Scathing Report Warns of Intelligence Failures

Turf Battles, Financial Mismanagement Leading to Massive Failures

A report (PDF) released by the Inspector General regarding the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the overall state of the US intelligence community warned that America’s 16 spy agencies are still hamstrung by many of the same intelligence failures pointed to after the 9/11 attack and the invasion of Iraq.

In-fighting and financial mismanagement are still rampant, and the various organizations are constantly battling over turf, with “few, if any, consequences for failure to collaborate.”It took the DNI in particular to task, cautioning that it had done little but fuel assertions that it was “an additional layer of bureaucracy.”

The United States overhauled its intelligence apparatus in 2005, and despite the massive increases in the budget of the assorted agencies the report reveals that few of the goals of the overhaul have actually been realized.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.