I attended a dinner last night sponsored by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, and Don Kerr, the principal deputy director for national intelligence, was the guest speaker.
The ODNI has a transcript of Kerr’s remarks. I was struck by a few remarks. First, Kerr talked about a recent two-week trip to Latin America. He wasn’t [...]

This week, I sat down with John Brennan, the current chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. Brennan, who was the first director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is now advising Sen. Barack Obama on intelligence and foreign policy. Brennan is also the president and chief executive officer of The Analysis Corporation, headquartered in [...]

The AP has a rundown this morning on a laptop, reportedly belonging to slain FARC leader Raul Reyes, that may prove massive and covert support for the Colombian rebel movement by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. If the documents in the computer are authentic, they also hint at U.S. efforts to intervene in a prisoner exchange [...]

I have a story in today’s National Journal about the remarkable reaction to the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. As I reported this story, I was struck by the degree of confusion around the NIE’s key judgments, stemming largely from how they were written.
There are still many more questions to answer. But [...]

“All of our legal architecture is founded on the notion that telecommunications intercepts involved putting bugs in walls or hooking interception devices to pairs of copper wires.”
Sound like a familiar complaint? It should, if you’ve been following the debate to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But this quote comes from one of our neighbors [...]

Defying expectations, the House adjourned for recess Thursday and will let the Protect America Act expire tomorrow. Unwilling to try and iron out differences between their bill and a version passed this week by the Senate, lawmakers will take up the thorny issues of telecom liability and oversight of intelligence surveillance at a later [...]

Comments by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer suggest that Democrats might be preparing to let the Protect America Act expire this week. They would then use the next few weeks to pass a longer-term law.
Voice of America has a roundup of member positions this morning, and quotes Hoyer.
Hoyer asserted to reporters that even [...]

The House voted down a Democratic measure that would have extended the Protect America Act for another 21 days. Joining the unanimous Republican vote were 34 Democrats (list below). In breaking ranks, they have positioned the House to take up a Senate bill that makes major changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and which [...]

Sens. Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama will avoid a spate of weak-on-terror ads by John McCain or his surrogates, particularly those alleging the senators voted to deny intelligence agencies the power to monitor terrorists’ phone calls or e-mails. That’s because when time came to vote on a new intelligence surveillance law, the presidential candidates didn’t [...]

With apologies to Death Cab for Cutie.
The Senate has passed a bill that amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and offers immunity to companies that assisted the government with electronic surveillance after the 9/11 attacks. Now it’s onto the House, which has already passed its FISA fix, without the immunity clause. What are immunity’s [...]