Intelligence Community

Thanks to the initiatives taken under President George W. Bush and to the international cooperation under President Obama, the United States has finally located Osama Bin Laden. I salute our brave men and women, some who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and our often forgotten intelligence community for making this possible! William T. Capps Jr., Laurel

In regards to "Misoverestimating Bush" (April 25), it's surprising that this complete nincompoop could somehow manipulate not only the intelligence community in this country but even our allies into reporting that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The "liar" Bush, moreover, just because of a rapacious appetite for war, started a war knowing there were no such weapons and with full realization that it would make his administration look foolish and incompetent. Brilliant on the one hand and stupid on the next.

President Obama has done what Congress has not: Extend whistleblower protections to national security and intelligence employees. A new presidential policy directive says employees "who are eligible for access to classified information can effectively report waste, fraud, and abuse while protecting classified national security information. It prohibits retaliation against employees for reporting waste, fraud, and abuse. " With this directive, issued last week, Obama hands national security and intelligence community whistleblowers and their advocates an important victory in their frequently frustrating efforts to expand protection against retaliation for federal employees who expose agency misconduct.

President Barack Obama's forthcoming trip to Israel affords him a special opportunity to mend political fences and guarantee a warm popular reception in that country, while at the same time ensuring that justice is served here at home. These are goals he should surely embrace - and he could achieve them by heeding the pleas of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, as well as many high-minded Americans, and freeing Jonathan Pollard from prison. Mr. Pollard was convicted in 1985 for having passed classified information to Israel.

Hundreds of job openings for members of the intelligence community who must gain experience at multiple agencies before advancing into executive positions are expected to be posted on a new Web site, beginning July 1, said Ronald Sanders, chief human capital officer for the director of national intelligence, during a press briefing this month. Requiring workers to complete temporary assignments at another agency is part of Director Mike McConnell's 100-day plan to improve collaboration among the country's 16 intelligence agencies.

WASHINGTON - Nearly six years ago, responding to a rising sense of peril from a well-funded, well-trained terrorist group called al-Qaida, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, issued a blunt order to America's 15 intelligence agencies. "We are at war," Tenet wrote. "I want no resources or people spared." His message had all the impact of a memo requesting better staplers. According to the report of the Sept. 11 commission, the head of the National Security Agency thought the letter was meant for the CIA; Tenet's own agency assumed it applied to everyone else.

WASHINGTON -- Iran's growing nuclear ambitions, al-Qaida's designs on this country, and North Korea's true intentions -- America's future security relies on effective analysis of these and a dozen other challenges in an increasingly hostile world. The price of being wrong is playing out daily on the streets of Baghdad and Baqouba. In response to deeply flawed assessments that fueled the march to war in Iraq -- and pre-Sept. 11 intelligence failures -- Congress last year ordered that the sprawling U.S. intelligence bureaucracy be brought under the leadership of a single spymaster charged with reshaping it into a more effective organization.

One day last year, a trusted courier for Osama bin Laden answered a phone call that might have been wholly unremarkable except for one thing — the National Security Agency was apparently listening in. That intercepted call helped American intelligence officials track the courier all the way to the walled compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was hiding. The discovery eventually led to last week's midnight assault by Navy SEALs who killed the al-Qaida leader, ending a pursuit that began in the mid-1990s.

Dragon Development Corp. announces new executives Chris Prestel joined Columbia-based Dragon Development Corp. in September as the president and chief operating officer. He is charged with creating and managing an aggressive growth strategy to expand the company's customer base. Ed Grimes has been hired as the company's senior vice president of Maryland intelligence programs, responsible for serving customers in the Fort Meade area. Prestel served as senior director for federal and healthcare professional services at Sybase Inc., where he managed a $40 million business unit.

Barbara McNamara, the National Security Agency's second-in-command and one of the highest-ranking women in the U.S. intelligence community, said yesterday that she will be leaving the agency's Fort Meade campus to become its London contact. McNamara, who has been at the agency 37 years, the past two as its deputy director, follows four of her predecessors who have passed through the London post. Starting this summer, she will work as a liaison to British authorities at the Government Communications Headquarters, England's cryptologic organization and one of the United States' key partners in spying.

I normally agree with op-ed contributor Tom Schaller's views, but his recent column on Susan Rice and the Benghazi affair was an exception ("GOP right to seek answers on Benghazi," Nov. 28). My concern is with the inadequate security afforded to the slain U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, not with any statement made by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice after the event. Ms. Rice had no involvement with security arrangements, which were clearly the responsibility of the military and the intelligence community as well as the State Department.

President Obama has done what Congress has not: Extend whistleblower protections to national security and intelligence employees. A new presidential policy directive says employees "who are eligible for access to classified information can effectively report waste, fraud, and abuse while protecting classified national security information. It prohibits retaliation against employees for reporting waste, fraud, and abuse. " With this directive, issued last week, Obama hands national security and intelligence community whistleblowers and their advocates an important victory in their frequently frustrating efforts to expand protection against retaliation for federal employees who expose agency misconduct.

Alireza Jafarzadeh's recent commentary ("Iran'snuclear genie is out of the bottle," April 16) is eerily reminiscent of the manipulations of Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi who shamelessly fed the US government false information with the express aim of advocating a military invasion of Iraq in 2003 in order to promote his own personal political and economic fortunes. Just as Mr. Jafarzadeh openly sides with the exiled Iranian terrorist group Mujahedin-e Khalq, Mr. Chalibi lived in London while leading an umbrella Iraqi opposition group (the Iraqi National Congress)

Cuban accusations against American Alan Gross and recent Egyptian allegations against four Americans who were promoting democracy on Egyptian soil have some eerie similarities. Alan Gross, who has been confined in Cuba since 2009, and the four Americans in Egypt who recently had bail posted for them by the Government of Qatar, have been using United States taxpayers' money to promote openness and democracy in two countries that have no interest in the United States interfering in their internal affairs.

Last week, Congress passed legislation authorizing spending for our country's 16 intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fact that the bill passed with little fanfare in this heated political climate makes a big statement. The Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2012 is a good, bipartisan measure that gives our intelligence professionals the resources, capabilities and authorities they need to keep us safe.

One day last year, a trusted courier for Osama bin Laden answered a phone call that might have been wholly unremarkable except for one thing — the National Security Agency was apparently listening in. That intercepted call helped American intelligence officials track the courier all the way to the walled compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was hiding. The discovery eventually led to last week's midnight assault by Navy SEALs who killed the al-Qaida leader, ending a pursuit that began in the mid-1990s.

WASHINGTON - Negotiators from the House of Representatives and the Senate remained at loggerheads yesterday over legislation to revamp the intelligence community. The main sticking points are how powerful a new national intelligence director should be and whether controversial immigration and law enforcement provisions in the House version of the bill should survive. Senate and House conferees had hoped to reach a compromise by Nov. 2, but as lawmakers headed home for the weekend yesterday, Senate conferee Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, said, "With every passing day, we have to be realistic that is it harder to do it right before the election."

A division of the National Security Agency won a U.S. Senate Productivity Award last week, the first given to a group within the intelligence community.The division, the Installation and Logistics Organization, is the NSA's support group responsible for construction, maintenance, mail, recycling and distribution of excess computers to local schools.The award is given to promote productivity and quality control in the public sector and the benefit of that to state and local communities, an NSA spokeswoman said.

Thanks to the initiatives taken under President George W. Bush and to the international cooperation under President Obama, the United States has finally located Osama Bin Laden. I salute our brave men and women, some who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and our often forgotten intelligence community for making this possible! William T. Capps Jr., Laurel

President Harry S. Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to ensure that the policy community would have access to independent intelligence analysis that was free of the advocacy of the Department of State and Department of Defense. The CIA's most important analytic mission was the production of national intelligence estimates (NIEs) and assessments that tracked significant political and military developments and provided premonitory intelligence on looming threats and confrontations.