Counterterrorism

Getting the response to terrorism completely wrong

I worked in the CIA Counterterrorism Center during 9/11. At the time, the word I used most often to describe my life was "stressful." Looking back now, the word I would use is "sheltered."

After a terrorist attack, we dug in and worked. It was hard to find time for a bathroom break, much less to pay attention to the U.S. public's response.Short deadlines, demands for briefings and a flood of incoming information meant keeping your head down. Row hard and live.

At the time, I thought it was a hostile environment. It was full of opinionated, argumentative people. We had to defend every word we said and wrote, but everyone more or less kept to the rules hammered into us by our training: Back up arguments with evidence. Provide sources of information and give an honest account of their reliability. Learn to deal with people with different ideas in a more or less professional way and take their ideas into account. Keep emotion out of it.