A quick follow-up to Jeffrey’s post about intelligence and political pressure. Paul Pillar, former National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, said during a 7 March CFR appearence: MR. BASS: In your Foreign Affairs piece, you talk about a politicized and pressurized environment between the intelligence community and the Bush administration, which, …
Starfire Optical Range
by | 2006-05-03 | 4 Comments
More than a year after we started complaining in earnest about antisatellite research scheduled at the Air Force’s Starfire Optical Range (see ACW, Starfire Optical Range, 8 April 2005), Bill Broad at the New York Times discovers the “largely secret project, parts of which have been made public through Air Force budget documents submitted to …
Quote Of The Day: Gary Payton
by | 2006-05-02 | 1 Comment
We’d be fools to actually get into the kinetic energy anti-satellite business. It would be hugely disadvantageous for the U.S. to get into that game. —Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs Gary Payton (no, not that Gary Payton) as quoted in Space News (Jeremy Singer, “USAF Interest In Lasers Triggers Concerns About …
Politicizing Intel
by | 2006-05-01 | 8 Comments
I’ve long complained the definition of “politicizing” intelligence is too narrow—“whether any analysts had been pressured to change their analysis or assessments” in the phrase of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee and “make or change any analytic judgments in response to political pressure” in the phrase of Robb-Silberman report. Those definitions cleary exclude “cherry picking”— …
