Intel reform

Ingatius: New CIA chief should continue organizational reforms

The CIA needs to be leaner, flatter and more able to operate secretly; some of Brennan’s reforms instead created a more complicated and confusing organization chart. Analysts and operations officers have different skills and career paths, and Brennan’s attempt to treat them all as “intelligence officers first” risked producing a homogenized culture with a duller edge.

To understand the CIA, it helps to think of it as a fancy high school. The cool kids on campus have always been the operators. The analysts were un-cool: brainy, fussy about their independence but socially introverted. It’s telling that two former senior operations officers both described Brennan’s effort as “the revenge of the nerds.” The CIA wasn’t exactly “Mean Girls,” but it was close.