Back to Basics (for the CIA)

Danger Room: Post-Petraeus CIA Should Kill Less and Spy More, Former Chiefs Say

Nearly every major international security concern facing Petraeus’ successors is, in essence, a question of intelligence: What is Iran’s nuclear capability, really? Which way will the Syrian civil war go? Why is China building up its Navy so fast? What the hell is Kim Jong-Un up to? “Those are things that you’re not going to learn through diplomacy or through press reporting. And that takes you to intelligence,” John E. McLaughlin, the CIA’s former acting director, tells Danger Room. ”The biggest challenge may be the sheer volume of problems that require intelligence input.”