Greg Newby wrote:

In case it's not already obvious, Steele has a clue. I heard him speak at H2K last year. He's either the world's greatest liar, or has a tremendous background and authority on how the goverment handles secret and subversive activities.

I'd definitely put my money on the latter--he has excellent sources and knows a lot of tremendously cool people. For example, you might be interested in the following book by a man who used to be on the Church Committee who spoke at Steele's conference a couple of months ago. Serious analysis by a brilliant thinker and a real pro. Worth a look! Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of Information Gregory F. Treverton Description Government intelligence today has many targets, numerous consumers - not all of whom are American or in the government - and too much information, most of which is not owned by the US government and of widely varying reliability. In this bold and penetrating study, Gregory Treverton, former Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council and Senate investigator, offers his insider's views on how intelligence gathering and analysis must change. He suggests why intelligence needs to be both contrarian, leaning against the conventional wisdom, and attentive to the longer term, leaning against the growing shorter time horizons of Washington policy makers. He urges that the solving of intelligence puzzles tap expertise outside government - in the academy, think tanks, and Wall Street - to make these parties colleagues and co-consumers of intelligence, befitting the changed role of government from doer to convener, mediator, and coalition-builder. Chapter Contents 1. The imperative of reshaping; 2. The world of intelligence beyond 2010; 3. The militarization of intelligence; 4. Designated readers: the open source revolution; 5. Spying, looking and catching criminals; 6. The intelligence of policy; 7. A reshaped intelligence. Price: GBP 24.95 ISBN: 052158096X http://uk.cambridge.org/politics/catalogue/052158096X/default.htm