Intel ethos and practice

The CIA Road Show

“The American people have the right to know the types of activities that their federal government performs on their behalf,” CIA Director John Brennan said on Tuesday at the Ethos and Practice of Intelligence Conference. It was the third annual installment of this CIA-sponsored confab, which was held at George Washington University’s Center for Cyber and Homeland Security and featured a buffet of intelligence insiders. Brennan opened the conference with a pious set of remarks about the value of the intel community, with a few civic-minded homilies thrown in for sweetener. Total secrecy “is no longer a feasible option,” he said; besides, it was “not reasonable” for democracies. “But this does not mean opening our doors wide,” Brennan cautioned, calling secrecy a “necessary element” for what intelligence professionals do, even as they must resist “secrecy for secrecy’s sake.”