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Looking for some advice and perhaps assistance from Texas FReepers who work in the Industrial Security and/or Intelligence fields. Recently I was let go from my job as a Quality Manager for a building wire and cable manufacturing company after 8-1/2 years of service. Although it was an unexpected shock, I soon afterwards realized it was time for a career change. I have been in the field of Quality Assurance for almost 12 years yet have never felt any fulfillment in that work. Since I have some experience in the field of intelligence, have held Top Secret/SCI security clearances during...

Several high-priority and high-priced satellites crucial to U.S. national security are slated to launch over the next 15 to 18 months, according to Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). During a keynote address here at the Strategic Space Symposium, Carlson did not provide details of the upcoming missions. Most of the NRO’s satellite programs are classified. Carlson noted the launches to make the point that the NRO continues to perform its mission despite having had its struggles in recent years. But Carlson also said the NRO has suffered a steep decline in its research and development...

A forthcoming study on Hispanic children’s cognitive skills underlines the challenges the country faces in aspiring to close the achievement gap between these children and their white and Asian counterparts. Hispanic “children fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older,” reports the New York Times. “The drop-off in the cognitive scores of Hispanic toddlers, especially those from Mexican backgrounds, was steeper than for other [low-income] groups and could not be explained by economic status alone. . . . From 24 to 36 months, the...

Note: The following text is a quote: Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Executive Orders The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release October 29, 2009 President Obama Signs Executive Order to Amend Executive Order 13462 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary __________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release October 28, 2009 EXECUTIVE ORDER ---------------- AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 13462 By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Executive Order 13462 of February 29, 2008, is amended...

President Barack Obama named University of Oklahoma president David Boren co-chairman of his Intelligence Advisory Board today. But at the tail end of his speech announcing the decision, Obama had this to say: “I thank David for agreeing to serve in this capacity, even as he continues to lead the University of Oklahoma.” Obama added: “And we are sorry about (Sam) Bradford’s shoulder.”

The CIA may have misled Congress at least five times since 2001, two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday. Intelligence subcommittee Chairwomen Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are leading an investigation into what they described as a practice of incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings, which arose in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s June 24 admission that intelligence officials failed to notify Congress about a top-secret program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders.

Why do Democrats in Congress want to change key laws that have helped to discover terrorist plots? One would think that the arrests of Najibullah Zazi...and of two others charged with planning to blow up buildings in Dallas, Texas, and Springfield, Ill.—would generate support for the intelligence-gathering tools that protect this country from Muslim fanatics. In Mr. Zazi's case, the government has already confirmed the value of these tools: It has filed a notice of its intent to use information gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was specifically written to help combat terrorists and spies. Nevertheless, there is...

A new generation of electro-optical imaging satellites to be built by Lockheed Martin pending congressional approval will have an aperturesize of 2.4 meters, a senior U.S.intelligence official said. James R. Clapper, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, disclosed the aperture size — or diameter of the satellite’s primary imaging mirror — of the Next-Generation Optical satellite system Oct.19 during a keynote address here at the Geoint 2009 Symposium. Technical details and capabilities of the nation’s spy satellites typically are closely guarded secrets. Aperture size and altitude are the two factors that determine a satellite’s imaging resolution, which is the minimum size...

As the Obama administration reconsiders its Afghanistan policy, White House officials are minimizing warnings from the intelligence community, the military and the State Department about the risks of adopting a limited strategy focused on al-Qaida, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and military officials told McClatchy Newspapers. Recent U.S. intelligence assessments have found that the Taliban and other Pakistan-based groups that are fighting U.S.-led forces have much closer ties to al-Qaida now than they did before Sept. 11, 2001, which would allow the terrorist network to re-establish bases in Afghanistan and would help Osama bin Laden export his radical brand of Islam to...

THE current disagreement between our intelligence agencies and those of our allies regarding Iran's nuclear program reveals the debased state of our $75-billion- a-year intel system. The Germans, French, Israelis and now the Brits agree that Iran has an active nuclear-weapons program, differing only as to how swiftly Tehran can field warheads. The US intel community's holding out. It's worried about political risks. A reassessment's supposedly under way, but we're clinging to our comforting conclusion that Iran gave up on designing nuclear weapons in 2003.

President Barack Obama may have shelved the term “Global War on Terrorism,” but he praised the intelligence community’s worldwide fight against al Qaeda during a speech at the National Counterterrorism Center Tuesday. “It should now be clear — the United States and our partners have sent an unmistakable message: We will target al Qaeda wherever they take root; we will not yield in our pursuit; and we are developing the capacity and the cooperation to deny a safe haven to any who threaten America and its allies,” Obama said at the McLean, Va. center. Obama’s comments Tuesday made clear that...

PETER Wright, the British agent whose publication in Australia of Spycatcher was a victory for free speech, has been slammed in a new history of MI5 as a dangerous conspiracy theorist, whose work in the intelligence service was as damaging and distracting as that of some traitors. Christopher Andrew, the leading historian who has had unprecedented access to MI5 files to write the first official history of the secret service, concluded that while he was an active officer Wright's "conspiracy theories arguably did as much damage to the service as the treachery" of traitor Anthony Blunt. The Cambridge University historian...

This article talks about intelligence. There are a great number of smart people in the world, and in general the intelligence quotient (IQ) of someone may determine how well he or she may perform in certain situations. In general, there is almost certainly a correlation between a high IQ score and being more intelligent according to IncreaseBrainPower.com. However, if you have even average intelligence, you can find examples of cultural biases on many IQ tests. Furthermore, there are specific test-taking skills that have been proven to raise scores on many tests, including IQ tests. This last point makes perfect sense,...

On Tuesday evening in New York, top officials of the world nuclear watchdog agency approached two of President Obama’s senior advisers to deliver the news: Iran had just sent a cryptic letter describing a small “pilot” nuclear facility that the country had never before declared. The Americans were surprised by the letter, but they were angry about what it did not say. American intelligence had come across the hidden tunnel complex years earlier, and the advisers believed the situation was far more ominous than the Iranians were letting on... Senior intelligence officials said Friday that several years ago American intelligence...

About that 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran . . . In November of 2007, the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) drafted a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program. In its publicly released “Key Judgments,” the IC concluded: “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” A footnote at the end of that sentence made it clear just what the IC thought had been “halted” (emphasis added): For the purposes of this Estimate, by “nuclear weapons program” we mean Iran’s nuclear weapon design and weaponization work and covert uranium conversion-related and uranium...

When did you Brits suddenly get so thin-skinned – particular you “newer” ones? Apparently it’s now acceptable in the UK to unleash a legal hurricane on someone with whom you disagree, just because you’re incapable of debating an issue intelligently. Word has traveled all the way to North America about a couple of hotel owners in Liverpool being criminally charged under the “Public Order Act” for getting into a religious discussion about Islam within earshot of at least one Muslim guest, who promptly ran crying to the police...Do what I do in movie theatres to loudmouths, lady – go tell...

Ugh…someone needs to pay closer attention to intel reports By Leah Farrall, Australia SNIPPET: "I’d just like to know what definition of “strong” we are talking about?"

"EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour"." SNIPPET: "A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers. Its main objectives include the "automatic detection of threats and abnormal behaviour or violence"." SNIPPET: "Project Indect, which received nearly £10 million in funding from the European Union, involves the Police...

C.I.A. Chiefs Ask Obama to Stop Abuse Inquiry WASHINGTON — Seven former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency asked President Obama on Friday to shut down the new Justice Department inquiry into past abuses during interrogations of terrorism suspects, arguing that it “will seriously damage” the nation’s ability to protect itself. In a letter to Mr. Obama, the former C.I.A. chiefs said the cases under study had already been examined by career prosecutors who found that no criminal charges were warranted. To reopen cases based on a change in which political party controls the government, they wrote, will make it...

Seven former heads of the CIA wrote President Obama on Friday to ask him to end an investigation launched by former Attorney General Eric Holder into the actions of CIA interrogators who used "enhanced" techniques to question terror detainees.

The Somali pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf of Aden and more recently the Indian Ocean are zeroed in on their targets by well-placed informers in London, a world center for shipbroking and insurance, using satellite phones, according to a European military intelligence report. The document, which was obtained by Cadena SER, a Spanish radio station, says the "consultants" in London help the pirates select their targets, providing data on the ships' cargoes and courses... The U.N. International Maritime Bureau reported this month that there had been a dramatic surge in piracy in the waters of the Horn of...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Intelligence activities across the U.S. government and military cost a total of $75 billion a year, the nation's top intelligence official said on Tuesday, disclosing an overall number long shrouded in secrecy. Dennis Blair, the U.S. director of national intelligence, cited the figure as part of a four-year strategic blueprint for the sprawling, 200,000-person intelligence community. In an unclassified version of the blueprint released by Blair's office, intelligence agencies singled out as threats Iran's nuclear program, North Korea's "erratic behavior," and insurgencies fueled by militant groups, though Blair cited gains against al Qaeda. Blair also cited challenges...

MI6 is being investigated by the police over allegations of torture for the first time. It follows a similar investigation already launched into MI5.The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) has referred an unidentified case involving alleged complicity in torture to the Attorney General who has in turn referred it on to the Metropolitan Police, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. The police are already investigating MI5, the Security Service, over allegations that they colluded in the torture of the former Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed. It is the first time that the foreign intelligence service and domestic security service have been the...

Posted in ubiwar Tagged intelligence, terrorism SNIPPET: "Friends of this blog and others, Palantir Technologies, are profiled in a new article by Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal, How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade: From a Silicon Valley office strewn with bean-bag chairs, a group of twenty-something software engineers is building an unlikely following of terrorist hunters at US spy agencies."

Officials say an explosion has killed Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence. Sayed Ahmad Safi, the spokesman for the governor of Laghman province, says Dr. Abdullah Laghmani died in the blast. Laghmani is the No. 2 at Afghanistan's intelligence service, known as the National Directorate for Security. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, tells The Associated Press that a suicide bomber had targeted Laghmani. The blast occurred during the inauguration of a new mosque in the city of Mehterlam in Laghman — 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Kabul.

Barbara Lauwers Podoski, who launched one of the most successful psychological campaigns of World War II, which resulted in the surrender of more than 600 Czechoslovakian soldiers fighting for the Germans, died of cardiovascular disease Aug. 16 at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, D.C. She was 95. One of the few female operatives in the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime predecessor to the CIA, she found creative ways to undermine German morale. Much of her work remained secret until last year, when her OSS personnel records were declassified. The multilingual Barbara Lauwers, as she was then known, primarily...

EARLY in 2002, Eric Holder, then a former deputy attorney general, said on CNN that the detainees being held at Guantánamo Bay were “not, in fact, people entitled to the protection of the Geneva Convention,” particularly “given the way in which they have conducted themselves.” Six years later, declaring

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was created in 1961 to oversee the development and operation of the United States’ intelligence satellites. But it was not until September 1992 that the organization’s very existence was declassified. The press release making the announcement, however, omitted two key words: “satellites” and “launch”. It took several more years before the NRO actually admitted that it operated satellites and that they were launched into space, and it was not until 1996 that the NRO admitted that it actually owned a classified satellite launched atop a rocket. This seemed rather anticlimactic to anybody who paid attention,...

EXCLUSIVE: Gen. David H. Petraeus plans to open an in-house intelligence organization at U.S. Central Command this week that will train military officers, covert agents and analysts who agree to focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan for up to a decade. The organization, to be called the Center for Afghanistan Pakistan Excellence, will be led by Derek Harvey, a retired colonel in the Defense Intelligence Agency who became one of the Gen. Petraeus’ most trusted analysts during the 2007-08 counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq. Mr. Harvey distinguished himself in Iraq by predicting that the Iraqi insurgency would spiral out of control, at...

The CIA released the documents today that former Vice President Dick Cheney requested earlier this year in an attempt to prove his assertion that using enhanced interrogation techniques on terror detainees saved U.S. lives. The documents back up the Bush administration's claims that intelligence gleaned from captured terror suspects had thwarted terrorist attacks, but the visible portions of the heavily redacted reports do not indicate whether such information was obtained as a result of controversial interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding. Cheney's initial request in the spring that the documents be declassified was rejected by the CIA. Lawmakers derided his claims...

As I listen to the report of the Attorney General making the decision to go forward with an investigation into the CIA – It hit me, these are the same exact steps that lead to the terrorist attacks during the Clinton years. a. Weaken the defense of the nation. b. Blame America for everything. c. Slowly bleed away support for the Intelligence Agencies. Coming from the “Blame America First” crowd, apparently, in their eyes, the US is not allowed to defend against, interrogate, and/or investigate terrorism or terrorist suspects. The blame America first crowd has roots in this country going...

Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, ripped the Obama administration Monday over its proposal to create an enforcement team to question suspected terrorists. The program, known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), would operate out of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), under direct White House oversight. It will be overseen by the National Security Council. President Barack Obama approved the elite unit last week, which will be made up of intelligence and law enforcement officials. Traditionally the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has taken the lead interrogating suspected terrorists, but its practices have...

US President Barack Obama has approved a new elite team to question key terror suspects, the White House has said. The unit will be housed at the FBI headquarters in Washington and be overseen by the White House. The announcement came hours before the publication of fuller details of the CIA's treatment of terrorism suspects. Also on Monday US media said the justice department was to reopen about a dozen prisoner abuse cases that could lead to prosecution of CIA employees. 'Different elements' The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Washington says there has been strong concern that interrogation has been carried...

Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber. Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said. Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli...

SNIPPET: "In March, La Nueva Cuba, an online newspaper, reported that “Russian personnel has been in Cuba for several months working on modernizing SIGINT operations in the old Lourdes surveillance and monitoring facility.” The Web site said the supposed renovation was: …part of a project of rearming and modernization of Russian armed forces and the goal of completion by 2011. The new operations could include military sections dedicated to hacking or computer systems espionage with a capacity to neutralize U.S. military networks… Then last week, an opinion piece appeared in Miami Herald. The headline: Cuba capable of waging a cyberwar....

According to the CDC, 66% of adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese. That is approximately 140 million adults. Somewhere between 15 and 20 million Americans can be classified as alcoholics. As many as 50% of those on welfare are alcoholics. There are 225 million people over 18 years old and 32 million of them do not have a high school degree. There are 32 million adults or 14% who are illiterate (23% in California, 22% in New York, 20% in Florida, 17% in New Jersey). The United States’ spending per pupil in public schools at $9,266...

There, I said it. After a year of campaigning, and 8 months of his Presidency, I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Barry Obama is actually more intelligent than George Bush. If we were keeping a running tally of gaffes, they are on course to be dead even. Without benefit of media cover, the populace at large would see the new President as a likable, sometimes well spoken buffoon. I would like to invite my fellow Freepers to use this post to present some of their favorite obama goofs and gaffes as sort of a reference post when engaging the...

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., Aug. 14, 2009 – People join the military for many reasons, some for college assistance, some to stay out of trouble and some to fulfill a patriotic need to serve their country. Army Staff Sgt. Megan E. Brunty, an intelligence analyst with U.S. Central Command, is honored with a certificate of promotion at a ceremony on MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., Aug. 3, 2009. Brunty also was awarded the command’s Noncommissioned Officer of the Year award earlier in the year. U.S Army photo by Sgt. Rick Nelson   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For...

TEHRAN, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tightened his grip on Iran’s powerful intelligence services, ousting four senior officials in a widening purge against authorities who challenged the harsh crackdowns after June’s disputed elections, lawmakers and media said Monday. The shake-up at the Intelligence Ministry — the nation’s main spy agency — deepened the rifts straining Iran’s conservative ranks over Ahmadinejad’s strong-arm political tactics and the crushing response to the pro-reform opposition since the June 12 election. It also sought to bolster Ahmadinejad allies in the Revolutionary Guard, which led the assaults and arrests against protesters who claimed the election was...

SNIPPET: "In October 2009, as a result of successful appeals, a federal judge will reduce the sentences of five convicted spies who were part of the Cuban Wasp Network. Havana regularly refers to the spies as the "Cuban Five." One of the Wasp Network operatives who fled to Cuba, Juan Pablo Roque, abandoned a wife in the United States, whom he married only to obtain cover for his operations in the U.S. Simmons told International News Analysis that he is in process of completing a book about the "Cuban Five" and the cold-blooded manipulation of Ana Margarita Martinez, "the spy's...

SNIPPET: "Of course, one can't rule out that the "spy" is a real jihadi, and that the erstwhile spy-catchers are really working for Jordanian intelligence."

Modern science builds the case for an old-fashioned virtue - and uncovers new secrets to success It’s the single most famous story of scientific discovery: in 1666, Isaac Newton was walking in his garden outside Cambridge, England - he was avoiding the city because of the plague - when he saw an apple fall from a tree. The fruit fell straight to the earth, as if tugged by an invisible force. (Subsequent versions of the story had the apple hitting Newton on the head.) This mundane observation led Newton to devise the concept of universal gravitation, which explained everything from...

Last month, at a meeting overseas of intelligence service chiefs, one of my counterparts from a major Western ally pulled me aside. Why, he asked, is Washington so consumed with what the CIA did in the past, when the most pressing national security concerns are in the present? It was a very good question. In fact, I've become increasingly concerned that the focus on the past, especially in Congress, threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions: intelligence collection, analysis and covert action. In our democracy, effective congressional oversight of intelligence is important, but it depends as much...

Seven House Democrats have written Attorney General Eric Holder invoking a list of grievances from radical Islamist groups and asking that Holder meet with representatives from those groups to hear their concerns, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned. The grievances include the use of convicted felons as informants in mosques, alleged religious profiling of Somali Muslims in Minnesota and elsewhere and allegations that the FBI is working with foreign governments to question American citizens who are terror suspects. In the letter, the representatives said: "These concerns raise legitimate questions about due process, justice, and equal treatment under the law....

Note: The following text is a quote: Former President Clinton Visits CIA July 27, 2009 Former President Bill Clinton visited the Central Intelligence Agency today to thank the men and women of CIA for their essential work in protecting the United States from foreign threats. Welcoming the former President back to CIA, Director Leon E. Panetta said: “President Clinton understood very well the role of intelligence and its vital importance in the post-Cold War era. He relied on this Agency for information and insight, as he and his team confronted an array of foreign challenges.” In remarks to hundreds of...

Whistleblower Mark Klein tells in his new book of how he was ignored. He spoke with IDG News. July 17, 2009 (IDG News Service) They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you're dead. The cliché doesn't seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein's new book, "Wiring up the Big Brother Machine ... and Fighting It." It's an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans.

The most stunning thing is that this so called investigation is how obvious the naked politics are. The House Intelligence Committee will launch an investigation to determine whether the CIA broke the law by not informing Congress earlier about a secret plan to train teams to kill Al Qaeda leaders abroad. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., chairman of the committee, announced the investigation in a statement Friday, saying the inquiry "will focus on the core issue of how the congressional intelligence committees and Congress are kept fully and currently informed."Reyes said the probe will be conducted in a "bipartisan manner."

Former US Vice-President Dick Cheney gave direct orders to the CIA to conceal an intelligence programme from Congress, US media reports say. The existence of the programme, set up after 9/11, was hidden for eight years and even now its nature is not known. CIA director Leon Panetta is said to have abandoned the project when he learnt of it last month. He has now told a House committee that Mr Cheney was behind the secrecy, the unnamed US sources say. There has been no comment from Mr Cheney.

Breaking on Fox. Looks like Pelosi has won and she is about to beat-down on Panetta and the CIA. Obama is certain to gut our INTEL capabilities.

Lawmaker says CIA director ended secret program By PAMELA HESS WASHINGTON – CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a "very serious" covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday. Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation. "The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years,"...