Why can't the CIA hire guys like this?
The Telegraph is concerned that
The most senior British intelligence official, appointed yesterday to oversee MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, has a website revealing his home address, phone numbers and private photographs of himself, family and friends.
www.telegraph.co.uk
The upshot seems to be that the gent in question, Alex Allan, lacks the circumspection one would demand of a high-level intelligence official.
While the Telegraph is loath to reveal at which personal web site Mr. Allan wrote of his personal history — including his love for the Grateful Dead — a simple Google search locates it trivially. From what I saw there, the guy seems intelligent and cool. Perhaps some of the juicier bits have been removed, but much of what the Telegraph goes on about was easy to find, so I don’t know.
Call me naive, but I think the value in seeing the head of a spy agency as a thoughtful human being outweighs the danger wrought by having his address known publicly.
[Photo credit, Ken Towner (via Alex Allan’s secure undisclosed web site)]
You know, somehow I just can’t see Mike McConnell windsurfing to work across the Potomac, even if the public transport was on strike. Of course I’m sure that in the USA any overt display of Dead Head graphics on any of your means of transport automatically disqualifies you from such a high ranking role anyway, as I suspect would use of Public Transport…