analyze, and much of what they did collect was either worthless or misleading.”

And apparrently, little has changed. Looking ahead, the report acknowledges that “across the board, the intelligence community knows disturbingly little about the nuclear programs of many of the world’s most dangerous actors. In some cases, it knows less now than it did five or ten years ago.”

more from [url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/31/intel_outfits_still_inept/]The register[/url]