re: "Sexy Russian Spy Anna Chapman Arrested Because She Was Getting Too Close To Someone Inside "Obama's Inner Circle"?"

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ provided a demonstration of how sometimes the best domestic U.S. news coverage comes from abroad.

Money quote(s):

"That's what a former FBI counterintelligence officer reveals.

The Independent (UK) highlights the six hundredth revelation that Iraqi informant "Curveball" lied. They bury the actual new news -- that the FBI felt it had to move quickly to arrest and deport Anna Chapman, for fear that someone close to Obama was about to snork her, and get caught in a "honey trap" (sex, followed by extortion for secrets/influence).

That someone "close" to Obama? A "sitting cabinet official," this FBI counterintelligence officer says." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

In counterintelligence, you want to find, neutralize, and exploit those hostile intelligence threats targeting you.

So while Ms. Chapman may have been identified some time prior to her arrest, she was probably under various sorts of surveillance in order to determine the extent of her own network and contacts.

That's the first sort of exploitation, by the way. But neutralizing the threat she, and her network, presented had to take precedence if she was infiltrating too close to our own inner circles.

4/2

re: "Tragedy Upon Tragedy"

Jules Crittenden at Forward Movement ("on politics, crime, science, foreign affairs, and maritime and military matters in the United States, Asia, the Balkans and the Middle East.") shares, in closing, a criticism of the last Pres. Bush.

Money quote(s):

" (Not particularly reassured by Putin’s taking personal charge of the investigation, given that the former KGB agent heads a government that appears determined to restore some of the worst practices of historic Russian totalitarianism. Theoretically a show of sincerity with personal responsibility. Some people think George Bush’s biggest miscalculation was misjudging the intentions of Saddam Hussein. I think he got those exactly right, and it was Putin’s intentions that he sorely misjudged.)"

re: "Nominating Senator Kennedy"

Charles Crawford at Blogoir ("This website makes available to the general public interesting episodes and insights from Charles Crawford's eventful diplomatic career, and aims to explain in a open-minded, reasonable way how diplomacy works in practice.") has a question about Sen. Kennedy's honorary knighthood.

"Did the recommendation give the Senator full and glowing credit for (as recorded by the KGB) talking to the Soviet Union to try to thwart President Reagan's policies? "

re: "Counterintelligence Still Secondary as Our Secrets Are Taken"

Douglas Farah laments the state of U.S. counterintelligence efforts.

Money quote(s):

"Counterintelligence has to have true national leadership, and is too important to be left to the hodgepodge of agencies that currently carry out bits and pieces of the policy."

&

"(T)he Chinese have managed to steal EVERY nuclear weapons design the U.S. has, allowing them not only to leapfrog generations and billions of dollars in development, but also to identify every vulnerability in the current systems.

Russia no longer needs to rely solely on KGB thugs to carry out much of its espionage. It simply carries out the best business intelligence gathering operations through front companies, and hires lobbyists to collect other information of interest.

Most tellingly, the Islamist world is heavily invested in the United States through shell corporations and the governments that host and sponsor terrorists, from Hezbollah and al Qaeda."

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Hat tip to the Counterterrorism Blog ("The first multi-expert blog dedicated solely to counterterrorism issues, serving as a gateway to the community for policymakers and serious researchers. Designed to provide real-time information about terrorism cases and policy developments.").