This is what White House control of the U.S. intelligence apparatus looks like: the acting director of national intelligence, Adm. Joseph Maguire, quashed the finding of his inspector general that a still-unnamed whistleblower had made serious allegations about President Trump that urgently need to be addressed by Congress. Its preview of how the president will...
Category: Diary
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Trump, the ‘Deep State,’ and the Democrats
(Published in The New Republic, “Democrats Are Trapped in Trump’s ‘Deep State’ War.” The ongoing contretemps between President Donald Trump and the intelligence community forces a dismal and daunting question: Whose side must be taken in a power struggle between a legion of professional liars and a consummate bullshit artist? Both the president and the...
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Iran Isn’t Another Iraq. Its a Different Kind of War
President Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran has generated Tehran’s policy of “tit for tat,” and the results worry the world. Drones downed. Tankers seized. Insults exchanged. Yet both countries say—and act—like they don’t want a shooting war. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini said in May, “We don’t seek a war and neither do...
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Gina Haspel’s Classmates Set the Record Straight on Lakenheath High
My story about Gina Haspel’s education, “The Girl Who Became Spymaster” has generated a furry of comments from Lakenheath alumni. Several took exception to some or all of my description of Haspel’s experience there as “insulated, demanding and militarized.” So let’s hear what they have to say. Was the school demanding, ie., did it have...
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Maduro’s Ex-Spy Chief Details Role of NSC Official in ‘Homegrown’ Venezuela Uprising
The defection of Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, the chief of the Venezuelan intelligence service, was key to a U.S.-backed plan to oust President Nicholas Maduro in April. But the coup failed and Figuera fled into exile in Columbia where he talked with Washington Post reporter Anthony Faiola. Faiola’s story provides new details about how the...