Intelligence Community

America's Bloated Intelligence Bureaucracy

William Astore | Posted 04.04.2012

William Astore

Lost is the lesson of 9/11: We didn't have a collection problem but a connection one. Yet our response has largely been not to find better ways of connecting the dots, but rather simply to collect more dots.

A Covert Mystery, Wrapped in Classification, Inside a Contractual Black Hole

David Isenberg | Posted 05.26.2012

David Isenberg

When it comes to overseeing contractors, as the old saying goes, you ain't seen nothing yet. That's because we've barely begun to consider the use of private contractors in another critical national security realm: the intelligence community.

O. I. L.: The Case for a War Against Iran

Sadia Ahsanuddin | Posted 03.25.2012

Sadia Ahsanuddin

The rhetoric and arguments used by war hawks today are similar to arguments preceding the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

U.S. Government Needs Open Group To Study Climate Change, Report Says

The Huffington Post | James Gerken | Posted 11.17.2011

How will the U.S. government tackle climate change? A recent report suggests that the intelligence community could benefit from the creation of an ope...

Federal Intelligence Agencies May Help Target Pot Growers

Andrew Becker | Posted 01.11.2012

Andrew Becker

Lawmakers soon may enlist the nation's spymaster to help fight Mexican drug traffickers and others who use federal land in California and elsewhere to grow marijuana.

Is the National Security Complex Too Big to Fail?

Tom Engelhardt | Posted 12.20.2011

Tom Engelhardt

Think of Iraq as the AIG of wars -- the only difference being that the bailout there didn't involve just three payouts. More than eight years after the Bush administration invaded that country, the bailout is, unbelievably enough, still going.

Bin Laden Raid Shows Value Of Tech Startups To The Military

Renny McPherson | Posted 07.05.2011

Renny McPherson

The recent operation against Osama bin Laden has consumed much news coverage, and there have been specific and more opaque references to the amount of intelligence collection necessary to move to raid bin Laden's compound.

WikiLeaks Forces Intelligence Community To Rethink The Way It Shares Information

AP | KIMBERLY DOZIER | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — Dismayed by the massive war-documents leak, intelligence experts are raising alarms that post-Sept. 11 changes promoting informatio...

'Top Secret America' Expose Highlights Extensive Network Of Private Intelligence Contractors

The Washington Post | Dana Priest & William A. Arkin | Posted 05.25.2011

To ensure that the country's most sensitive duties are carried out only by people loyal above all to the nation's interest, federal rules say contract...

The Case For Reining In Washington's Out-Of-Control Intelligence Community

Time | Robert Baer | Posted 05.25.2011

No one intended to create a monster bureaucracy after 9/11 -- Washington has always thrown money and people at a problem rather than good ideas. But n...

Washington Post 'Top Secret America' Investigation: Intelligence Community Inefficient, Unmanageable

AP | Posted 05.25.2011

WASHINGTON — Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that ...

Are Private Contractors the Vulnerable Underbelly of the Intelligence Community?

David Isenberg | Posted 05.25.2011

David Isenberg

We hear so much about the use of private military and security contractors by the Defense and State departments that it is easy to forget that outsour...

Dennis Blair: U.S. Can Kill Suspected American Terrorists Abroad

The Huffington Post | Nick Wing | Posted 05.25.2011

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair offered confirmation on Wednesday that the U.S. intelligence community is authorized to assassinate Ame...

Weekly Pulse: Who are Landrieu's Alleged Phone Tamperers?

The Media Consortium | Posted 05.25.2011

The Media Consortium

By Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium Blogger The four young men arrested last week for allegedly attempting to tamper with the phones at the office...

Botched Attack Revives Scrutiny Of Bush Intelligence Reforms

The Washington Post | Karen DeYong | Posted 05.25.2011

The failure of U.S. authorities to detect a plot to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day has reignited long-simmering concerns that intelligence refo...

Fire Them, Mr. President

Winslow T. Wheeler | Posted 05.25.2011

Winslow T. Wheeler

The only other thing the "intelligence community" seems to be good at, other than consistently missing trends of huge importance, is bureaucratic infighting.

The Explosion of the Afghan Insurgency: Utterly Predictable, Yet Hotly Debated

Derrick Crowe | Posted 05.25.2011

Derrick Crowe

Recently leaked intelligence assessments reportedly show that Al-Qaida and the jihadist Taliban groups account for only 10 percent of the insurgents in Afghanistan.

The CIA's Role in Iranian Regime Change

Keith Thomson | Posted 05.25.2011

Keith Thomson

I would guess that in the past year, there were more regime-change-in-Iran plots floated by members of the intelligence community than there are Iranians.

Time to Curtail the Intelligence Community

Eric C. Anderson | Posted 05.25.2011

Eric C. Anderson

Bloat and redundancy have turned the intelligence community into a full-time "make-work" program for approximately 70,000 federal employees and over 30,000 contractors.

Top Intelligence Picks a No-Win for Obama

Tim Shorrock and Frank Naif | Posted 05.25.2011

Tim Shorrock and Frank Naif

The Obama transition team's highly anticipated announcement of its new national security lineup has telling omissions: there's no Director of National Intelligence or CIA Director.

The Intelligence Community: Our Retarded Giant

Allison Kilkenny | Posted 05.25.2011

Allison Kilkenny

It won't be your grandmother's hippie protest at the DNC -- this time around, the police presence will be huge, suspicious activity will be loosely defined and cataloged in a huge national database.

Sam Stein

Intelligence Crisis In Iraq Seen First Hand

HuffingtonPost.com | Sam Stein | Posted 05.25.2011

More than five years into the war, the United States mission in Iraq has become a case study of policy blunders, political misunderstandings, and wast...