got geoint?

Once again, it is Monday morning. Time to soak up all the actionable news you need to make your week a resounding success. It seems that much of the sticky political action happens over the weekend — must be all the Sunday morning pundit-heavy shows. For example, General Michael Hayden defended the C.I.A. interrogation techniques on Fox News Sunday and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano stirred up some controversy surrounding a report about veterans. Scroll down for more.

Hayden Defends Interrogation
Many of you may have read our post last week about the Obama administration releasing the controversial Department of Justice memo on C.I.A. interrogation techniques. The former C.I.A. Director General Michael Hayden published an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal that denounced the releasing of this information. General Hayden continued his press tour around this topic with an appearance on Fox News Sunday. Read more here.

Napolitano Stirs Up Controversy by Saying Vets Are At Risk of Becoming Right-Wing Extremists
It seems that Janet Napolitano may have slipped on a bar of soap on this one. In case you did not see the initial story, DHS issued a memo saying that veterans are at risk of being recruited into right-wing extremist groups. And, as expected, it stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Click here to read some of the responses from the right.

Obama to Order $100 Million in Budget Cuts
President Obama announced that his administration will come up with $100 million in budget over the next 90 days. While this not a significant cut, according to the Washington Post, the move is intended to signal that the new administration is moving in the right direction when it comes to changing government and keeping spending in check.

C.I.A. Still Short on Bilingual Staff
We were surprised to see that there was a story about the C.I.A. in a major national newspaper and it WAS NOT about the Justice Department memo. Yes, it is true. USA Today ran this story about how despite the aggressive recruitment efforts, the C.I.A. is still short on bilingual staff. It actually has been less than 2 months since they kicked off the campaign. So, we say, give it some time.

NATO Forces Thwart Pirate Attack
According to CNN, NATO forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden foiled a pirate attack on a Norwegian tanker this weekend, a NATO spokesman. I’m sure many of you saw our coverage of the new DARPA-ready laser guided bullets that Navy Seals and others can use to take out pirates (not that they needed it!).

Hope you all have a productive work week!

Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, DHS, General Michael Hayden, GEOINT, geospatial intelligence, Interrogation Techniques, Janet Napolitano, spies