September 11th Anniversary

Today, Director John Ratcliffe declassified 71 President's Daily Brief (PDB) products in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, and consistent with President Donald Trump's historic transparency initiative.

This collection represents the Agency's single largest release of declassified CIA PDB products related to 9/11, providing unprecedented transparency on America's most sensitive intelligence publication from the years before and the day after one of the darkest moments in our history.  The products trace the story of CIA analysts' evolving understanding of al-Qa'ida and efforts to highlight and warn of Usama Bin Ladin's attack plotting despite sparse, vague, and imperfect information.

-- Statement by the Central Intelligence Agency, "CIA Releases President's Daily Briefs in Commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of 9/11" with links to "71 Declassified 9/11 related President's Daily Brief products" available for download as PDFs (11 September 2026)

Political Fortunes

Since January, the previously bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in which we participate has essentially shut down.  Virtually no new refugees have arrived, hundreds of staff in resettlement agencies around the country have been laid off, and funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has been uncertain.  Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.

In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step.  Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government. ...

It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.  I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country.  I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.

I have said before that no change in political fortunes alters our commitment to stand with the world’s most vulnerable people, and I want to reaffirm that promise.  While our public-private partnership as a refugee resettlement agency is no longer viable, we are hard at work on a church-wide plan to support migrants and refugees ...

-- The Most Reverend Sean W. Rowe, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, in an open letter, "Letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on Episcopal Migration Ministries" (12 May 2025)

Assange

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS 

Case No CR - 24 * 00014

Plaintiff, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. vs. JULIAN PAUL ASSANGE, Defendant.

Count One: Title 18. U.S.C. § 793(g), Conspiracy To Obtain and Disclose National Defense Information

THE DEFENDANT AND CO-CONSPIRATOR

The defendant, JULIAN PAUL ASSANGE (“ASSANGE"). was not a United States citizen, did not possess a U.S. security clearance, and did not have authorization to possess, access, or control documents, writings, or notes relating to the national defense of the United States, including United States government classified information.

Chelsea Manning ("Manning”) was a United States Army intelligence analyst who held a TOP SECRET U.S. security clearance who was deployed to forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq.

-- Opening paragraphs of the charge to which Julian Assange of WikiLeaks will plead guilty in order to resolve his 14-year legal battle with the United States (24 June 2024)

The Whole Circle

Grief and disappointment give rise to anger, anger to envy, envy to malice, and malice to grief again, till the whole circle be completed.

-- David Hume (1711 - 1776), Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) Book 2: Of the Passions, Part 1, Section 4

NATO’s 75th Anniversary

In 2024, NATO celebrates 75 years of collective defence.

Since its creation on 4 April 1949, the transatlantic Alliance has grown from 12 founding members to 32 member countries, all working together to keep our people safe.  A community of Allies bound together by common values of democracy, individual liberty, human rights and the rule of law, NATO celebrates its anniversary on 4 April at NATO Headquarters in Brussels and at the upcoming summit on 9-11 July in Washington, D.C., where its founding treaty was signed. 

-- Statement on the website of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) on the occasion of NATO's 75th anniversary, 4 April 2024

Debacle

A major power can afford a military debacle only when it looks like a political victory.

-- Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921 - 1990), Swiss author and dramatist, Portrait of a Planet (1971)

Hindsight

Hindsight is notably cleverer than foresight.

-- Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz (1885 - 1966), fleet admiral of the United States Navy, as quoted in The Magnificent Mitscher by Theodore Taylor, p. 266

America's Longest War

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America's longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war.

-- "Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America's longest war" by Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor, apnews.com, 30 August 2021

Often Unintended

No wars are unintended or "accidental".  What is often unintended is the length and bloodiness of the war.

-- Geoffrey Norman Blainey, AC, FAHA, FASSA (1930 -), prominent Australian historian, academic, philanthropist, and commentator with a wide international audience, The Causes of War (1973)

Highly Unlikely

Well, first of all, the mission hasn't failed, yet.  There is in Afghanistan -- in all parties, there's been corruption.  The question is, can there be an agreement on unity of purpose?  What is the objective? 

For example, it started off -- there were going to be negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan National Security Forces and the Afghan government.  That -- it didn't come to fruition. 

So the question now is, where do they go from here?  That -- the jury is still out.  But the likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. 

-- President Joe Biden, responding when asked, "Mr. President, how serious was the corruption among the Afghanistan government to this mission failing there?", Remarks by President Biden on the Drawdown of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, 8 July 2021

Where Empires Go

Afghanistan -- where empires go to die.

-- Michael Dennis Malloy (1942 -), progressive American radio broadcaster based in Atlanta, now self-syndicated, quoted in Humans On The Run, by Kumar Tiku (2018)

Longest War

I'm now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan: two Republicans, two Democrats.  I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.

After consulting closely with our allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence personnel, with our diplomats and our development experts, with the Congress and the Vice President, as well as with Mr. Ghani and many others around the world, I have concluded that it's time to end America's longest war. ...

We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago.  That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021. 

War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multi-generational undertaking. ...  And it’s time to end the forever war. 

-- Remarks by President Biden on the Way Forward in Afghanistan, 14 April, 2021

That's Heroism

I'm proud of what I did, but at the same time, I'm surprised by it.  My guess is that you have surprised yourself, too -- that there have been times when you didn't put much forethought into the moment but, looking back, you realize how boldly you acted.  It may have been the action of a moment or it could have been the strength and persistence of weathering a particularly difficult season in your life.  As you reflect on it now, you are probably surprised at what you were capable of doing.  The fallout of that time for you might not be as readily obvious as mine was, but the idea is the same: You did what you had to do and you made your world -- our world -- a little bit better.  That's courage.  That's heroism.  That's honor.  Thank you for your service.

-- William Kyle Carpenter (17 October 1989 -), medically retired US Marine who received the United States' highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010.  Carpenter is the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient.  You Are Worth It: Building a Life Worth Fighting For (2019) p. 304

Reach

For the Commander-in-Chief to reach into the military system and provide a pardon, especially in a preemptive way before a trial and appeal process, is a mistake.  It will undermine our own standards, as junior enlisted personnel try to understand a pardon for doing something we constantly train to avoid.  It strengthens enemy propaganda, as they will correctly say that we do not hold ourselves accountable for our own standards.  It undercuts our relations with allies who have strong systems in place to prevent these kinds of actions.  And it spurs our enemies on to even more barbaric behavior as the battlefield descends into moral chaos on both sides of the line of combat.  This kind of pardon disrespects every single one of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who follow the strict standards of the Code of Conduct.  They do not abuse captives who have surrendered, use torture to interrogate, cause needless casualties to civilians through collateral damage or desecrate corpses.

-- Admiral James Stavridis (Ret.), 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and Operating Executive at The Carlyle Group, Time Magazine, "I Commanded Several of the Servicemen Trump May Pardon.  Letting Them Off Will Undermine the Military", 22 May 2019

No Elephants

Power is mostly the illusion of power.  The Pentagon demanded we destroy our publications.  We kept publishing.  Clinton denounced us and said we were an attack on the entire "international community".  We kept publishing.  I was put in prison and under house arrest.  We kept publishing.  We went head to head with the NSA getting Edward Snowden out of Hong Kong, we won and got him asylum.  Clinton tried to destroy us and was herself destroyed.  Elephants, it seems, can be brought down with string.  Perhaps there are no elephants.

-- Julian Paul Assange (1971 -), Australian computer programmer, he founded WikiLeaks in 2006, and came to international attention in 2010, when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks provided by Chelsea Manning.  He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 and remained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London until his arrest by British police on 11 April 2019, Repubblica.it interview, 23 December 2016

Precipitous Withdrawal

Statement of Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate that the United States faces continuing threats from terrorist groups operating in Syria and Afghanistan and that the precipitous withdrawal of United States forces from either country could put at risk hard-won gains and United States national security.

-- Amendment to Senate Bill 1, Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019, written by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and passed cloture with 68 votes, in a rebuke by Republicans of President Trump's announced US troop withdrawals from both conflicts, 31 January 2019

Right To Be There

Russia used to be the Soviet Union.  Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan.  The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia.  They were right to be there.  The problem is, it was a tough fight.  And literally they went bankrupt; they went into being called Russia again, as opposed to the Soviet Union.  You know, a lot of these places you're reading about now are no longer part of Russia, because of Afghanistan.

-- President Donald Trump, at a cabinet meeting, 2 January 2019; The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board responded that it could not "recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American president"

A Hundred Times

Any trouble I get myself in now -- even an honest mistake -- will be a hundred times worse than if any normal person did it.

-- 30-year old Ahmed Abdul Qader, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was 17 at the time of his arrest, after his relocation to Estonia, New York Times, 29 July 2016

Tactics And Techniques

I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard bandied about because this institution needs to endure. ...  Absolutely, I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again.

-- CIA Director John Brennan in an interview with NBC News, 11 April 2016

A Stain

For many years, it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay does not advance our national security. It undermines it.  This is not just my opinion.  This is the opinion of experts.  This is the opinion of many in our military.  It’s counterproductive to our fight against terrorists, because they use it as propaganda in their efforts to recruit. ...  Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values.  It undermines our standing in the world.  It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law.

-- President Barack Obama, 23 February 2016