SECRET INTELLIGENCE work is one of the most important tools a government can use to reduce–in Rumsfeldian parlance–“unknown unknowns.” Intelligence is a national security decision-making tool, not a ball to be taken out and kicked about when cheap political points need to be scored. Yet now that the Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office has released its report on the intelligence-related activities of the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans, that is exactly what is going on.
Leaks of secret intelligence documents are curious affairs. The general public rarely gets to see the full text of intelligence assessments because, as prolific as they can be, leakers gain no benefit from revealing the full picture. Doing so would reveal, as the recent key judgments of the national intelligence estimate on Iraq showed, that there is often a ray of light amongst all the doom and gloom.
