The debate about whether the Obama administration misled Americans about the Benghazi terrorist attack continues to make lazy circles in the sky. As you ponder the scraps of news about what the intelligence community knew and when the intelligence community knew it, it might be helpful to remember that the IC is not designed to produce information that the public 24/7 news cycle can consume. It is designed to produce information quickly — yes — but NOT the type of information the public necessarily wants or expects. The IC's processes work to add value to policy-makers so they can make better decisions. They do not work to give policy-makers accurate talking points, or even the latest raw information. And the more the IC is pressed to adapt its workflows to fit the public/political demands of the moment, the more their product will suffer.
Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large, and writes The Compass blog. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.
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