ODNI

The Post covers spy town

by Paul Woodward 07.22.2010

At the Atlantic, the independent investigative reporter, Tim Shorrock, slams the Washington Post‘s Top Secret America series: Priest and Arkin offer an incredibly simplistic explanation for how the contracting bandwagon took off under President Bush, who they say manipulated “the federal budget process” to make it easier for agencies to hire contractors. Is that why [...]

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EDITORIAL: Syria’s nuclear reactor

by Paul Woodward 04.25.2008

The Al Kibar nuclear reactor in Syria By Paul Woodward, War in Context, April 25, 2008 As someone who voiced great skepticism about the initial claims that Israel destroyed a nuclear facility in the Syrian desert on September 6, 2007, I’ll be the first to admit that the evidence provided in the DNI background briefing [...]

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FEATURE: Can Mike McConnell fix America’s intelligence community?

by Paul Woodward 01.14.2008

The spymaster [PDF] By Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker, January 21, 2008 I asked how he [Mike McConnell, the US Director of National Intelligence,] defined torture. “There’s a history of people making claims that it’s not torture if you don’t force the failure of a major organ,” McConnell said, referring to the infamous 2002 memo [...]

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FEATURE: Intelligence reform

by Paul Woodward 12.09.2007

Nine little words in the NIE By Thomas Powers, Los Angeles Times, December 9, 2007 Intelligence stories rarely get more complicated than this one. But this much is clear: Bush is the nation’s chief classification officer; he can make and unmake secrets at will. The White House says the president was briefed on the findings [...]

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