Another intelligence official said, however, that many veteran analysts were comparing the current climate at the agency to that of the early 1980s, when some CIA analysts complained that they were under pressure from then president Ronald Reagan's administration to take a harder line on intelligence reports relating to the Soviet Union.
The official said the pressure had prompted the agency's analysts to become more circumspect in expressing their analytical views in the intelligence reports they produced.
"On topics of very intense concern to the administration of the day, you become less of an analyst and more of a reports officer," the official said.
The distinction between an analyst and a reports officer is an important one within the CIA. A reports officer generally pulls together information in response to questions and specific requests for information. An intelligence analyst analyzes the information in finished reports.
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