(Yes, I stole the title from Steve Hayes) ;- ) Under normal circumstances blue-collar IOs like myself would never go up against an NIO, but seeing as how we can both append “former” to our old titles – and we’re thousands of miles apart – I don’t mind taking a crack at Paul Pillar’s Foreign…

DCIA Goss in the NY Times on leaks and leakers: At the Central Intelligence Agency, we are more than holding our own in the global war on terrorism, but we are at risk of losing a key battle: the battle to protect our classified information. […] As a member of Congress in 1998, I sponsored…

A number of commentators lament what I’ll call – for lack of a better term – the state of the populace during war time. The lack of sacrifice, the lack of concern (sometimes the presence of scorn) over the endeavor we are engaged in. I thought it might be enlightening, perhaps refreshing, certainly entertaining, to…

InsideDefense (subscription required) has a great new article about the Combatant Commanders trying to address the problem of the sharing and delivery of intelligence data. Assuming all goes well, a more thorough treatment of the issues raised in the item below will be forthcoming soon (I’m likely to be the dimmest bulb in the marquee,…

Former President Jimmy Carter says: “Under the Bush administration, there’s been a disgraceful and illegal decision _ we’re not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we’re spying on the American people,” Carter told reporters. “And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated…

A good Christian Science Monitor article that brings up a new program, reminds us of old ones, and points out some serious issues. The comments of the EFF and EPIC folks are arguably the most important. On the one hand the data in use is personal, but at the same time it is for the…

Just came across these guys. Looks very promising and blogroll-worthy. Clearly much more serious than I, but then this is what passes for fun in my world. And in case I failed to mention it earlier, check out the musings on defense and security by my friend Mark at The Subtle Stirrup. He’s a real…

In as much as a blog is something of an exercise in self-indulgence, it is nevertheless nice to get a sense of who you are reaching. For those who are keen on knowing who your fellow readers are: Over 85% of you are registered as coming from a .com, which is good because it means…

On Target I knew there was a reason I shopped at Target so much more than I do a certain other large retail chain. In the past few years, [Target] has taken a lead role in teaching government agencies how to fight crime by applying state-of-the-art technology used in its 1,400 stores. Target’s effort has…

I’m amazed at the stunning lack of understanding about the now widely reported NSA terrorism surveillance program. I expect as much for the yak-o-sphere, but listening to the AG go round and round with the Senate Judiciary Committee made me dizzy. Surely this august panel isn’t this dim? Oh wait, I forgot we were talking…

Eli Lake throws a log on the fire: The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The committee has already confirmed through the intelligence community that the recordings of…

The director of the CIA has launched a major internal probe into media leaks about covert operations. In an agencywide e-mail, Porter Goss blamed “a very small number of people” for leaks about secret CIA operations that, in his words, “do damage to the credibility of the agency.” According to people familiar with the Goss…

Math geeks strike back!

. . . Same old stuff again . . . UPI reports that even during the “long war” recruiting intelligence officers isn’t a cake walk: U.S.News & World Report said Saturday the CIA would not be able to meet a demand by members of Congress and President George W. Bush to expand its human intelligence…

Written to cast more shadows on the NSA terrorist surveillance program, but the bottom line issue is captured in the beginning of this piece in the Washington Post: Fewer than 10 U.S. citizens or residents a year, according to an authoritative account, have aroused enough suspicion during warrantless eavesdropping to justify interception of their domestic…