Select Quotes from CIA Director John Brennan on the Ethos and Profession of Intelligence – Part I

CIA Director John Brennan answered questions following his keynote address at an event co-sponsored with Georgetown University, The Ethos and Profession of Intelligence, held July 12, 2014. The following are a few of the statements made by Director Brennan to the audience during that Q&A session.

Minor editing has been performed in the interest of brevity and clarity, but all effort has been made to retain and reflect the original message and language as accurately as possible. The entire keynote address and Q&A session can be viewed here.

Regarding Foreign Vaccination Programs

“As Director of CIA, I have a responsibility on a daily basis to make sure that the operations we run, the activities we engage in, are consistent with what I believe is the spirit and intent, not only of the law, but also in terms of making sure that we really are contributing to, not just national security, but international security.”

“We will not use vaccination programs, vaccination workers, for any of our operations activities.”

“We will not seek or exploit DNA that might be collected during those vaccination programs.”

“I do believe it’s CIA’s responsibility, just like the rest of the US Government, to do what we can to contribute to international well-being and health.”

Regarding Balancing the Needs for Transparency and to Develop Expertise without Compromising Intelligence Capabilities

“I think sometimes the narrative is distorted as far as what the intelligence agencies are doing, and I think it is important for us to be as open as we can in terms of the types of programs/activities that we are involved with. Now, we can’t go into details on a lot of those operational activities, but I have made a decision that I’m going to try to engage more publicly.”

“I think that sometimes the Intelligence Community’s reluctance to engage has come at our own peril, and I do believe it’s important for us to be able to engage.”

“I think there is also a responsibility on the part of the press to make sure that they try to report as accurately and as fairly as possible, and there are too many distortions out there, in my view. That doesn’t mean that, you know, there are not shortcomings in the Intelligence Community that we need to acknowledge when we can, and we should. So, the oversight function, I think, is critically important.”

On the Role of the Intelligence Community in Providing Effective Warning and Opportunity Analysis of Emerging Threats to Policymakers

“On the warning function, I think that’s critically important, and I think it has continued to be an evolving discipline within the Intelligence Community. I think we made a lot of strides over the last ten or fifteen years as a result of, I think, some shortcomings in some of the analysis that was done, and it’s critically important that we’re able, as an intelligence community, to distinguish between intelligence capabilities and intent. But, I think too often there is a tendency—either of policymakers or of intelligence professionals—to blur the division between the two. Just because one has the capability to do something doesn’t mean that they plan to, intend to or want to. I think that distinction has to be made critically clear.”

“I think it (being able to make the distinction between capabilities and intent) gets back to trying to make sure we provide policymakers with as much insight as possible—either from technical means or human means—both the extent of those capabilities and the potential impact, as well as the intentions of individuals, of governments.”
“Some would say, ‘Well, why don’t we know that Russia or another country is going to do X, Y or Z?’ Well, it’s because they have not yet determined themselves as to the best course of action to enhance their interests.”

“In opportunity analysis, this is where I think the intelligence community plays a critically important role…in making sure that we’re able to bring to policymakers an objective, non-advocacy intelligence briefing, that we don’t lean one way or another as far as a policy choice is concerned, but what we do is a rigorous job of identifying the implications, the pros and the cons, the likely impact of certain policy courses.”

“It’s critically important that intelligence professionals always maintain their objectivity and not advocate a position, because as soon as you go into a discussion on a policy matter, and if you start to advocate for a certain policy course, it undermines the credibility of your intelligence briefing and your analysis.”

“For intelligence professionals to do their jobs well these days, it really requires them to have a mastery of the data, of information, to be able to process it and analyze it, but also then be able to field the questions of policymakers about ‘Well, what happens if we do X?’ We really need to be able to bring to bear whatever intelligence, experience, expertise or trend analysis we’ve done in the past that will help give policymakers an insight into what those implications or results might be, and to tell them what degree of confidence we have in those judgments.”

On the CIA’s Strategic Communications Plan and Actions with other Intelligence Community Members to Discuss what should be Shared with the United States Public

“We’re looking at various opportunities.”

“Our Strategic Plan…really identifies what our challenges are, and so we have a number of internal initiatives trying to address those challenges, which is making sure that we are able to close those intelligence gaps on the hard targets that are our key priorities, making sure that we’re able to fulfill our global mission, making sure that we’re able to leverage technology in an optimal fashion to fulfil our mission, making sure we’re able to recruit, retain, train, develop the best workforce in doing all of this, and under a constrained budget.”

“What we’re trying to do in CIA is to engage regularly with our workforce.”

“I have a regular sort of monthly feature where I sit down in an interview like this and address questions that come from the workforce, but also that’s important because as the men and women of CIA, who come from all over the country, and many from all over the globe, are having to deal with a lot of things that they are in the media and some of the criticisms that are levied at intelligence agencies. It’s important I make sure that these dedicated Americans—many of whom have made great sacrifices on behalf of their country—continue to feel as though they’re making a very important contribution to our national security, and that it’s appreciated; not just by our agency’s leadership, but also by the Administration, the Congress and the American people.”

“The dialogue of the agencies is important, but events like these I think are important as well. And so, in discussions with Dean Boyd, head of our Public Affairs, I’m really looking for opportunities to be able to speak.”

“These are important issues in the 21st century, and it’s very, very important that the American people have the opportunity to understand what their intelligence community does. They need to be able to express those sentiments to their elected representatives, and those elected representatives need to be able to carry out their responsibilities as far as oversight and legislation in an informed fashion. That’s my concern; that a lot of times misinformation, disinformation, or ignorance are driving a number of these commentaries and actions. To the extent that we can help to educate and inform and uncover some of the things that we are doing on behalf of the American people, I think that just makes for a much better relationship between the Intelligence Community and the American people.”

“Although a lot of political concerns have been expressed based on either distortions or even some realities, the intelligence professionals that we interact with from all the continents of the world really emphasize the importance of maintaining that relationship with the (U.S.) intelligence community and the CIA. They tremendously benefit from our engagement with them and from information sharing, from training, from teaching them what it means to be a professional intelligence service, making sure that they’re not exploited by their political overseers, and trying to ensure that they fulfill their responsibilities as they carry out their duties, to include humane treatment of individuals they might capture or detain or arrest.”

“I have found over the last year there has not been a drawing back of our intelligence partners from CIA. I would argue that the NSA probably has had the same experience. If anything, they are worried that some of their uninformed political overseers and uninformed populaces are going to force that pendulum away and try to put distance between their services and ours, and they don’t see that as in their interest because, just like we see the array of all those threats and challenges out there worldwide, they do as well, and they’re very worried.”

 

Veritas Alchemy is committed to enhancing public knowledge and to bringing you the information and analysis you need to make better, more informed decisions. For more information on how we can be of service to you or your organization, please use the Contact page, or write to us at info@veritasalchemy.com