Intelligence Secrets

Having been associated with the intelligence business---either military or civilian-over the past forty years, I believe that the threats to our security have never been greater. Our military strength, and with it our national credibility, has seriously deteriorated in comparison with that of our adversaries over recent years.Therefore, we must rely all the more on our eyes and ears
and wits--our intelligence services--to stay alive and secure. Without good intelligence we are like a blind man stumbling through an uncharted minefield. In such circumstances, the need for protecting our covert personnel--our human sources--is of special urgency. This need is often poorly understood. In some quarters, there is an apparent feeling that old-fashioned espionage is incompatible with our free society. But so long as our adversaries persist in policies threatening our vital interest,and rely on an all-pervasive secrecy in carrying out these policies, we must seek to penetrate this secrecy in order to preserve our tree society.It is also contended that modern technology, with its satellite photography and electronic devices, has made human sources obsolete. These systems do indeed tell us much of enemy capabilities, but little of intentions. Nordo they tell us of the plots and plans of terrorist groups in the cellars of Munich or Milan, in the coffee houses of the Middle East, in the guerrilla hideouts of Latin America. Moreover, we can ill afford to rely too heavily on any single system of intelligence collection, either.