The Complaint Against Trump Is Classic Intelligence Analysis

[MineralMan]

Some are claiming that the complaint, written by a CIA employee who worked in the White House is based on second-hand information. that's a specious sort of claim.

The whistleblower is a CIA analyst. That's what they do. They assemble information from multiple sources, correlate the information and draw conclusions from it. Intelligence analysts rarely are witnesses to the actual intelligence that is gathered. They work from reports by others who have proven their trustworthiness and accuracy in the past.

Analysts analyze information, put it together in a logical way, and draw conclusions from that information.

That's what our whistleblower did. It is up to others to check the details of the information and judge the relevance of the conclusions. Analysts prepare analyses.

[Moostache]

1. I pray that they stay with the "hearsay" argument...

That complaint was elegantly constructed and devastatingly effect. It is sourced and footnoted and is an amazing road map for the committee to investigate and develop articles of impeachment from...

If the Mueller report had been as succinctly written, Trump would already have been removed from office.

[MineralMan]

2. It's a very weak argument to begin with.

Most decisions in both business and government are made based on analyses from people whose job it is to assemble reports from uncorrelated data. Analysts work from raw information and find the relationships in it. Then, they draw conclusions from it, based on goals and needs.

Often raw data is scored in terms of its reliability and value based on past experience with a particular source.

[Claritie Pixie]

3. I listened to an audio readout last night. The complaint is a badass piece of writing.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Didn't they also say the whistle blower read the transcript?

Seems like reading the actual transcript is direct knowledge.

[Wounded Bear]

5. It's essentially a reprise of the Steele Document...

same genre of writing, a compendium of raw intel meant basically as a blue print for further intensive investigation.

Not just intel, either. It probably looks a lot like preliminary notes of a prosecutor at the start of an investigation into criminal activity. After all, intelligence and prosecutorial work are really very similar. As laymen, we tend to think of spies in the Jason Bourne mode with car chases and gun battles, when the real deal is fairly boring research and Q and A of witnesses, most of whom have shitty memories twisted by individual prejudices, followed by painstaking collating of the data and formulating the case.

This one points directly to the heart of the conspiracy, though, squatting at the Resolute Desk.

[MineralMan]

6. In my experience, intelligence analysis

involves someone dumping a stack of transcripts in your inbox and telling you to make some sense out of it. "Oh, and we need the report by the end of the day, thanks..."