A new biography of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), by Ben Hubbard, describes how he perfected “electronic authoritarianism.” From Fred Hiatt’s review in the The Washington Post the most fundamental change the headstrong crown prince has brought about, Hubbard shows, is to turn a “soft-gloved autocracy” that featured multiple centers of power, and...
Author: Deep State News Blog
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Trump Closed the White House Pandemic Office in 2018
Nothing demonstrates the failure of U.S. national security policymaking in the Trump era more than the president’s decision to downgrade the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense less than two years ago. Trump and National Security adviser John Bolton had a conception of “national security” that downplayed the well-known...
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Opinion: Intel Chiefs Stay Silent on Trump’s Purge
Last month, I wrote a story of Trump’s machinations around the Office of Director of National Intelligence under the headline, “Trump’s Intelligence Rattles National Security Establishment.” Kent Harrington, former CIA officer and later an agency spokesman, uses the same word. “There is no question that Trump’s latest round of firings qualify as a ‘purge,'” he...
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Trump’s ODNI Shell Game: Keep a Loyalist in Top Intelligence Position
President Trump’s campaign to gain control of the U.S. intelligence community took a new old turn over the weekend. Trump nominated Texas congressman John Ratcliffe to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Last month, he named Richard Grenell, currently U.S. ambassador to Germany as acting DNI. Neither man has any intelligence experience. Grenell isolated...
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Can a Cold War Treaty Curb the Spyware Industry?
From Yossi Melman at Haaretz.com The change tightens oversight of “intrusion software” designed to break into smartphones and decipher encryption on digital devices. Companies specializing in forensic cybertechnology will be affected most. That’s the field dealing with the development of software that helps law enforcement agencies collect evidence and reconstruct cellphone data in criminal investigations....