The President’s Daily Brief: No Assembly Required?

EXPERT INTERVIEW — It’s a document that rarely makes news, for obvious reasons: the whole point of the President‘s Daily Brief (PDB) – a summary of intelligence and analysis about national security threats and the world’s hot zones – is that it’s put together with classified intelligence and information. Lately, however, the PDB has made headlines involving how it’s prepared – and how it’s consumed. 

Last week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said she was moving the assembly of the PDB away from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has traditionally been tasked with doing the work, to her own department. That may seem like a minor bureaucratic change, but it raised eyebrows among some in the intelligence community who have participated in the process.