Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

CIA Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on June 24, 2017 14 Comments
For the debut of his MSNBC show this morning, Hugh Hewitt scored the first news network interview with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Debunking an assertion made by some, Pompeo said he couldn't "imagine a statement that is anymore false" than the notion that Trump isn't interested in intel. Pompeo stated that he personally meets with Trump for 35-40 minutes virtually every day, that Trump is an "avid consumer" of intel, and asks great questions.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 22, 2017 23 Comments
Between 2010-2012, the Chinese government murdered or imprisoned 18 to 20 CIA agents after it demolished America's spying operations within the country. The CIA has been investigating how this happened, whether a mole leaked information to Beijing or the Chinese managed to break our codes. The New York Times reported:
Assessing the fallout from an exposed spy operation can be difficult, but the episode was considered particularly damaging. The number of American assets lost in China, officials said, rivaled those lost in the Soviet Union and Russia during the betrayals of both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, formerly of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., who divulged intelligence operations to Moscow for years.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 04, 2017 17 Comments
Unless there are more facts that come out, the charges that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians during the campaign should go down as one of the most preposterous and dangerous conspiracy theories in recent political history. It is a theory pushed relentlessly in the media and by Democrats to try to undermine our political institutions, including the Electoral College. It is the foam coming out of the mouths of Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans. It is spread with reckless abandon by Twitter and social media personalities you never heard of until they started shouting that Trump and his cohorts had committed treason; now they have hundreds of thousands of followers who retweet by the thousands every innuendo. I wrote about this back in February, The fact-free Intelligence Community-Media trial of Trump by innuendo. Yet what evidence is there even now to support the conspiracy theory? As of this moment, apparently none.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 21, 2017 14 Comments
Sources have disclosed to the media that federal prosecutors have started to consider pressing changes against Julian Assange and other members of WikiLeaks. The case against the whistleblowing organization spans all the way back to 2010 when it published "diplomatic cables and military documents" to present day when it published the CIA's hacking operations in March. The other day, officials told CBS News that the FBI and CIA have started an investigation into those leaks in March.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 20, 2017 13 Comments
CBS News has reported that the FBI and CIA have started an investigation to find the person who provided WikiLeaks with secret documents. The investigation is linked to the WikiLeaks publication of almost 9,000 pages that detailed the CIA'S hacking operations. According to the documents, the CIA uses its own malware to hack into anyone's electronics and spy on them. The agency even has malware from Russia, and other countries, which means agents can make an attack look like it came from that country.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 13, 2017 25 Comments
During a forum Thursday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo debunked a prevalent myth about Trump's engagement with intelligence briefings. "How do you describe where the relationship is between the White House and the Intelligence Community?" Pompeo was asked. "It's fantastic," he replied to a room full of chuckles. "No, don't laugh, I mean that."

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 25, 2017 12 Comments
If you're an Apple snob like me, I'm pretty sure you became concerned when Wikileaks published documents about the hacking tools the CIA used to sneak into Apple products. A person could not disable the tools even by resetting their phone. But Apple has come out to assure customers that the company has fixed the vulnerabilities in its newer products.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 08, 2017 10 Comments
Officials within the CIA and FBI will open an investigation to find out how Wikileaks almost 9,000 pages that details the CIA's hacking operations:
The investigation is looking into how the documents came into WikiLeaks' possession and whether they might have been leaked by an employee or contractor. The CIA is also trying to determine if there are other unpublished documents WikiLeaks may have.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 07, 2017 15 Comments
Wikileaks has published almost 9,000 documents from the CIA about the agency's own malware used to hack into anyone's electronics and spy on them. Most concerning? The CIA has malware from Russia, and other countries, so it looks like an attack came from that country:
The CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group collects and maintains a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 15, 2017 53 Comments
When it comes to experience in evaluating the quality of leaked allegations, it's hard to beat Bob Woodward of Watergate/Deep Throat fame. So attention must be paid to what Woodward said on today's Fox News Sunday about the so-called Russia dossier on Donald Trump. Woodward called it a "garbage document." For good measure, Woodward said the intelligence chiefs made a "mistake" in briefing on the basis of the dossier, and should "apologize."

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 17, 2016 17 Comments
The House and Senate have become agitated with the CIA as the agency has continued to deny both sectors with briefings or information on claims that Russia hacked into America's election, but passed information to the mainstream media. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) told a radio station in his home state that the CIA just denied his request for a briefing:
“I’m not happy they denied a briefing to me,” the Wisconsin Republican told a public radio interviewer in his home state on Friday morning. “I need information from the administration, and right now they're withholding it.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 11, 2016 33 Comments
Since the night of the election, when media coverage of election night went from joyous to stunned to near-weepy, the progressive left has been in a self-righteous lather about President-elect Trump's victory.  They are pulling out all stops in an effort to undermine President-elect Trump and his presidency.  Indeed, they seem intent on seeing that he not take office at all. Blaming everything and everyone but themselves and their candidate (with a few notable exceptions), the left took to the streets to riot, they took up their pens to advocate the end of the Electoral College, they bully and harass electors attempting to sway their votes, and they've recently landed on Russian involvement in the elections.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 25, 2015 2 Comments
The first time we wrote about Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann was in early May 2011, in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden:
Hearing the news of Osama bin Laden’s death brought forward many emotions and memories. One of those memories for me was the story of Johnny “Mike” Spann, from Winfield, Alabama, the first American killed in the Afghanistan war, on November 25, 2001.[*] Spann was a CIA operative, one of a small number of Americans who landed in Afghanistan, helped coordinate local forces hostile to the Taliban, and directed bombing and other military action. The story of this small band of men has been told, but not told enough. Spann was killed during the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi when Taliban prisoners gained access to weapons and attacked. Spann was killed during that uprising (see video).  One of the prisoners was the so-called American Taliban, John Walker Lyndh, who Spann interrogated shortly before Spann’s death.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2015 17 Comments
Leaks of classified and politically-charged intelligence information often are purposeful. So what to make of simultaneous leaks to The Washington Post and Newsweek Magazine that the CIA helped Israel assassinate Hezbollah master terrorist Imad Mughniyah, responsible for killing more Americans in terror attacks than anyone else prior to 9/11, and continued to work to kill Americans in Iraq and elsewhere. He also was involved in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of CIA Beirut station chief William F. Buckley (not the author), and reportedly sent video of the torture to CIA headquarters. Washington Post graphic Imad Mighniyah This was thought to be a purely Israeli operation. Some of the details leaked also contradict prior claims as to how the assassination was carried out -- instead of a bomb planted in a headrest, it was planted in the spare tire in the vehicle. The Washington Post reports, CIA and Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure in car bombing:
On Feb. 12, 2008, Imad Mughniyah, Hezbollah’s international operations chief, walked on a quiet nighttime street in Damascus after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Not far away, a team of CIA spotters in the Syrian capital was tracking his movements. As Mughniyah approached a parked SUV, a bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of the vehicle exploded, sending a burst of shrapnel across a tight radius. He was killed instantly.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 14, 2014 10 Comments
Democrats are trying to make political hay out of the recently released and highly partisan "torture report" even though they were briefed on enhanced interrogation techniques as far back as 2002. Former CIA official Jose Rodriguez, who oversaw counterterrorism from 2002 to 2004, appeared on Fox News Sunday today. When asked directly by host Chris Wallace who knew what and when, Rodriguez was explicit: Brendan Bordelon of National Review:
Former CIA Torture Head: Nancy Pelosi, Top Dems ‘Knew Exactly What We Were Doing’ “These people were fully aware of all of the techniques that were given to us and approved by the Office of Legal Counsel at Justice,” Rodriguez continued, saying that neither Nancy Pelosi nor other Democrats — with the exception of then–California congresswoman Jane Harman — “ever objected to the techniques at all.” Rodriguez alleged that some lawmakers, such as Democratic West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller, actually pushed the CIA to be even harsher. “All of these people knew exactly what we were doing,” he said.
Watch the exchange here: Democrats are acting like this is all news to them.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 11, 2014 14 Comments
Senator Mitch McConnell has characterized the new CIA report on "torture" as a last ditch effort by outgoing Democrats to stick their thumb in the eye of the George W. Bush administration and of course, he's right. Where were all these Democrats when Obama was pulverizing suspected terrorists into dust with drones if they happened to be on his personal kill list? It's convenient for Obama to kill terrorists with drones because they're enemy combatants he'll never have to place in Gitmo. Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed by Bret Baier on FOX News Wednesday night and was asked about the highly partisan CIA "torture" report. He didn't hold back: Dick Cheney understands something Obama will never get. People want to know the truth, no matter how ugly it is.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 10, 2014 10 Comments
Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) may have lost his Senate seat to underdog candidate Cory Gardner in this November's elections, but he hasn't let that stop him from making some explosive statements on the Senate floor about the recently-released "torture report" detailing interrogation techniques used during the George W. Bush Administration. Today, Udall called for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, and lambasted the Administration for the apparent lack of accountability on the part of the CIA and other intelligence agencies who used the enhanced techniques the early Obama Administration promised to discontinue and investigate. From The Hill:
“It’s bad enough to not prosecute these officials but to reward and promote them is incomprehensible,” Udall said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The president needs to purge his administration.” Udall reiterated his call for the resignation of CIA director John Brennan, saying he should no longer lead the agency because officials hacked into the Intelligence Committee’s computers during their investigation and deleted a file. He also spilled some findings from the so-called Panetta review, which was not included in the Senate panel’s report but is expected to paint a damning picture of the CIA’s public statements about the interrogation program. “Director Brennan and the CIA today are continuing to willfully provide inaccurate information and misrepresent the efficacy of torture,” Udall said. “The CIA is lying. This is not an issue of the past, this is going on today.” “To date there has been no accountability for the CIA’s actions or the actions of Director Brennan.” Udall criticized Obama, saying he has failed to live up to his campaign promises about transparency and accountability for the CIA’s techniques. “The White House has not led on transparency, as then-Sen. Obama promised in 2007,” he alleged.

Posted by Bruce Carroll on July 31, 2014 18 Comments
In extraordinary backtracking today, Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan apologized to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) because some CIA officers improperly accessed computers used by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. A declassified CIA inspector general's report released to the Senators on Thursday revealed that agency officers improperly accessed Senate computers, read emails of Senate committee staff, and tried to hide their actions from agency investigators. From the Los Angeles Times:
In a statement issued by the agency, a CIA spokesman said Director John Brennan had apologized to Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other committee leaders for the computer search. The spokesman said the agency’s inspector general had found evidence that CIA officers’ actions were “inconsistent with the common understanding” between the agency and committee. “The director is committed to correcting any shortcomings related to this matter,” CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said Thursday. The CIA has set up an accountability board, led by former Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, to review the inspector general’s findings and recommend disciplinary actions, if necessary, Boyd said.
Feinstein raised eyebrows in March when she made the original snooping allegations against the CIA during a speech on the Senate floor. It turns out she was right and Brennan had to eat crow today. The big question now is will Brennan remain as the head of the CIA. He has always been a controversial player in Washington, DC, and today's revelations may be the beginning of his end.
Accessibility by WAH