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Sarada Peri is a Master in Public Policy candidate at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Prior to her graduate studies she was a policy analyst at a DC-based non-profit focused on passing proactive progressive legislation on the state level. She spent two years as a high school teacher in New Orleans as a Teach for America corps member.

The white space of the NIE

The National Intelligence Estimate is out and, as expected, it ain’t good. After five pages of context, methodology, and a pretty cover, it offers two pages of assessment. And as Secretary Chertoff’s gut reported earlier, al-Qaida is alive and capable of attacking the United States again.

Family Jewels revealed

The wait is over. At long last, the CIA uncovers 700 pages of nasty secrets, including an apparent plot to use mobsters to assassinate Fidel Castro. Fascinating stuff, all found here. In addition to the “Family Jewels” collection, the CIA has also posted the CESAR-POLO-ESAU papers, which studied Soviet and Chinese leadership from 1953 to [...]

GWHAT?

During his visit to Singapore this weekend, Secretary Gates mentioned – in passing – that “it’s too soon” to say whether the U.S. is winning the global war on terror (GWOT). Never mind that President Bush effectively coined the term over five years ago, in the days immediately following the 9/11 attacks. Never mind that [...]

Stunting progress in Palestine

The World Bank released a report stating that the restrictions on movement imposed by Israel on the Palestinian territories will continue to severely stunt economic progress for Palestinians. The report says that security concerns still don’t justify cutting off Palestinians from half of the West Bank, effectively killing trade and commerce. The report reminds us [...]

Expanding surveillance

As Congressional Democrats prepare to battle President Bush over the Iraq spending bill, National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell humbly suggested that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) be updated to meet today’s technological capabilities. And surely the rise of the Internets, with all those tubes and such, renders it necessary to update the law [...]