The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Three Guns for Every Person Only Fools Rush Into Yemen By PATRICK COCKBURN January 11, 2010 The mounting crisis in the country only attracted notice when a Nigerian student is revealed to have been “trained” in Yemen by al-Qa’ida to detonate explosives in his underpants on plane heading for Detroit. But this botched attack has …
CNN Editor’s note: Charles S. Faddis is a retired CIA operations officer and the former head of the CIA’s unit focused on fighting terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction. The author of a recently published book about the CIA, “Beyond Repair,” Faddis is also president of Orion Strategic Services, a Maryland-based consulting firm. Phi Beta …
Continue reading “Reference: Retired CIA officer–Fix the Agency”
Superb From Right of Center–VERY Satisfying Competent Collection January 10, 2010 Melvyn Leffler and Jeffrey Legro Of the three books I bought to explore this particular theme, this was the best by far and the only one to earn five stars. Twelve chapters, twelve authors, not a single runt in this litter. The notes are …
Continue reading “Review: To Lead the World–American Strategy after the Bush Doctrine”
Terrorism Fight Requires Intelligence Accountability (Senator John Kerry) Frankly, we don’t need more commissions or bureaucracies. We do need intelligence professionals and their managers who are committed to a new culture of quality, cooperation, and accountability. Two attacks highlight counterterrorism’s bureaucratic bog (David Ignatius) Talking to veteran counterterrorism officers, I hear a common theme that …
Continue reading “Journal: CIA as Poster Child For Dull US Intelligence”
The CIA is proud to be on the front lines against al-Qaeda By Leon Panetta Sunday, January 10, 2010; A13 . . . . . . . We have found no consolation, however, in public commentary suggesting that those who gave their lives somehow brought it upon themselves because of “poor tradecraft.” That’s like saying …
Continue reading “Journal: CIA’s Poor Tradecraft AND Poor Management”
EDIT of 9 Jan 10: Note seven comments from retired senior officers. Critique of the CT Summary for the White House This is a negligent piece of work that fails to include all that is known merely from open sources of information, but more importantly its judgments are misdirected. This incident remains incompletely investigated until …
Continue reading “Reference: WH CT Summary, POTUS Directive, DNI Blurb”
O’s ‘Fixes’ Will Fail:Feeding more fat to obese US intelligence (Ralph Peters) None of these people, including our president, took what almost happened on Christmas seriously — until the public outcry spooked them. To energize the bureaucratic proles, you have to chop off aristocratic heads. But President Obama won’t use the guillotine. He’s protecting incompetents. …
