Category Archives: Intelligence

Ineptitude or desensitization?

Recent failed terrorist attacks (the latest apparently in Rome) seem to indicate a terrorist enemy in shambles, pressed hard on every side and scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to operatives capable of carrying out meaningful attacks, … Continue reading

Posted in Afghanistan, al Qaeda, Current Operations, Defense, Government, Groups, Intelligence, Italy, Military, Nations, News, Pakistan, Security, Somalia, United States, War on Terror, World Watch | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Once upon a time

A few years ago, I vigorously defended the power of the  government to use warrantless searches as an intelligence gathering tool against foreign nationals and their collaborators living on American soil who our intelligence agencies believed were enemy agents. I … Continue reading

Posted in Defense, Government, Intelligence, Nations, News, Politics, Security, United States, World Watch | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Can a non-state actor kill government transparency?

Via The Daily Beast, over at Newsweek, Christopher Dickey makes the point that the WikiLeaks dump of classified State Department documents could have the effect of making the government more closed and more opaque both to the world and within … Continue reading

Posted in Diplomacy, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Government, Intelligence, Nations, News, Politics, Security, United States, World Watch | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What did they know and how long did it take them to tell it?

Worldview Thought for the Day

So, the CIA had this program that came into existance soon after 9-11 to kill leaders of al-Qaeda and they didn’t tell Congress about it. This failure to inform Congress may or may not have been a violation of the law.

Now, this decision not to tell was apparently made by former-Secretary-of-Defense-then-Vice-President Dick Cheney. Why? Apparently because there was a concern that if Congress was told about the on-again-off-again-program-that-never-became-operational, it would leak. […] Continue reading

Posted in al Qaeda, Foreign Policy, Government, Groups, Intelligence, Nations, News, Politics, Security, United States, World Watch, Worldview Item of the Day | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Proof that Obama does not understand the nature of this war

The Obama administration has decided to order the FBI to Miranda-ize high-value targets detained by military operations inside Afghanistan, essentially extending constitutional protections over foreign fighters captured in combat and making their behavior and objectives a law-enforcement, rather than a military, issue. The Justice Department has confirmed the practice is in use. […] Continue reading

Posted in Afghanistan, Current Operations, Defense, Foreign Policy, Government, Intelligence, Military, Nations, News, Politics, Quid Facis, Security, United States, War on Terror, World Watch, Worldview Item of the Day | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment