U.S. intel chief wants quicker distribution, stronger ‘technical performance’
By Ben Iannotta
January 08, 2010
A statement issued late Thursday by the top U.S. intelligence official suggests that technical shortcomings in the intelligence process might have contributed to the failure of analysis cited in the official White House review of the Detroit underwear bomber incident.
“We will take a fresh and penetrating look at strengthening both human and technical performance and do what we have to do in all areas,” said Dennis C. Blair, director of national intelligence, in the prepared statement.
Blair said he will “oversee and manage” work including steps to distribute “intelligence reports more quickly and widely, especially those suggesting specific threats against the U.S.”
Earlier, the president’s assistant for counterterrorism, and the official White House review of the incident, said shortcomings in intelligence sharing — an oft-cited cause for the country’s failure to stop the Sept. 11 terror attacks — was not the issue in the Detroit bomber case.
“We don't have that anymore. There’s better interoperability,” said John Brennan, Obama’s adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism. “More places have access to more of those dots that come in.”
Brennan said the intelligence community needs to “leverage the access to those dots so we can bring it up and identify all of these threats.”