Entries by siena

Allies, Intelligence, and a Fraying American Center

In this week’s Sentinel podcast episode, former FBI executive sits down with Canadian intelligence veteran , the first international guest on the Steady State Sentinel, to explore how America looks from the perspective of a close ally. Together they unpack the history and purpose of the Five Eyes partnership, the vital but often invisible fabric […]

Coming Tuesday! The Steady State Sentinel, Episode 17 : Allies, Intelligence and A Fraying American Center

Former FBI executive Lauren Anderson sits down with Canadian intelligence veteran Phil Gurski, the first international guest on the Steady State Sentinel! Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 390 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department […]

Loyalty Over Competence

By hollowing out the State Department and replacing expertise with loyalists and dealmakers, Donald Trump has turned American diplomacy into an echo chamber, with dangerous consequences. For most of American history, presidents have understood a basic rule of foreign policy: surround yourself with people who know more than you do. The world is too complex […]

Tulsi’s Choice

The recent 60 Minutes presentation and accompanying article by The Insider has brought renewed focus on the victims of the Havana Syndrome, the likely perpetrators, and the analysis by the Central Intelligence Agency that found it “very unlikely” that a foreign power was behind the attacks that have resulted in serious injury to a number […]

Cui Bono? Trump, Bibi, and the Iran ‘War’

Who benefits? That is always a key question when it comes to war. The current non-war against Iran raises this in spades, given the lack of any consistent goals from the administration. The Atlantic has counted at least 10 different justifications, none of them accompanied by evidence of the imminent threat to American interests that […]

We Ultimately Lose When We Ignore The Rules

Bombing of School, Minab, Iran 2026 (Wikipedia) When the current Secretary of Defense was a Fox News commentator, he regularly advocated for pardons of three service members who were charged with war crimes: two charged with murder, and one charged with multiple serious crimes. Hegseth’s television lobbying paid off when President Trump intervened in all […]

As He Later Acknowledged, That Evidence Was “Flawed”

Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003 claimed that Iraq was holding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, which turned out not to exist. Mario Tama/Getty Image What follows is a story that anyone who knows me, and lots of people who don’t, have heard many times in […]