News & Events

“A Year of Terror Plots, Through a Second Prism,” by Scott Shane, The New York Times (1/13/2010)

But even that near miss, said Mark M. Lowenthal, assistant director of the Central Intelligence Agency for analysis from 2002 to 2005, may offer indirect evidence of the enemy’s diminished strength, compared with the coordinated attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“Sending one guy on one plane is a huge step down,” Mr. Lowenthal said. “They’re less capable, even if they’re still lethal. They’re not able to carry out the intense planning they once did.”

“Let’s not become our own worst enemy,” Mark Lowenthal, McClatchy (1/15/2010)

Everyone should take a deep breath and stop flapping about the “failure” to identify Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as a likely terrorist. What went wrong — and what’s gone right?

Yes, there were disparate pieces of information that — if they were put together correctly and on time — might have sounded an alarm about Abdulmutallab before he got on Northwest Flight 253 in Amsterdam. Were they, however, of sufficient magnitude to force agencies to focus on him? One of the many misconceptions swirling around this incident is the nature of intelligence analysis, and especially analysis about potential terrorists.

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“La première crise du renseignement du président Obama,” by Mark M. Lowenthal, Le Figaro (10/10/2010)

Le Président Obama continue d’avoir une relation décidément ambivalente avec le renseignement américain. La dernière preuve en est le langage extrêmement rude qu’il a employé pour décrire la façon dont le renseignement a « échoué » dans le partage de ses informations, en permettant à Umar Abdulmutallab d’embarquer à bord d’un avion à destination des États-Unis.

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“Making Them Talk,” by Tim Starks, Congressional Quarterly (10/01/2010)

“You could triple the size of the NCTC and still have the same problem,” said Mark Lowenthal, who served as vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2002 to 2005. “We’re in a war. I don’t want to sound cold about this, but casualties occur in wars. The idea that you can fight a campaign and never suffer consequences is delusory.”

“Obama Details New Policies in Response to Terror Threat,” by Jeff Zeleny and Helene Cooper, New York Times (1/7/2010)

“You can’t ask analysts to think faster,” said Mark M. Lowenthal, who was the C.I.A.’s assistant director for analysis from 2002 to 2005. “And the president’s solution to have analysts share more information sooner is only going to exacerbate the problem that got us into this flap in the first place.”

“CIA Operatives Killed by Double Agent, Ex-U.S. Official Says,” by Jeff Bliss, Bloomberg.com (1/6/2010)

“This has to be one of the highest losses in a single bombing” in the agency’s history, said Mark Lowenthal, a former CIA assistant director for analysis and production. “To lose seven at one time, that’s a bit staggering.”

“We have to rethink that part of the program,” said Lowenthal, now president and chief executive officer of Intelligence & Security Academy LLC in Reston, Virginia. “These people are dedicated” to their cause, making it hard to gain their loyalty.

“CIA Workers Killed in Afghanistan as U.S. Steps Up Spying Role,” by Viola Gienger, Bloomberg.com (01/01/2009)

“This has to be one of the highest losses in a single bombing” in the agency’s history, said Mark Lowenthal, a former CIA assistant director for analysis and production. “To lose seven at one time, that’s a bit staggering.”

The Taliban claimed responsibility, Agence France-Presse reported earlier. The chief of the CIA base, a mother of three, was among those killed, according to the Associated Press, which cited former agency officials.

CIA officers operating from such a base regularly mingle with the local population as part of their job, so it wouldn’t be unheard-of that an attacker could slip through security, Lowenthal said.

We are very proud to announce that faculty member Caryn Wagner has been nominated by President Obama to be the Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis, Department of Homeland Security.

“President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts,” White House press release (10/23/2009)

“Obama Administration to Release Detainee Abuse Photos; Former CIA Official Says Former Colleagues ‘Don’t Believe They Have Cover Anymore,’” ABC News.com (April 24, 2009 10:23 AM)

Calling the ACLU push to release the photographs “prurient” and “reprehensible,” Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, tells ABC News that the Obama administration should have taken the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

“They should have fought it all the way; if they lost, they lost,” Lowenthal said. “There’s nothing to be gained from it. There’s no substantive reason why those photos have to be released.”

Lowenthal said the president’s moves in the last week have left many in the CIA dispirited, based on “the undercurrent I’ve been getting from colleagues still in the building, or colleagues who have left not that long ago.”

“We ask these people to do extremely dangerous things, things they’ve been ordered to do by legal authorities, with the understanding that they will get top cover if something goes wrong,” Lowenthal says. “They don’t believe they have that cover anymore.” Releasing the photographs “will make it much worse,” he said.

Even though President Obama has announced that the Justice Department will not prosecute CIA officers who were operating within the four corners of what they’d been told was the law, Lowenthal says members of the CIA are worried. “They feel exposed already, and this is going to increase drumbeat for an investigation or a commission” to explore detainee treatment during the Bush years, he said. “It’s going to make it much harder to resist, and they fear they’re then going to be thrown over.”

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Lowenthal said his former colleagues at the CIA were “put off” by President Obama’s trip to the CIA earlier this week. “I don’t think the president’s speech went down very well, particularly the part when he said they made mistakes. They don’t think they made mistakes. They think they acted to execute policy. And those in the intelligence service don’t make policy.”

“Spy-Agency Revision Triggers Turf War,” by Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal (5/12/2008)

“It’s about power, and while everybody wants to do this for the good of their system, nobody wants to totally give up power to do it,” said Mark Lowenthal, a former senior manager for the director of central intelligence, the post that preceded the new intelligence director.