As Jacob Gershman reported in the New York Post in June, Columbia quietly granted Massad tenure earlier this year in a secret procedure that likely was unprecedented in its lack of transparency or justification.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Terror training grounds

There was a secret deciphering office in London, a successor to the Post Office's foreign letter office, and another code-breaking unit in the Admiralty, both of which cracked Napoleon's codes, as did the bureau noir attached to every European government (though the Austrians reckoned their best intelligence came from the emperor's pillow talk).

ECONOMIST: Napoleon and Wellington

Several trends have escalated the risk and prevalence of trade secret theft, and as Mindy Lubber pointed out in a post on Forbes.com last week, modern supply chains create both efficiencies and risks.

FORBES: Trade Secret Theft: Businesses Need To Beware And Prepare

These arguments, briefly summarized, constitute, in my view, an overwhelming case against covert operations since such operations must by definition be carried on in secret and cannot be evaluated even on a post hoc basis.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The Case Against the Halperin Nomination �� First Edition

Next I look to the post-Columbine efforts of the US Department of Education in tandem with the US Secret Service.

FORBES: Searching For Hard Data On Guns And Violence

Also with us, Dana Priest, investigative reporter for The Washington Post -together, authors of the series "Top Secret America" which began today and runs in the paper tomorrow and Wednesday as well.

NPR: Intelligence Failures In 'Top Secret America'

Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan confirmed the existence of the internal report, which was first disclosed in the Washington Post on Monday.

CNN: Secret Service report details 91 breaches