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 […]
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Diplomat, Spy, Contractor
Posted February 22nd, 2011 at 8:19 pm (UTC+0)
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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 […]
WikiLeaks: one week down, ???? to go
Posted December 10th, 2010 at 8:15 pm (UTC+0)
There is little doubt the WikiLeaks cables have been a headache for U.S. officials in general, and diplomats in particular. To have private and very candid assessments of foreign leaders and reports on their activities aired in public is embarrassing. It’s like knowing someone is talking about you behind your back, and then finding out […]
Documents Show U.S. Coalition Building on Iran
Posted December 3rd, 2010 at 6:28 pm (UTC+0)
There is little question that the latest batch of WikiLeaks documents, mainly from the State Department, make for fascinating reading. Examples abound: Over the past nine years, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has seemingly morphed from being a rather happy fellow to a mercurial and paranoid one. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev “plays Robin to (Vladimir) Putin’s […]
