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Fixing Intelligence: For a More Secure America

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Title: Fixing Intelligence: For a More Secure America
by William E. Odom
ISBN: 0-300-09976-2
Publisher: Yale Univ Pr
Pub. Date: March, 2003
Format: Hardcover
Volumes: 1
List Price(USD): $24.95
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Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)

Customer Reviews

Rating: 4
Summary: Fixing Intelligence
Comment: This book is entirely about the structural reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community(IC) that is it is about rearranging the boxes of organization charts into new combinations. For this reason, I would not recommend it to the general reader because 'boxology' can be quite tedious reading. I do strongly recommend the book to serious students of the IC and its reform because they will find an enormous amount of food for thought in the book.

The author of Fixing Intelligence is retired General William E. Odom who, in the best tradition of the soldier-scholar, has developed an elaborate proposal to restructure and rationalize the IC. Unfortunately, General Odom has retained, from his active duty days, the bad habit of stating assumptions and conclusions as if they were self-evident without bothering to support them with logical arguments.

For example, the guiding, but unsupported, assumption throughout this book is that, "Organizational cultures are normally the products of structural conditions." This assumption is dubious at best and I beleive that many in both the intellgence and academic communities would challenge it as incorrect. Another such unsupported assumption is that the nature of intelligence targets is irrelevant to the structure of the intelligence establishment and if that structure had been sound during the Cold War era, reform would be unnecessary now. Again, I think many thinkers in the IC would challenge this assumption as at least misleading.

Oddly enough, in typical fashion, General Odom in the end has actually developed a sensible and, I think, workable scheme to resturcture the IC in ways that would make it both more efficient and more responsive to the needs of the 21st Century. His reconstruction proposal is not the whole story of reforming the IC, but it is a good start.

Rating: 5
Summary: Bold reform plan for the U.S. intelligence community
Comment: Gen. William E. Odom, now a Yale professor and a former director of the National Security Agency obviously knows the U.S. intelligence community better than anybody else.

In chapter after chapter, he examines both civilian and military intelligence agencies and organizations in the U.S. and shows the interdependencies between them. But what's more, through many examples, he makes clear the ways in which they failed in the past, how some very serious failures (like Robert Hanssen's treason and Sept 11 attacks) cost a great deal to America.

But Gen. Odom does not suffice just by listing what's wrong with what agency. At the end of each chapter, he also presents a very clear bulleted list of his recommendations as to how to remedy the problems he highlighted within the chapter.

His nuanced approach does not fail to substantiate his contention that the policy failures in the past have been as dangerous as the pure intelligence failures. Thus fixing the intelligence faults requires similar reforms on the policy side as well.

Specifically, Gen. Odom in effect recommends the dismemberment of the CIA, the NRO and part of FBI and creation of a new overarching National Counterintelligence Service, and promotion of DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) to a national intelligence czar.

The book's value is greatly enhanced by an authoritative glossary explaining all the confusing acronyms used in the intelligence business.

The Appendix at the end, "Intelligence Organizations and the Intelligence Process," complete with an organizational chart, is brief but very comprehensive in presenting a sharp X-ray of the current U.S. intelligence community.

One theme that begs to be developed further is the impact of a much more expanded peace-time intelligence apparatus for the civil rights of American citizens. Odom rocognizes the importance of the issue but suffices by saying that intelligence gathering at a national and expanded scale is possible without endangering the citizens' rights. Perhaps that should be the topic of his next book on this challenge.

Odom succeeds in arguing for a bitter medicine for safer tomorrows.

Rating: 5
Summary: A Must Read for anyone interested in Intelligence
Comment: General Odom has written an outstanding book, combining a careful explanation of the nature and mission of intelligence with a well-thought out set of suggested reforms. Although the reading can be somewhat dry, General Odom's description of the relationships between different agencies and bureaucracies is succinct and delivered with clarity. Working methodically through the terminology and methods of the intelligence field, he provides necessary background and understanding to enable people to comprehend the need for reform and to assess the suggestions he offers.

General Odom writes from the perspective of an insider, a very smart insider, but manages to keep a degree of detachment and objectivity in the process. His thoughtful suggestions regarding how we might go about reforming and improving our intelligence capabilities to cope with 21st century threats should be read carefully by anyone with an interest in these issues.

Even if one disagrees with some of the reforms he proposes, this book provides a solid starting point for understanding the complexities of intelligence collection and analysis in the modern world, as well as the problems we face by relying on an intelligence community created fifty years ago to deal with a threat (the Soviet Union) that is now long-gone from the scene.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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