Columns And Op‑Eds

What Afghanistan Cost the CIA

by First Casualty

BOOK REVIEW: First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11 By Toby Harnden Little Brown & Co. Reviewed by Philip Mudd (The Cipher Brief taps independent reviewers with...

What the CIA's Fight Against Terrorism Looks Like Now

by Daniel Hoffman

Cipher Brief Expert Daniel Hoffman is a former senior officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, where he served as a three-time station chief and a senior executive Clandestine Services...

Reflections on Ending an Endless War

by Robert Cardillo

Cipher Brief Expert Robert Cardillo served as the sixth Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Prior to that assignment, Mr. Cardillo served as the first Deputy Director for...

Applying What We Learned from Iraq in Afghanistan

Cipher Brief Expert Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, USN (ret), served as Commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and Commander of the 32 Nation Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East. In those...

Why We're Much Safer from Terrorism Now than We Were After 9/11

by Michael Leiter

Cipher Brief Expert Mike Leiter served in several senior national security positions in the federal government, to include as the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from 2007...

Why We Need a New National Defense Strategy

by Walter Pincus

Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist at The Cipher Brief.  Pincus spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on topics from...

Does the World Really End This Way?

by This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends

BOOK REVIEW: This is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race By Nicole Perlroth / Bloomsbury Publishing Reviewed by Christopher Gallup (The Cipher Brief taps independent reviewers...

A Profile of the New Taliban Leader

by Kenneth Dekleva

Dr. Kenneth Dekleva served as a Regional Medical Officer/Psychiatrist (including 5 years at the U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russian Federation and 2 years at the US Embassy New Delhi) with the U.S. Dept. of...

An Afghan View Through the Eyes of an American

by Jason Howk

Major (Retired) Jason Criss Howk is a former Infantry Sergeant turned Engineer Officer. He has worked with the Afghanistan mission since 2002 assisting the most senior Generals, Ambassadors, and...

What We Need to Know About the Taliban and Its Sharia Rule

by Emile Nakhleh

Cipher Brief Expert Emile Nakhleh is a retired CIA Senior Intelligence Service Officer and founding director of the CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program Office. He is also a Research...