6 Threats, 6 Changes, & A Brave New World: Intel Chief Vickers

WASHINGTON: There’s no one thing that keeps the Pentagon’s chief of intelligence up at night. There’s half-a-dozen things — terrorism, cybersecurity, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China — but Mike Vickers has a six-point plan to counter them. “The big challenge we face is really in the aggregation of challenges,” the under secretary for intelligence…

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USDI Vickers’ Top Threats: Terrorists, Syria, Russian ‘Revanchism’

USDI Vickers’ Top Threats: Terrorists, Syria, Russian ‘Revanchism’
USDI Vickers’ Top Threats: Terrorists, Syria, Russian ‘Revanchism’

WASHINGTON: If you want to understand why President Obama spoke so much about terrorism in his widely panned West Point speech, the head of Pentagon intelligence explained it pretty well today. Terrorism is and remains the top threat to the United States, Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Mike Vickers said this morning at the Center for…

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Petraeus Resigns As DCI: USDI Vickers Rumored As Replacement

WASHINGTON: It is a classic — and sad — Washington story. The most storied general since the Vietnam War, David Petraeus, resigns as director of the CIA late on a Friday afternoon because of an extramarital affair. Petraeus helped revolutionize the ways in which intelligence was used by the US military and greatly improved cooperation…

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Intelligence Chief Hints At New Spy Satellites; Biggest Change in 30 Years

ORLANDO: The United States has boosted into orbit new spy satellites that mark “the most significant change to our overhead architecture in at least three decades,” said the head of military intelligence, Mike Vickers. Vickers also said these National Reconnaissance Office’s satellites comprise “a truly integrated system of systems for the first time.” Sadly for…

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GeoEye Plans DigitalGlobe Purchase; USDI Confirms Imagery Budget Cuts

WASHINGTON: The commercial imagery company, GeoEye, has made its play to buy competitor DigitalGlobe. UPDATED: DigitalGlobe Rejects GeoEye Bid (Monday 10 a.m.) The two companies built and operate satellites that provide unclassified overhead imagery used extensively by allies and the intelligence community. The companies had to act, faced as they are with deep cuts to…

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Pentagon Pushes For Greater Spy Powers; Wants To Run Businesses, Like CIA

ON A TRAIN SOMEWHERE ON THE EAST COAST: Imagine a soldier, wearing mufti, traveling through Syria in a rattletrap taxi. He’s a spy, dressed in a suit, going to meet an agent who says he can offer rebels the Syrian government’s order of battle. The soldier, an Army intelligence officer fluent in Syrian and Iraqi…

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Air Force Tackles New Intel Mission

Washington: The Pentagon’s top intelligence official has ordered the Air Force to set up a new intelligence unit to analyze the behavior of foreign-based commercial aircraft and integrate intelligence from the combatant commanders as the planes move through American airspace. Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers has tasked Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to…

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