Intelligence

20 Years After Iraq Invasion, Need for Dissenting Perspectives is Clear

by Matthew Duss

A left foreign policy analyst argues that labeling opposition to Ukraine's NATO membership as "pro-Putin" echoes the worst moves of the runup to the Iraq war, and that good policy grows from open discussion. 

For a Secretive Agency, the CIA Has a Long History of PR Stunts

Historian David S. McCarthy puts a new CIA-sponsored podcast in the context of decades-long efforts by the Agency to portray itself as the good guys in a dangerous world while obscuring their role in creating the danger. 

At 75, the CIA is Back to Battling the Kremlin

The common objectives and concerns that engaged the Central Intelligence Agency at its 1947 founding are familiar to the intelligence community today, showing the continuity of American involvement in other nations' affairs. 

Can Intelligence (or History) Predict How Far Putin Might Go?

by Calder Walton

Despite the image of individual operatives, assembling reliable intelligence about Putin's invasion plans is a product of multiple coordinated capabilities, just like it was at the height of the cold war. 

Ghosts in the Mirror: France's Crusade Against Former Nazis in the Algerian Insurgency

by Danny Orbach

Nazi fugitives and mercenaries took on an outsize significance in the strategic imaginations of both French and West German governments and intelligence agencies in the Cold War; they were most influential not through their actions but through distorting government policy through these delusions of power.

Trump Likely did Throw US Troops in Afghanistan under the Bus, but Why would the Russians have Targeted Them?

by Juan Cole

In Washington, a leak like this makes you ask questions. Who leaked the information and why?

Legalize Torture? It’s Tortured Logic

by Sam Ben-Meir

The Report is largely about another single-minded individual, Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver), lead investigator of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who spent five arduous years doggedly uncovering the CIA’s suspect detention and interrogation program following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Intelligence Whistleblowers Often Pay a Severe Price

by Jennifer M. Pacella

In many instances, whistleblowers find the abusive power they have revealed turned against them, both ending their careers and harming their personal lives.

Frantz Fanon and the CIA Man

by Thomas Meaney

Based on an encounter with Fanon’s CIA handler, C. Oliver Iselin, Meaney presents the firsthand experience of a mid-level figure in the U.S. security state who participated in the national liberation movements in Africa. 

The Damage Intelligence Leakers Can Do

by David Foglesong

A case study from 1979 shows how leaks of misleading information can damage national security.

Top 4 Ways Bush even more Outrageously Dissed the Intelligence Community

by Juan Cole

The difference between Trump and Bush is only a matter of rhetorical style, and Trump hasn’t had the opportunity yet to endanger America the way Bush and the Neoconservatives did.

The Secret Anglo-American Empire of Intelligence

by Robert Whitaker

The Second World War saw the security partnership between America and Britain go from a temporary marriage of convenience to a seemingly eternal aspect of the special relationship.