A Failure of Imagination

  Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned  

As I write this, the 9/11 Commission has just issued ititial report on the facts and circumstances that led up the world-changing events of September 11, 2001.

Interestingly, the broad label the Commission came up with to brand the root causes of the national intelligence gathering and other failures that contributed to the events and their aftermath is "a failure of imagination."

Specifically, with regard to the failure of the intelligence and national security communities (the CIA, FBI, DIA, National Security Council and many others, including similar organizations in other nations) to marshal their capabilities to help deal with the growing threat of transnational terrorist organizations, the commission found that "There was no comprehensive review of what the intelligence community knew and what it did not know, and what that meant."

The Commission's recommendations include creating a new intelligence "Czar," as he/she is sometimes called, to oversee all of the myriad intelligence gathering organizations; "unifying the many participants in the counterterrorism effort and their knowledge in a networked-based information sharing system that transcends traditional government boundaries"; and "determining guidelines for information sharing in the new security systems that are needed" (e.g., non-intelligence specific systems such as …

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