Politicization of Intelligence III: Of Swords, Kool Aid and Corporate Culture

    See Patrick Lang for a comment on politicization. Follow this link for a description of how the corporate culture in the intelligence community changed. There have been times when intelligence officers were willing to "fall on their swords", i.e. sacrifice their careers rather than change their conclusions to please decision-makers. As Col. Lang describe it, in the recent past top level officers have "drunk kool aid". The reference is to Jonestown, where an entire community drank poison at the instigation of Rev. Jim Jones. In this case, a small group of top level political appointees changed the corporate culture so that intelligence officers "drank kool aid", i.e. lost their ability to tell the truth to decision makers. The corporate culture made truth telling impossible.
    How dangerous is this? Look here  for a posting on how a dysfunctional corporate culture contributed to the Columbia Shuttle disaster.

NOTE: Linked with Beltway Traffic Jam for 02/15/06