Green Badgers and Blue Badgers: Inside the CIA’s Secret Warfighters
In special operations, there’s a hard line between clandestine and covert missions—one’s a ghost story you tell after the blood dries, the other’s a lie you take to your grave.
Black Ops & Intel
The top 4 things you need to know about intelligence gathering and use
Inscribed on the CIA’s original headquarters in Langley is a passage from the Gospel of St. John: “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” This unofficial Agency motto alludes to the truth and clarity that intelligence provides to decision-makers, similar to the “knowledge is power” mantra. But what happens […]
A historical view of intelligence gathering: The spies of the American Revolution
The American general was desperate. The last time he had faced his enemy counterpart, who considered one the best tacticians in the world, he and his men had barely escaped with their lives and had given up crucial territory during the withdrawal. He knew that he could be engaging in a second battle at any […]
The Fusion Analyst: An intro to all source intelligence and analysis
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge.” The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of […]
Streamlining the Intelligence Community
Recent news that DNI Dan Coats is looking for ways to streamline the gargantuan US Intelligence Community have returned the question of how American intelligence should be organized and structured to the fore. While previous efforts at “reform” were largely stillborn and confined to the marginal reshuffling of existing capabilities, the election of Donald Trump […]
Secret spy bars of Kiev (part 1 of 2)
“None of the locals go here. The view is nice, but it’s too expensive,” said my friend from Kiev. Drink prices were triple, make that quadruple, what they were compared to my late afternoon beer near the city centre. I slid the door open and stepped out into the harsh, cold night air; it was below […]
Are fMRI machines the CIA’s unbeatable lie detector?
Everyone knows about the polygraph. Funny enough, it was invented by William Moulton Marston who was also the mind that came up with the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. Now you know why she carries her “lasso of truth”! But familiarity with the polygraph also means that plenty of people know how to defeat or […]
Cyber Warfare: The “Team” in Red Team
As the name implies a Red Team is a team. In the world I live in – information and physical security – it is comprised by a variety of experts in different areas. Each member can perform the other’s duty but each one has a specialty and he or she is responsible for it. I […]
My time working as a targeting officer at the CIA
Nada Bakos, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst on the team charged with analyzing the relationship between Iraq-AQ-9/11. During the war, Ms. Bakos became the Chief Targeting officer following Zarqawi. After 20 years in the intelligence field and corporate world, Ms. Bakos is currently focused on national security issues and regional stability around the world. […]
Retooling the intelligence community for a new world
The news media is abuzz with reports of the ongoing public confrontation between President-elect Trump and members of the intelligence community, particularly outgoing CIA Director Brennan. Alarms are being sounded over the danger posed by an incoming president in confrontation with his own intelligence agencies, and who publicly questions the value of the intelligence they provide. […]
Russia is using the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to prepare for the next major war
On April 26, 1937 the world got its first taste of the impact of strategic air power. German aircraft belonging to the Condor Legion attacked the Basque city of Guernica. Ignoring military targets and concentrating on the civilian population, German planes killed somewhere around 1500 people and wounded thousands more. The gutted shell of the […]
Attacking the digital dragon: Protecting against cyber attacks
Any modern country has a wide variety of assets to protect. Some of those assets are more necessary than others for the country’s security, welfare, and economy in general. Such critical assets include power grids, water supplies, public-transit systems, and telecommunications, to name a few. Critical infrastructure has to be protected from a wide variety of […]
