2. Do you believe that the Director of the Office of National Intelligence will

Question

2. Do you believe that the Director of the Office of National Intelligence will ever be able to reverse decades of cultural differences and turf battles between the various intelligence agencies of the U.S. Government?

Why or why not? When developing your answers, remember, you must include (cited) facts to support the major points in your response. Your responses should not include continuous citations without your thoughts and analysis also. Rather, your responses must reflect a balance between facts and your perspective on the points you made

Explanation / Answer

My answer would be no. While certain agencies have battled it out for some time, they don’t want to answer to other agencies. They want the other agencies answering to them. So unfortunately, the ODNI cannot go back in time to get rid of these turf wars. But what we can do is teach the new individuals coming into the Intelligence Community, how we need to work together to paint the overall picture. As I see the old school individuals leaving the intelligence community and retiring.

We are slowly evolving into one whole as an Intelligence Community. Certain agencies think that what they produce is the most vital intelligence to the community. The NSA for example is the lead signals intelligence agency, they hear everything. The NGA is the lead geospatial intelligence agency, they see everything.

Now the CIA has some of the most clandestine agents throughout the world, as well as other non-existent agencies. So they have the firsthand experience in the environment as well as possible informants or foreign agents they have turned.

Now why would these agencies think they have the most vital intelligence? Think about it, would you rather have the sense of see, hear, feel or smell? I would like to have all of my senses and not just one. We need to have that mindset when it comes to producing actionable intelligence, we have to combine multiple intelligence disciplines to understand everything. I teach this to all my new airmen that I get. I tell them that communication is the key and never to hesitate in reaching out to other agencies or disciplines for support, this will only make them a better analyst. So no I do not think that the ODNI can fix the past, just start with today and let’s slowly progress forward.

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