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Sins of Commission
An agency is in competition with another over scarce resources.
In furtherance of that end a supervisor approaches a junior analyst
and asks for a product with a specific conclusion. When the
analyst tells her supervisor that she's not sure the data supports
that conclusion, the supervisor replies: “C'mon, you can make
statistics say anything.”
Sins of commission, where someone in power attempts to
strong arm an analyst to deliver a particular judgment,
are rare among those agencies that have a strong tradition
of professionalism and where analysts are able to
progress beyond the lowest levels of the organization.
Yet, in the United States, the past decade has seen an explosion
of domestic intelligence personnel in law enforcement
and 'homeland security' agencies. Most of these
agencies have little or no orientation or traditions in intelligence
analysis, are fragmented with few analytical personnel
and rarely afford analysts the opportunity to rise
within the organization to positions with decision making
authority.
It is under these conditions where analysts are most likely
to be directed to produce politicized analysis and also
where they will have the fewest opportunities for redress.
Difficult ethical decisions
impact on our career
paths…
Raising questions about practices
like those discussed above, can be
problematic - even for experienced intelligence
personnel. While in the federal
intelligence community, raising
such questions may result in a transfer
to a less desirable post or delayed career
advancement, in the law enforcement or
counter-terrorism communities the consequences
can be much longer lasting.
Many analysts in those communities
work for small agencies and have few
career opportunities other than moving
to other agencies. Acquiring a reputa-
Categories of ethical dilemmas
Travels with Shiloh
tion as not being a
'team player' can effectively
destroy a career via
informal channels.
Expecting analysts to both be
aware of ways in which their work
can be manipulated (consciously or
not) and expecting them to act as
warning system to prevent that occurring
without training or support may
just be too much for them to bear.
New intelligence analysts frequently
come into their agency wanting to both
ethics
Sins of Omission
A political protest erupts in cities around the country. The
protestors are dedicated to non-violence and, despite attracting
large numbers of supporters, engage in little serious criminal
activity. Yet, the movement attracts the attention of law enforcement
and counter-terrorism officials who demand a steady
stream of products linking the protest to other, violent movements
despite little to no evidence of any such connection. As
intelligence resources are focused on the movement, other criminal
and terrorist threats are given lower priority and attention.
A more common and subtle ethical issue for intelligence
analysts falls into this category. Intelligence personnel
may be directed to focus their energies towards a particular
conclusion for any number of biases or interests. The
end result, however, remains the same. Analytical judgments
are influenced and manipulated based upon the parameters
under which intelligence personnel directed.
As in the case of the search for WMDs in Iraq, repeated
requests to find evidence of a particular threat, along with
increasing amounts of resources devoted to the question,
inevitably leads to increased reporting. Often this reporting
involves information of decreasing quality or repetitive
reporting but its quantity can lead to superficial
assessments that threats exist where they really don't.
make a good impression
and a difference in their community.
The important nature of the work, culture
of hierarchy and presence of people
of great experience, even if in a
non-intelligence field, can make the
pressures against raising concerns formidable
at best.
October 2012 Foreknowledge 11