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The scaling back of the US military mission in Iraq means Washington’s spies will have fewer “eyes and ears on the ground” in the country, a senior intelligence official said Tuesday. US military units operate with their own intelligence resources, including translators and officers assigned from spy agencies such as the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. But the drawdown of US forces to less than 50,000 troops will curtail the reach of US intelligence services, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. Read the full AFP story here.

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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? You all may have seen the AP story that came out today about a former senior executive at the National Security Agency being charged with lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper. This story made us think about human nature and the ability to keep secrets. We all know that the foundation of the Intelligence Community is based on keeping information classified and only sharing it with the right people. Information is power. But can humans actually keep secrets to themselves? Do we have this often-hard-to-control urge to share information when we shouldn’t? Well, we try our best to tackle this concept in this week’s FFT post. We hope you enjoy.

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Welcome once again to the Wednesday GEOINT 2008 video post. First, we have to ask…is everyone getting excited for GEOINT 2009? 102 days to go and we are counting down every day. Literally, USGIF is counting down the days with the GEOINT 2009 count down clock on the new symposium site. Once again, let’s look back at GEOINT 2008 with another dynamic presentation from the intelligence community leader. Today’s keynote address is from Maj. Gen. John DeFreitas, Director of the National Security Agency’s Signals Intelligence Directorate.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post. Yes, it is still raining and it seems like it will continue for a while now. So, what better way to get our minds of the weather than to focus on the breaking news stories that impact what we do? For today’s post, we cover a number of different items that will surely motivate and enlighten. From Obama urging for international support of protests in Iran to a Justice Department attorney using The Daily Show as an example for not being transparent, we got it all. Grab that extra cup of coffee. Scroll down and be prepared for a productive and prosperous work week.

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Yesterday, the NY Times broke a story about how the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months — on a scale that went beyond legal limits set by Congress. Several intelligence officials and lawyers briefed on the matter said that the NSA had been engaging in “overcollection.” Within a matter of hours after this story broke, the Justice Department issued a statement saying that it has basically taken care of the problem.

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We never fall short of coming across news regarding the intelligence community that is relevant to our readers. As such, we wanted to provide the following primer on recent important news. From contradictions on progress on the information sharing front to negative commentary on NSA taking over the cyberwarfare front, we have have it all here for you. As always, please share with us your thoughts and comments.

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