Melvin A. Goodman | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #440 (USA edition)

October 19, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US DNI scraps Intelligence Science Board. The newly appointed US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has disbanded an advisory panel set up after 9/11, and tasked with providing him with scientific advice, ranging from nuclear physics to forensics to the psychology of interrogation. There are rumors that Clappers intends to disband another 19 advisory boards, believing them to be inefficient.
Analysis: Uses and misuses of intelligence in four US wars. Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman assesses the success of the CIA’s intelligence analysis by measuring the Agency’s performance before and during four controversial wars: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
US Army awards medal to 95-year-old ex-OSS agent. George Vujnovich, a former agent of the US Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA, is to be awarded the US Army’s Bronze Star for helping rescue 512 American airmen in the former Yugoslavia during World War II.

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News you may have missed #349

May 13, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

New spy agency won’t spy…says Fiji government. Fiji’s head of defense, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, has argued that the proposed National Intelligence Agency will not be a spy organization. According to news reports, he is adamant that the use of the word “spying” is inappropriate to describe the agency’s mission.
Ex-CIA analyst lashes out at Ignatius. Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, currently senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, has accused The Washington Post’s David Ignatious of being a “chief CIA apologist”.

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News you may have missed #0276

February 1, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Canadian government rejects ex-KGB agent’s deportation appeal. Vic Toews, Canada’s newly installed minister for public safety, has rejected a fresh appeal by former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov to be allowed to remain in Canada. Lennikov, who has been living in Canada with his wife and teenage son since 1992, is described by Canadian authorities as “a threat to […] national security”.
Analysis: CIA and intelligence community mythologies. Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, currently senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, offers a very informative checklist of what he calls “the mythology that surrounds the [US] intelligence enterprise”. Worth reading.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Canada, CIA, deportations, KGB, Melvin A. Goodman, Mikhail Alexander Lennikov, News, news you may have missed, Russia, United States, Vic Toews

News you may have missed #0251 (analysis edition)

January 13, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

Bomber’s betrayal shows spy challenge for West. The December 30 suicide attack that killed seven CIA agents in Khost, Afghanistan, shows that al-Qaeda is currently keener on killing Western spies than infiltrating them.
Christmas Day bomber affair was intel failure of the highest order. On Christmas Day, 2009, the US had 16 intelligence agencies, a czar for national intelligence and an intelligence budget of more than $75 billion. There was sufficient intelligence available to detect the Christmas Day bomber. However, US intelligence efforts were unimaginative, divided and diffuse, argues former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman.
Endemic failures in US intelligence gathering, analysis. Excellent summary analysis from Deutsche Welle on how endemic failures in communication and information gathering by US spy agencies are threatening to undermine Washington’s so-called “war on terrorism”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Analysis, CIA, double agents, Forward Operating Base Chapman, informants, intelligence analysis, intelligence failures, intelligence sharing, Khost, Melvin A. Goodman, news you may have missed, Nigeria, Pakistan, suicide bombings, UK, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, War on Terrorism, Yemen

Analysis: Interim report on Obama’s intelligence reforms

November 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

M.A. Goodman

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
It has been nearly a year since US President Barack Obama initiated his plan to reform the CIA and its tattered relations with the rest of the US intelligence community. How is he doing so far? Not great, says Melvin Goodman, a former CIA analyst, in a well-argued article on the subject. On the one hand, Obama has been successful and “deserves high grades” for addressing the CIA’s renditions, detentions and interrogations programs, argues Goodman. On the other hand, the President has avoided taking a strong leadership role in addressing the major problems of the CIA, including “appoint[ing] leaders willing to address the culture of cover-up that exists at the CIA and to make the necessary strategic changes”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Center for International Policy, CIA, corruption, extraordinary rendition, Johns Hopkins University, Melvin A. Goodman, Obama Administration, torture, United States

CIA director says Congress should let go of CIA’s past actions

August 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Leon Panetta

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
CIA director Leon Panetta has criticized Congress for its “focus on the past” that “threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions”. In an editorial published last weekend in The Washington Post, Panetta says he is becoming “increasingly concerned” that “wrong judgments” made by the Bush Administration after 9/11 have damaged the broad agreement between the executive and legislative branches of the US government about the CIA’s role and activities. But the CIA director says the “sincerity or the patriotism” of Bush Administration officials should not be questioned, as they “were trying to respond as best they could” in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead, Panetta argues for learning “lessons from the past without getting stuck there”, and warns that “classified information that shapes […] conversations” between the CIA and Congress must be protected. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, Bush Administration, Chile, CIA, extraordinary rendition, intelligence oversight, Leon Panetta, Melvin A. Goodman, News, Richard Helms, Salvador Allende, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

Former CIA analyst issues critique of Panetta record

June 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Goodman

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, currently senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, has issued a scathing critique of the CIA leadership record of Leon Panetta. In an article published in The Public Record, Goodman, who supported Panetta during his confirmation hearings, accused the Agency director of letting down “[t]hose of us who […] were hopeful that he would bring a much-needed era of openness, accountability and credibility to an Agency that has lost its moral compass”. Goodman takes issue with New Yorker writer Jane Mayer’s recent article on the CIA under the Obama administration, in which she referred to Panetta’s “great judgment, [reputation for integrity, and his ability to] restore the integrity of the intelligence process”. Instead, the former Agency analyst accuses Panetta of actively working to block the release of further documentary evidence of torture of terrorism detainees by CIA interrogators, and of retaining “all the senior [CIA] officials […] who were the ideological drivers for the creation of secret prisons and the use [of torture]”. Read more of this post