Background
Jones was born in the United States and raised in the Middle East, East Asia, and East Africa.
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Ishmael Jones
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended universities in the United States and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Career
He resigned from the Central Intelligence Agency and became a leading proponent of American intelligence reform, with special emphasis on the improvement of human source intelligence collection (Humint). He is a former deep cover case officer (or clandestine officer) for the Central Intelligence Agency (Central Intelligence Agency). He is the author of the book: Inside the Central Intelligence Agency"s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture and many articles on intelligence reform.
He believes that improvement of American intelligence capabilities is necessary to protect Americans and American allies.
In the late 1980s he joined the Central Intelligence Agency where he served as a deep cover officer focusing on human sources with access to intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. Except for his initial training and service in the United States, his career was spent entirely in the field, and his assignments included more than 15 years of continuous overseas service in numerous exotic countries and several rogue nations.
He resigned from the Central Intelligence Agency in good standing in order to work toward intelligence reform. While many policy and opinion makers agree that the Central Intelligence Agency"s human source programs do not function effectively, Jones believes the problems are not to be found with the quality of employees in the Central Intelligence Agency, who are overwhelmingly talented and intelligent.
Rather, the problem lies within the structure of the organization itself, which encourages a bureaucracy featuring excessive layers of non-producing administrators and managers.
Jones recommends dramatic reductions in the layers of managers and administrators and restructuring of the Central Intelligence Agency"s chain of command to clarify precisely who is in charge of any given operation. He also recommends the introduction of a whistleblower system in which any Central Intelligence Agency employee with information on fraud can contact a cleared Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. In 2008, Jones published: Inside the Central Intelligence Agency"s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture describing his work against weapons of mass destruction proliferators and terrorists, and offering solutions to intelligence reform in an appendix.
While the topic of intelligence collection and intelligence reform are deadly serious, Jones"s writing when dealing with situational espionage and government bureauracy contains humor.
"If the subject were not so deadly serious, would be one of the funniest books of the year."
In 2011 United States District Court judge Gerald Lee ruled that Jones had violated the law by not properly going through Central Intelligence Agency"s pre-publication review process. Jones defense claimed the process was deliberately stalled by the Central Intelligence Agency. The ruling marked the first time a judge has used summary judgment to rule in favor of the Central Intelligence Agency, as plaintiff, in a censorship case.
Membership
After resigning in good standing, Jones began to work for intelligence reform by meeting with members of Congress and their staffs, members of the executive branch, journalists, political operatives and political contributors, and writing articles and a book
