Commentary
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence maintains a public-facing website for the disclosure of various unclassified reports and publications (here). Some of the reports are updated and produced annually, for example, the “2023 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.”
This report generalizes the mission of the Intel Community as “providing the nuanced, independent, and unvarnished intelligence that policymakers, warfighters, and domestic law enforcement personnel need to protect American lives and America’s interests anywhere in the world.”
The key word in that mission statement is “nuanced,” as public reports of this nature are written to reflect the political will, intentions, and strategy of the civilian leadership of the federal government, for example, the president of the United States. In short, the IC frequently matches its analyses and recommendations to the desired expectations of the current White House occupants….