The Drama of Leadership

The most highly classified document in the United States government is called the President’s Daily Brief. Usually delivered to the president in person each morning by the director of national intelligence, the brief summarizes the most critical information that the United States’ vast network of intelligence agencies has learned in the previous twenty-four hours. Of all the briefs prepared since the practice began in 1961, only two pages have ever been released to the public—an entry called “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US” that was presented to the president on August 6,…