Intelligence analysts and regional specialists often do intellectual somersaults to downplay Islamism and the threat from those acting in the name of Islam. This was especially true before 9/11 (Byron York highlighted one case here; another case is here), but it’s becoming trendy yet again.

How ironic, then, that back in 1946, the predecessor of today’s Defense Intelligence Agency didn’t hesitate to identify radical Islam as a chief-over-the-horizon threat facing the United States. Not only does some analyst deserve a posthumous medal—he correctly nailed the weakness of pan-Arabism—but this declassified article shows by comparison just how constrained contemporary intelligence analysis has become by inside-the-box thinking, bureaucracy and multi-layered clearance processes, and political correctness.