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Author Archives: Charles Duelfer
Qasem Soleimani – Some Aspects
The United States (over two Administrations) and the international community expended much effort rolling back ISIS in Iraq and Syria. This included attempts to kill the leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi–ultimately successful just last October. ISIS killed a few Americans. Qasem … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, Iran, Iraq, Uncategorized
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Donations from Convicted Sex Offender Offend MIT–What about China?
The New Yorker posted a story on 6 September 2019 that described financial links (donations) to MIT’s highly regarded Media Lab from the now infamous sex offender Jeffery Epstein. The next day the President of MIT, L. Rafael Reif wrote … Continue reading
Posted in China, MIT
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Quandaries: Deep Fakes and Cyber Conflict
The Council on Intelligence Issues* held a seminar on “Intelligence Operations in a Digital Age” this week. The discussion covered many current issues, but lingered on couple of looming problems with no satisfactory answers aired among a broad group of … Continue reading
Posted in Allies, Cyber Threat, Intelligence, Iran, journalism coverage, NSA
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Mueller Report – Duelfer Report
A few commentators have made some comparisons between the Mueller Report and report on Iraq WMD in 2004 which was dubbed the Duelfer Report. There are a few similarities and many key differences. Both were produced in a highly charged … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, Iraq, Uncategorized, WMD
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US Intelligence and the Press
Yesterday, George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government hosted an interesting discussion moderated by Michael Morell and four prominent Washington journalists regarding coverage of intelligence by journalists. The journalists were Andrea Mitchell, long-time NBC correspondent who has covered … Continue reading
Posted in Intelligence, journalism coverage, Uncategorized
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Space News – And National News
Tuesday this week, in a speech before the National Space Council, Vice President Pence announced that the US would land its astronauts on the Moon again within five years. He said: “And I’m here, on the President’s behalf, to tell … Continue reading
Posted in NASA, Space
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The Value of Allies – It’s Personal
In his resignation letter, Secretary of Defense General Mattis called out the importance of Allies for US national security. I expect his eloquent statement will be long-quoted by those involved in foreign policy. But I bet it resonates even more … Continue reading
Posted in Allies, Iraq, NATO
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Syrian CW Use – Why? There’s a good reason
Many have wondered why Syrian would continue to use chemical munitions recognizing that the international community would condemn such actions. After all, they received some measure of positive recognition when acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and allowed … Continue reading
Posted in Russia, Syria CW, United Nations, WMD
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Kim Jong Un – We have no clue what motivates/deters him….
The September 18, 2017 New Yorker had a very good article about Kim Jong Un by Evan Osnos. He made the point that we really have no idea what motivates him (or perhaps more importantly, would deter him). And, or … Continue reading
Posted in Iraq, North Korea
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Iraq – Avoiding the Next Insurgency
It is blindingly obvious that while ISIS soon may be expelled from Mosul, absent any further US policy change, there will be a renewed insurgency fueled by disaffected Sunni groups. This is depressingly similar to Spring 2003. I was in … Continue reading