Intelligence
November 11, 2012 — Scott Johnson
A reader points out that Paula Broadwell was the honored keynote speaker at a University of Denver event last month. The speech is obviously of interest in light of the revelation of her involvement with General Petraeus, whom she discusses in her speech. One of the questions following her speech alludes to her interest in becoming the National Security Advisor. At about 35:00, Broadwell herself specifically discusses the terrorist attack
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November 9, 2012 — John Hinderaker
David Petraeus resigned today as director of the CIA, explaining that he had shown “extremely poor judgment” by having an extramarital affair. It is a sad loss for the country. Petraeus’s services have been extraordinary and are too well-known to be recited here. That such a disciplined and dedicated public servant has been brought down by such a lapse seems shocking, but it should not be surprising. As Arthur Schopenhauer
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October 13, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Over at NRO, Patrick Brennan has posted yesterday’s statement by former CIA director Michael Hayden and former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff on Vice President Biden’s whopper throwing the intelligence community under the bus during Thursday night’s debate: During the Vice Presidential debate, we were disappointed to see Vice President Biden blame the intelligence community for the inconsistent and shifting response of the Obama Administration to the terrorist attacks in
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October 1, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Jack Goldsmith is a professor at Harvard Law School. During part of President George W. Bush’s first term, Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. His is one of the best legal minds I know of. Goldsmith is the author of Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11, published earlier this year. I have written a review of
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September 29, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The Obama administration is peddling a new line regarding its inability to hold the old line on the Benghazi murders: the bad dope came from the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who got everything wrong in the days following the attack. DNI spokesman Shawn Turner issued a statement reported by Reuters in the traditional Friday news dump in which scandals go to die. According to the statement: “[W]e revised
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September 24, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Ishmael Jones is the pseudonymous former Central Intelligence Agency case officer who focused on human sources with access to intelligence on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. His assignments included more than 15 years of continuous overseas service under deep cover. Mr. Jones is also the author of The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture, published by Encounter Books. When it was issued in paperback he contributed the
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September 11, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The trail to Osama bin Laden started with the interrogation policies of George W. Bush, condemned as “torture” by Barack Obama. Yet Obama has hogged the credit for the operation that rendered justice to bin Laden. Former Director of the National Clandestine Service for the CIA, Jose Rodriguez is also the author of the memoir Hard Measures: How Agrressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives. Rodriguez is particularly unamused
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July 28, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The AP story on Israel’s purported intelligence threat to the United States — a story that is linked on Drudge — reads to me like an assault on Israel emanating from the upper reaches of the Obama administration and like minded supporters. According to the AP, with attribution to “current and former US officials,” Israel is the “number 1 counterintelligence threat” to the CIA’s Near East Division. If the AP
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June 30, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Edward Jay Epstein is the author of several fascinating books on the Kennedy assassination and related intelligence issues. Among these books are Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald and Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB and the CIA. Also related to the subject are his ebooks Killing Castro and James Jesus Angleton: Was He Right? as well as his classic 1992 New Yorker article, “Epitaph for Jim
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June 25, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Mark Steyn cruelly recalls the wisdom of Obama administration Director of National Intelligence James Clapper regarding events as they were unfolding in Egypt last year. Mark writes: “[D]on’t worry, on the day Mubarak stepped down, America’s Director of National Intelligence, who presides over the most lavishly funded intelligence bureaucracy on the planet, was telling the world that the Muslim Brotherhood is ‘largely secular.’ So that’s okay.” Mark links to the
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June 23, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick agreed to sit down with me on Thursday afternoon at the Tomorrow 2012 edition of the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem. Caroline’s two most recent Post columns are “The Muslim Brotherhood’s useful idiots” and “Dreamy foreign policies.” When I caught up with her Caroline had just spoken on a panel addressing issues related to Israel’s future borders. Caroline wanted to talk about her satirical Hebrew-language Web
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June 18, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Edward Jay Epstein is the author, most recently, of the ebook Three Days in May. He is an incomparable investigative journalist. In his new book, he explores the mysteries surrounding the highly consequential scandal in which Dominique Strauss-Kahn ensnared himself. I had dinner with Ed in New York on Friday night. After dinner, we stopped at one of the bars in the lobby of the Waldrof Astoria, where I was
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June 16, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I’m in New York on my way to Jerusalem, where I will be reporting from the Fourth Annual Presidential Conference next week. Last night I met for dinner with Edward Jay Epstein, one of my favorite nonfiction authors. I have been a fan of Ed’s since I read Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald when it was published in 1978. Legend derived from Ed’s interest in Lee Harvey
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May 15, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Edward Jay Epstein writes on the occasion of the anniversary yesterday of the events giving rise to the disgrace of Dominique Strauss-Kahn: When Dominique Strauss-Kahn stepped out of the shower in his $3,000 a night suite at the Sofitel Hotel in New York one year ago May 14, he was fully on track to become the next President of France. As head of the International Monetary Fund he was now
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May 8, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The Journal Editorial Report on Fox News led off with an interview of former Attorney General Michael Mukasey this past weekend. The transcript is here; the video is below. Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot questioned Judge Mukasey about President Obama’s proclamation of the credit he is due for the death of bin Laden, a subject Judge Mukasey had addressed in his excellent Wall Street Journal column. Gigot then turned
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May 1, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Jose Rodriguez is a 31-year veteran of the CIA. During the post-9/11 years, he served as chief of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and later as head of the National Clandestine Service. In today’s Washington Post, Rodriguez offers two useful reminders: (1) our high-fiving president probably would not have had the opportunity to take out Osama bin Laden last year but for “extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration” and
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May 1, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Edward Jay Epstein is the author of notable books including several that are derived in one way or another from his relationship with the late, legendary CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton. He is also the author of the short, new e-book on l’affaire DSK that has just been published. In today’s New York Times, Joe Nocera devotes a good column to the book under the headline “Power, sex, and
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