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Jan 9, 2025 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: During my decades serving in the CIA, I spent countless hours testifying to the House and Senate intelligence committees and briefing top agency and White House officials. If there is one thing I learned, it’s that the most astute recipients of those briefings took the time and effort to ask insightful questions and incorporate the answers they received into clear-sighted deliberations — without rushing to make hasty decisions regarding complicated problems.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: To borrow former CIA Director George Tenet’s phrase describing warnings before the 9/11 attacks, the global threat landscape is “blinking red.” While understandably focused on domestic priorities, the incoming Trump administration will have to deal with increasingly aggressive threats to our national security that have metastasized over the past four years.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: Having long supplied Russia with artillery and ballistic missiles to support the Kremlin’s barbaric war in Ukraine, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly sent 10,000 troops to fight alongside the Russian army in the Kursk region.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: Revolutionary War philosopher and pamphleteer Thomas Paine once wrote that “the right to vote is the right upon which all other rights depend.” Next Tuesday, when we elect the 47th president of the United States, is a celebration of our democratic process, the foundation of what makes our country a “shining city upon a hill.” Over the course of my CIA career, there were seven presidential elections, four of which resulted in a transfer of power from one party to the other.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: Last month, the CIA posted instructions on social media sites in Farsi — as well as Korean and Mandarin — on a secure means of contact via the internet for Iranians interested in sharing sensitive information with the U.S. government. In a public statement, the CIA revealed that “people are trying to reach out to us from around the world, and we are offering them instructions for how to do that safely.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: We have the ancient Roman poet Virgil to thank for the phrase “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” The maxim originated from Greek mythology when Odysseus and his soldiers hid in a wooden horse, which the Trojans rashly hauled into their city as a victory trophy. Under the cover of darkness, the Greeks crept out of the horse and opened the city gates for their army, which conquered the Trojans.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: Earlier this month, the FBI arrested Linda Sun, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from China, who had served for a time as the deputy chief of staff to New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Ms. Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, who owned a seafood company as well as a wine store, was also arrested. Ms. Sun was accused of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated publicly that he believes Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine amounts to a proxy war against NATO. With Russia having suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties since the war began, Mr. Putin could not admit that his armed forces and intelligence services have grossly underperformed or that Ukraine’s courageous and innovative soldiers have so effectively defended their country from an unprovoked invasion.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
washingtontimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: Earlier this month, the U.S. and Russia completed their largest prisoner swap ever involving 24 people. Among the eight who were released back to Russia in return for unlawfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and 15 others, were two deep undercover Russian intelligence officers, who had been posing as an Argentinian family living in Slovenia.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
highergroundtimes.com | Daniel Hoffman
OPINION: A few weeks back, I made a rare visit to the CIA for a friend’s retirement ceremony. I walked into the headquarters in Langley and greeted the security officer while looking up at the stars on the Memorial Wall. When I departed, I repeated the same ritual, just as I had done for decades as a staff officer. The Memorial Wall is a poignant reminder of the courageous CIA officers who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our nation.
