"The function of the intelligence services is to protect the king.
"Many times," he writes, "I have felt myself on the brink of a pessimistic conclusion as to the function of thinking, of intelligence, in society", even to the point of wondering whether "the role of critical intelligence", which he had exercised so often and at such costs to himself, might not be "dangerous, and very nearly useless".
"There is nothing that the ISI does in the United States that is not part of the normal function of intelligence agencies," the embassy official said.
This combined the SIS-style function of intelligence gathering with the SOE one of sabotage.
However, the functions of Competitive Intelligence are often greatly restricted by the lack of sufficient information sources about the competitors.
Imagination is needed to identify attackers, to discover vulnerabilities, to think about a new modus operandi in terrorist attacks, to connect the dots (one of the key functions of intelligence analysis), to preview scenarios, to establish hypothesis to evaluate, to suggest different alternatives, to have different points of view, and to develop new ways and new processes of analysis.
The results reveal that the white matter microstructure differs between individuals as a function of intelligence and sex.
If a critical function of intelligence agencies is to understand the existing international environment and anticipate how governments are going to respond to future events, it is necessary to find out what world leaders are thinking, saying and doing.
The United Nations is keen to protect its mission from activities that might compromise it, and the handling, debriefing and resettlement of defectors is traditionally a function of intelligence agencies.
If Mr Brennan were slowly to shift the CIA away from its heavily paramilitary role of recent years back towards its more traditional function of intelligence gathering and analysis, many in the intelligence community would applaud.
