former Deputy Director, CIA's Counterterrorism Center
Senior global advisor at Oxford Analytica, a private consulting firm and senior research fellow at the New America Foundation; former Deputy Director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (1992) and, later, second-in-charge of national security at the FBI (2005-2010)
Policing Domestic Muslim Radicalism Since September 11 — most recently in Baltimore, Portland and Washington, DC -- suspects have been arrested before the terrorist acts they were planning ever occurred. Young Muslim Americans have been tricked into thinking that undercover FBI informants were their accomplices. Some critics claim that, in those and other cases, agents engaged in entrapment.
Are Muslim-Americans Living Dangerously? While Muslim-American groups give the Obama Administration high marks for combating bigotry, they are divided over "sting" operations by the FBI. Since September 11 — most recently in Baltimore, Portland and Washington, DC -- suspects have been arrested before the terrorist acts they were planning ever occurred. Young bombing suspects have been arrested before they could do any harm, but after FBI agents acted as false accomplices. Anti-terrorist agents routinely appear uninvited at mosques, workplaces and homes. Are the Feds just "getting to know the community" or spying? Do agents inadvertently help to radicalize young men? Are they stepping on American rights to privacy, freedom of speech and religion?
September 11, Nine Years Later The 9-11 Commission led by Lee Hamilton and Tom Kean established the National Security Preparedness Group to follow its work with periodic assessments of terrorist threats to the United States. Its latest report , released today, says terrorism is more complex than it was nine years ago and that some US citizens are more dangerous than al Qaeda. In the meantime, the US has built dozens of new intelligence bureaucracies, with thousands of employees, costing more than $75 billion a year. Even some intelligence experts say over-reaction is leading to massive waste and duplication of effort. Is it worth the cost to make America safer? Is it counterproductive? Does it exaggerate dangers, create unnecessary fears and perpetuate an overly powerful national security state?
Trump's new look at civil rights and global warming President Trump is reportedly ready to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. We look at the possible consequences. On the second half of the program, we hear about cuts in Obama-Era civil rights programs called for by the Trump Administration's first budget plan.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
White House budget proposal slashes and burns President Trump's first budget request is considered dead on arrival in Congress — a familiar development in Capitol Hill. We hear what it reveals about the priorities of the new administration. What's likely to die… and what might survive?
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.