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---------------- - 1951 - Critical Thinking about US Intelligence
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- Do we really have Intelligence in our Government? Did the Russians hack into Hillary Clinton’s server to help Trump win the election? Did Trump really visit Moscow just before the election? How did Edward Snowden get away with NSA espionage? What a mess!
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- Most envision Intelligence as spies reading private emails, listening to private conversations, downloading computer files. That is what the President tweeted, “ wire tapping”. The real purpose of Intelligence is to be the nation’s “ radar”. It surveys ahead, through the storm of data and provides the National Security Team (NSA) an accurate picture through which to navigate the nation.
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- They chart the future territory for the President. They provide information and insight . All this is Top Secret stuff.
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- Today, North Korea’s nuclear bomb program is getting lots of their attention.
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- Intelligence work is a type of “ science”. You collect information from observation. Then you produce theories that as the right questions.
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- In 1981 President Reagan wanted to win the Cold War. His CIA was headed by William Casey. Reagan asked Casey, “ Where are the Russians weaknesses?” “Where are they vulnerable?”
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- Before Reagan the CIA focused only on military strengths, not weaknesses like their economy. Reagan was successful in bringing the Berlin Wall down using the right questions.
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- Like any scientist, intelligence theories can be wrong. You can have a President who thinks ISIS is a junior varsity team.
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- In January, 2017, Intelligence briefed President elect Trump about Russian efforts to influence the election. John Podesta’s email server had been hacked.
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- Intelligence judgments go beyond evidence. What policy makers, the President, are told is “likely true”, but not infallible.
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- Today Intelligence has too many managers and not enough doers. Would you trust a law degree and MBA pilot to fly you around in your airplane? Bureaucrats and administrators focus on structure rather than people. If you want world -class analysis on China you better have an “expert” giving you advice. Too much emphasis for bureaucrats is looking up, not down where the action is.
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- Dan Coats is director of National Intelligence, NSA.
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- Mike Pompeo the CIA.
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- Neither are bureaucrats. Both have personal insight overseeing Intelligence operations. They must balance collection and analysis. Insight is needed to direct these efforts in the right direction. Set priorities.
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- Today we need the help of “ think tanks”, Universities, corporations (Apple) and blogospheres. Intelligence must quietly analyze, think, and come up with an accurate picture of what’s happening and what’s likely to happen.
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- Coats and Pompeo have a big job to do advising President Trump Our national security depends on this job they are doing.
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- Now, the other side of the story: what Wikileaks is reporting from their CIA data dump. It suggests that the CIA has surpassed the NSA in spying prowess.
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- Your Samsung Smart TV could be watching you in your living room. I hope you were dressed. Your cell phone may not really have encryption like hour think. The CIA has hacking malware, viruses, Trojans, and who know what else to spy on everyone using a whole range of new technology.
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- Worse yet, these capabilities have already been stolen by criminals, other governments, or even high school students. These cyber secrets could have already been spread around the world. It only takes a few seconds.
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- The CIA could not keep these secrets from criminals but they did manage to keep them secret from Apple , Google, Microsoft, and other software suppliers. The CIA purposefully withheld their knowledge of these software vulnerabilities.
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- The CIA did not even tell the NSA about these new spying tools. Great! Political ambition trumps national security. Excuse the trump pun. The CIA did this sleuthing with no accountability or oversight from Congress, or , the Executive Branch.
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- The 4th Amendment to the Constitution protects individual Americans from unreasonable searches or seizures. But, the CIA operated as if it was above the law. Their malware programs , infestation to CD’s DVD’s, USD devices, images can be spread by unknowing, perfectly innocent people.
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- Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android have both been compromised. Encryption on these phones an “ be by passed”. Spies can collect the data in the software before the encryption gets applied.
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- James Comey said it best, ”Nothing is safe from hacking”. Just assume others are listening and recording. (See Review # 1950 about Quantum Computing). The NSA has been collecting encrypted messages and storing them until these super computers can crack the code sometime in the future.
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- Today’s technology gives a whole new meaning to transparency. President Trump and President -wanna-be Hillary have already learned the hard way. The government needs some new tricks and some new people to control them. Photon Quantum Entanglement keys that are on the horizon are unhackable. Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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- Note (1): Request any of the other Reviews by number to learn more. See #1949 “Cryptography”
(2) Notes from Imprimis February 2017, Hillsdale College.
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----- 707-536-3272 ---------------- Thursday, March 16, 2017 -----
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