ODNI Documents Respond to Washington Post’s Top Secret America Series

Q&A on the IC Post-9/11 and Truth about Contractors address some of the issues raised in the Washington Post series but the tone is dry, defensive, and bureaucratic.

This is the kind of communication that doesn’t really appeal to anyone except the people who created it. It certainly won’t win any converts. This highlights what has always been a challenge for the IC – balancing effective public relations and secrecy. My problem with that is that not only should it be a priority for them but they should have mastered it by now. In fact, they should be better at it than anyone else – period.

Perhaps this mess will highlight the need for the IC to aggressively move beyond damage control as a PR strategy. It’s time to kill the lame brochureware web sites, limit the dry memos to internal use or policy wonks, and engage the American people.