Policy makers understanding of intelligence weak: ex-CIA agent

"We need leaders like George Washington and Lincoln who understand intelligence and accept their responsibility for it," says Henry A Crumpton in his book "The Art of Intelligence, Lessons from a Life in the CIA's Clandestine Service" published by Penguin.

Randomness and uncertainty, often acute in times of rapid change, can breed anxiety and fear. We need leaders who embrace intellectual integrity, constructive political discourse and hardnosed governance rather than prideful ignorance, dogmatic rhetoric, and divisive ideology on the left and the right, he says.

As the nature of war continues to shift, the role of intelligence will grow. All citizens, not just the government officials, need a better grasp of intelligence, both its capabilities and its limits, he says.

After the US and the allies won the Cold War and the Iron Curtain collapsed in 1989, many leaders such as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan voiced their doubts about the need for robust intelligence. Some questioned need for a Clandestine service. The Congress cashed in the 'peace dividend' and slashed intelligence budgets to the bone.

"It was as if our leaders expected that geopolitical risk would fade away," Crumpton says.

In the prosperous calm after the Cold War, America as a nation enjoyed a delusional respite, in an imaginary world without serious threats and deadly enemies. Then Al-Qaeda attacked the US in September 2011 and Osama Bin Laden and his 19 hijackers murdered 2977 people. America and the world, shocked and outraged, struggled to grasp what the attack meant. (MORE)