Spy school needed for Britain's intelligence recruits, says thinktank
New British spy recruits would benefit from an "intelligence academy", according to a leading thinktank.
By Chris Irvine Last Updated: 10:46AM BST 19 Sep 2008
The London-base International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) suggests a "school for spies" is needed to prevent a repeat of scandals such as the Iraqi weapons fiasco.
The IISS concluded that British intelligence officials would benefit from the new academy.
It said a "unified intelligence academy could be established to provide a basic training course for all new entrant to the intelligence community".
The academy would also serve as a "staff college for members of the intelligence community about to assume senior management positions".
The report suggested there have been few concrete changes since the Iraq weapons dossier, despite promises of reform.
According to the survey, serious mistakes were made during the build-up to the Iraq conlfict as a result of a "lack of rigour" in testing claims made by agents from intelligence service MI6.
It also noted the one agency that did question claims made in the dossier, the Defence Intelligence Staff, has since been cut by 20 per cent.
It said: "The problem was not so much one of intelligence analysis as of the inability of the UK's analytical community to put themselves into the minds of those whose behaviour they were analysing.
Speaking of Saddam Hussein's regime, it added: "At no point did anyone consider the possibility that, to contradict former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, absence of evidence might in fact indicate evidence of absence."
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