A bipartisan group of senators is urging John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, to see to it that an information-sharing implementation plan, as required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, is submitted to Congress without further delay. The plan was due in July I think, and they can’t seem to…

H/T: Michael Rubin at The Corner Two basic urges meet head-on in this area, and conflict is inherent in this collision of interests. These urges reveal themselves in daily news accounts of killings and terrorism, of pressure groups in opposition, and of raw nationalism and naked expansionism masquerading as diplomatic maneuvers. The urges tie together…

If you’ve been tracking the discussion about Iraqi documents you know that my position is that we are a long way from getting to the bottom of this situation. How long? You might consider the length of time it took to come to this conclusion about another situation related to Iraq. You might also note…

CIA counterterrorism officers have signed up in growing numbers for a government-reimbursed, private insurance plan that would pay their civil judgments and legal expenses if they are sued or charged with criminal wrongdoing, according to current and former intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the program. The new enrollments reflect heightened anxiety at the…

The imagery . . . . . . or the memories . . .

150+ pages is a lot to go over with a day job, so I’ll take a meta-view by focusing on the Conclusions . . . My problem with all of these reports is highlighted in the first paragraph of Section II, when they invoke “The Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor ….” My dictionary defines…

A former Pentagon analyst who passed highly classified intelligence to two Chinese military officers was sentenced to three months in prison yesterday — far shy of four to five years called for in sentencing guidelines. His excuses sound eerily similar to those given by Jonathan Pollard when he passed classified to the Israelis (he got…

FIVE YEARS AFTER the attacks of September 11, 2001, we face many threats at home and abroad, yet our response has been mostly superficial and expedient. One is left to wonder: Are we serious about winning this fight? So begins my latest piece at The Daily Standard. As one friend jokingly put it, “so this…

ABC’s upcoming five-hour docudrama “The Path to 9/11” is quickly becoming a political cause célèbre. […] After a screening of the first episode in Washington last week, some audience members attacked the film’s depiction of the Clinton administration’s pursuit of Osama bin Laden. Among those unhappy was Richard Ben-Veniste, an attorney and member of the…

A nice analysis of the airborne terror threat then and now by Shane Harris in National Journal. The broad point to take away is the value of defense-in-depth, or layers of security that (hopefully) are designed to catch those bits that fall through the cracks. For you INFOSEC folks this is nothing new, but all…