On the road the last few days meeting up with some old colleagues and hanging with the Agora (thanks all). The real computer security threat in the Pacific Northwest? The static charge released when two hundred computer security experts in an auditorium remove their fleece jackets at the same time. Got about four days of…

A classified Pentagon study analyzing the effectiveness of Special Operations forces has found that the military’s counterterrorism effort is hampered by bureaucratic duplication, officials said, citing in particular an overlap between new government centers. The study also found evidence of broad resistance to the Special Operations Command’s new counterterrorism role, from regional military commands and…

The intelligence community — comprising 16 government agencies — plans to take the first steps this year toward pulling its tens of thousands of employees into a common pay system. The IC … operates with a patchwork of pay rules that makes it difficult for intelligence agencies to share, reassign and recruit employees, according to…

“It takes a network to defeat a network,” (Army BG Mark] Kimmitt, U.S. Central Command’s deputy director for plans and strategy, said at a State Department Foreign Press Center briefing. “To defeat this organization we must have a network that is more adept, more capable and more lithe.” Reason #197 why I need to start…

In light of this, is there any reason to think that this has a chance (despite all the “steps being taken”)? I mean, I wish them well, but . . . Weigh in yourself at the GroupIntel forum (predictive analysis). Update: RN writes . . . I don’t know what is worse; the sadness I…

I count myself as a cautious admirer. I admire because I’m confident that he’s pointing the way towards the future (has been for some time); cautious because while we’ve never met and I’ve never heard him speak, something in his written words sets off alarms. One of those alarms is ringing right now (3/19 post)…

[Contract intelligence] positions and thousands like them are part of a growing trend at the Pentagon to contract out intelligence jobs that were formerly done primarily by service personnel and civil service employees. But, by using contract employees, government agencies lose control over those doing this sensitive work and an element of profit is inserted…

My latest article on the document issue is up at the Daily Standard. As mentioned in the text the Blog swarm on GITMO detainee docs is being run by Captain’s Quarters. Head here if you are not familiar with An Army of Davids or Wisdom of Crowds as mentioned in the text. Another (old school)…

CNSNews reminds us of how great it is to work at NGIC: Where the intel is doctored, your keystrokes logged, and the phones are tapped. A former federal employee who says intelligence data was deliberately falsified over several years in order to justify the purchase of certain U.S. military weapons systems, will be questioned by…

. . . right here.

Secrecy News (a product of the Dread Pirate Aftergood) recently reported on a new marking for classified material: In an effort to improve the sharing of intelligence information, the Director of National Intelligence last year authorized the use of a new marking for intelligence documents: RELIDO, or Releasable by Information Disclosure Official. RELIDO is intended…

First, to paraphrase an old drill sergeant: If you are not reading John Robb’s blog you’re wrong. His article in Fast Company makes a strong case for a future world where asymmetry plays an increasingly important role in both defense and offense from the national to the personal level. I don’t know about you but…

Serious or Not Serious. I wonder if Michael Brown is available to host?

This will be on the test: With little fanfare the United States has revised its assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Officials said the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran has become capable of enriching uranium and completing the nuclear fuel cycle. In 2005, a CIA study assessed that Iran would require five to…

Update: Much, much more at Terrorism Unveiled. The CT Blog doesn’t take kindly to too much coverage of Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar and his lead-footed technique for eliminating tar-heels. Claiming it trivializes “real” terrorism it is suggested that students of the problem would be better served studying our own home-grown variety terrorists rather than an ignorant…