NSA
Trump’s Intelligence Purge Is a Nightmare for National Security
President Trump’s justification for sweeping layoffs among the top brass of intelligence and military agencies raises serious questions, particularly when loyalty appears to be defined less by allegiance to the...
Putin Grants Citizenship to NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden
Russian president Vladimir Putin has granted citizenship to Edward Snowden, a former intelligence contractor who leaked secret documents exposing the National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) mass surveillance practices. Snowden, thirty-nine, fled...
The Real Reason to Worry About Security Agencies’ Domestic Collection
The release last week of a partially declassified letter that Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) wrote last April to the director of national intelligence and director of...
After 75 Years, the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance Remains a Mystery
Seventy-five years ago, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a unique secret alliance. To this day, no other countries share classified information, work together to gather information, and...
Russia vs. America: An Air War Over Siberia Was Kept Secret for Forty Years
Here’s What You Need to Remember: An admiral warned Williams to keep quiet about his extraordinary accomplishment—it was important that the United States and the Soviet Union remain officially not at...
That One Time the NSA Droned a Guy
In June 2013 The Guardian went public with secret documents outlining the U.S. National Security Agency’s massive new effort to monitor the phone calls, email and other Internet traffic of...
Terrifying: American and Soviet Jets Dueled Over Russian Territory During the Korean War
Key Point: These skirmishes were kept hushed up lest it caused a wider war. Yet, such confrontations were one of the tense hallmarks of the Cold War. On the afternoon of...
$100 Million To Tap Two Phones? The NSA’s Spy Program Boondoggle
The National Security Agency spent more than $100 million on a phone surveillance program that yielded only two leads for potential intelligence investigations between 2015 and 2019, according to a...
The Navy And Soviet Union Went To War Over Siberia, And This Is Why No One Knew About It
Key Point: The Panther on MiG skirmish over Vladivostok was the last occasion in which a U.S. fighter plane shot down a nominally Russian fighter, but not the last aerial engagement...
How Was the Secret Air War Between the U.S. Navy and Soviet Fighters Over Siberia Kept Secret for Forty Years?
Key Point: An admiral warned Williams to keep quiet about his extraordinary accomplishment—it was important that the United States and the Soviet Union remain officially not at war, and that the...
Is It Time to Ban End-To-End Encryption?
Recently some of my AEI colleagues argued that “strong encryption is crucial to both Americans’ personal security and US national security.” They critiqued the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) renewed push...
Why Trump will Miss John Bolton
As national security adviser, he was at the forefront of ensuring that this hugely flawed deal cannot be revived by Tehran. John Bolton served with distinction as President Donald Trump’s...