Opening Up the CIA

8-15-2005

"..."there's no better way to find out what Osama bin Laden's going to
do than to read what he says."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090889,00.html

By TIMOTHY J. BURGER

In what experts say is a welcome nod to common sense, the CIA, having
spent billions over the years on undercover agents, phone taps and the
like, plans to create a large wing in the spookhouse dedicated to
sorting through various forms of data that are not secret--such as
research articles, religious tracts, websites, even phone books--but
yet could be vital to national security.

Senior intelligence officials tell TIME that CIA Director Porter Goss
plans to launch by Oct. 1 an "open source" unit that will greatly expand
on the work of the respected but cash-strapped office that currently
translates foreign-language broadcasts and documents like declarations by
extremist clerics. The budget, which could be in the ballpark of $100
million, is to be carefully monitored by John Negroponte, the Director
of National Intelligence (DNI), who discussed the new division with Goss
in a meeting late last month. "We will want this to be a separate,
identifiable line in the CIA program so we know precisely what this center
has in terms of investment, and we don't want money moved from it
without [Negroponte's] approval," said a senior official in the DNI's
office.

Critics have charged in the past that despite the proven value of
open-source information, the government has tended to give more
prominence to reports gained through cloak-and-dagger efforts. One
glaring example: the CIA failed in 1998 to predict a nuclear test in
India, even though the country's Prime Minister had campaigned on a
platform promising a robust atomic-weapons program.

"If it doesn't have the SECRET stamp on it, it really isn't treated
very seriously," says Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's Osama
bin Laden unit. The idea of an open-source unit didn't gain traction
until a White House commission recommended creating one last spring.
Utilizing it will require "cultural and attitudinal changes," says the
senior DNI official. Sure, watching TV and listening to the radio may
not sound terribly sexy, but, says Scheuer, "there's no better way to
find out what Osama bin Laden's going to do than to read what he
says." --By Timothy J. Burger