The phrase "absence of intelligence" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a situation, behavior, or characteristic where there is a lack of intelligence or understanding.
Example: "The absence of intelligence in his argument made it difficult to take him seriously."
Alternatives: "lack of intelligence" or "deficiency in intelligence."
Once again, the problem is not an absence of intelligence; the problem is having too much intelligence to add up intelligently.
And, when I say 'clever', I mean a word that denotes the complete absence of intelligence.
So for a hopeful N.F.L. quarterback, intelligence cannot affect draftability – only the absence of intelligence can.
Administration sources have told the media that in the tribal areas of Pakistan, men of fighting age are assumed to be combatant targets in the absence of intelligence to the contrary.
Instead, the commission said that U.S. officials have been too reliant on such "warning intelligence," and tended to relax their guard in the absence of intelligence reports describing specific dangers.
A month after United States officials expressed confidence that they had cornered Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora, they now acknowledge that they have lost track of the terrorist leader and are increasingly frustrated over the virtual absence of intelligence on his whereabouts.
But Dr Wright has now raised fresh concerns about the system in Jamaica - no blood testing, no test for EPO, a complete absence of intelligence-led testing and potential conflicts of interest involving the directors of Jadco, who represent sports at the same time as sitting on the country's anti-doping board.
In the absence of new intelligence, we'd review old intelligence.
In the absence of hard intelligence, it is incumbent on the intelligence chief to try to imagine the unimaginable.
"In Iraq the failures of covert intelligence were compounded by the absence of political intelligence: a comprehensive lack of the understanding of sectarian forces and fault lines present across the country," he disclosed recently.
One official who has read the report said counterterrorism officials regularly complained about the absence of human intelligence from the Afghanistan camps, saying that counterterrorism analysts were forced to rely on reports from foreign intelligence services, satellite imagery and intercepted communications, none of which detected any advance sign of the impending attacks.
