CIA

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Brennan: Always Better to Capture, Not Kill, Terrorists

Dianne Feinstein has to clear the room as CIA nominee testifies on drones

(Newser) - John Brennan, President Obama's nominee to run the CIA, went to Capitol Hill today and defended the US drone strategy he helped engineer as Obama's top counterterror adviser. The drone strikes are necessary, he testified, because the US remains "at war" with al-Qaeda and other terrorists bent...

Brennan's CIA Hearing: How Dramatic Will It Get?

Drones, torture hang over proceedings

(Newser) - John Brennan will head to Capitol Hill today for his CIA confirmation hearing, and everyone's wondering the same thing: How dramatic is this going to get? Questions are hanging in the air about the Obama administration's drone strikes, classified information, and torture, but there's a chance lawmakers...

Obama to Give Congress Classified Drone Info

White House to hand over rationale on when it's OK to target Americans

(Newser) - President Obama has directed the Justice Department to give Congress' intelligence committees access to classified legal advice providing the government's rationale for drone strikes against American citizens working with al-Qaeda abroad, a senior administration official said today. A drumbeat of demands to see the document has swelled on Capitol...

54 Countries Aided CIA in Post-9/11 Interrogations

US helpers ranged from UK to Syria: report

(Newser) - The US was far from alone in its controversial counterterror practices after 9/11: More than a quarter of the world's countries helped the agency, a new report says. Some partners hosted secret interrogation prisons; some arrested suspects; others let the CIA refuel its planes at their airports, the New ...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu Leaving, Too

He will leave as soon as his successor gets confirmed

(Newser) - President Obama has another Cabinet post to fill: Energy Secretary Steven Chu is stepping down as soon as a successor is confirmed by the Senate, reports Politico . Chu is a Nobel winner in physics who made green spending a priority, even if it occasionally backfired, as in the Solyndra debacle...

The CIA&#39;s Hypocrisy on Secrets
 The CIA's Hypocrisy on Secrets 
OPINION

The CIA's Hypocrisy on Secrets

Author Ted Gup says the agency's only secretive when it wants to be

(Newser) - On Thursday, ex-CIA deputy director Jose Rodriguez publicly protested that agents had only used water bottles when waterboarding detainees, not the buckets shown in Zero Dark Thirty. Disclosures like that must chafe John Kiriakou , the ex-agent facing 30 months in prison for passing info to a reporter. "The contrast...

Obama Taps Hagel, Brennan for Pentagon, CIA

He praises both men at White House event

(Newser) - President Obama officially announced his nominations of Chuck Hagel as secretary of Defense and John Brennan as CIA director today, praising both men for their records of service at a press event in the East Room of the White House. Hagel, Obama said, "knows that war is not an...

Obama Will Tap John Brennan for CIA Director

Will nominate Brennan, Chuck Hagel today

(Newser) - President Obama will make two potentially controversial nominations this afternoon: Chuck Hagel as defense secretary and John Brennan as CIA director, the AP reports. Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, has a close relationship with the president and was very involved in planning the Osama bin Laden raid. He was...

CIA Chief Pans Zero Dark Thirty

Morell complains about emphasis on interrogation

(Newser) - Add none other than acting CIA chief Michael Morell to the list of critics of Zero Dark Thirty. In a memo to employees, Morell says the movie about the capture of Osama bin Laden gives too much weight to the use of harsh interrogation, reports E! Online . "The film...

CIA Agent Who Tracked Osama a Complicated Heroine

She's described as ambitious but prickly in 'WaPo' profile

(Newser) - It's the stuff of movies—quite literally. The Washington Post today takes a fascinating look at the minefield-filled career of the undercover agent who was key to tracking down Osama bin Laden and at the center of the Kathryn Bigelow film chronicling the manhunt. Described by the Post as...

How CIA's 94 Words on Benghazi Got It So Wrong

'WSJ' looks at how the CIA's consulate-attack talking points came to be

(Newser) - The Wall Street Journal today takes a look at the life and death of 94 little words: the heavily edited and ultimately faulty Benghazi talking points compiled by the CIA in the wake of the consulate attack.
  • Just a day after the attack, the CIA's reports were already referencing
...

Pentagon Spy Agency Sending Out Hundreds of Agents

Details emerge on the Defense Clandestine Service

(Newser) - The Pentagon's new spy agency will send up to 1,600 agents overseas to report on military matters in close cooperation with the CIA—and possibly beyond the reach of Congressional oversight, the Washington Post reports. But the agency's director, Michael Flynn, promises to keep Congress "in...

Family Sues Over Scientist's Cold War LSD Death

Sons claim CIA killed their father in 1950s

(Newser) - The sons of a Cold War scientist who plunged to his death in 1953 several days after unwittingly taking LSD in a CIA mind-control experiment sued the government today. They claim the CIA murdered their father, Frank Olson, by pushing him from a 13th-story window of a hotel and that...

Rice Swings Back at McCain
 Rice Swings Back at McCain 

Rice Swings Back at McCain

She defends initial comments following Benghazi attacks

(Newser) - UN Ambassador Susan Rice has finally taken a stand in the controversy over her Benghazi comments. Speaking to reporters at the UN yesterday, she defended her initial remarks, which called the attacks the result of protests over an anti-Islam video. "I relied solely and squarely on the information provided...

Congress Investigating Altered CIA Talking Points
 Congress Investigating 
 Altered CIA Talking Points 
benghazi attack

Congress Investigating Altered CIA Talking Points

Lawmakers want to get to the bottom of Benghazi attack's wake

(Newser) - Lawmakers have been in a tizzy ever since David Petraeus told Congress that other federal agencies altered CIA talking points on the Benghazi attack, which originally referred to it as a terrorist attack, and now Congress will launch an inquiry into the matter, the AP reports. The White House said...

Petraeus Testimony Doesn't Resolve Questions

He provided fodder for both Republicans and Democrats

(Newser) - David Petraeus finished his testimony on Capitol Hill about what transpired in Benghazi, but don't expect an end to the controversy:
  • "His appearance actually seemed to provide both Democrats and Republicans with additional evidence to bolster their own narratives of the attacks and their aftermath," says the
...

CIA Opens Own Inquiry Into Conduct of Petraeus
CIA Opens
Own Inquiry
Into Conduct
of Petraeus
UPDATED

CIA Opens Own Inquiry Into Conduct of Petraeus

Wants to be sure he didn't misuse assets

(Newser) - The CIA announced yesterday that it is opening its own investigation into the conduct of former chief David Petraeus, and sources tell the New York Times the investigation will center around whether Petraeus misused any CIA assets—from security details to private jets—to carry out his affair with Paula...

Rice Got Flawed Benghazi Intelligence: CIA Deputy

Yesterday's congressional hearings offered little clarity

(Newser) - When Susan Rice gave reporters an inaccurate account of the Benghazi attack five days after it occurred, she was simply repeating the assessment she had been given at the time, according to the CIA's deputy head. The UN ambassador had been briefed on the attack, and the intelligence she...

Petraeus Breaks Silence: I Didn't Pass Classified Info

Meanwhile, report surfaces that Petraeus wanted to go public regarding Benghazi

(Newser) - David Petraeus has finally spoken to the media, telling an HLN reporter that he had not passed any classified info to Paula Broadwell and that his resignation had nothing to do with the Benghazi attack. The interview was off-camera, but reporter Kyra Phillips says that he "told me he...

Petraeus to Testify on Libya Friday

Capitol Hill hearing will be closed to the public

(Newser) - David Petraeus will indeed testify on Capitol Hill about the Benghazi attack, reports AP . The former CIA chief will appear before the House Intelligence committee on Friday, though the hearing will be closed to the public. Petraeus visited Libya secretly last month, and lawmakers are antsy to hear his own...

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