" Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day. ... The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.
- Seneca

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." 
- George Orwell

"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future." 
-  John F. Kennedy 




It is with great sadness that I pass on the news that John McCreary has passed. As we all know John's NightWatch analysis has been a one of a kind source for information on threats around the world but particularly on the Korean peninsula.  He will be very much missed.
NightWatch
For the Night of 18 August 2019
 
Dear NightWatch Reader,

I would like to offer my condolences to the NightWatch community.  Mr. John McCreary, NightWatch's author, passed away last week.
I have included Mr. McCreary's biography below.  More than two lifetimes of accomplishments for most of us.

Thank you for your loyal readership,

Mike Wattley

IT Director
Fulco Inc.
 

John F. McCreary

NightWatch, LLC

John McCreary is the Owner and chief editor of NightWatch, LLC.  Mr. McCreary has over 50 years of experience as a professional analyst and is a distinguished and decorated 40-year veteran of defense and air force intelligence. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed threat newsletter NightWatch.
Prior to forming NightWatch, LLC, he served for nine years as the Chief Analysis Officer of Kforce Government Solutions (KGS.)  Prior to that he was the Highly Qualified Expert (HQE) for analysis transformation with the United States Air Force where he taught and mentored the analysts of the Air Force Intelligence Analysis Agency, wrote and taught the first course in advanced intelligence analysis for the Air Force and installed an end-to-end, systematic analysis evaluation and feedback program for the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
Mr. McCreary joined the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1968 as an intelligence research specialist, specializing in Chinese language and studies. Between 1980 and 1992 he was the senior analyst and Director, National Warning Staff, Office of the Director of Central Intelligence. In 1992 he served as the lead attorney-investigator for the Senate Select Committee for POW/MIA affairs.
From 1993 until his retirement from DIA in 2006, he was the senior analyst in the Directorate of Intelligence, J2, Joint Staff in the Pentagon. He was promoted to senior rank in the first class of Defense Intelligence Senior Level Experts in DIA. At the time of his departure from DIA in 2006, he was the senior ranking Defense Intelligence Senior Level Expert in the agency and in the Joint Staff in the Pentagon.
He has received dozens of commendations, citations, medals and awards from the Intelligence Community, the CIA and the DIA.  In 2004 he received a Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service; the only DIA analyst to have received this award.
Mr. McCreary is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois, class of 1968, and a graduate of Georgetown Law Center. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and the Virginia State Bar.
He has been the principal author of  NightWatch since its inception in 1993, first as a highly classified daily threat summary for senior executives in the Department of Defense. In retirement after 2006, at the request of flag rank officers in the Defense Department, he converted  NightWatch to an exclusively open source threat document, which it remains through this date.
In addition to  NightWatch , his other publications include, The Latest Intelligence Crisis, with US Circuit Court Judge Richard A. Posner, in  Intelligence and National Security, Volume 23, Issue 3, 2008 ; Intelligence as Evidence, J2 monograph,1996;  Analysis of Political Instability, J2 monograph, 1995;  Warning Cycles, Studies in Intelligence, 1983.
End of Night Watch  for 18 August.


Night Watch
 

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Personal Email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
Phone: 202-573-8647
Web Site:  www.fdd.org
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
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FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.


If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."