I recently saw a great flick entitled Age of Heroes. It is about the early days of the British SAS in World War II. A team of 8 commandos was airlifted covertly into Norway on a top secret mission to steal vital Nazi technology. It's a hard driving, gut wrenching...

The 9/11 attack revealed structural flaws in the US intelligence community that were addressed in the intelligence reform and terrorism prevention act of 2004. Two of the most important initiatives of this legislation were to create the position of the Director of National Intelligence, and to give the FBI responsibility...

I shifted restlessly in my chair in anticipation of the unveiling of President Obama's Afghanistan strategy on December 2nd at West Point. I was uncertain of what I wanted to hear. Like so many of my colleagues in intelligence, I am weary of war, but sense that it isn't yet...

The principal value of intelligence is to provide reliable information to policymakers on a rival's true plans and intentions. The CIA's ability to provide such a decision advantage to U.S. policymakers depends on its ability to acquire reliable information from clandestine sources, or spies.

While there's no doubt that good...

It is a deeply shared feeling within the ranks of the CIA that the secret nature of intelligence work, with the extraordinary powers that accompany it, demands officers who possess the highest standards of morality and ethical conduct. It requires people who can reliably separate right and wrong in the...