Opening comments by Ms. Sabra Horne, DNI
The opening speaker talked about the needs to “transcend” the boundaries of the Intelligence community. I’m staggered by the diversity of the conference attendees: 1,800 people were selected from 3,500 applicants. These individuals represent 80 colleges and university, 47 think tanks, 56 NGO’s, State, tribal, local officials, 38 states, 370 private firms, 60 media outlets, 38 countries around the world, and of course representatives from around the Intel Community.
My thoughts: This to me represents a fundamental change in mindset; we’re all on the same team. We’re all concerned about terrorism and security. Think about how radical this conference is (in only its second year). Sharing this information would once have been an “Operational Security” concern (don’t share or the enemy could pick up on what the intel folks are collecting on). To paraphrase someone I met recently, “Secrecy is one way to gain an intelligence advantage. Speed and collaboration are others.”
