Yesterday a former CIA colleague who rose to a very senior position at CIA and has spent forty years watching the Kremlin, the KGB, and the FSB reached out to me. He’s been reading what I and my Facebook “commentariat” have been saying of late, and felt compelled to offer some thoughts on the controversy that is bubbling over…
Intelligence
Putin, Trump, and the Russian Influence in the US Election — Act of War, or the New Normal?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Russian influence operation against the American elections. I’ve read and reread the declassified report, and I’ve thought about it from the perspective of both an American observer in 2017 and the perspective of a former Cold War era intelligence officer. I’ve tried to digest all the inputs and…
So, what really happened on the Pakistan border incident in which NATO killed 28 Pakistani soldiers?
Twelve hours after the first reports of a horrific friendly fire incident along the Pakistan border, the question What really happened? remains largely unanswered, but tidbits are beginning to emerge. In the early hours one news source, the UK’s Guardian newspapers, was alone in reporting that NATO forces had fired in response to incoming fire…
Death of Moammar Gadhafi: Intriguing Details on the End Game are already beginning to emerge
The death of Moammar Gadhaffi is still being carried as “Breaking News” on CNN and the other networks, but already some fascinating details of the behind the scenes details are beginning to emerge. Some of these are just intriguing on their own merit; other details shed light on the “lead from behind” approach to Libya…
Zakaria: Don't Panic
Fareed Zakaria describes how our frenzied response to terrorism only feeds it.
Department of Homeland Security Makes 5 Recommendations in Wake of President's Security Directive
The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today outlined five recommendations it intends to move forward on in the wake of the December 25th attempted terrorist attack by the “Christmas bomber” against Flight 253:
Flt 253: Who's Really to Blame?
The news is out that tomorrow the Obama administration will release an unclassified version of the Flt 253 review ordered by the President. This is good news, although whether the document will really prove useful will depend to a large extent on how severely the classified version is redacted to make it suitable for unclassified…
Watching the Berlin Wall Go Down
It was the Filipino revolution, and the images flashed across the world of soldiers refusing to fire on their countrymen, that Filipinos with some justification believe inspired the subsequent Velvet Revolution in Czechoslavakia, and eventually the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Navy Releases Marine Mammal Impact Report
I came across an interesting article in the LA times about the Navy releasing a Marine Mammal impact report. This is significant to us because we will be depicting a Naval officer talking about the impact of sonar on marine mammals in our movie “Way of the Dolphin”, and this helps us be able to…