David McCloskey

What is it? I actually think the best way to think about it is to think about the CIA or sort of the work of the CIA as clandestine journalism. So, if you think about the work that an investigative journalist does, you know, they scope out a story, they go and recruit sources who have information, they put the story together with a whole bunch of disparate, you know, sources, facts,

What is it? I actually think the best way to think about it is to think about the CIA or sort of the work of the CIA as clandestine journalism. So, if you think about the work that an investigative journalist does, you know, they scope out a story, they go and recruit sources who have information, they put the story together with a whole bunch of disparate, you know, sources, facts,

pieces of analysis and they try to put it together into something that is coherent this objective that's not value driven or laden you know in the best cases of investigative journalism and then they report the kind of what why and so what to their readers and i think the cia actually is trying to do something very similar.

pieces of analysis and they try to put it together into something that is coherent this objective that's not value driven or laden you know in the best cases of investigative journalism and then they report the kind of what why and so what to their readers and i think the cia actually is trying to do something very similar.

pieces of analysis and they try to put it together into something that is coherent this objective that's not value driven or laden you know in the best cases of investigative journalism and then they report the kind of what why and so what to their readers and i think the cia actually is trying to do something very similar.

The CIA is out there writing about stories that the president and other American policymakers care about what's going on in the world. We're trying to find sources in the world who will give us that information, sell us that information. And we're trying to put it all together into a picture for the people in our country that make the most important national security decisions.

The CIA is out there writing about stories that the president and other American policymakers care about what's going on in the world. We're trying to find sources in the world who will give us that information, sell us that information. And we're trying to put it all together into a picture for the people in our country that make the most important national security decisions.

The CIA is out there writing about stories that the president and other American policymakers care about what's going on in the world. We're trying to find sources in the world who will give us that information, sell us that information. And we're trying to put it all together into a picture for the people in our country that make the most important national security decisions.

Information gathering and analysis is really what it is. And at its core, the agency, as we call it, exists to provide us and our elected officials with an information advantage. That is why the CIA exists. So we have more information or better information about what's going on in the world than other countries do. Is that all they do? Well, we do other things, but that's the primary objective.

Information gathering and analysis is really what it is. And at its core, the agency, as we call it, exists to provide us and our elected officials with an information advantage. That is why the CIA exists. So we have more information or better information about what's going on in the world than other countries do. Is that all they do? Well, we do other things, but that's the primary objective.

Information gathering and analysis is really what it is. And at its core, the agency, as we call it, exists to provide us and our elected officials with an information advantage. That is why the CIA exists. So we have more information or better information about what's going on in the world than other countries do. Is that all they do? Well, we do other things, but that's the primary objective.

Well, and it's not as entertaining, is it? Obviously, there are what we call covert action pieces of the work, which is when the president decides that they want something done in the world and they want it to be deniable, they'll turn to the CIA. that stuff tends to be more fodder for fiction, more fodder for, you know,

Well, and it's not as entertaining, is it? Obviously, there are what we call covert action pieces of the work, which is when the president decides that they want something done in the world and they want it to be deniable, they'll turn to the CIA. that stuff tends to be more fodder for fiction, more fodder for, you know,

Well, and it's not as entertaining, is it? Obviously, there are what we call covert action pieces of the work, which is when the president decides that they want something done in the world and they want it to be deniable, they'll turn to the CIA. that stuff tends to be more fodder for fiction, more fodder for, you know,

spy entertainment or spytainment as it's sometimes called, it's hard to make. There's a reason why Jack Ryan as an analyst sort of had to have a gun and talk about how this isn't what an analyst was supposed to do because the actual work of an analyst is not car chases and guns and shooting bad guys. It's finding the truth.

spy entertainment or spytainment as it's sometimes called, it's hard to make. There's a reason why Jack Ryan as an analyst sort of had to have a gun and talk about how this isn't what an analyst was supposed to do because the actual work of an analyst is not car chases and guns and shooting bad guys. It's finding the truth.

spy entertainment or spytainment as it's sometimes called, it's hard to make. There's a reason why Jack Ryan as an analyst sort of had to have a gun and talk about how this isn't what an analyst was supposed to do because the actual work of an analyst is not car chases and guns and shooting bad guys. It's finding the truth.

but yeah you're right the agency does other things the agency has covert action work that it does the agency has something that's called a special activities center which does some of the paramilitary work of of the agency but i will stress that although those are very sort of sexy components from a if you're talking about this like a business those would be the pieces of the business that get all the press attention but really you know are a small part of the overall operation

but yeah you're right the agency does other things the agency has covert action work that it does the agency has something that's called a special activities center which does some of the paramilitary work of of the agency but i will stress that although those are very sort of sexy components from a if you're talking about this like a business those would be the pieces of the business that get all the press attention but really you know are a small part of the overall operation

but yeah you're right the agency does other things the agency has covert action work that it does the agency has something that's called a special activities center which does some of the paramilitary work of of the agency but i will stress that although those are very sort of sexy components from a if you're talking about this like a business those would be the pieces of the business that get all the press attention but really you know are a small part of the overall operation