Description
It is best, when writing about so emotive a topic, to start with an attempt at clarification. Secret intelligence, however, is a field of human activity in which clarity appears to be, and often is, engulfed in obscurity. This is not only intrinsic, but often deliberate and not infrequently self-defeating. Let us take the humble example of the squid which exudes a black fluid in order to disguise its direction of escape from a potential enemy. The squid's enemy will attempt not only to penetrate the cloud of darkness, an attempt which will probably prove a failure, but will also calculate through knowledge of currents, submarine rock formation and so forth, the direction of escape that its enemy or prey is likely to take. Meanwhile the squid itself may become bewildered and lost in its own secret cloud and even have the misfortune to emerge straight into its enemy's jaws.ISBN:0812819373
