The stated purpose of these regular meetings is "to provide an opportunity for the international intelligence community to listen to and learn from each other, and to share ideas in the common war against terrorism."

Among the Advisory Council members are the author and consultant Yossef Bodansky, special operations expert Richard Marcinko, and retired generals and Fox News military analysts Paul E. Vallely and Tom McInerney.

Ron Jacobs notes that the primary sponsor of the conference, Michael Cherney, "is the subject of controversy and is currently denied entry into the United States because of his indictment on various charges in Russia and Israel."

"[4] John Loftus has come under fire from former representatives of the International Holocaust Education Center, who are concerned about him using the organization's tax-exempt status improperly to promote his intelligence activities.

"[4] The Intelligence Summit gained prominence in February 2006,[7] when a conference speaker, former US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw, asserted that Russia had helped Saddam Hussein smuggle out his WMDs; he also claimed that the DIA and CIA had interfered with his investigations.

[8] Shaw made these statements in the face of several official investigations to the contrary, most notably the Report of the Iraq Study Group led by Charles Duelfer published on 30 September 2004.

The conference, at times, had an air of a reunion of good ol' boys; all in sync with the program, rather than a group of very serious professionals out to warn the free world of the dangers facing democracies....