Author Shorrock does the nation a great service in providing a basis for discussion of the out-sourcing of intelligence and IT support functions to private industry by federal agencies. For this I would have given him five stars, but it is evident his theme is that such out-sourcing is generally a subversion of the proper function of government and its control by representatives of the people. To this end, he seems to select those incidents that favor his viewpoint, rather than presenting the situation in an impartial manner for the reader to draw his own conclusions. By this I do not mean that the author should not present his own analysis and conclusions -- only that the facts should not be presented with perjorative adjectives and snide comments concerning personal and corporate motives. As an ex-intelligence officer, I certainly would have moved into a private corporation where my skills could have been used to help fulfill the security mission of the Federal Government had personal circumstances not intervened, and I like to think my motives would have been more aligned with satisfaction in accomplishing the mission than for personal profit.
At any rate, this is an important work, and my views of Shorrock's book are almost isomorphic with those contained in the reviews by Steele and "Retired Reader."
With respect to the issue of private corporations being restricted to not breaking the law (either international, US, or any any other country's), one must realise that the gathering of covert HUMINT essentially ALWAYS involves breaking someone's laws. If a contractor is expressly forbidden to do this or is to be held accountable for such trangressions, then contractors cannot perform positive intelligence gathering functions. Unfortunately, at the present time the CIA and all other agencies involved in covert intelligence gathering are clearly incapable of fulfilling their missions in this regard without using private contractors. Regardless of the reasons for this lack of in-agency capability, to eliminate private contractors as the author seems to desire, would be to put America's security at grave risk.
There are solutions to this problem, but the author seems more intent on promoting his leftist agenda than in addressing the issues with the clear goal of improving America's intelligence. Yes, the use of private contractors has gone too far, but what level of private contracting and for what functions would be appropriate? And how do we get to that appropriate level? Alas, these questions were missing in this book, and unfortunately I have not found them yet in any other.
Lastly, allow me to register my disappointment with the reaction to this book. To date, there have been only six reviews and judging from the ratings pro and con on the reviews, I would estimate that the number of readers of the reviews are not more than forty. That's pretty insignificant when one considers the importance of the book's topic, and shows the lack of public interest in this subject. Something is terribly wrong with the US reading public when banal books like those by Friedman and Zakaria promoting the U.S.'s submission to international organizations and globalism receive thousands of reviews and ratings and books on the condition of the CIA and intelligence out-sourcing draw almost no interest.
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Geoff Hill
A poor effort at dealing with such a vital topic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 27, 2013
