"Open source" intelligence is, roughly speaking, the sea of public information we swim in – things like news reports, academic studies, and scientific research. And it plays an increasing role in plans to restructure U.S. intelligence agencies. The 9/11 Commission report recommended creating a new agency to better use "open source" intelligence. Bills in Congress are pushing for the same thing. Policy analyst Charles Cameron tells Bob that anyone can be a spy in this brave new "open source" world.
This week, John Ashcroft tendered his resignation as Attorney General of the United States. From his fractious confirmation, through September 11th and the passage of the Patriot Act, he has left a lasting legal legacy. Goodbyes are never easy, but as Ashcroft sings his swan song, Bob takes the opportunity to look back at the times we’ve shared.
Readers weigh in on our retrospective of Bush administration secrecy, as well as our story on the dirtiest word in the English language.
Over the past four years, OTM has often been accused of tilting in the direction of the president’s opponents. And we’ll be the first to admit that criticism has flowed often from these fonts. But we do, after all, focus on media, and the news media rely on the free exchange of information. As we prepare for another Bush Administration, Brooke takes the opportunity for a long, hard look at how freedom of information has fared under our once and future president.
Government secrecy was not a big issue in the Presidential campaign. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a major difference in the candidates’ respective attitudes on the issue. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy joins Bob to discuss four more years of what many call the most secretive executive branch in history.
The Kerry and Bush camps are packing up their campaign offices, having collectively burned an estimated one billion dollars on advertising over the course of the campaign. The figure is bigger every four years, it’s probably safe to say, because ads work. In the Frontline documentary “The Persuaders,” which airs this week, media critic Douglas Rushkoff explores how new technology is helping marketers pitch products – and presidents – with increasing accuracy at targeted audiences. Rushkoff joins Brooke to discuss the power of persuasion.
On Monday, The New York Times broke a story suggesting that Bush administration war planners failed to secure an enormous stockpile of explosives in post-Saddam Iraq. The story was immediately consumed in the campaign inferno, and the candidates spent their final days on the stump trading accusations, even as the details of the story continued to shift under them. Brooke reviews the coverage with Talking Points Memo mastermind Josh Marshall.
An article in this week's New Republic lays out a four-fold endgame strategy by the Bush campaign. Phase one: go on attack. Phase two: roll back time to before 9-11. Phase three: soften the president's image. And phase four: KILL THE MESSENGER. The article's author, Ryan Lizza, tells Bob how the Bush/Cheney campaign is updating a tried and true tactic.
