President Barack Obama delivers remarks during a memorial service at the CIA in Langley, Va., Feb. 5, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Time To Rethink The CIA? -- Walter Pincus
President Obama should pause before choosing a successor to CIA Director David H. Petraeus and rethink the role of the nation’s primary intelligence agency. Its main focus for the past decade has been fighting terrorists and insurgents.
The first question to ask: Has the CIA become too much of a paramilitary organization? The second: Should this be the time to put the agency’s main emphasis on being the premier producer and analyst of intelligence for policymakers, using both open and clandestine sources?
That doesn’t mean losing its counterterrorism role. Terrorists remain a threat, but the rest of the world is changing so fast that the president and policymakers down the line need the best information available.
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My Comment: I suspect that such a debate probably happens every year .... wars and conflicts are always shifting. But will President Obama now take the opportunity to rethink the CIA .... I doubt it for the simple reason that the CIA as an institution is now exactly where he wants it.
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