What You Know, What You Don't Know, Then Your Opinion

“ ‘Look, I have got a rule,’ ” he said General Powell told him. “ ‘As an intelligence officer, your responsibility is to tell me what you know. Tell me what you don’t know. Then you’re allowed to tell me what you think. But you always keep those three separated.’ ”

-Mike McConnell, US Director of National Intelligence,
on Colin Powell’s rule for relaying intelligence information
(Source: Jason Kottke)