By Steve Clemons

Peter Bergen, my colleague who interviewed Osama bin Laden in 1997 and wrote the book Holy War Inc.

In January 1998, Federal Reserve Board Deputy Governor Laurence Meyer gave a talk at the Economic Strategy Institute titled “The Economic Outlook and Challenges Facing Monetary Policy.

I have just arrived back in the U.S. from a trip from Hamburg that took me through Frankfurt, then JFK Airport, then had an interesting taxi cab ride to La Guardia — and then the bumpiest flight I’ve had in years from La Guardia to Reagan National. But, I’m back.

Tom Engelhardt and Chalmers Johnson have a must-read double hitter on the CIA on the TomGram today. Chalmers Johnson’s article, “HOW TO CREATE A WIA: A WORTHLESS INTELLIGENCE AGENCY,” follows Engelhard’s thougtfully provocative introduction.

If there is one gap between Americans and the rest of the world that I immediately notice whenever I travel and talk politics, it is that the rest of the world is often irritated by and envious of American self-confidence.

I am traveling right now and feel a bit disconnected from the major news — particularly the latest from Fallujah and also Istook-gate (Congressman Istook’s attempts to make any American citizen’s tax returns easy prey for peeping Toms on Congressional Appropriations Committees). But on the trivial but interesting, I wanted to report that while U.S….

I have to admit to needing more information before I ‘take sides’ in the ongoing CIA wars. Changing the culture of any institution is a complicated and messy process, but it looks like I will have an opportunity to meet more than one agent/analyst from the inside who will share some views with me.

I just read Jim Pinkerton’s “Coalition of the . . ?” on TechCentralStation.com and liked the jump into the future and then look back approach to thinking about this war.

Today’s New York Times reports on Kevin Sites’ blog commentary on what he filmed and saw when a U.S. Marine killed an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner. Sites, who is frustrated by the hostility from many quarters about his report, wrote “An Open Letter to Devil Dogs of 3.1“. It’s sobering.

Josh Marshall has helped reveal that it was Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook who requested a provision in a huge omnibus spending bill that would allow Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees review any taxpayer’s income tax returns, without restriction.