Deconflict THIS

The Washington Post is running an informative series about the U.S. intelligence community, focusing on duplication of effort among agencies providing so much top secret information that no one can find the terrorist needles in the haystack of data.

What troubles me as an American citizen and a defender of language is the thought process that underlies the nation's spying apparatus. In a lengthy response to the newspaper's analysis of the analysts, the Office of the National Director of Intelligence, defends the use of redundant, sometimes conflicting, reporting systems says:

". . . many individuals who have access to a wide variety of programs within their areas of responsibility are able to take steps to deconflict as necessary."

I say we need to take steps to terminate such misuse of the language -- with extreme prejudice.