In Fired Up or Burned Out I wrote about how Knowledge Traps have sabotaged the American intelligence community’s performance. A former intelligence professional sent me a link to recent discoveries by the press that makes it clear this continues to be a problem. Consider the following:
- According to CBS News, as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed “The Nigerian,” suspected of meeting with “terrorist elements” in Yemen.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, the father of Mr. Abdulmutallab warned the CIA of his son’s likely radicalization at the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. That led to a broader gathering of agencies the next day, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department, in which the information was shared.
- According to CNN, information on Abdulmutallab, including his passport number and possible connection to extremists, had been sent to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, but it sat there for five weeks and was not disseminated.
- Also according to the Wall Street Journal, the National Security Agency who had been monitoring former Guantanamo detainees in Yemen had communications intercepts suggesting a Nigerian was being prepped for a terror strike by al Qaeda operatives in that country.
- And the Washington Post reports that not only did the British government reject an Abdulmutallab visa application this May, but that British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that U.S. officials should have been told about the rejection and that he believes they were.
Unless the Director of National Intelligence (DCI) Admiral Dennis Blair is intentional about establishing a culture in the overall intelligence community that understands what Knowledge Traps are and how to create the Knowledge Flow necessary to remove them, it is likely that we will continue to experience less than optimal performance in intelligence. Several high-ranking individuals in the intelligence and defense communities have been advocates of our work in this area and we hope to spend more time helping them this coming year.
