On Tuesday morning Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, employed the indicative mood in describing the high value that Chas Freeman, his appointee to head the National Intelligence Council (NIC), will bring to the job "his long...
Panetta Too Deferential to Congress
"I am a creature of Congress," said Leon Panetta with a broad smile, which was returned by equally wide smiles from members of the Senate intelligence committee meeting yesterday to consider his nomination to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I...
Frank Grevil: A Hero for Our Time
Editor's note: On Jan. 26, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark, former Danish military intelligence officer Frank Grevil was given the Sam Adams Award for integrity in intelligence. The following is an extended version of the introductory remarks by former CIA intelligence...
What’s CIA Director Hayden Hidin’?
Outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden is going around town telling folks he has warned President-elect Barack Obama "personally and forcefully" that if Obama authorizes an investigation into controversial activities like waterboarding, "no one in Langley...
Obama Picks a Conscience for the CIA
At long last. Change we can believe in. In choosing Leon Panetta to take charge of the CIA, President-elect Barak Obama has shown he is determined to put an abrupt end to the lawlessness and deceit with which the administration of George W. Bush has corrupted...
Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite?
You've got to hand it to them. Torture aficionados at the White House and CIA have conned key congressional leaders into insisting not only that torture-lite would be a swell idea, but advocating that the overseers of torture be kept on. From...
Kafka and Uighurs at Guantánamo
"There is no right to due process for an alien who is not here," insisted the 44th Solicitor General of the United States, Gregory G. Garre, proudly representing the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Garre is a teacher of the law, you see, and...
Seeking Integrity at the CIA
Editor's Note: An underlying factor in the national security crises confronting the United States has been the corruption of the US. intelligence process, with analyses tailored to fit the desires of the policymakers and with laws bent to permit torture and other...
Robert Gates’ Urge to Surge
It may become a biennial ritual. Every two years, if the commander in chief (or the commander in chief-elect) says he wants to throw more troops into an unwinnable war for no clear reason other than his political advantage, panderer in chief Robert Gates will shout...
Robert Gates: As Bad As Rumsfeld?
"As Bad As Rumsfeld?" The title jars, doesn't it. The more so, since Defense Secretary Robert Gates found his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, such an easy act to follow. But the jarring part reflects how malnourished most of us are on the thin gruel served up...


