A friend from the biz used to say that after a few days out of the office he would delete any emails or other messages older than 72 hours old; odds are that whatever was being discussed prior to that point was likely to have been overtaken-by-events, so why bother wasting time trying to catch up? I could never bring myself to actually delete old emails, but I did find a certain amount of liberation in ignoring the old stuff without apparent damage to national security. It would appear that the same general rule applies when one takes any substantial time away from blogging; others have covered the major issues adequately and the fringe elements have had ample time to pick nits. Barring some glaring hole someone has missed, playing catch-up is really just the worst kind of piling on. Since it is fairly hard to break the addiction though, some key items I thought were interesting that I hope you did not miss over the holiday:

• The excellent treatment of the mobile labs, or militarized gelato vans as some would have you believe over at Captain’s Quarters.
• The sorry attempt to try and make light of another spy with ties to my old haunts. Unauthorized disclosure is just that guys . . .
• . . . on a related note, the DNI appoints an analytical ombuds(wo)man, for all the good it will do, who apparently hugged a few pandas with Ron Montaperto.
• An important data point raised by Max Boot about the enemy we face, and the major thrust of our approach to the fight.
• Still more pesky details come out about Saddam and terrorists. The data points keep piling up, but guys like this apparently have their Bose “nah-nah-nah, I’m not listening” headphones on.
• The apparent problems we’re having keeping our most important computers secure.
• More on the value computers have to terrorists (something I’ll be discussing next week in public – more later).

Something important to note, after spending some time deeper into fly-over country; Joe and Jane citizen still have very little idea what is going on (and its importance) in the physical space within the triangle of Annapolis, Quantico, and Gaithersburg.

About the Author

Michael Tanji

Michael Tanji spent nearly 20 years in the US intelligence community. Trained in both SIGINT and HUMINT disciplines he has worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. At various points in his career he served as an expert in information warfare, computer network operations, computer forensics, and indications and warning. A veteran of the US Army, Michael has served in both strategic and tactical assignments in the Pacific Theater, the Balkans, and the Middle East.