Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium

Since the attacks on September 11, 2001, intelligence collection has become an even more crucial element in the effort to defeat al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.  A plot penetrated is an attack stopped.  And, to the outside observer, the CIA has performed well as a key partner in the Bush Administration's War on Terror.  Rowan Scarborough would argue, however, that significant elements within the CIA are undermining both the President and national security through leaks, false allegations, and outright sabotage.

Using sources in all levels of national security – from field officers to high-ranking analysts to former intelligence heads – Scarborough presents a disturbing picture of partisan politics endangering the success of our campaigns abroad and the very lives of our soldiers and agents.  In his view, the agency has become increasingly political and digressed from its job of being a scrupulously nonpartisan collector of facts.

Rowan Scarborough reports on national security for the Washington Examiner.  A Navy veteran, he covered the Pentagon for the Washington Times for nearly two decades, where he was noted for breaking news.  He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Rumsfeld's War and has been featured often on radio and television shows.