CIA

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Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
OPINION
Apr 17, 2009 7:48 AM CDT

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos

(Newser) - Barack Obama made a dangerous mistake in yesterday releasing Justice Department memos about interrogation techniques from 2005, say former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former CIA Director Michael Hayden. By releasing the details of these methods, Obama is eliminating a crucial intelligence tool—not just for his own administration but...

'Weighty' Torture Memo Decision Took Weeks

President's belief in rule of law won out in choice to release Bush-era memos

(Newser) - President Obama spent weeks thinking "very long and hard" about his "weighty decision" to release memos on harsh CIA interrogation techniques green-lighted by the Bush administration, senior adviser David Axelrod tells Politico. In the end, Axelrod says, the president's belief in transparency and the rule of law won...

We Need a Torture Commission
 We Need a Torture Commission 
opinion
Apr 16, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

We Need a Torture Commission

(Newser) - President Obama appears ready to put the whole issue of CIA torture behind him. He owes it to the nation to do otherwise, writes Mark Benjamin in Salon. In particular, he should appoint a torture commission—a bipartisan group to evaluate what, if anything, the US gained from these interrogation...

Bush Interrogation Memo Approved Use of Insects

(Newser) - Among the weirder revelations emerging from the newly released CIA memos on harsh interrogations: Bush administration lawyers approved the use of insects. Apparently, one detainee in particular had a phobia about them, so interrogators wanted to slip one into his "cramped confinement box," Time reports. The technique never...

CIA Waterboarders Won't Be Prosecuted
 CIA Waterboarders 
 Won't Be Prosecuted 
updated
Apr 16, 2009 1:56 PM CDT

CIA Waterboarders Won't Be Prosecuted

(Newser) - Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said today that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted. Obama officials also released four secret memos detailing tactics against 28...

Obama May Keep CIA Torture Memos Classified

Bush-era docs give OK for waterboarding

(Newser) - The Obama administration faces a tough call on whether to declassify Bush-era Justice Department memos that outline harsh CIA interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, the Wall Street Journal reports. The president is still reviewing internal arguments but is leaning toward keeping the most sensitive documents classified, insiders say.

CIA Unlocks Real 'X-Files'
 CIA Unlocks Real 'X-Files' 
Apr 10, 2009 11:56 AM CDT

CIA Unlocks Real 'X-Files'

Military personnel laugh off UFO rumors

(Newser) - For decades, the government barely acknowledged the existence of Area 51, the mysterious military base in Nevada where it allegedly stores frozen extraterrestrials and alien spacecraft. But now, with the CIA declassifying the site’s top-secret programs, insiders are coming forward to dispel the myths, ABC News reports. If anything,...

Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel
 Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel 
Apr 8, 2009 3:48 PM CDT

Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel

Site enables rapid sharing of information, advocates say

(Newser) - The CIA has grown wise to the power of open-source collaboration, and Intellipedia—a classified version of Wikipedia—is humming with activity 3 years after its debut, Time reports. The site boasts 900,000 pages of content written by 100,000 identified intelligence professionals. Advocates cite the rapid treatment of...

Report Slams Spy Agencies
 Report Slams Spy Agencies 
Apr 2, 2009 5:46 AM CDT

Report Slams Spy Agencies

Internal probe finds intelligence agencies have failed to streamline under DNI

(Newser) - America's 16 spy agencies have failed to stop infighting and fix weaknesses identified after 9/11, according to an internal report released yesterday. The report sharply criticizes the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for failing to streamline intelligence analysis and spur cooperation and information-sharing among agencies, as it was...

Speak Another Language? CIA's Got a Job for You

Agency running ads to recruit minorities, foreign-language speakers

(Newser) - The CIA has no trouble finding recruits. But that doesn’t mean it gets the recruits it wants, so the CIA is running a radio ad campaign targeting potential spooks fluent in a second language, Time reports, and nonwhite. “I’d like to get to a point where every...

Gates: 'Bin Laden Hunt Like Finding Unabomber'

Defense secretary says finding fugitives a lot harder than it looks

(Newser) - Finding the bad guys isn't as easy as it looks in the movies, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday. Gates compared the hunt for Osama bin Laden with federal agents' 17-year search for the Unabomber, and suggested the same time frame may be similar in the quest to locate al-Qaeda...

CIA Tortured Prisoners: Red Cross

2007 report is first to use 'torture' in legal context

(Newser) - The Red Cross concluded in 2007 that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda detainees "constituted torture," the Washington Post reports. Fourteen prisoners transferred from multiple CIA "black site" prisons overseas to Guantanamo all described similar patterns of beatings, sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme heat and cold, and...

Brits Condoned Torture, Aided Extraordinary Renditions: UN

UK a full partner in US terror effort, report says

(Newser) - Binyam Mohamed, a recently released Gitmo detainee, alleges that he was tortured in Morocco while asked questions on behalf of Britian’s MI5. His story so far has amounted to his word against MI5’s, but a new report supports the former detainee’s claim, the Economist reports. A UN...

Pakistan Not Cooperating in Search for Militants: US

Officials worry that terrorists can get too-easy access to US

(Newser) - US intelligence officials are frustrated by what they see as Islamabad’s roadblocks in efforts to investigate terrorist cells with ties to Pakistan, the Los Angeles Times reports. Pakistanis living in European countries, who can enter the US without much scrutiny, remain a worry for the CIA and FBI, whose...

Pakistan Bombings Kill 15
 Pakistan Bombings Kill 15 
Mar 7, 2009 12:24 PM CST

Pakistan Bombings Kill 15

(Newser) - Three separate bombings killed 15 people in northwestern Pakistan today, while authorities investigated reports that a pilotless US drone crashed in the region bordering Afghanistan. The bombings, coming days after gunmen attacked Sri Lanka's visiting cricket team, were a fresh reminder of the militant threat in Pakistan, where Western leaders...

CIA Destroyed More Tapes Than Admitted: Feds

(Newser) - The CIA destroyed 92 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been acknowledged, according to new documents. The revelation came in a letter filed today by government lawyers in New York, where the ACLU has filed a lawsuit seeking more details of terror interrogation programs.

'Death-Squad' Serb Was CIA Spook

Agency submits classified document to international court in Stanisic's defense

(Newser) - A Serbian leader facing trial for organizing "ethic cleansing" death squads was a key CIA aide, reports the Los Angeles Times. Jovica Stanisic, head of intelligence for brutal Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, secretly fed information to CIA agents desperate for dirt on factions in the former Yugoslavia. While Stanisic...

Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA
 Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA 
Feb 27, 2009 4:22 AM CST

Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA

Inquiry to focus on controversial interrogation and detention program

(Newser) - The Senate Intelligence Committee plans a sweeping investigation into the CIA's actions under President Bush, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials say the probe is a fact-finding mission rather than an investigation into whether laws were broken, but the inquiry is certain to put the spotlight back on the agency's...

Ex-CIA Exec Gets 37 Months for Peddling Contracts

(Newser) - A former CIA official who steered contracts toward a friend in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison, the Washington Post reports. Kyle Foggo was, at the time, the CIA’s executive director, the agency’s third-highest position. In exchange for lavish dinners...

US Secretly Training Pakistani Commandos

Forces help troops to fight Taliban, al-Qaeda

(Newser) - Dozens of American military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to train armed forces to battle the Taliban and al-Qaeda, reports the New York Times. The Special Forces soldiers are providing intelligence and advising the Pakistani military on combat tactics, although they are not conducting combat operations....

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