Americans for Intelligence Reform

Brad Johnson, President, and retired CIA Senior Officer and Chief of Staff. Insight into current events from an intelligence angle.

Sunday Evening with Jeemes: CELINE’S GENEROSITY   

                                             CELINE’S GENEROSITY    by Jeemes Akers “We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.”                                                                                           Seneca    Last week, we were visited by two close friends from Kentucky, Robert Elliott (formerly a pilot with Evergreen Airlines […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Philippine Adventures

                                             PHILIPPINE ADVENTURES “Most of today’s young voters [in the Philippines] have no living memory of the horrors of the martial law era or the massive nationwide plunder of the country’s resources. What they are told by their parents or grandparents, or what they see on the candidate’s whitewashed social media accounts, is that the […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Fertilizer: A story

                                                  FERTILIZER: A STORY by Jeemes Akers “The U.N. says Russia is the world’s No. 1 exporter of nitrogen fertilizer and No. 2 in phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Its ally Belarus, also contending with Western sanctions, is another major fertilizer producer. The [Russia-Ukraine] conflict also has driven up the already-exorbitant price of natural gas, used […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Ukrainian hackers and unintended consequences

                           UKRAINIAN HACKERS AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES by Jeemes Akers “Consider what happened in the past under what some people call the “Law of Unintended Consequences.” This rule is a variant of Murphey’s Law, the familiar notion that if anything can go wrong, it will. Unintended consequences seem to occur with the gravest results in war. […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: The Cinema of Grand Illusions

CHAINED IN PLATO’S CAVE:  WELCOME TO THE CINEMA OF GRAND ILLUSIONS by Jeemes Akers “Welcome to the Grand Illusion   Come on in and see what’s happening   Pay the price, get your tickets for the show …   But don’t be fooled by the radio   The TV or the magazines   They show […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Grace in the Netizen world, part II

               ”GRACE” IN THE NETIZEN WORLD                                       PART TWO                        An Incident in New Zealand:           What it Portends for the Final Generation                                         “See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Hawaiian adventures

TINY BUBBLES AND OTHER HAWAIIAN ADVENTURES        by Jeemes Akers                                   “Therefore, men of Polynesia and Boston and China and Mount Fuji and the barrios of the Philippines, do not come to these islands empty-handed, or craven in spirit, or […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Ukrainian Quicksand, the Law of Unintended Consequences

UKRAINIAN QUICKSAND: THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES                                        by Jeemes Akers “The law of unintended consequences is the only real law of history.”                                                                                           Niall Ferguson “There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything.”                                                                                            Steve Jobs   Last week, I met my close friend (and fellow Agency “cube mate”) Nat W. […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: “Grace” in the Netizen World

               ”GRACE” IN THE NETIZEN WORLD                                          “That which is now already has been, and that which is to be already has been; and God seeks that which has passed by (so that history repeats itself).” Ecclesiastes 3:15 (Amplified)   “A worldview is something that everybody has … Most people don’t even realize it, […]

Sunday Coffee with Jeemes: Ukraine: historical comparisons

              UKRAINE: HISTORICAL COMPARISONS                                        by Jeemes Akers “At the heart of the Ukrainian crisis lies a fundamental question about the nature of history and the nature of humanity: is change possible? Can humans change the way they behave, or does history repeat itself endlessly, with humans forever condemned to re-enact past tragedies without changing […]