What I wish I did not know.
A story.
I wasn't going to post this until I thought about it some more. But earlier this week I had a long dinner conversation with several new acquaintances. Me, two men, one woman; they all have had interesting careers. One had 16 years in a large metropolitan law enforcement organization. Another was a career Navy officer, who had recently left some three letter agency in Maryland. And the third was an ex-Army Jag officer.
We were celebrating the retirement of another. And so the dinner conversation started upbeat and full of humor. There were many more folks at this party, and we were all seated at randomly assigned tables. Which is how I found myself sitting among these very smart, intense, distinguished folks.
After all the speeches and the roasting of the retiree. The table conversation took a much darker, more serious tone. I don't remember how it started, but the subject turned to what the hell was going on in the ODNI and the DHS. Someone said, "Domestic terrorist, my ass. Don't these people read their own definitions?" Yes, another chimed in, "This is much bigger than ICE. When intelligence analysis stops bounding uncertainty, bad shit always happens." I did not know that this phrase was a deliberate choice. A sort of polite, inside the intelligence community slap to the face.
One table mate turned to me and explained at length that yes, there are real domestic terrorist out there, and for the most part, we know who they are. And yes, the threat is real. But these yahoos who claim that ICE protesters are DT's are eroding the very fabric of counter terrorism. The moment we shift the focus from real threats to imaginary threats. Very bad stuff is guaranteed to happen.
They were all serious, and I was chilled to the bone.
A story.
I wasn't going to post this until I thought about it some more. But earlier this week I had a long dinner conversation with several new acquaintances. Me, two men, one woman; they all have had interesting careers. One had 16 years in a large metropolitan law enforcement organization. Another was a career Navy officer, who had recently left some three letter agency in Maryland. And the third was an ex-Army Jag officer.
We were celebrating the retirement of another. And so the dinner conversation started upbeat and full of humor. There were many more folks at this party, and we were all seated at randomly assigned tables. Which is how I found myself sitting among these very smart, intense, distinguished folks.
After all the speeches and the roasting of the retiree. The table conversation took a much darker, more serious tone. I don't remember how it started, but the subject turned to what the hell was going on in the ODNI and the DHS. Someone said, "Domestic terrorist, my ass. Don't these people read their own definitions?" Yes, another chimed in, "This is much bigger than ICE. When intelligence analysis stops bounding uncertainty, bad shit always happens." I did not know that this phrase was a deliberate choice. A sort of polite, inside the intelligence community slap to the face.
One table mate turned to me and explained at length that yes, there are real domestic terrorist out there, and for the most part, we know who they are. And yes, the threat is real. But these yahoos who claim that ICE protesters are DT's are eroding the very fabric of counter terrorism. The moment we shift the focus from real threats to imaginary threats. Very bad stuff is guaranteed to happen.
They were all serious, and I was chilled to the bone.