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INTELLIGENCE

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The Wire

Obama restores private intel board's key power

President Barack Obama Thursday restored an independent intelligence advisory agency's authority to tell the attorney general if it thinks that a U.S. intelligence agency may have broken the law, a move intended to improve oversight of those agencies.

Obama names Hagel, Boren as intel board leaders

President Barack Obama says two former senators will lead an advisory board charged with giving him unvarnished counsel about the nation's intelligence.

Some intel notifications to Congress lagging

A top U.S. official said Tuesday that an internal review has found that Congress was not fully notified about a small number of intelligence activities, but has since been brought up to date.

South Africa announces new secret service chief

South Africa's intelligence minister says a former underground intelligence agent and close ally of President Jacob Zuma will head the country's Secret Services agency.

Pay dirt: Digging, clues revealed Iranian site

U.S. intelligence agencies hit paydirt several years ago when they searched for a hidden Iranian uranium-enrichment site, spotting telltale signs of digging outside the holy city of Qom.

Intel official: US safer from al-Qaida

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would not have happened had U.S. intelligence agencies been organized then the way they are now, the top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.

US intelligence gathering in Afghanistan expanded

U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan are assembling a potent intelligence-gathering operation to help defeat the Taliban insurgency, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.

Intel chief: Computer attacker still a mystery

The U.S. still has not figured out who was behind the July 4 cyberattacks that took down a series of government Web sites, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said Wednesday.

CIA, intel director locked in spy turf battle

The nation's two intelligence chiefs are locked in a turf battle over overseas posts, forcing National Security Adviser James L. Jones to mediate, according to current and former government officials.

Dick Cheney's national security remarks

- Thank you all very much, and Arthur, thank you for that introduction. It's good to be back at AEI, where we have many friends. Lynne is one of your longtime scholars, and I'm looking forward to spending more time here myself as a returning trustee. What happened was, they were looking for a new member of the board of trustees, and they asked me to head up the search committee.

Pants on fire? Thermal imager may reveal a lie

Coming one day to a government checkpoint near you: a thermal imager that just might tip off a guard to a liar.

Official: Intel predicts rising Afghan violence

U.S. intelligence suggests that violence in Afghanistan will rise through 2009 despite the Obama administration's new strategy for combatting the Taliban and shoring up the Afghan government, a top intelligence official said Friday. Violence in Afghanistan has steadily risen for the past three years as the ousted Taliban has staged a comeback, and President Barack Obama on Friday called the situation in the region "increasingly perilous," more than seven years after the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan.

Official: Mexico not in danger of collapse

The Mexican government is not on the verge of collapse, the top U.S. intelligence official said Thursday, seeking to tamp down increasing alarm over the powerful and violent drug cartels operating in the country that is the United States' southern neighbor.

Officials: Iran does not have key nuclear material

Iran does not yet have any highly enriched uranium, the fuel needed to make a nuclear warhead, two top U.S. intelligence officials told Congress Tuesday, disputing a claim by an Israeli official.

Controversial ex-CIA director named to spy panel

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair has asked former CIA Director John Deutch, who was stripped of his security clearance nearly a decade ago for mishandling classified information, to sit on an advisory panel on spy satellites, a lawmaker said Thursday.

Intel director-to-be resigns defense company post

Before taking his new job as head of U.S. intelligence, retired Adm. Dennis Blair has to resign lucrative directorships on the boards of two companies that do tens of millions of dollars of business with the Defense Department.

US official: Intelligence director resigns

National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell resigned his post effective Tuesday.

Senate approves Blair for intelligence director

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed retired Adm. Dennis Blair as the new national intelligence director.

Intel director: Iran, cyber threats biggest worry

Iran producing a nuclear weapon and a cyber attack on critical government or private computer networks top the list of concerns nagging at National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell as he prepares to leave office.

Intel committee to reflect new Democratic majority

Democrats plan to increase their numbers on the House Intelligence Committee, a move that Republicans charge breaks the majority party's promise to implement 9/11 commission recommendations.

Senators say no witch hunt aimed at spy agencies

While eager to find out more about the Bush administration's harsh interrogation and detainee policies, Senate Democrats are hinting that spy agency veterans need not fear that the groundwork is being laid for punishing those who carried them out.

Blair is Obama's choice for DNI

Retired Admiral Dennis Blair is Barack Obama's choice to be director of national intelligence.

Obama picks for intelligence expected this week

President-elect Barack Obama is moving toward an announcement this week on his two top intelligence officials, a decision delayed by internal debate and concern over candidates' ties to Bush-era policies on interrogations and torture.

Official: Iraq war was both intel, policy failure

Gently admonishing President George W. Bush, the nation's newly retired chief intelligence analyst on Tuesday suggested that the Iraq war was as much the failure of policymakers as it was the flawed intelligence on which they relied.

Clues point to domestic terrorists in India attack

The attack on India's financial capital bears all the trademarks of al-Qaida — simultaneous assaults meant to kill scores of Westerners in iconic buildings — but clues so far point to homegrown Indian terrorists, global intelligence officials said Thursday.

The Vine
Psychic Spies, Acid Guinea Pigs, New Age Soldiers: the True Men Who Stare at Goats
Source: Wired News

"More of this is true than you would believe," we're told, just a few minutes into the movie version of The Men Who Stare At Goats, which opens today.

David Chalmers and the Singularity that will probably not come
Source: rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com

David Chalmers is a philosopher of mind, best known for his argument about the difficulty of what he termed the "hard problem" of consciousness, which he typically discusses by way of a thought experiment featuring zombies who act and talk exactly like humans, and yet have no …

Brains: the secret to better schools - thestar.com
Source: Toronto Star

French neuroscientist Bruno della Chiesa met with his country's education minister in Paris to talk about the groundbreaking international movement to link the fields of teaching and brain science.

Obama Administration Invokes State Secrets Privilege... Again
Source: ABC News Blogs

The Obama administration invoked the controversial "state secrets" privilege again on Friday, arguing that if U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker were to permit a legal case against the government to proceed, he would be putting national security at risk.

1,600 names suggested daily for terror list
Source: msnbc.com

Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and complexity of the nation's terrorist watch list, documenting a daily flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.

McChrystal Doesn't Get It—Does Obama?
Source: Truthdig

Puppet politics as usual... Aren't the puppets now talking about war in Iran now?

What Really Prompted Iran to Build the Qom Enrichment Facility?
Source: CounterPunch.org

The Obama administration claims that construction of a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility at Qom began before Tehran's decision to withdraw from a previous agreement to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in advance of such construction.

Former AMD chief identified as leak in Galleon insider trading case
Source: mercurynews.com

The far-reaching insider trading scandal now appears to have reached the top ranks of the high-tech industry with reports Tuesday that Hector Ruiz, former CEO and chairman of Sunnyvale chip company Advanced Micro Devices, leaked confidential AMD information to alleged conspirator …

Explaining terrorism to a Nobel laureate
Source: American Thinker

The world finally has a definitive answer to the age-old question about whether intelligence is the same thing as common sense. That answer, in case you've ever wondered, is a conclusive "no."

Getting rich off of your ignorance.

A lot of us would be mad, to find out, that so many get rich, off of what, you and I, do not know. There are hordes of services, that depend upon you, to make them rich.

East German Jokes Collected by West German Spies
Source: SPIEGEL ONLINE

Did East Germans originate from apes? Impossible. Apes could never have survived on just two bananas a year.

Congress Moves to Require Taped Detainee Sessions
Source: The New York Times

Congress is moving to require videotaping of interrogations of detainees held by the military, a step proponents say will prevent abuse and create a valuable intelligence record.

Homeland Security commercial featuring John Elway Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists
Source: Alex Jones' Prison Planet.com

Owning gold or firearms, donating to charity, finding out information about things all constitute suspicious activity to be reported to the authorities.

Rebooting American Foreign Policy
Source: National Review Online

It has been a bad decade for America's foreign-policy and intelligence establishment. We've seen a devastating terrorist attack in America's largest city, followed by two protracted wars fraught with strategic missteps.

Eating Licorice In Pregnancy May Affect A Child's IQ And Behavior
Source: Science Daily

Expectant mothers who eat excessive quantities of licorice during pregnancy could adversely affect their child's intelligence and behavior, a study has shown.

How Smart Are You? A New Brainteaser.. revised

This one took me a while but I will bet a couple of my "genius" friends out there will get it faster. Pictured are my brainteaser researchers. They delight in stumping me and they keep score. Right now I am holding my own but they are determined to do me in!!!

America's New Psychosis. Avoid Reality and Forget Truth
Source: CounterPunch.org

Iran's Nuclear Program By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY

Evidence Points To Conscious 'Metacognition' In Some Nonhuman Animals
Source: Science Daily

Smith makes this conclusion in an article published the September issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Science (Volume 13, Issue 9). He reviews this new and rapidly developing area of comparative inquiry, describing its milestones and its prospects for continued progress.

Spanking Your Children Makes Them Less Intelligent?
Source: msnbc.com

Spanking can get kids to behave in a hurry, but new research suggests it can do more harm than good to their noggins. The study, involving hundreds of U.S. children, showed the more a child was spanked, the lower his or her IQ compared with others.

Militants gun down Chechen village chief, son
Source: msnbc.com

Gunmen killed a village chief and his son in Chechnya in the latest in a series of assassinations in Russia\'s violent North Caucasus, an official said Sunday.

American Troops in Philippines Involved in Combat Operations – Ex-Navy Officer
Source: Bulatlat.com

[Manila, Philippines] A former officer of the Philippine Navy has corroborated reports and speculations that American troops in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao, take part in combat operations.

Vote: Does Obama probe jeopardize CIA's ability to do its job?
Source: FOXNews.com

President Obama made it clear Sunday that, in spite of a letter sent to him by seven former CIA directors urging that he halt Attorney General Eric Holder's investigation into alleged CIA interrogation abuses, he has no intention of stopping the process.

Holder's Witch hunt of CIA Director's
Source: www.theatlantic.com

CIA Directors' letter to President Obama underscoring the investigation into interrogation techniques.

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