(Acting Director of OPM Beth Cobert). There were some extraordinary speakers at the big Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems conference in Atlanta this week. The Director of National Intelligence, the Director of DIA, two four-star Combatant Commanders, and people who actually understand all this cyber stuff. Or claim to. You have to admire the […]

It is another travel day, this time from muggy Atlanta back to the humid hothouse of Washington, DC. I was going to dig out an old Daily about the last time I was in Atlanta, and a pilgrimage I made to the Ebenezer Baptist Church to see the tomb of Dr. King, majestically located adjacent […]

Mom: “Where are you going?” Me: “Out.” Mom: “When will you be back?” Me: “Later.” Who knows? May see you soon! Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra www.vicsocotra.com

I have to start at the beginning on this, which is a hard pace to get back to, since it was like thirty-five years ago. We are a tight little community, we spooks, and I think we are all grateful that we had a chance to do something we considered honorable in a dishonorable world, […]

My late father and his brother were both aviation nuts. Dad was a Naval Aviator in the second installment of the last century’s version of the Hundred Years War, and Uncle Jim had been an aeronautical engineer of some repute before he got into the satellite imagery business for the people at Kodak. One of […]

I am at sixes and sevens this morning. I need to go to the bank and the grocery store- I should go to the Commissary, but the car I am thinking about purchasing is on the showroom floor of the Mercedes dealer by the Harris-Teeter supermarket and the Credit Union. An important note- I do […]

Colleagues, It is a torrid week here in Baghdad-by-the-Potomac, and a decent thunderstorm might help to clear the sodden air- that is the point of these aperiodic reports. You may have heard that I have joined the staff of Syntelligent Analytic Solutions to take over the Intelligence Community Portfolio. I am excited about the challenges […]

Jim Mueller is a peripatetic traveler, NIP Stalwart and regular contributor to the NIP Quarterly. Earlier this month, he visited the Farnborough International Airshow, a week-long event that combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defense global conglomerates. It is modestly known by it’s promoters as THE WORLDS GREATEST AIRSHOW. In the days […]

It has been quite chaotic over the last couple weeks, what with the remarkable and depressing international, national, professional and personal threats to good order and discipline. One of my more mundane challenges has been to port over Microsoft Office Outlook to manage my calendar and incoming messages from a different computer network. I don’t […]

Funerals at Arlington are a strange two-part affair. The first event is the stunner- the one in which you discover that an old pal or professional acquaintance has passed from this world to another. There is a grieving family, a memorial service, and tears. Then the matter is turned over to the Cemetery Administration for […]