SpyTalk

Review: 'The Watchers,' by Shane Harris

2010-03-09T16:04:00.000-05:00

Harris makes a surprisingly persuasive case that Poindexter and his fellow "watchers," intelligence professionals dedicated to building better anti-terrorist mousetraps, were right - or at least onto something that deserved a closer, more thoughtful scrutiny than the scorn and ridicule, not to mention alarm, that it garnered in 2003.

Read more here.

CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding

2010-02-12T17:31:00.001-05:00

John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who famously affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, now admits in a new memoir that he didn't know what he was talking about.
Read more here.
And don't miss Colbert's satire of my piece here.
ForeignPolicy.com (01/26/2010)

Top Spies Terror Warning: Shades of Bush

2010-02-03T11:48:00.001-05:00

Which is it now -- imminent terrorist threat, or no threat? Certain or uncertain?

Only last month U.S. intelligence officials were saying the Nigerian underwear bomber slipped through their nets because they didn't think al Qaeda could or would mount another attack here.

Yesterday, they warned that a terror attack here was "certain."

READ MORE HERE.

CIA Killings in Afghanistan Stun Ops Veterans

2010-01-02T20:37:00.002-05:00

On Dec. 30 a suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan killed eight Americans, seven of whom were CIA employee. A spokesperson for the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a Taliban bomber wearing an Afghan military uniform — and a suicide vest — entered the base last night and blew himself up.
On New Year's Eve I discussed CIA operations in Afghanistan with PBS WorldFocus host Martin Savidge, here.

Obama's First Wartime Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T00:03:00.012-05:00

Last month I stood on Omaha Beach, where the sand once congealed with GI blood, thinking about President Obama's first wartime Thanksgiving.

Read more here. (Huffington Post, Nov. 23, 2009)

Afghan Troop Request Hides Real Numbers

2009-10-15T12:36:00.005-04:00

Despite grim new portraits of U।S. fortunes in Afghanistan, Washington's debate over troop levels continues unhinged from reality.

Read more here. (Huffington Post, Oct. 15, 2009)

Gen. McChrystal Is No MacArthur

2009-10-07T12:31:00.006-04:00

A half century ago President Harry Truman tamed a rebellious -- and hugely popular -- Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who wanted to dramatically expand the war in Korea by attacking China.
President Obama faces a similar challenge today from his commander in Afghanistan, Gen। Stanley McChrystal, who wants to send tens of thousands more American troops to his war.
Read more here. (Huffington Post, Oct. 7, 2009)

How They Cracked Zazi

2009-10-01T00:28:00.001-04:00

The feds cracked Najibullah Zazi without laying a hand on him, according to most news accounts.
But some people still wonder if the rough stuff would have worked better -- if only to make sure he gave it all up.
They've got to turn off their TVs.
Read more here. (Huffington Post, Sept. 30, 2009)

As I was saying....

2009-09-25T02:01:00.002-04:00

The word's out that CQ-Roll Call canned 44 editorial employees Thursday -- and I was one of them.

It was a great ride.

But fear not, SpyTalk fans, your daily intelligence dish will soon find a new and better commercial home elsewhere.

In the meantime, please send me your news, tips and thoughts here, via spytalk@comcast.net. Or call me at (202) 812-3034.

Any messages you've sent to me at jstein@cq.com, or left on my telephone there, will mostly get trashed. I no longer have access to my CQ e-mail or voice mail. (They don't waste time showing you the door these days.)

Thanks again for being such good readers. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with you again soon.

Allbest - Jeff

A Note to Readers: SpyTalk has a Brand New Blog

2008-06-25T12:51:00.003-04:00

As of this week, SpyTalk has expanded from a weekly column to a daily blog at Congressional Quarterly's new-ish CQ Politics site. I'll still be offering regular, in-depth reporting and analysis on national security issues, particularly the sprawling U.S. intelligence "community, there. But the new site will provide a more timely offering of the kind of short, insider items that proved so popular under the Backchannel Chatter banner at the end of my columns. So I hope I'll see you there, at the new SpyTalk daily blog.

We Rage, Europeans Yawn, Over Domestic Counterterrorism Ops

2008-06-21T09:14:00.004-04:00

Outside the United Kingdom, which invented civil liberties with the Magna Carta, ordinary Europeans couldn’t care less about wiretapping, national ID cards, preventive detention and police spies in mosques.

CQ Politics (06/20/2008)

Collateral Damage

2008-06-07T16:57:00.006-04:00

Bush’s Law, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau's new account of the Bush administration's legalistic contortions after 9/11, is full of mouth-drying and finger-curling horror stories.

The New York Times (06/01/2007)

Military Oversight Chairman Snyder Aims at the Fog of War

2008-06-07T16:48:00.003-04:00

When Rep. Vic Snyder, the six-term Democrat from Arkansas, begins to talk about the shortsighted military policies of the Bush administration in Iraq, I half-expect to see the tight-lipped outrage of the Vietnam veteran he is. But last week, the chairman of the revitalized House Armed Service Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee responded with the calm detachment of a physician — which he also is.

CQ Politics(06/06/2008)

Rent-a-Spy

2008-06-05T02:11:00.006-04:00

Three quarters of the U.S. intelligence budget now goes to outside contractors, Tim Shorrock says in an important new book. And that ain't good. A review of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.

The Washington Post(05/29/2008)

Will a Woman Helm U.S. Intelligence Next Year?

2008-06-02T01:57:00.004-04:00

Women have run Britain's domestic counterterrorism agency, and a woman may soon run France's foreign espionage service. Three American women with similar credentials could possibly emerge from the shadows in an Obama, Clinton or McCain administration.

CQ Politics (05/30/2008)

The End Might Be Nearer Than You Think

2008-05-16T20:33:00.010-04:00

You think Iraq is a problem? How about a space rock the size of Long Island landing on your house? Go ahead and laugh, but the end may actually be near, according to a few members of Congress who think we need to move fast to head off an asteroid Armageddon.

CQ Politics (05/16/2008)

Film Exposes the Seduction of Secrecy

2008-05-10T22:50:00.004-04:00

“Secrecy is something like forbidden fruit,” former NSA official Mike Levin says in a startling new documentary, aptly named Secrecy. “You can’t have it. It’s classified. That makes you want it more.” But who should determine what a real secret is -- bureaucrats or the press?

CQ Politics (05/09/2008)

State Department Says ‘Missing’ Laptops Located

2008-05-06T23:33:00.003-04:00

The State Department says it has found the 400 laptops that were unaccounted for last week. A senior official acknowledged that managers in the Diplomatic Security service had lost track of the computers, which are destined for friendly foreign police services. But he said that they were located “within 24 hours” after CQ reported them missing over the weekend.

CQ Politics (05/06/2008)

Hundreds of State Department Laptops Missing: Audit

2008-05-03T01:41:00.004-04:00

As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, officials say, which provides counterterrorism training and equipment, including laptops, to foreign police, intelligence and security forces.

CQ Politics (05/02/2008)

Israel Might Have Many More Spies Here, Officials Say

2008-04-26T00:18:00.003-04:00

The elderly man arrested last week on charges of spying for Israel years ago was probably still working for the Jewish state’s espionage service in tandem with another, as yet unidentified spy, former U.S. intelligence officials say. The case serves as a reminder that the U.S.-Israeli intelligence relationship runs on two tracks.

CQ Politics (04/25/2008)

The CIA's Odd Man Out

2008-04-19T18:32:00.004-04:00

It’s not easy to generate a lot of sympathy for a CIA man implicated in a botched kidnapping. But I feel sorry for Bob Lady, the CIA’s man in Milan during the Abu Omar snatch. Lady has been abandoned by his agency while others who insisted on the screwy operation over his objectives get ahead.

CQ Politics (04/18/2008)

Iran’s Top Terrorist Emerges From the Shadows

2008-04-12T22:39:00.005-04:00

Brigadier Gen. Qassem Suleimani, head of Iran’s supersecret overseas intelligence and sabotage service, is beginning to show a little more ankle, but he remains pretty much an enigma among Iran experts in Washington — including U.S. intelligence agencies, some say.

CQ Politics (04/11/2008)

Evidence Grows of Drug Use on Detainees

2008-04-06T12:05:00.007-04:00

There can be little doubt now that the government has used drugs designed to weaken the resistance of terrorist suspects to interrogation. Another window opened on the practice last week with the declassification of John Yoo’s 2003 memo approving harsh interrogation techniques. But hard evidence that U.S. interrogators are employing hallucinogens, like the LSD the CIA tested on unwitting subjects for at least 20 years beginning in the 1940s, has yet to surface.

CQ Politics (04/04/2008)

Washington Not Ready to Add Nicaragua to the Axis of Evil

2008-03-29T15:26:00.010-04:00

Alarms have been raised about Iran’s ties to Nicaragua, but the Bush administration isn’t seeing much to get upset about — yet. Maybe it’s because the Iranians haven’t shown up with the cash for all their grandiose plans. When Nicaraguans hear about the $350 million port and other projects the Iranians are supposed to be building, they simply roll their eyes.

CQ Homeland Security (03/28/2007)

John McCain’s Polish Moment, Iranian Style

2008-03-21T23:26:00.005-04:00

The Republican candidate’s insistence, then backtracking, then his campaign’s backtracking on the backtracking, that Iran is training al Qaeda evoked President Gerald R. Ford’s declaration that “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.” For others, it was a reminder that we have all been here before — and we are once again exposed to the ignorance of top American officials about the Middle East.

CQ Homeland Security (03/21/2007)