Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet today dedicated the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis during ceremonies at CIA. The Kent School--a key component of the DCI's Strategic Direction initiative launched in 1998--will enhance the skills and expertise of analysts and managers in the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence (DI).

The Kent School reflects the DI's continuing commitment to the professional excellence of its officers. It will impart a clear sense of the DI mission, its place in the larger intelligence and policy process, and the knowledge essential to get the job of analysis done.

"The Kent School will prepare generations of men and women for the vital, demanding, and exciting profession of intelligence analysis in the 21st Century," Tenet said. "Whether the students are new analysts, team leaders, or issue managers, they will see and learn for themselves the best of what we as an Agency have learned about the craft of analysis."

The Kent School at its inception will offer four DI-core programs: the 26-week career analyst training program in which all new analysts will be enrolled; the managing and teaching analysis program; an intelligence managers seminar series; and an academic outreach and intelligence analysis studies program.

Recognized by the CIA as one of its 50 "Trailblazers" during its 50th anniversary celebration in 1997, the late Sherman Kent was a leader in developing the profession of intelligence analysis. Kent did much to create the institutions that evolved into the present day DI. Tenet paid special tribute to Kent, a Yale University history professor, whose intelligence career began on the eve of World War II, saying, "Sherman Kent was a gifted student of history, economics, and international politics. He was a brilliant teacher to generations of analysts. And he was, most of all, a keen observer of what made intelligence analysis useful to the government and country that he served so well."

"The standards that Sherman Kent set for intelligence analysis--that it must be relevant, rigorous, and insightful--are still fresh today," Tenet said. "Our customers--starting with the President--expect and deserve nothing less."

"It is expertise--built up through study and experience--that combines with relevance and rigor to produce something that is very important, insight," Tenet continued. "In mazes of cubicles, behind humming terminals and mountains of papers, our analysts blend a scholar's mastery of detail with a reporter's sense of urgency and clarity. At its best, the result is insight. And it is insight that wins the confidence of our customers and makes them want to read our publications and listen to our briefings."

Tenet concluded by saying, "Sherman Kent used to talk about the three wishes of intelligence officers: To know everything. To be believed. And to exercise a positive influence on policy. I would add a fourth: That this school, named for Sherman Kent, always produces analysts of whom he would be proud."

Among those joining DCI Tenet during today's ceremony were: Gina Genton, CIA Deputy Executive Director; John McLaughlin, Deputy Director for Intelligence; Winston Wiley, Associate Deputy Director for Intelligence; and Frans Bax, Dean of the Sherman Kent School of Intelligence Analysis. Also on hand were Sherman Kent's daughter, son, and daughter-in-law.

The text of Tenet's speech at the ceremony will be posted today on the CIA Web site, www.cia.gov.