Back on August 29, 2004 I linked to a WaPo story on fixing the analytic culture. Now US News and World Report tells us that the CIA has recognized the same issue.
But since 2003, at least three unclassified CSI reports--all critical of the agency--have been withheld from the CIA's website, U.S. News has learned. During that same time, the agency has placed online three other CSI (i.e Center for Study of Intelligence) reports, all of those relatively positive or neutral.
Among the documents withheld: a tough 69-page report, "Curing Analytic Pathologies."The study, published quietly in December, argues that reform efforts have centralized authority but failed to change the intelligence community's core problem--"dysfunctional behaviors and practices within the individual agencies." A second report, "Analytic Culture in the U.S. Intelligence Community," was published last May and found the nation's intelligence analysts isolated and lacking overseas experience and training in research techniques. A third report, "Intelligence for a New Era in American Foreign Policy," from 2004, is the record of an unclassified conference of intelligence veterans, several of whom made comments sharply critical of the intelligence community.
I contacted the CIA for copies of these reports and got this reply:
To obtain the reports, please contact the Center for the Study of Intelligence at 1-703-613-1753, or order through government publication vendors listed on CSI's website at www.cia.gov.
I've made the phone call and am waiting for the reports.
The impact of organizational culture can be profound and disastrous. Look here for some info on a NASA study on the contribution of corporate culture to the Columbia shuttle disaster.
I'm not sure what any of us can do about this, but we should all acknowledge our part in shaping the culture and keeping it healthy. This may be the primary duty of top level leaders.