As if on cue, the WaPo addresses the validity (or not) of the polygraph: The CIA, the FBI and other federal agencies are using polygraph machines more than ever to screen applicants and hunt for lawbreakers, even as scientists have become more certain that the equipment is ineffective in accurately detecting when people are lying.…

(Note: An earlier version of this post ran back in February and it seems appropriate to re-run in light of recent events. I’ve fattened it up in a few places and retooled it lightly. A bad idea? Not really. Impractical? Possibly. A meaningful exercise? Most certainly.) That senior members of our intelligence community (IC) play…

Able Danger blog points out an interesting development.

The Iraqi Perspectives Project report. A good read so far. Jump to page 183 for a nice eye-opener. 700 files out of at least 600,000 (assuming they mean just hardcopy). Sufficient to judge? Add in audio and video tape, computer tapes and the computers themselves. Still sufficient or no? Just asking.

Speaking of being gob-smacked, check out today’s WaPo editorial on the CIA leak case. If you can’t bear it, let me summarize: Leaking is bad unless they decide that it is good The CIA trying to mitigate the effect of leaks by keeping a lid on secret programs is bad D/CIA Goss hunting down and…

A good post at Secrecy News about changes in how intelligence officers are compensated. Perhaps it is because I can work like a fiend that I find the prospect of breaking free of the General Schedule so attractive. Knowing that the geezer with 30 years tenure who spent his days reading the paper would make…

Someone besides a General in Omaha talking about operating in the 21st Century: The intelligence community can learn from the behavior of ant colonies to improve information sharing — and it can use wikis and blogs, a CIA official said today. The intelligence community must respond more quickly to maintain tactical and strategic advantage over…

U.S. intelligence tsar John Negroponte “is winning his battles” to boost information-sharing, a senior U.S. official said. Dale Meyerrose, the official in charge of information technology for the sprawling collection of U.S. agencies managed by Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, is defending the Bush administration’s efforts to improve the sharing of vital counter-terrorism…

Much flailing about the last two days about Ms. McCarthy and her relationship (or not – ahem) with the press, whether the press has a right to do this or that, and how do we fix the situation? For my $.02: Let the press do what they do. By all means. The more open and…

Just days after U.S. troops were ordered to plug a security breach at their base here, the black market trade in computer memory drives containing military documents was thriving again Monday. I’m gobsmacked.