Center for Middle East Policy

In the Kennedy administration [the President's Daily Brief] was called the President's intelligence checklist, or pickle. It's purpose is really the same as it was back in the Kennedy administration -- to give the president a fairly short and concise summary of the most important intelligence... It can be a process that takes a long time.. My understanding is that Mike Pompeo was very good at this, when he was director [of the CIA]. He understood how to read the president's mood, and understood how you could get information that the president would absorb. Not all the time. He had a pretty good track record on it. [I have] no idea how it works in the current environment... [The president serves as] your number one feedback. And if it's going right, the president and CIA analysts are more or less engaged in a dialogue.