A Call to Arms: Taking the Russia Threat Seriously
In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, reports continued to flow in from multiple press outlets regarding the contacts that had occurred between the Trump campaign and the Russian...
View ArticleThe Inevitable Day of Reckoning in Syria
There has been a great deal of international outrage over what quite rightly has been called an abandonment of the Syrian Kurds by the United States. President Donald Trump’s rash actions in late...
View ArticleHow to Think About the Soleimani Strike in Four Questions
Not a single member of the U.S. national security establishment mourns the death of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). I served as a CIA officer in the...
View ArticleThe Middle East Peace “Vision” From an Old CIA Hand
The recent rollout of the much-ballyhooed Trump administration “vision” for Middle East peace resulted in an outpouring of negative comments from former United States government officials who have...
View ArticleThe Ties That Bind: The CIA in the Face of Presidential Attack
My recent retirement in July 2019 from the CIA and the current journey I am enjoying, involving public speaking and writing about my career, has led me to engage in a great deal of introspection and...
View ArticleA Case for More Compassionate Leadership at CIA
Just prior to my retirement from CIA in July of 2019, I wrote a personal message to colleagues in the Directorate of Operations (DO). It was often the practice to do so, just before officers handed in...
View ArticleA Blueprint for the Future: The CIA in 2021 and Beyond
As veterans of the CIA, with 46 years of experience in both operations and analysis, we believe that the CIA under a Biden administration or a second Trump term must quickly adapt to the unique...
View ArticleA Letter to President-Elect Biden on Restoring Relations with the...
With former Vice President Joe Biden’s election win now certain, we can turn our attention to restoring the faith and competence in U.S. government institutions, including improved, less politicized...
View ArticleThe Ongoing National Security Threats Posed by Senator Bob Menendez
The recent indictment of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) reads like the script of a B crime movie: A politician, three New Jersey businessmen, a shady trucking business, and envelopes and a safe...
View ArticleTrump’s Stated Goals for the U.S. Intelligence Community: Assessing the Impact
The phrase “failure of imagination” is often associated with the 9/11 Commission report. The term was used to describe why the U.S. intelligence community did not anticipate and prevent the historic...
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