Review: 'The Watchers,' by Shane Harris

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: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/05/RVN01C33LU.DTL#ixzz0hiLS8t5S

Top Spies Terror Warning: Shades of Bush

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.

We Rage, Europeans Yawn, Over Domestic Counterterrorism Ops

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)

Iran’s Top Terrorist Emerges From the Shadows

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)

Mike Chertoff Takes See-No-Evil Stance on NSA Wiretaps

As more allegations of questionable wiretapping emerged last week, the former federal judge faced an unprecedented interrogation on the Homeland Security Department’s relationship with the NSA.

CQ Homeland Security (03/07/2008)

Mike McConnell’s Temporary Spokesman Has a Full-Time Job

Ross Feinstein ought to get a Purple Heart for all the hits he’s taken as press agent for Mike McConnell, the serial mis-stater who runs American intelligence. It’s all the more astounding that only a few years ago, the 25-year-old was vice president of the Union College student union.

CQ Homeland Security (02/29/2008)

Indicted Former Congressman Played God's James Bond

Long before he was indicted last month on charges that he rinsed money for an al Qaeda-connected charity, former Michigan Republican Rep. Mark Siljander had immersed himself in clandestine operations, according to his ill-timed and -titled memoir, “A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide,” scheduled for publication in June.

CQ Politics(02/22/2008)

Wiretapping's Collateral Damage

The strange spy tale of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright and the administration's push for open-ended electronic surveillance powers combine to create cause for worry — but not just for the reasons many people think.
See story

CQ Politics(01/25/2008)

Another Homeland Boondoggle in the Works

Who needs to spend $22 million on a commission to study homegrown terrorism? Only Congress, of course -- no matter that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, think tanks, universities, journalists and independent scholars have studied it to death.
See story

CQ Homeland Security (10/26/2007)