Acting on Assumptions with Iran & Iraq: To learn lessons from history, including recent history, it’s essential to get the history right. That’s why, in order to understand what to do about the mullahs’ regime in Iran, it’s worth revisiting the debate over the intelligence in Iraq. . . . and that’s just the first…

Work (I won’t call it duty) calls and finds me at the keyboard when I should be doing something that a lot of brothers are unable to do today: enjoying their families. In between flashes of corporate panic I find myself visiting the ‘sphere and taking note of those who are intentionally still blogging today,…

A very interesting entry at Strategy Page, with the most significant points brought out in the second paragraph: DoD is overhauling its entire intelligence apparatus …The plans are pretty ambitious, and are partially implemented. The basic idea is to take advantage of abundant computer power, and affordable networking, to tie together as many troops, vehicles…

Not that he needs it but . . . Misleading Intel: Everyone (not just some US political cabal) thought Iraq had WMD. We’ve found arty shells with nerve-agent (sarin) in them; documents placing orders for precursor chemicals used to make this thing called Zyklon-B (famously used by another tyrant decades ago); and shady-looking mobile labs…

One of the better attempts to critique the NSA’s efforts today in the NY Times: If the program is along the lines described by USA Today — with the security agency receiving complete lists of who called whom from each of the phone companies — the object is probably to collect data and draw a…

So the other day I tried to use my credit card to buy something, and it was denied even though I knew perfectly well my credit card was just fine. So I called my credit-card company to find out what was up with all this, and it turned out I had made the unpardonable mistake…

From InfoWorld: I don’t want to alarm you, but a reader just sent me evidence showing that a large and secretive organization is tracking some surprising information about us. No, not the National Security Agency. We’re talking about a really secretive organization: Proctor & Gamble. The sender hits the nail on the head: “My privacy…

Personal data, including Social Security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans, was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month after he took the information home without authorization, the department said Monday. The INFOSEC practitioner in me wants to beat some GS-half-wit @$$ . . . the ex-GI in me lowering my trousers and spreading…

Most of the critics of IC activities fall into one of two camps (with some cross-pollination). The first are almost not worth discussing since the main thrust of their arguments center on the words “Bush” and “lied” and it gets no more robust than that. The second camp likes to play tricks with the language…

Over the last several years we have been fortunate enough to not have been subjected to another September 11th-scale attack. Further more, we have not had the misfortune of suffering anything on a smaller scale like the attacks in London or Madrid. There are a number of potential reasons why we are able live in…