NYT: Outfitting Spies With New Tool: Moral Compass

[Rose Siding]

Is there such a thing as an ethical spy?

A group of current and former intelligence officers and academic experts think there is, and they are meeting this weekend to dissect what some others in the field consider a flat-out contradiction in terms.

The organizers say recent controversies over interrogation techniques bordering on torture and the alleged skewing of prewar intelligence on Iraq make their mission urgent. At the conference on Friday and Saturday in a Springfield, Va., hotel, the 200 attendees hope to begin hammering out a code of ethics for spies and form an international association to study the subject.

Conference materials describe intelligence ethics as "an emerging field" and call the gathering, not sponsored by any government agency, the first of its kind. The topics include "Spiritual Crises Among Intelligence Operatives," "Lessons from Abu Ghraib," "Assassination: The Dream and the Nightmare" and "The Perfidy of Espionage."

Organizers said conferees would ponder such timely issues as how many civilian deaths can be justified in a C.I.A. Predator missile strike to kill a known terrorist, or what legal assurances a National Security Agency eavesdropper should demand before singling out the phone calls of an American who was linked to Al Qaeda.

http://nytimes.com/2006/01/28/politics/28ethics.html?hp&ex=1138424400&en=4a56a7070df1f862&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[niyad]

1. this was in the fiction section,right?

[babylonsister]

2. Hmmm, this is being held w/o wh approval? Doubts abound. nt

[seriousstan]

3. "The Perfidy of Espionage."?

" Jane you perfidious slut" Dan Ackroyd.

[Poll_Blind]

4. Here's a question for them: How can Israel's spying be justified against..

...the United States?

Oh, strike that! We've got lots of folks in those spying threads who are more than willing to do so.

Pic of Mrs. Mahle from the article:


Hrm....

PB

[applegrove]

5. Apparently thousands are leaving the business because they are

so upset & worried about having to be involved or linked in any way to rendition, torture, etc.

That's really bad.

[PhilipShore]

6. Chicago Tribune: Spies hear of new mission: Ethics

Chicago Tribune
New York Times News Service
By Scott Shane
January 28, 2006

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0601280259jan28,1,5984422.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

WASHINGTON -- Is there such a thing as an ethical spy?

A group of current and former intelligence officers and academic experts think there is, and they are meeting this weekend to dissect what some others in the field consider a flat-out contradiction in terms.

The organizers say recent controversies over interrogation techniques bordering on torture and the alleged skewing of prewar intelligence on Iraq make their mission urgent. At the conference on Friday and Saturday in a Springfield, Va., hotel, the 200 attendees hope to begin hammering out a code of ethics for spies and form an international association to study the subject.

Conference materials describe intelligence ethics as "an emerging field" and call the gathering, not sponsored by any government agency, the first of its kind. The topics include "Spiritual Crises Among Intelligence Operatives," "Lessons from Abu Ghraib," "Assassination: The Dream and the Nightmare" and "The Perfidy of Espionage."

[izzie]

7. This has got to be one bad subject.

just thinking about it is a ethical dilemma.

[BiggJawn]

8. "Moral Spies".

:rofl: :rofl: :spray: