China waging political warfare against its neighbors

by J Michael Waller, adapted from article in Insight magazine, May 26, 2003 Might the People’s Republic of China (PRC) be waging covert political operations to weaken Asian and Pacific governments’ support for their security relationships with the United States? U.S. intelligence officials tell me they have detected no Soviet-style “active-measures” campaign. However, Chinese tradecraft depends more on … Read more

Undermining the war on terror: Top American Muslim groups courted by the Bush administration have used their political cover to launch influence operations and extend support to terrorists

by J Michael Waller, Insight, March 18, 2003 Terrorists and their supporters are doing their best to weave themselves into the political fabric of American society, say specialists in homeland security. They are operating front groups and charities to finance their operations, and they are running influence operations to weaken federal antiterrorism laws under the guise … Read more

How terrorists use ‘civil liberties’ arguments to undermine war effort

by J. Michael Waller, Insight, March 4, 2003 Terrorists and their supporters are doing their best to weave themselves into the political fabric of American society, say specialists in homeland security. They are operating front groups and charities to finance their operations, and they are running influence operations to weaken federal antiterrorism laws under the guise of … Read more

Economic warfare: An under-used instrument of statecraft

by J Michael Waller, Insight, October 29, 2002. Al-Qaeda recently announced economic warfare against the United States and other Western countries. U.S. intelligence expects years of attacks on the economic infrastructure of the civilized world. For its part, the United States has an arsenal of economic weapons for this war, but critics fear it may have … Read more

Hyde urges Bush to oust Venezuela’s Chavez

by J Michael Waller, Insight magazine, October 29, 2002. Warning of the formation of a potential “Axis of Evil” in the Americas, an influential lawmaker has called on President George W. Bush to support the ouster of left-wing Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. Just days before Brazilians elected radical populist Lula da Silva as their president on Oct. … Read more

Domestic front in the war on terror

by J Michael Waller, Insight, January 7, 2002. [Note: This article identified Abdurahman Alamoudi as a danger to the US while the US leadership was treating him as a VIP and as a chief liaison with the Muslim community. Alamoudi is now serving a lengthy federal prison sentence on terrorism-related crimes.] The brochure warns: “Don’t talk … Read more

Blinded vigilance: How Deutch and Tenet helped weaken CIA prior to 9/11

by J. Michael Waller, Insight magazine, October 15, 2001 While the terrorists and their sponsors were plotting to hijack airliners and crash them into Manhattan skyscrapers and the Pentagon, senior CIA officials were compelling analysts and operations officers to attend sensitivity-training classes and sew diversity quilts. That is a fact. It also is a metaphor for why … Read more

US-out-of-Vieques movement shows Cuban sponsorship

by J. Michael Waller / Insight magazine / July 23, 2001 Cuban leader Fidel Castro may have fainted during a recent tirade in Havana, but his American foot soldiers who once heralded his Marxist revolutionary movement around the world are alive and well. After more than a decade of obscurity, they’re back with a passion not … Read more

China’s PLA revives the art of war

by J. Michael Waller, Insight magazine, 28 February 2000. Should U.S. financiers whose trading adversely affects Chinese “red-chip” companies be assassinated? China’s People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, is discussing the concept. Should Beijing covertly fund political-influence operations in the United States? A new PLA book openly asks the question. Facing a potentially huge nuclear-weapons buildup as well … Read more

China cashes in on US capital markets

J Michael Waller / Insight magazine / January 24, 2000 – Is your individual retirement account bankrolling Communist China’s nuclear-weapons program? Is that promising oil stock in your portfolio financing a war of extermination against Christians halfway around the world? Could your pension fund be weakened because it holds shares in companies about to be … Read more