Financial Times (June 26)
U.S. “intelligence agencies have for several years identified cyber threats as a bigger risk than terrorism.” Though huge, the threat is little understood. Such is “the opacity of cyber space that the risks of massive miscalculation resulting in catastrophic escalation” are “hair-raisingly high” and the “ultimate nightmare” is “that we might sleepwalk into a cyber-Armageddon, just as Europe’s political leaders had stumbled into the first world war.”
Tags: Cyber threats, Escalation, Europe, Intelligence, Miscalculation, Nightmare, Risk, Sleepwalk, Terrorism, U.S., WW1
CNN (October 31)
U.S. “lawmakers should be conducting a serious audit of our nation’s intelligence and cybersecurity capacities and strengthening areas of weakness to ensure our country is well-equipped to withstand future efforts from state actors, like Russia, to disrupt our democratic processes…. We’ve seen these efforts underway in Europe for years, and should learn from and even improve upon what they are already doing.”
Tags: Audit, Cybersecurity, Democratic processes, Disrupt, Europe, Intelligence, Lawmakers, Russia, U.S., Weakness
New York Times (September 4)
“What does Kim Jong-un want?” That is the question that still plagues intelligence officials. “Six years after Mr. Kim took power and began executing those who challenged his rule…there is no issue that confounds analysts more than the motives of a 33-year-old dictator whose every move seems one part canny strategy, one part self-preservation, and one part nuclear narcissism.”
Tags: Canny, Challenge, Dictator, Executions, Intelligence, Kim, Motives, Narcissism, Nuclear, Power, Self-preservation, Strategy
Chicago Tribune (August 9)
“Many Americans had reassured themselves that North Korea was still years away from threatening the U.S. mainland with a nuclear missile. That illusion ended Tuesday.” U.S. intelligence reports appear to indicate that “North Korea now has produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside intercontinental ballistic missiles” and has an estimated arsenal including as many as 60 nuclear weapons. North Korea is now clearly a “threat to the U.S., to the world.”
Tags: Arsenal, ICBMs, Intelligence, Mainland, North Korea, Nuclear missile, Threat, U.S., Warhead
Reuters (May 16)
“President Trump is now the leaker in chief.” His “conduct over the past week strikes at the heart of the United States intelligence community. He does not seem to grasp how it works…. The damage Trump has done to his own intelligence services, their foreign counterparts, and their relationships with the White House in four short months might take four long years to repair. If it can be repaired, that is.”
USA Today (February 16)
“Trump’s press conference was a spectacle for the ages.” It was “a rambling, defensive and at times angry performance by the leader of the free world.” During “one of the wildest presidential press conferences on record, Trump lashed out at the media, Hillary Clinton, the intelligence community, judges and Democrats — among many others.”
Tags: Angry, Clinton, Defensive, Intelligence, Media, Press conference, Rambling, Spectacle, Trump, Wilde
Wall Street Journal (November 20)
“South Korea would benefit most from a thorough investigation that prompts political reform rather than a rush to impeachment.” Furthermore, securing President Park’s resignation or impeachment “could reverse many hard-fought decisions that the Korean electorate gave her a mandate to make,” like closing down the Kaesong Industrial Complex, deploying a U.S. missile-defense system and sharing intelligence with Japan to counter the North Korean threat.
Tags: Impeachment, Intelligence, Investigation, Japan, Kaesong Industrial Complex, North Korean, Political reform, Resignation, South Korea, U.S. missile defense
Financial Times (November 16)
“The terrorist assault in Paris in Paris that has killed at least 129 people is civilisation’s worst nightmare: indiscriminate attacks in the heart of a capital city on peaceful people…. The immediate reaction of the civilised world must be: collective courage in the face of such outrage; heightened vigilance and intelligence sharing; a targeted military response; and international solidarity with the French people.”
Tags: Capital, Civilization, Collective courage, Intelligence, Military response, Nightmare, Paris, Peaceful people, Reaction, Solidarity, Terrorist, Vigilance
New York Times (February 26, 2012)
“Are people getting dumber?” Not according to four of five experts. Based on IQ tests, “the average person today would be 30 points above his or her grandparents, so we are not getting any dumber.” And yet, the increasing pace of complexity leaves many feeling left behind and technology has dulled some skills, like mathematics or spelling, once taken for granted. Moreover, “the really dumb things that people do…get amplified almost instantaneously” thanks to the internet. Still, we are far more advanced in terms of “abstract reasoning: the ability to ignore appearances and reckon in formal categories.”
“Are people getting dumber?” Not according to four of five experts. Based on IQ tests, “the average person today would be 30 points above his or her grandparents, so we are not getting any dumber.” And yet, the increasing pace of complexity leaves many feeling left behind and technology has dulled some skills, like mathematics or spelling, once taken for granted. Moreover, “the really dumb things that people do…get amplified almost instantaneously” thanks to the internet. Still, we are far more advanced in terms of “abstract reasoning: the ability to ignore appearances and reckon in formal categories.”
Tags: Complexity, Intelligence, Internet, IQ, Reasoning, Technology
