DNI Establishes Intelligence Transparency Council
The notion of “intelligence transparency,” which once would have been considered an oxymoron, is instead becoming institutionalized with the establishment of a new Intelligence Transparency Council. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper signed the Charter of the new Council on April 5.
The Council includes representatives of each of the 17 Intelligence Community member agencies. Its role is to identify and promote appropriate areas for intelligence-related transparency and specifically to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the 2015 Principles of Intelligence Transparency.
For a start, the Council is supposed to “ensure that the public has information that clearly presents the mission, authorities, and oversight mechanism that direct and guide the IC.”
Beyond that, it will also “serve as the principal mechanism to identify possible new priority IC transparency topics to be selected by the DNI and IC leadership for implementation” and it will “establish interagency working groups to address specific transparency topics, as appropriate, in order to advance IC transparency efforts.”
As an inward-looking body that mostly meets behind closed doors, the Intelligence Transparency Council seems to be an internal forum for grappling with questions of increased disclosure, rather than an obvious public relations ploy. The Charter envisions votes and procedures for resolving disagreements, implying that the Council could serve a decision-making function.
Significantly, the Charter signed last week by DNI Clapper will remain in effect for five years. This means that “intelligence transparency” is likely to endure as a problem and a challenge well into the next Administration.
The incoming administration must act to address bias in medical technology at the development, testing and regulation, and market-deployment and evaluation phases.
Increasingly, U.S. national security priorities depend heavily on bolstering the energy security of key allies, including developing and emerging economies. But U.S. capacity to deliver this investment is hamstrung by critical gaps in approach, capability, and tools.
Most federal agencies consider the start of the hiring process to be the development of the job posting, but the process really begins well before the job is posted and the official clock starts.
The new Administration should announce a national talent surge to identify, scale, and recruit into innovative teacher preparation models, expand teacher leadership opportunities, and boost the profession’s prestige.