Historian Richard Immerman: CIA is ?awed

The CIA has a flaw — it has abandoned its original mission as an intelligence analysis agency, a historian and former government employee said Tuesday in a speech to about 50 people.

Richard Immerman, a former assistant deputy director of national intelligence at the U.S. State Department, gave a lecture in Hamilton Hall as part of a lecture series put on by UNC’s history department.

He said he is critical of the CIA’s transition from an intelligence analysis agency to one that predominately directs covert operations.

“The CIA’s architecture was flawed from design and flawed by design,” Immerman said.

He said the military should direct covert operations rather than intelligence agencies.

“CIA intelligence should support paramilitary operations, but it should not undertake them or exercise authority over them,” he said.

He believes the military should have led Operation Neptune Spear — the code name for the operation to assassinate Osama bin Laden.

“I’m recommending that the government or the CIA reconsider its decision to place responsibility for covert or paramilitary activities within the CIA,” Immerman said in an interview.

Immerman said a lack of oversight in the intelligence analysis sector causes communication problems between the intelligence collectors and the analysts.

He experienced these relationships firsthand during his two years within the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Immerman was working at Temple University when he was first contacted by the State Department in 2007 for his expertise as a historian.

He returned to the university after a two-year hiatus, and he now serves as the director of the university’s Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy.

He said officials solicited his help to increase the rigor of intelligence analysis in the 17 separate agencies within the Intelligence Community.

During his two years with the State Department, Immerman said he observed the relationship between the collectors and the analysts.

He said that there is a lack of trust between them, which causes inefficient analysis.

Klaus Larres, a UNC history professor, organized the event as part of the “U.S in World Affairs: The Cold War & Beyond” lecture series.

Larres said the series is designed to provide students with research analysis on U.S. foreign policy.

“It will certainly enlighten our students regarding an important dimension of America’s foreign policy during the Cold War,” Larres said.

Senior Australian exchange student Emily Baker said she enjoyed the lecture.

“I found it interesting to hear about an in-depth historical analysis of how intelligence processing developed in the U.S. and how that impacts today.”

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