Barack Obama believed the U.S. intelligence community lacked sufficient “credibility” in 2008, according to leaked documents from the Obama 2008 transition team.

According to the documents, which were made public by anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks last fall but have gone largely unnoticed until now, one of Obama’s goals for his administration was to “restore credibility” that he believed the intelligence community needed but didn’t have.

Lisa Brown, the co-chair of agency review on the transition team, sent a memo to key transition staffers in October, 2008 outlining Obama’s vision for the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the intelligence community (IC). John Podesta, who headed Obama’s transition team and later served as a White House adviser before serving as Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair in 2016, was copied on the email, as was Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s longtime adviser.

One of the “major commitments” listed was to “Restore IC credibility and improve intelligence collection, analysis, collaboration, and information sharing – within IC, with state and local entities, and with international partners.” – READ MORE

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