intelligence

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US Intel Gathering Insanely Out of Control

 US Intel Gathering 
 Insanely Out of Control 

wapo Investigation
Jul 19, 2010 7:56 AM CDT

US Intel Gathering Insanely Out of Control

Post 9/11 buildup has left us with more info than we can handle

(Newser) - In the wake of 9/11, the US has built an unspeakably massive top-secret counter-terrorism apparatus that appears to be riddled with waste, according to a major investigative piece that some 20 journalists spent nearly two years working on for the Washington Post . The paper found that 1,271 government organizations,...

Twitter Will Make You Smarter
 Twitter Will Make You Smarter 
opinion
Jun 11, 2010 12:14 PM CDT

Twitter Will Make You Smarter

Like other new media, site beefs up brain if used wisely

(Newser) - It's fashionable to cry about how Twitter and other new forms of electronic media are making us intellectually lazy and downright stupid. In fact, the opposite is true, writes Harvard's Steven Pinker. "Don’t rail at PowerPoint or Google," he writes. "It’s not as if habits...

US Still Depends on Private Spies in Pakistan

Program supposedly disbanded months ago still thriving

(Newser) - When it emerged earlier this year that US intelligence in Pakistan and Afghanistan was standing largely on the shoulders of private contractors hired as spies—including information used to kill insurgents—the feds quickly said the programs were being discontinued and swept the whole matter under the carpet. The New ...

US Strike Didn't Kill Pakistan Taliban Chief

Reports of Hakimullah Mehsud's death greatly exaggerated

(Newser) - Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud is now believed to have survived a US missile strike earlier this year, but has lost clout within the militant network, a senior intelligence official says. The revelation contradicts initial confidence among intelligence officials that the brash militant leader died in a mid-January missile attack...

Google Will Actually Make Us Smarter: Experts

65% of 'Internet experts' say search will improve reading and writing

(Newser) - Though Nicholas Carr may have famously concluded that Google will make us stupid , most Internet experts think he's totally wrong: the easy access to information provided by search engines will actually make us smarter. In a Pew Survey of technology leaders from the academic, government, and corporate sectors, 65% agreed...

Attack Draws Attention to Quiet US Efforts in Pakistan

Taliban may have had intelligence from within the Frontier Corps

(Newser) - The US had an uncomfortable light shined on its training operations in Pakistan yesterday, when three American soldiers were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing in Lower Dir. The soldiers were part of a Special Operations team training Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps, the New York Times reports, a program...

Military Can't Keep Up With Drone Intel

Predators produce too much video for analysts to digest

(Newser) - The military is rushing to get more spy drones into Afghanistan’s sky, but they’ve already got more video streaming in than they can handle. All of the footage is watched live for any potential threat troops should be aware of—roughly 24 years' worth of footage was recorded...

US Drones Back Up Pakistani Offensive

Predators offer intel on militant positions in South Waziristan

(Newser) - The US military is supporting the Pakistani offensive against Taliban militants in South Waziristan with intelligence and imaging collected by unmanned Predator drones. The support is separate from the CIA program using the drones inside Pakistan to kill terrorist leaders. “We are coordinating with the Pakistanis,” a military...

Iraq WMD Mistakes Haunt Debate Over Iran Nukes

(Newser) - As the US confronts Iran over its nuclear program, many Americans can’t help but flash back to 2003, when Colin Powell made a compelling case before the UN that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Is the uproar over Iran’s Qom facility the same kind of smoke and...

US Spies Are Voice of Caution in Iran Debate

Israelis, Europeans believe Tehran is developing warheads

(Newser) - The global intelligence community is at odds over whether Iran is developing nuclear warheads, with US spies insisting it isn’t, and European and Israeli spies begging to differ. In what the New York Times calls a “mirror image” of the Iraq debate, the US say documents found by...

Dropping Missile Shield Is Jab at Bush—Not US Allies

Obama & Co. see Russia, Iran threats differently

(Newser) - President Obama’s decision to shelve the missile shield for Eastern Europe is appeasement only to those obsessed with “legacy threats” like Russia, Marc Ambinder writes for the Atlantic. Obama believes the threat from Iran was overstated by President Bush, and that the shield technology wasn’t a sure...

Taliban Blast Kills Afghan Spy Chief, 22 Others

Insurgents target intelligence official during mosque visit

(Newser) - A Taliban suicide bomber at a mosque near Kabul killed 23 people today, including Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence. The explosion ripped through a crowd in Laghman province just as officials were leaving the mosque. Two top provincial officials from Laghman were also among the dead, and the blast destroyed...

CIA Uses Blackwater to Help Run Drone Attacks

(Newser) - The CIA has relied on a secret division inside the company once known as Blackwater for its drone operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, private employees and government officials tell the New York Times. The for-profit company assembles and loads Hellfire missiles and quarter-ton bombs on secret CIA bases on both...

Panetta to Congress: Let Go of the Past
Panetta to Congress: Let Go of the Past
OPINION
Aug 2, 2009 12:47 PM CDT

Panetta to Congress: Let Go of the Past

Fighting over defunct Bush-era programs only hurt CIA, chief says

(Newser) - It's time for the toxic air of recriminations and mistrust in Washington about the CIA’s post-9/11 intelligence programs to blow over, Leon Panetta writes today in the Washington Post. “I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from...

Durbin: Cheney 'Way Beyond' the Constitution
Durbin: Cheney 'Way Beyond' the Constitution
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Jul 12, 2009 10:46 AM CDT

Durbin: Cheney 'Way Beyond' the Constitution

Also, Palin resignation 'surprised' McCain; she 'did not call me'

(Newser) - The revelation that Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to withhold information from Congress “absolutely” warrants an investigation, Sen. Dick Durbin said today. “To give the president unbridled authority goes way beyond the United States Constitution,” Durbin told This Week. Over on Fox News Sunday, Sen. John Cornyn...

You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire
You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire
ANALYSIS
May 22, 2009 10:19 AM CDT

You Can't See It, But Cheney's Pants Are on Fire

Ex-veep's speech full of torture distortions

(Newser) - In his full-on assault on the president's conterterrorism policies yesterday, Dick Cheney deployed an arsenal of “omissions, exaggerations and misstatements,” charge Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of McClatchy. Among them:
  • Cheney claimed that harsh interrogations yielded vital, attack-preventing information and quoted Adm. Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence.
...

Smarties Enjoy Sex More Than Bimbos Do

Turns out men do make passes at women who wear glasses

(Newser) - Smart women enjoy sex more than the average bimbo, according to a new study, reports the Telegraph. How did researchers know? Women with a higher emotional intelligence scored  more orgasms during sex. Emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize and manage feelings—"seems to have a direct impact on women's...

Deadly Genes Make Euro Jews Smarter: Scientist

Scientists spark furor with controversial DNA theory

(Newser) - The genes that make European Jews susceptible to deadly diseases may also increase their intelligence, two scientists say. Arizona physicist Gregory Cochran stumbled on the theory when pondering why natural selection hasn't removed bad DNA from the gene pool that makes Ashkenazi Jews get so many diseases. His answer: ...

Intel Pick's Ouster a Victory for Lobbyists
Intel Pick's Ouster a Victory for Lobbyists
OPINION
Mar 12, 2009 9:26 AM CDT

Intel Pick's Ouster a Victory for Lobbyists

Loss of excellent public servant a loss for country: Broder

(Newser) - When Charles Freeman withdrew from consideration to chair the National Intelligence Council, the Obama administration “suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the lobbyists the president vowed to keep in their place,” writes David Broder of the Washington Post. Freeman boasted “one of the most distinguished...

Obama Loses High-Level Intel Pick
Obama Loses High-Level
Intel Pick
Mar 10, 2009 7:26 PM CDT

Obama Loses High-Level Intel Pick

Freeman, criticized as anti-Israel, withdraws from NIC post

(Newser) - Relentless criticism has forced another of President Obama's high-level appointees to drop out, the Hill reports. Charles Freeman, in line to be head of the National Intelligence Council, drew strong opposition for perceived anti-Israel views and financial ties to Saudi and Chinese governments. Freeman dropped out just hours after his...

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