Let's be clear that while the CIA director apparently insists he was offering a generic statement on intelligence craft, he was not asked a generic question.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Correcting the Hayden record

In answer to a question, he said that if intelligence experts did not feel that the information came from suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden or the al Qaeda network, the government would not have "ramped up" on it.

CNN: Information from Canada helped lead to alert, official says

The document in question is the National Intelligence Estimate, a joint effort by all 16 intelligence-gathering agencies in the U.S. government.

NPR: U.S. Iraq Policy: Going Down on One NIE?

One key witness the British officers hope to question is Andrei Lugovoi, a former Russian intelligence officer, who met with Litvinenko at a London hotel on the day he fell ill in November.

NPR: U.K. Investigators Visit Moscow in Litvinenko Probe

Getting back to the question of artificial intelligence, then, you can see why it becomes a much taller order to produce a human-level intelligence.

FORBES: Why Your Brain Isn't A Computer

Without question, TIA represented a radical leap ahead in both data-mining technology and intelligence analysis.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Balancing security and privacy during wartime

Last night, Vice President Dick Cheney told a conservative group in Washington what he thinks of those who question whether the White House manipulated prewar intelligence.

NPR: Cheney Lashes Out at Critics of Iraq Intelligence