Please find below an example of UPI's continuing coverage of U.S. intelligence. I hope you find it interesting. You may link to it on the Web here:
http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20061206-072232-2047r Please note that this link will expire in 90 days, and that the story remains the copyright property of UPI. If you wish to publish or archive this article, or get more information about UPI products and services, please contact me or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] To stop receiving these alerts, just reply with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Shaun Waterman UPI Homeland and National Security Editor E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 202 898 8081 http://homeland-hack.blogspot.com/ Baker-Hamilton report slams U.S. intel on Iraq, says violence under-counted By SHAUN WATERMAN UPI Homeland and National Security Editor WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The incoming chairman of the House intelligence committee is pledging hearings after the Baker-Hamilton report found weaknesses and deliberate distortions in U.S. intelligence about the situation in Iraq. U.S. military and intelligence agencies "have not invested sufficient people and resources to understand the political and military threat to American men and women in the armed forces" from the insurgency in Iraq, the report found. The 10-member bipartisan Iraq Study Group, headed by former GOP Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, also said that statistics complied by the U.S. military deliberately under-counted violence in Iraq. "The standard for recording attacks acts as a filter to keep events out of reports and databases," found the group's report, adding that murders of Iraqis were often not counted as acts of violence by the U.S. military if the perpetrators could not be identified. "For example, on one day in July 2006 there were 93 attacks or significant acts of violence reported. Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence." "Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals," concludes the report. Calling the report's conclusions "troubling," Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, who will chair the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 110th Congress next year, said "One of my first actions ... will be to convene a series of comprehensive hearings" on the issue. His Senate counterpart, Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., noted that the report "also correctly points to the shortcomings in human intelligence, language skills, and analytical resources," promising he would be "looking closely at the recommendations to determine if there is any way for Congress to assist the Intelligence Community in correcting these deficiencies." One Rockefeller aide added that while U.S. agencies had a pretty good grip on what he called "The macro-level ... the political dynamics of the insurgency," he said intelligence was much weaker "at the tactical level, in figuring out who the cell leaders are, how they communicate and coordinate, how they relate to each other" and to other local leaders. One particular weakness the report identified was in human intelligence, where it quoted "A senior commander" in Iraq as saying that human intelligence "has improved from 10 percent to 30 percent." As intelligence analyst was quoted as saying that lack of language and cultural skills meant, "We rely too much on others to bring information to us, and too often don't understand what is reported back because we do not understand the context of what we are told." "Clearly," the report goes on, "U.S. intelligence agencies can and must do better." The report also states the knowledge U.S. intelligence has about "the organization, leadership, financing, and operations of militias, as well as their relationship to government security forces, also falls far short of what policy makers need to know." But some agencies began pushing back against the report's findings Wednesday. "We were told that there are fewer than 10 analysts on the job at the Defense Intelligence Agency who have more than two years' experience in analyzing the insurgency," the report's authors write. "That statement is not accurate," said DIA Spokesman Don Black. "We have many, many more analysts with that experience or greater ... working the insurgency problem set." Black added "I don't want to argue with the report. We are reviewing it." Paul Hughes, a senior study group staffer, told United Press International that the figure had come from one of the people interviewed as part of the group's inquiry -- all of whom had been promised anonymity. He said the figure had not been checked with the agency, but the group stood behind the report. The group concluded that U.S. agencies "must have a better personnel system to keep analytic expertise focused on the insurgency. They are not doing enough to map the insurgency, dissect it, and understand it on a national and provincial level." Despite having allocated almost $2 billion this year to develop technology and other countermeasures to protect troops in Iraq against deadly road-side bombs, the administration has made no effort "to invest comparable resources in trying to understand the people who fabricate, plant, and explode those devices." The study group recommends that the Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and incoming Secretary of Defense Robert Gates should "devote significantly greater analytic resources to the task of understanding the threats and sources of violence in Iraq," and "institute immediate changes in the collection of data about violence ... to provide a more accurate picture of events on the ground." It also recommends that the CIA should increase its personnel in Iraq to train their Iraqi counterparts, and should partner with Iraqi officials to set up a "counter-terrorism intelligence center for the all-source fusion of information on the various sources of terrorism within Iraq." "This center would analyze data concerning the individuals, organizations, networks, and support groups involved in terrorism within Iraq. It would also facilitate intelligence-led police and military actions against them." Hughes said the center might be modeled on the United States' multi-agency National Counter-Terrorism Center. A CIA official authorized to speak to the media would say only that the agency was reviewing its finding and recommendations. (c) Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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