Genealogy Research Resources

The Under Secretary's rebuttal of the IG's report is withering. It takes the IG's report apart, brick by brick, and shows it to be false in every material respect. Much of the Under Secretary's response is devoted to bureaucratic matters; e.g., the Inspector General was simply wrong in asserting that the work in question was carried out by the Under Secretary for Policy's office. On the merits, the Under Secretary points out that the IG has no expertise to determine that the effort to re-evaluate the intelligence gathered by the CIA and other agencies was "improper," even though it was both legal and directed by the Secretary of Defense: The work found "inappropriate" was an exercise in alternative thinking that the second most senior civilian in this Department directed his subordinates to prepare and brief to the most senior official of this Department. The latter, after receiving the draft briefing, directed that it be shared with the [Director of Central Intelligence]. When the Deputy National Security Advisor requested the briefing, the Deputy Secretary's office directed that it be given to him. These are the activities that the Draft Report characterizes as "inappropriate," because it considers them to be "production" and "dissemination" of an "alternative intelligence assessment" contradicting assessments of the "chartered-intelligence community." If the OIG actually believes that it was inappropriate for the Deputy Secretary of Defense to have some non-[intelligence community] staff members do a critical assessment of some [intelligence community] work on a subject of major significance for national security, inappropriate for the Secretary of Defense to share the OSD work with the [Director of Central Intelligence], and inappropriate for the Deputy Secretary to share the work with the Deputy National Security Advisor when requested by the latter, the OIG should say so directly instead of finding fault with subordinate OSD offices and staff members who did as they were instructed to do.

For some time, there have been claims of Iran's direct involvement in attacks against Iraqi and U.S. troops, but without the presentation of sufficient actual evidence to persuade Congress or the American public at large. Congress - Members of both parties and key staff - have been very reluctant to trust any such claims ever since the Iraqi WMD intelligence debacle. That might change after today, when U.S. officials on the ground in Iraq - not just at the CIA or the Pentagon in Washington - revealed reliable evidence of Iran's direct involvement, from the highest levels in the government, in the attacks.

Although the current search is simple, it does have some advanced options that we thought you might like to know about. We’ll be creating some search helps, but for our blog readers, here’s a sneak peek at some of the things you can do. Basic Search The basic search on Footnote looks for records that include all the terms you put in the search box, but it doesn’t find any records with all your terms it will look for records that include some of the terms you included. Advanced Search Options For those of you who like a little more control over your search, you can use some simple commands to create a more sophisticated query.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Jamestown: The First Colony. Way back in 1907, when the folks in Virginia celebrated the 300th anniversary, official souvenir postcards, like the one shown here, were sold to the tourists who flocked to the Virginia Coast to be part of the festivities. 

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Jamestown: The First Colony. Way back in 1907, when the folks in Virginia celebrated the 300th anniversary, official souvenir postcards, like the one shown here, were sold to the tourists who flocked to the Virginia Coast to be part of the festivities.