Can the US intelligence community overcome its institutional roadblocks?

Not too long ago, I contacted a friend who is still in the community. He and I keep in regular contact, so the fact that I was calling was not out of the ordinary. The reason for my call, however, was. “Hey man, I have someone that I believe your employer might be interested in.” […]

U.S. national security handover to Trump bumpy, officials say

President-elect Donald Trump’s national security transition has been more chaotic than others in recent memory, with important positions unfilled and many of his people less able, or willing, to engage on substance, U.S. officials said. The uncertainties surrounding Trump’s personnel, policies, and rise to power have rattled many of America’s allies, including Japan, Germany and […]

CIA releases 13m pages of declassified documents online

About 13 million pages of declassified documents from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been released online. The records include UFO sightings and psychic experiments from the Stargate programme, which has long been of interest to conspiracy theorists. The move came after lengthy efforts from freedom of information advocates and a lawsuit against the […]

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. […]

75th Ranger Regiment goes covert in Pakistan

With dramatis personae that include the CIA, Delta Force, DEVGRU, the Intelligence Support Activity, Pakistani Commandos, the Taliban, and spies from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), this story has the makings of a future Brad Thor bestseller. The only difference is, this story happened over the course of an eight-month period for a very small […]

Former CIA operations officer weighs in on expulsion of Russian diplomats

The report card has been in for a while, and the news is not good. U.S. counterintelligence, our ability to protect U.S. national security secrets from our enemies and rivals, is in shambles. It doesn’t take a former CIA station chief like me to see the stark wreckage of failure surrounding the intel community like the aftermath of […]

Report: Trump plans to shrink top intelligence agencies, including CIA

President-elect Donald Trump is planning to restructure two of the nation’s top intelligence agencies, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday. The newspaper writes that Trump plans to reduce the size of the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the CIA, fearing the agencies have become too large and politicized. […]

Former Navy SEAL and CIA Officer’s take on the rift between Trump and the CIA

It is no secret that things have been “testy” recently, at least in public, between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the President-elect, Donald J. Trump.   To hear it spoken of in the media, you would think that the CIA is filled with Trump haters looking to stymie the newly elected incoming POTUS, and […]

Former CIA officer on the ramifications of Russian ambassador assassination

Monday the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, was shot and killed while speaking at the opening of a photo exhibit in Ankara, Turkey. The gunman, Mert Altintas, was a Turkish policeman, although there are conflicting reports as to whether he had been dismissed from his position prior to the attack. In any event, while Altintas was not part of […]

‘Spectral’ is military science fiction done right

I am somewhat infamous for my negative reviews of movies about special operations forces. I’m not one of those guys who watches these films expecting some high degree of hyper-technical accuracy. Fictional films are just that. However, I find a lot of these films to be silly, as they claim to recreate something with authenticity, […]