The World According to Grad Students Intelligence Chairmen

World? What world? You mean there's something outside this tomb we call Harkness?

Yes there is, and Brownpau gives us a review of the literature (that's Harknesspeak) of several perspectives on said world. Based on a comparison of the several perspectives, I conclude that a 'world' does not in fact exist; if it did, it would have more consistently observable characteristics.

Update: The incoming House Intelligence Committee chairman is Rep. Silvestre Reyes, whose primary qualification was being Hispanic. He represents Nancy Pelosi's Solomonic compromise between white insider Jane Harman and corrupt black outsider Alcee Hastings. Mr. Reyes had an interview in Congressional Quarterly. It's a puff piece:

His long-term agenda includes determining "what are the emerging threats, what are the challenges we will see in the future that we’re going to have to face and prepare for. In that category would be things like Iran, North Korea, and some of the other areas of the world that we haven’t paid close attention."

A completely different story on CQ's website tells, well, a completely different story:

Reyes stumbled when I asked him a simple question about al Qaeda at the end of a 40-minute interview in his office last week... Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?

"Al Qaeda, they have both," Reyes said. "You’re talking about predominately?"
"Sure," I said, not knowing what else to say.
"Predominantly — probably Shiite," he ventured...

And Hezbollah? I asked him. What are they?
"Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah...Why do you ask me these questions at five o’clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?"

The world according to Silvestre Reyes.