The Craft of Intelligence

If you don’t know anything about nuclear reactors, there is little you can discover about one, even when you are standing right next to it.

the kind of man who is equipped by his training to breach them is not likely to have the technical knowledge that will enable him to make a useful report on the complex targets that exist nowadays.

Clandestine intelligence collection is chiefly a matter of circumventing obstacles in order to reach an objective.

When we try to make a mystery out of everything relating to intelligence, we tend to dissipate our effort to maintain the security of operations where secrecy is essential to success.

ame just another government office. Too much secrecy can be self-defeating just as too much talking can be dangerous.

ame just another government office. Too much secrecy can be self-defeating just as too much talking can be dangerous.

ame just another government office. Too much secrecy can be self-defeating just as too much talking can be dangerous.

Too much secrecy can be self-defeating just as too much talking can be dangerous.

It is well to remember that what is told to the public also gets to the enemy

In 1815, while Europe awaited news of the Battle of Waterloo, Nathan Rothschild in London already knew that the British had been victorious. In order to make a financial killing, he then depressed the market by selling British Government securities; those who watched his every move in the market did likewise, concluding that Waterloo had been lost by the British and their allies. At the proper moment he bought back in at the low, and when the news was finally generally known, the value of government securities naturally soared.