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Responding to the recommendation in the Butler Report of 2004 that intelligence analysis should be professionalised, the Cabinet Office has set up a course at King's College, London, which teaches analysis to new and mid-career members of the civilian and military intelligence agencies.
One night a week for ten weeks, the students consider a range of topics and are required to submit a dissertation at the end in order to gain their qualification. The course is presided over by Sir David Omand (right), former director of GCHQ.
The stimulating syllabus attempts to draw lessons from a range of activities similar to intelligence gathering and analysis. The emphasis is on logical thought tempered by healthy scepticism about the reliability and accuracy of sources.
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| Sir David Omand's syllabus draws from a range of activities similar to intelligence gathering |
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The 'What could we learn from detection?' section examines Sherlock Holmes's techniques, commending his famous warning - from A Scandal In Bohemia - against the temptation "to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts".
'What could we learn from palaeontology?' includes a discussion of the famous scientific fraud Piltdown Man - a jumble of human, elephant and chimpanzee bones passed off as evidence of primitive man being found in Sussex by an English scientist on the make in 1912.
The course ends with a consideration of another great conspiracy/fantasy - weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And in particular the Iraqi emigre codenamed 'Curveball' whose flaky, inconsistent and ultimately bogus reports were enthusiastically peddled by the CIA and MI6 to their equally enthusiastic political masters.
With Sir Humphrey-like understatement, the lesson is entitled 'How does the analyst remain neutral? The influence of the consumer.' Oh to be a fly-on-the-wall. 
- THE SPOOK
FIRST POSTED MARCH 2, 2007
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