No Fear
Unlike the national security apparatus, when things go wrong in some places they have no problem doing what is necessary to turn things around. What? National security is not business? True, that. In...
View Articlecodifying the obvious
Secrecy News points out an important new IC Directive: Intelligence analysis "must be objective and independent of political considerations," … "The IC will seldom have the requisite depth and breadth...
View Articlekeeping the IC competative
Advice about innovation from the world’s richest man. Evidence that breaking a slump need not be expensive or painful (just unusual). Technophiles will undoubtedly joke about the first item but that...
View Articlethe q prize
Funny what you think of in what passes for a traffic jam in these parts . . . Ruminating about John’s recent post about tinkering with technology and the mention of the X-Prize and DARPA Grand...
View Articlenot holding my breath
"We are moving forward on the next stage of intelligence reform, going beyond the initial progress made to better clarify responsibilities and authorities, create a true community of professionals,...
View Articleheavy thinking
The boys are back town. It’s a love-hate relationship: I love their Atlantic Monthly output; I hate that they remind me that on most days I’m People. Still, I am told I can have my moments . . . In...
View Articlenot an immigration post
When your expectations for reform are low to non-existent, all sorts of things look good. Note the sense of resignation, not resolution. ‘Well, I can’t envision X working, so we’ll settle for Y and...
View ArticleLet’s Go Bolling
I’m not sure why so many people are against, or trying to find fault, with DIA’s move to hire and deploy a metric-***-ton of new HUMINT collectors. Lord knows I can pick plenty of nits with my old...
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Two Houses, One Roof
If the events surrounding the actions of Edward Snowden have highlighted anything it’s the depth to which most of the commentariat on both sides of the argument understands how the US intelligence...
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Fresh Start
DNI McConnell starts his second full day on the job today, and the former intelligence experts interviewed in the Baltimore Sun say that he must “restore faith, unite agencies.” I agree on both points,...
View ArticleOn accountability
That’s what I’m talkin’ about! Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, was relieved of command at 10 a.m....
View ArticleIO: meet the new boss, same as . . .
From Inside the Pentagon (subscription): As the Air Force prepares to open a new Cyber Command in May, a top service general overseeing the effort is calling on policymakers to consider how far the...
View ArticleHow about a real intelligence reform bill then?
The nation’s intelligence agencies, mired in bureaucratic messes, have failed to deliver to Congress the high-quality information it needs about trouble spots such as North Korea and Iran, Michigan’s...
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All aboard the cluetrain express
This is classic: Wiki technology advocates within the intelligence community, known as intellipedians, were circulating among their colleagues promoting the use of the collaborative social software to...
View ArticleSuspect or Sloppy?
Privacy mavens are all atwitter at the news this morning: A Justice Department investigation has found pervasive errors in the FBI’s use of its power to secretly demand telephone, e-mail and financial...
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