I used to do intelligence work, and I did investigative work for a career. To get the job done, you have to go through a thousand pieces of useless information to find one tidbit that has any value. Professional analysts have a very disinterested attitude toward those thousands of useless pieces of information, so the people tied to the useless information, are protected by the tedium and disinterest of the analysts.

Intelligence offers protection in a way that is far less damaging and less violent than just about any other kind of defense. But to conduct intelligence work, the intelligence workers have to be trusted.

And, for the most part, they are trustworthy - and there are pretty good controls to keep them that way.

-Joe-