Sharpening Strategic Intelligence: Why the CIA Gets It Wrong and What Needs to Be Done to Get It Right

This book critically examines the weaknesses of U.S. intelligence led by the Central Intelligence Agency in informing presidential decision-making on issues of war and peace. It evaluates the CIA's strategic intelligence performance during the Cold War and post-Cold War periods as a foundation for examining the root causes of intelligence failures surrounding the September 11th attacks and assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs in the run up to the Iraq war. Intelligence expert Richard L. Russell probes the roots causes of these failures which lie in the CIA's poor human intelligence collection and analysis practices. Russell argues that none of the post-9/11 intelligence reforms have squarely addressed these root causes of strategic intelligence failure and it recommends measures for redressing these dangerous vulnerabilities in American security.