Mr. FREDERICK HITZ (Former Inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency): It doesn't sound to me like the first thing you'd reach for if you wanted to terminate a life in this fashion.

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Air force personnel control civilian air traffic, and a general oversees the main intelligence agency.

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He also held meetings with Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the country's army chief, and Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director-general of the ISI intelligence agency.

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But as George Tenet, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has argued, an intelligence director with only general supervisory powers could weaken co-ordination not strengthen it.

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It complements and supplements, rather than duplicates the oversight roles of the Director of National Intelligence, Department and Agency Inspectors General and General Counsels, and the Congressional Oversight Committees.

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For their part, West Midlands Police say that in general their officers pass on relevant intelligence to Ofcom as the agency repsonsible for tackling transmissions.

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The latest example is that of General Humberto Gordon, the former head of the national intelligence agency, who on September 14th was charged with possible involvement in the death of a union leader.

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Yet since his subordinate, former CIA Director General David Petraeus, recently testified before a congressional intelligence committee that his agency knew terrorists were responsible from the very beginning, he can hardly plead ignorance of that same information.

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He even agreed to send the head of the notorious spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, to Delhi.

ECONOMIST: Deny, co-operate and cross your fingers