Hitz '61 criticizes 'cultural divide' between intelligence agencies

Before an audience of community members and a smattering of students in Dodds Auditorium, Hitz outlined the fundamental differences between the challenges that confronted the intelligence community during the Cold War and those that it faces in a post-Sept. 11, 2001 world.

“The best way to deal with Islamist terrorism is not through the military,” said Hitz, who retired from the CIA in 1998.

He pointed to the difficulty of recruiting individuals to spy on terrorist organizations.

Cold War intelligence sources were lured to provide information to U.S. agents by such factors as strong beliefs in American ideology, money, revenge and the “James Bond trilogy” of sex, intimidation and blackmail, Hitz said. He noted that it is harder to corrupt potential intelligence sources today.

“We aren’t going to get access [to intelligence sources on terrorist organizations] through the traditional ways, by throwing embassy cocktail parties,” Hitz joked.

Hitz said that there was a “breakdown in analytical tradecraft” on gathering intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He explained that there was no human intelligence in Iraq between 1991 — when the last CIA source left — and 2002, when U.N. weapons inspectors were granted access.

He characterized the Bush administration’s claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction as “much too confirmatory about conclusions,” especially given the utter lack of viable intelligence sources on the ground.

Likewise, Hitz saw Sept. 11, 2001 as the result of a lack of collaboration between intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. He criticized the “cultural divide” between intelligence agencies such as the CIA and law-enforcement organizations such as the FBI. “In this business information is power. We can’t afford not to share it,” he said.

Hitz was also critical of post-9/11 intelligence reforms. “[The Department of] Homeland Security is a layering that adds nothing to the bottom line,” he said, expressing concern that the behemoth intelligence organization, comprising 16 agencies, had the “potential for a lot of overlap.”

To resolve these intelligence failures, Hitz recommended investing in people fluent in Middle Eastern languages, overcoming America’s recent “going it alone” attitude and repudiating the “disregard for human rights.”

He lamented the “undercutting” of invaluable international relationships and the use of divisive practices like torture and extraordinary rendition.

Highlighting the need for more human resources in the intelligence community, Hitz noted that 27 percent of the intelligence community’s personnel is provided by private sector contractors or retired intelligence professionals. He noted that only 50 percent of the community’s “onboard strength” or manpower was present before 9/11.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Hitz’ call for public service extended beyond the intelligence community, though. He encouraged students to work for the Peace Corps and nonprofits like Teach For America.

“What I found most interesting is the role that academia would play in Hitz’ vision, that open-source research can benefit national security,” Eddie Skolnick ’12 said. “I got the sense that we can make a difference.”