Summary: Today we have a review of Mark Mazzetti’s new book about the CIA’s drone war, discussing America’s adoption of assassination as one its major modes of warfare. It’s a momentous step which, like the other large mad policies begun by America during the past decade, we have made thoughtlessly — and will later regret. …
Obama + assassination + drones = a dark future for America Read More »
Summary: Two recent new articles revisit a sad story from our past. Gary Webb had a distinguished career in journalism, until his series in the San Jose Mercury News about the CIA’s involvement in smuggling drugs into America. What happened afterwards tells us much about America. We’re ignorant because we have the news media we …
Summary: A combination of events has provide a window into the operation of the CIA. The leaks about Ms. Bikowsky, the model for the lead character in “Zero Dark Thirty”, show us how people in the CIA think, about their values, and how the CIA promotes. This is a follow-up to yesterday’s sad post; today’s …
The intelligence community’s meritocracy in action Read More »
Summary: The CIA used to overthrow governments. Now they cannot even frame a rape charge against the leader of Wikileaks.  For the details see the other posts listed at the end. Update: This was the first post about this story. We now know more about it. In brief, it might not be a US government …
Intelligence about foreigners — state and non-state actors — is vital for the US government, of course. But how useful has US intelligence been in practice? This post is the first in a series examining several perspectives from the large literature on this important subject. The other chapters are (2) About our intelligence agences: the struggle to …
