Intelligence is still being fixed around policy, but this time about the Islamic State, not Iraq.
Obama Administration’s Wishful Thinking on Islamic State Recalls Bush Years
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intelligence
Our National Security State Knows Everything about You but Nothing about the World
Americans are trading away their privacy, civil liberties, and billions of tax dollars for an intelligence complex that never seems to know what’s going on in the world.
Bad Pizza . . . and Even Worse Intelligence
At least a dozen CIA sources were reportedly compromised through shocking operational deficiencies that made them easy pickings for Hezbollah’s counterespionage agents.
Repackaging Assassination
Greetings from Yemen. It’s been a year since I corresponded directly with you. Perhaps you remember my 2009 memo in which I recommended outsourcing our assassinations – er, sorry, our “targeted killings” – to China. I suggested that China would do a better job of it than Blackwater. I never received a reply from you. I trust that this memo had nothing to do with my transfer from Shanghai to Sana’a. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to be in the thick of things here in Yemen. But I sometimes miss pork dumplings as well as reliable electricity and running water.
My Weak Muslim President
Except for a few residual Know-Nothings, Americans wouldn’t think twice about voting for a Catholic president. In the last election, President Obama abolished the presidential race taboo. And we’re likely to have a woman president in the next decade or so. Of course, we haven’t elected a Catholic since Kennedy, we might not break the race barrier again for a while, and let’s hope our first woman president isn’t Mama Grizzly herself.
Secrecy Industry Hits Home
Marylanders in Odenton, Annapolis, Frederick and our hometown of Columbia had their suspicions answered last week when The Washington Post published a three-part series about our unchecked, out-of-control expansion of the defense and intelligence operations that have grown since 2001. The expansion of this influential sector has been evident to us, as it has to Americans all around the country living near other defense and intelligence contractors and federal intelligence agencies.
At Local Level, Secrecy Industry Puts a Damper on Neighborliness
Living in an area populated by a workforce with security clearance at intelligence agencies and contractors eliminates, among other things, all talk of work.
Spy vs. Spy
In espionage, as in sports, we generally see the heroism of our side and the perfidy of the opponent. The latest spy scandal involving the Russian “sleepers” is a case in point.
Clapper: Managing the Intelligence Enterprise
In the two weeks since President Obama appointed Retired Air Force Lt. General James R. Clapper, to be director of national intelligence (DNI), there’s been a slew of speculation about his long record in U.S. intelligence and how it might affect his chances for confirmation.
CIA Accountability Hits New Lows
In a virtually unnoticed exchange on February 3, Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) called the CIA to task for its incredibly ham-fisted handling of an April 20, 2001 incident in Peru. In collaboration with a CIA aircrew working as part of a joint program to interdict drug trafficking, the Peruvian air force shot down a plane carrying an American missionary family, killing two. In an angry tone, the Republican congressman denounced the CIA’s response, released the actual film of the incident, and triggered an official statement from the agency — conveniently left off the CIA website to attract as little attention as possible.