September 16, 2022

Martha's Vineyard: A Democrat Paradise

Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard (the “Islands”) are idyllic and are under absolute control by Democrats. Should conservatives switch their support to Democrats in order to create more such paradises throughout our nation? I...

June 21, 2020

The real point of John Bolton's unapproved tell-all book

Former national security adviser John Bolton has written a book that has not received pre-publication approval from the government.  I was a CIA officer, and I also wrote a book without prepublication approval, though the circumstances were d...

October 4, 2019

The real CIA

The CIA's involvement in the Steele dossier fraud and its use of college professor agents against the Trump campaign were cartoonish.  The dossier reads as though it was written late in the evening after a few drinks.  The curre...

March 30, 2019

Trump's excellent choice to lead the Marine Corps

You've probably never heard of Dave Berger. President Trump nominated him on March 27 to be the 38th commandant of the Marine Corps.  I met him when we were both assigned to Camp Pendleton, and I remember his deep interest in masteri...

September 18, 2018

The swoosh and terrorism

American popular culture is dominant worldwide.  Many people outside the U.S. have heard about Colin Kaepernick and his anthem protest. Lower-class young men in the Middle East like to wear track suits and other sports gear with logos....

August 15, 2018

Brennan, the Spooks, and Russian Collusion

The FBI is being held accountable for its role in spy operations against the Trump campaign. John Brennan’s CIA should be held accountable as well. An editorial by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal on June 29, 2018 recommends an inve...

July 16, 2018

Why the ‘Resistance’ in the State Department is a Gift to Trump

President Trump’s diplomacy will continue to make America safe and strong, as long as he relies upon his own experience in negotiation and does not follow State Department guidance. The majority of our 75,382 State Department employees do no...

May 14, 2018

The Haspel Pick Breaks the Model

Gina Haspel, the President’s nominee for CIA chief, is a CIA bureaucrat with 33 years of service. She is widely respected. She'll not be chewed up by the bureaucracy.   Democrats who accuse her of torturing terrorists are worki...

July 9, 2010

'Illegal' Espionage

The Russian "illegals" arrested recently were spies operating under commercial covers -- as private-sector businesspeople, not as government employees. Most intelligence officers use diplomatic cover, which provides diplomatic immunity, whe...

April 7, 2010

A Sanction Against Iran That Might Work

We can bomb, invade or assassinate Iran 's leaders to stop their nuclear weapons development, but these actions are extreme, almost unthinkable. They will seem reasonable in hindsight if New York , London , or Tel Aviv suffers from an Iranian nuclear...

March 6, 2010

What the Byzantines Can Teach Us about Our National Security

The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire by Edward N. Luttwak Belknap Harvard, 498 pp. Civilization in the city of Rome was extinguished by the year 476, but scholars today recognize that the Roman Empire continued to thrive in its eastern capital ...

January 29, 2009

What the CIA's Censors Can Teach Us about Plans to Muzzle Talk Radio

The Central Intelligence Agency runs a small bureau that censors books and articles written by current and former CIA employees. As the only official censorship bureau in America, its operation provides insights on how attempts to muzzle conservative...

November 7, 2008

President-Elect Obama's First CIA Briefing

On November 6th, 2008 President-Elect Obama sat through his first detailed CIA briefing. It is unlikely that Mr. Obama realized during this one appointment, in what must be a hurricane of meetings, that he was staring into the face of the greatest th...