Lost Promise describes and critiques the Directorate of Intelligence of the Central Intelligence Agency of the analytical arm of the agency. Gentry first describes the DI's historical and avowed mission, and in so doing, he sets a standard for comparison with the troubled operations of the DI since the early 1980s. He proposes an 18-point reform program and helps to lift the fog that surrounds the CIA and which protects it from serious external evaluation. Gentry corrects misunderstandings about CIA analysis and explains how analysis can become biased or "politicized." Lost Promise presents a framework for general intelligence evaluation, using the DI as a case study.
BContents: I PART I: CIA's Directorate of Intelligence; The Institution in Practice; How It Got That Way; Implications of Current Practices; Recommendations for Reform; A Primer on Review and Politicization; Lessons of the 1991 Gates Nomination for DCI. PART II: Perception Versus Reality; Explanations, Corrections, and Comments; Toward a Critics' Paradigm; Appendix: CIA Credo; Glossary of Intelligence Acronyms; Figures (including photographs and portraits).