In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It's necessary to understand what real intelligence work is. It will never cease. It's absolutely essential that we have it. At its best, it is simply the left arm of healthy governmental curiosity. It brings to a strong government what it needs to know. It's the collection of information, a journalistic job, if you will, but done in secret.
The intelligence community, for the most part, has no accountability at all; to the Congress, to us the American people, and so they feel that they above the law.
By definition, intelligence deals with the unclear, the unknown, the deliberately hidden. What the enemies of the United States hope to deny we work to reveal.
Intelligence collection is not confined to the communications of adversaries or of the guilty. Rather, it's about gaining information otherwise unavailable that would help keep Americans safe and free.
You want to keep intelligence separate from policy.
The United States, like any great power, is always going to have an intelligence operation, and some electronic surveillance is obligatory in the modern world.
I certainly believe that improving our intelligence is of important national interest.
Presidents get to decide how their intelligence is served up to them, and it's the job of intelligence to adjust.
In the aftermath of September 11, and as the 9/11 Commission report so aptly demonstrates, it is clear that our intelligence system is not working the way that it should.
I have always accepted intelligence was an honorable profession. We are all mindful of the need to comply with our moral values and the law.