What did Nancy Tucker suggest as the failure of the 9/11 intelligence analysis? Discuss the response of Congress to these failures

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Nancy Tucker suggests that the failure of intelligence analysis is evidenced by two factors: the surprise attacks of September 11 and the prediction of the WMD program in Iraq.
• Congress created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to address such flaws.
• ODNI was to be a vehicle for continuous reform, an organization to prevent bureaucratic goal displacement and organizational stagnation.
• This massive restructuring met all types of resistance.
• First, many people believed that the efficiency and methods of the intelligence community needed to be improved.
• Restructuring created another level of bureaucracy, but it did not address the need for accuracy and efficiency.
• Second, the new organization confused traditional lines of authority – more specifically the Director of the CIA was to be the one person who could synthesize information and present an apolitical, objective assessment of data to the executive branch of government.
• Tucker believes the reorganization of intelligence under the ODNI has signaled the beginning of improvement.
• The ODNI is able to balance the needs of information of all the intelligence agencies.
• In the past the CIA director performed this function, but was always forced to guard the interests of the CIA.
• The ODNI is able to avoid this bureaucratic pitfall producing a better balance in analyzed information.
• The ODNI has also been able to attack the problem of group think by placing analysts in critical thinking training during the first stages of their careers.