Good literature and bad history: The 9/11 commission's tale of strategic intelligence

Uncritical acceptance of the findings of the 9/11 Commission has obscured how the commission intentionally misrepresented pre-attack strategic intelligence on the threat from Al Qaeda. The commission staff used such techniques as highly selective use of material, partial truths, irrelevant references, plays on words, quotations out of context, and suggestive language leading to false inferences to portray as weak what had been a strong strategic analytical performance. The commission's misrepresentation corrupted history, damaged public understanding of the role of intelligence in counterterrorism, and helped to build support for a reorganization scheme that has made US counterterrorist intelligence worse rather than better.     

Books in review

She has written widely on sociological and cultural aspects of psychoanalysis. Her most recent book, Feminists and Freudians: A Comparative Perspective,has just been published in German and is forthcoming in English.     

Appendix: a reconnaissance of Canadian administrative reform during the early 1990s

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to provide background information for discussions at the National Seminar on Decentralization and Power Sharing on 15–17 October 1993 in St. Andrew's, New Brunswick. It emerged out of a concern that the literature has not managed to convey a sense of the extent and nature of administrative reform under way in Canada. Senior public servants working for nine provincial governments were contacted during the summer of 1993 in order to obtain documents and their views on developments in administrative and program reform during the early 1990s.* The information was first presented at the national seminar and was subsequently reviewed by provincial contacts in late 1993, who often suggested additional modifications. Our reconnaissance moves from west to east, and ends with observations about developments at the federal level. We did not delve into aboriginal and federalprovincial issues since other papers were to take up these subjects, but if officials noted that such issues were part of their administrative reform agenda, then we mentioned them. Officials from New Brunswick emphasized regional initiatives in the eastern provinces and we chose to leave that discussion in that section. Given the limited resources and time available for undertaking this survey of developments, it should not be construed as a definitive history of recent reform within each jurisdiction. Nevertheless, we do think this reconnaissance conveys the current tumult in Canada's public sector; governments at all levels are in the midst of significant restructuring, and this will continue for the foreseeable future. Sommaire: Afin de créer une base empirique pour le débat qui devait avoir lieu au Colloque national sur la décentralisation et le partage des pouvoirs, les 15–17 octobre 1993, à St. Andrew's, au Nouveau-Brunswick, nous avons contacté des fonctionnaires supérieurs de neuf provinces afin d'obtenir des documents et des avis sur l'évolution recente des réformes administratives et des révisions de programmes au début des années 1990 (pour l'Ontario, nous nous en sommes remis à un article récent de Lindquist et White). L'article a d'abord été présenté au Colloque national, puis a été analysé par quelques personnes au niveau provincial, qui ont suggéré des modifications supplémentaires. L'article couvre le terrain en partant de l'ouest vers l'est, et conclut par des observations concernant le niveau fédéral. Nous n'avions pas l'intention de nous occuper des questions autochtones et fédérales-provinciales puisque d'autres articles devaient en traiter, mais nous les avons quand même mentionnées lorsque des fonctionnaires signalaient ces questions comme étant à l'ordre du jour de Ieur réforme administrative. Ces analyses ne constituent pas l'histoire définitive des réformes au sein de chaque juridiction, mais elles reflètent bien les bouleversements qui ont frappé le secteur public au Canada. Les gouvernements canadiens sont aux prises avec une restructuration importante à tous les paliers, et notre survol de la question indique que cette situation se poursuivra.     

Young adults' scores on the defining issues test as a function of a “self” versus “other” presentation mode

One hundred college students were randomly divided into four groups and were administered the standard version (i.e., other-orientation) of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and/or a Modified version (i.e., self-orientation) of the same instrument on two separate occasions. Subjects displayed greater amounts of principled moral reasoning when responding to the standard (other-orientation) rather than the modified (self-orientation) version of the DIT. Also, significant test-retest reliability was obtained for the standard, but not the modified, version of the DIT. The role of affective factors in the evaluation of moral problems involving the self versus hypothetical others was discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association, St. Louis, Missouri, May 1980.Received M.A. from the State University of New York at Oswego. Current research interests are moral development, social cognition across the life-span.Received Ph.D. from Purdue University. Current research interests are children's cognitive development, eidetic imagery, and moral thinking.Received Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Current research interests are logical concept development and moral and political development.