“Where have you been?” I hear you say. Well, yeah, I haven’t posted recently. But it does get busy in the news biz these days. It’s Egypt… Wait, no, it’s Bahrain… Wait, no, it’s Yemen… Wait, no, it’s Saudi Arabia… Wait, no, it’s Libya… And speaking of Libya… Director of National Intelligence James Clapper got […]
All posts by Gary Thomas
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Diplomat, Spy, Contractor
Posted February 22nd, 2011 at 8:19 pm (UTC+0)
In the murky world of intelligence and diplomacy – the two often intertwine – it’s not always easy to know the truth. The Raymond Davis case is a prime example. It has now emerged that Raymond Davis, the American held by Pakistan for shooting two alleged robbers, is a CIA contractor. Many news organizations had […]
Iraq Inside Baseball
Posted February 16th, 2011 at 3:34 pm (UTC+0)
At the CIA, they have the best little gift shop at which you cannot shop. It sells all kinds of trinkets with the agency logo like pens, t-shirts, glassware. (I love the sign that says that “if you are in covert status do not use a credit card” – although why anybody who was in […]
Tags: Iraq Posted in intelligence
Did CIA Say What I Think It Said?
Posted February 11th, 2011 at 2:59 pm (UTC+0)
Did CIA director Leon Panetta mislead the media on Egypt? Or did the media mislead the public on Panetta? During congressional testimony Thursday on the annual threat assessment – scant hours before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s latest speech – Panetta responded to a question on Egypt by appearing to confirm reports that President Mubarak was […]
The Spies Have It
Posted February 1st, 2011 at 4:34 pm (UTC+0)
The appointment of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as vice-president underscores both the power of the country’s intelligence services in keeping the government in power and the deep influence the military has on policymaking in Cairo. Egypt has three intelligence services: a foreign intelligence service, called the General Intelligence Service, often called the Mukhabarat; a […]
Posted in diplomacy, intelligence
Things Your Travel Agent Won’t Tell You
Posted January 21st, 2011 at 5:22 pm (UTC+0)
I recently wrote a blog about how to try to survive if caught in a shooting spree like the one in Tucson, Arizona. But a recent posting by the good folks at Stratfor (a private intelligence firm with some very intelligent people) on what to do if caught in political or military unrest in a […]
Posted in Uncategorized
What Do We Know About Iran and When Do We Know It?
Posted January 14th, 2011 at 6:37 pm (UTC+0)
Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense under former President George W. Bush, once had a lot of people in Washington scratching their heads in puzzlement when he described how the U.S. sizes up a potential military adversary: “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there […]
Surviving the Horror
Posted January 11th, 2011 at 3:47 pm (UTC+0)
Getting caught in the crossfire of a shooting incident, be it in Tucson or Islamabad, is frightening. You feel defenseless, helpless, perhaps frozen to the spot. But you are not necessarily helpless, says former Secret Service agent Christopher Falkenberg — and he should know. The Secret Service’s primary task is to guard the president of […]
Posted in Uncategorized
Plugging the Leaks
Posted January 7th, 2011 at 7:38 pm (UTC+0)
There is a famous legend about the little Dutch boy who saves his town from flooding by plugging a leak in a dike with his finger. Fortunately for him (and the town), there was only one leak because, well, a boy has only so many fingers. But multiple leaks of information keep on coming out […]
Pakistan Killing Raises Security Questions
Posted January 6th, 2011 at 7:05 pm (UTC+0)
Pakistani provincial governor Salman Taseer, an outspoken opponent of his country’s contentious blasphemy laws, was allegedly gunned down by a member of his own protective squad. The assassin immediately surrendered and, with a smile on his face, proudly proclaimed that he had killed a blasphemer. A lone wolf or a conspirator? It is not yet […]
Posted in Pakistan
