Ever since the day of its creation, critics have slammed the Office of Director of National Intelligence as an expensive and unnecessary bureaucracy, a threat to the longtime primacy of the Director of Central Intelligence and a toothless tiger. Much of that changed during the joint tenures of DNI Mike McConnell and SecDef Bob Gates […]
WASHINGTON: The day before intelligence analysts brief a skeptical Donald Trump on Russian interference with the 2016 elections, the Director of National Intelligence told supportive senators that he had only grown more confident the Kremlin was the culprit. DNI James Clapper not only repeated his assessment that Russia had tried to manipulate the election with […]
WASHINGTON: The next Director of National Intelligence may be Pete Hoestra, the Dutch-born former head of the House Intelligence Committee, and the next Army Secretary is likely to be Van Hipp, head of consulting firm American Defense International, according to a source who advises President-elect Donald Trump on national security issues. Van Hipp, a former Army officer, first […]
One of the major shifts in American intelligence after the terror attacks of 911 was the creation of the Director of National Intelligence and a whole new agency to serve him in his task of ensuring America’s 17 intelligence agencies (including the DNI) played well together, effectively shared information and didn’t waste too much in […]
WASHINGTON: America’s spy satellite maker and operator, the National Reconnaissance Office, has one major satellite program at risk of not meeting its cost and schedule requirements, its director Betty Sapp says. In a rare moment of transparency, Sapp answered my question about the status of the agency’s programs at the Intelligence and National Security Summit […]
WASHINGTON: The persistent grumbles from the CIA and other bastions of the Intelligence Community that the Director of National Intelligence is just an unneeded layer of bureaucracy has caught the ear of House Intelligence chairman Rep. Devin Nunes. He promised to try and pass legislation to change this but admitted it would be “tough” to get […]
WASHINGTON: In the face of a lot of what he called “catastrophizing” about the “very volatile time for the country” known as the presidential transition, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offers a simple message: “It’ll be OK.” Of course, that reassurance came after Clapper outlined the dark precautions that are taken on Inauguration Day, including the designation of […]
GEOINT: If you’re not an American citizen and you walk the halls of CIA headquarters and other U.S. intelligence agencies, lights flash alerting workers that a foreign national is walking by so that any secrets on their screens or desks can be protected from prying eyes. The main reason for this is that much intelligence is […]
GEOINT: The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) will be joining the Defense Department in Silicon Valley this summer, director Robert Cardillo says. The new office will be called “NGA Outpost Valley,” a more euphonious name than the Pentagon’s unwieldy DiuX. “It’s a beachhead that will have the authority to reach out to all innovation centers,” […]
WASHINGTON: The House Armed Services Committee is certainly no friend to today’s Russia as ruled by Vladimir Putin, but even they now support the Pentagon’s plans to use 18 Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines. The HASC approved by voice vote an amendment by Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado to the National Defense Authorization Act that would […]