Al Qaeda Family Moved to Baghdad in 2002
When al Qaeda in Iraq’s military chief Abu Ayyub al Masri was killed earlier this month, I noted that the CIA had tracked him to Baghdad in May 2002. Al Masri was a longtime lieutenant for...
George Tenet
Why Panetta Should Stop Talking
If the CIA chief had a good asset inside Al Qaeda, he wouldn't be discussing the group's plans publicly. And predicting attacks only risks lowering the intel chief's credibility if...
Op-eds
Al Qaeda’s Civil Liberties Union
A look at the other terrorists embraced by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's ACLU lawyers.
Op-eds
Saying No to Justice
I did something today that I’ve never done before. The Department of Justice, which I proudly served for a quarter century as an assistant U.S. attorney and a deputy U.S. marshal, asked me...
Op-eds
Torture TV
When I was asked to appear on The Daily Show, the news-with-views edgy-comedy TV program, I was reluctant. The issue: whether “enhanced interrogation techniques” used to pry informati...
Op-eds
What Was the CIA Up To?
This is a delicate business involving some unpleasantness; it must be entrusted to the hands and tongues and pens of men who are completely above suspicion and without self-interest, for the weal...
Op-eds
Hot in Tehran
On the same day that Tony Blair debuted in Portugal as Middle East envoy for the Quartet, a group attempting to advance peace efforts in the Middle East, another kind of meeting convened in Syria...
Op-eds
Symposium: Al Qaeda: What Next?
American intelligence has discerned that al Qaeda is rebuilding in Pakistan’s tribal areas and that a new generation of leaders has emerged under Osama bin Laden. T...
Op-eds
The Uncertainty Dilemma
In Voltaire’s Micromegas, a gigantic visitor from another planet asks a sailor why humans bicker so much. “Because we agree on the two or three things we understand,” explains t...
Op-eds
Tenet Does 60 Minutes
Hawking his new book, At the Eye of the Storm, former CIA Director George Tenet bared his soul Sunday night to Scott Pelley of the CBS news magazine, 60 Minutes. Some preliminary thoughts about h...
Op-eds
Feith on Trial
It is one of the oldest and dirtiest political tricks in Washington: Hurl scurrilous charges at someone and then call for investigations into his conduct. When the investigations clear your targe...
Op-eds
Too Much Make-Believe
In the early years of the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia was effectively cut off from all sources of raw film stock. Luckily for the Soviets, cheap copies of the silent films imported during the wa...
Op-eds
Myths of War: The Ten Most Widely Believed Distortions About the Global Conflict Now Underway
Co-Authored with Alykhan Velshi Ronald Reagan once said: “It’s not that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t true.&rdquo...
Op-eds
The Intelligence Mess
(Editor's note: This article first appeared in April 2004.) Intelligence-gathering is something of a square peg in the round hole of contemporary political morality. It is about unearthing t...
Op-eds
History as a Cartoon
It is no secret that the attacks of September 11, 2001, resulted in two wars. The first was the one in which the United States finally engaged with Islamic terrorists, who had declared war when t...
Op-eds
Get Zarqawi
For a moment, focus on the present. Right now, there are three reasons the United States needs to be in Iraq. The most important: to fight al-Qaeda, the leader of the global Militant Islamist mov...
Op-eds
Preparation or Prevention?
Americans are distressed that the government was ill-prepared to quickly assist disaster victims in New Orleans. But here's a fact that should trouble us more: The government could have aver...
Op-eds
It’s All About 9/11
The president links Iraq and al Qaeda — and the usual suspects moan.
Op-eds
Lying Liars and the Big, Fat Lies They Tell
And the women who love them?
Op-eds
Listening to Kerry; His Iraq-is-a-Diversion Claim Exploits a Real Weakness
We often tend to reject the message simply because of who the messenger is — especially if the messenger can't seem to keep his story straight from one day to the next. But it would be...