Tuesday’s WaPo ran an excerpt from a speech by former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey. He successfully resisted attempts by the Bush administration to over-rule Justice Department findings that parts of NSA’s warrentless surveillance program were illegal. Comey’s speech speech is an excellent description of the craft of intelligence analysis and an inspiring exhortation for the practice of ethical standards in the intelligence community. Here are some quotes:
Intelligence – and by that I mean intelligence analysis, not collection – wasn’t physics, it wasn’t advanced calculus, it wasn’t Greek (although it sometimes seemed that way). Intelligence analysis was, at bottom, grouping facts, sorting those facts, and then reasoning from those facts. Intelligence was understanding motives, looking for biases, comparing new facts with known facts, new conclusions with old conclusions. Intelligence was confronting other conclusions, understanding unspoken assumptions, looking for alternative explanations, knowing how certain you were about something. Word choices were critical; words could convey meaning and nuance, or conceal meaning and nuance.Comey knows that it often requires courage to resist intelligence programs and policy presuppositions:What I discovered is that I had been learning the skills of intelligence analysis since college, where I was a chemistry and religion major.
It is the job of a good lawyer to say “yes.” It is as much the job of a good lawyer to say “no.” “No” is much, much harder. “No” must be spoken into a storm of crisis, with loud voices all around, with lives hanging in the balance. “No” is often the undoing of a career. And often,“no” must be spoken in competition with the voices of other lawyers who do not have the courage to echo it.Comey was practicing Fortitude, one of the four cardinal virtues. While the practice of these would be sufficient to produce an ethical an effective intelligence community, training programs are unlikely to recognize, much less teach them.For all those reasons, it takes far more than a sharp legal mind to say “no” when it matters most. It takes moral character. It takes an ability to see the future. It takes an appreciation of the damage that will flow from an unjustified “yes.” It takes an understanding that, in the long-run, intelligence under law is the only sustainable intelligence in this country.
As posted back in December, 2005 our best hope is for leaders who understand and implement this injunction from the Army’s FM 22-103 LEADERSHIP and COMMAND at SENIOR LEVEL:
"Senior leaders and commanders have specific ethical responsibilities to their organizations. These responsibilities flow directly from the attributes required of senior leaders to successfully implement their vision. First, they are worthy role models. Second, they promote the ethical development of their subordinates by teaching them how to reason clearly about ethical matters. Finally, they sustain an ethical climate that promotes trust and professional commitment."We can be grateful that Comey worked in a Justice Department in which ethics could be upheld.
Great work.
Posted by: Calla | October 22, 2008 at 01:58 AM