Red Tape Nearly Stops Testimony by Top Former Islamic Radical

It took last-minute arm-twisting by congressional offices and the Department of Homeland Security Wednesday to unravel State Department red tape that nearly prevented a top former Islamic radical from testifying to a Senate committee on the threat his former comrades present to the West.

CQ Politics (07/09/2008)

A Note to Readers: SpyTalk has a Brand New Blog

As of this week, SpyTalk has expanded from a weekly column to a daily blog at Congressional Quarterly's new-ish CQ Politics site. I'll still be offering regular, in-depth reporting and analysis on national security issues, particularly the sprawling U.S. intelligence "community, there. But the new site will provide a more timely offering of the kind of short, insider items that proved so popular under the Backchannel Chatter banner at the end of my columns. So I hope I'll see you there, at the new SpyTalk daily blog.

We Rage, Europeans Yawn, Over Domestic Counterterrorism Ops

Outside the United Kingdom, which invented civil liberties with the Magna Carta, ordinary Europeans couldn’t care less about wiretapping, national ID cards, preventive detention and police spies in mosques.

CQ Politics (06/20/2008)

Collateral Damage

Bush’s Law, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau's new account of the Bush administration's legalistic contortions after 9/11, is full of mouth-drying and finger-curling horror stories.

The New York Times (06/01/2007)

Military Oversight Chairman Snyder Aims at the Fog of War

When Rep. Vic Snyder, the six-term Democrat from Arkansas, begins to talk about the shortsighted military policies of the Bush administration in Iraq, I half-expect to see the tight-lipped outrage of the Vietnam veteran he is. But last week, the chairman of the revitalized House Armed Service Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee responded with the calm detachment of a physician — which he also is.

CQ Politics(06/06/2008)

Rent-a-Spy

Three quarters of the U.S. intelligence budget now goes to outside contractors, Tim Shorrock says in an important new book. And that ain't good. A review of Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.

The Washington Post(05/29/2008)

Will a Woman Helm U.S. Intelligence Next Year?

Women have run Britain's domestic counterterrorism agency, and a woman may soon run France's foreign espionage service. Three American women with similar credentials could possibly emerge from the shadows in an Obama, Clinton or McCain administration.

CQ Politics (05/30/2008)