CIA

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CIA Nominee Offered to Quit Over Interrogation Background

Gina Haspel's role in agency's past techniques has sparked controversy

(Newser) - Gina Haspel , President Trump's nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, offered to withdraw her nomination amid concerns that a debate over a harsh interrogation program would tarnish her reputation and that of the CIA. That's according to two senior administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity...

Family of CIA 'Salt Pit' Victim: Where Is His Body?

No one's been told what happened to Gul Rahman's remains after he died in Afghan prison in 2002

(Newser) - He died "starved, sleepless, and freezing" more than 15 years ago in an Afghan prison cell, and now his family wants to know where his body is. In what an ACLU attorney calls a "failure of basic human decency," the CIA is being accused by relatives of...

Report: Trump to Pardon Scooter Libby

Sources say full pardon to Dick Cheney's ex-chief of staff is imminent

(Newser) - President Trump appears about to set a second potentially controversial pardon in motion, sources tell ABC News and the New York Times . Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to ex-VP Dick Cheney, will be the next to see a presidential reprieve, with a pardon greenlit by Trump after he mulled...

Ex-CIA Chief Wonders What Russians Might Have on Trump

John Brennan slams president's 'perplexing submissiveness'

(Newser) - The firing of Andrew McCabe appears to have been the last straw for John Brennan. The normally tight-lipped former CIA director, who slammed President Trump's "political corruption" and "moral turpitude" in a tweet Saturday, suggested Wednesday that the Russians might have compromising information on the president, the...

First Female Nominee to Lead CIA Has Controversial Resume

Gina Haspel has ties to agency's waterboarding program

(Newser) - With his decision to move CIA chief Mike Pompeo into the post of secretary of state, President Trump made a little history. He also nominated Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo, thus setting her up to be the first woman to run the spy agency. The nomination must be confirmed by...

New Claims on DB Cooper: FBI 'Flat-Out Lying' About Him

Investigative team say infamous skyjacker may have been CIA Black Ops operative

(Newser) - Last month, a team led by Tom Colbert claimed a Vietnam vet now in his 70s named Robert Rackstraw was DB Cooper, the bandit who hijacked a plane in the Pacific Northwest in November 1971, then parachuted out over southern Washington state with $200,000 in ransom cash. On Thursday...

Damage Done by Alleged CIA Mole May Be Even Worse

Jerry Chun Shing Lee could be responsible for disappearance of US spies in Russia

(Newser) - The damage reportedly done by an alleged CIA mole could extend beyond China, where at least 20 CIA informants were arrested and executed between 2010 and 2012, current and former officials tell NBC News . China wiped out the CIA's spy network in that country after cracking the covert communications...

FBI Created Fake Job to Get Suspected Mole to US

Jerry Lee was allowed to leave after evidence obtained

(Newser) - Authorities hunting the suspected mole who brought down the CIA's spy network in China lured him back to America by creating a job for the former CIA officer, officials say. Federal officials tell NBC that when Jerry Chun Shing Lee returned to the US from Hong Kong with his...

Suspected Mole Who Brought Down CIA in China Is Arrested

Jerry Chung Shing Lee was arrested on return to US

(Newser) - The man blamed for one of America's worst intelligence breaches in decades is back in the US—and it could be a very long time before he is allowed to leave again. Jerry Chung Shing Lee, a former CIA officer accused of giving China information that led to the...

Putin Thanks Trump for CIA Tip
Putin Thanks Trump
for CIA Tip
Dec 17, 2017 1:35 PM CST

Putin Thanks Trump for CIA Tip

The Kremlin says the information thwarted attempted bombings in St. Petersburg

(Newser) - Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Donald Trump Sunday to thank him for a CIA tip that helped thwart a series of bombings in St. Petersburg, the Kremlin said. During the call, the two leaders' second in three days, Putin expressed gratitude for the CIA information, the AP reports. The Kremlin...

CIA Weighs In After Trump Sides With Putin on Election Meddling

Director Mike Pompeo 'stands by' report of Russian intereference

(Newser) - Despite President Trump calling them "political hacks" on Saturday, CIA director Mike Pompeo "stands by" a report issued by the intelligence community that found Russia tried to influence the 2016 election with the aim of getting Trump elected, the Hill reports. "The intelligence assessment with regard to...

'Intensified' Pressure on Trump to Withhold Some JFK Files

Thursday is the day set in law 25 years ago for the disclosure of remaining hidden documents

(Newser) - President Trump is playing it coy on what people will see from long-secret JFK assassination-era files and didn't tip his hand on the eve of the release. "The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow," was all he said in a tweet . "So...

In a Shift, CIA Units Now Going After Taliban

Agency takes more aggressive approach in Afghanistan under Pompeo, Trump

(Newser) - CIA director Mike Pompeo has talked about the need to be more "aggressive" against militants, and the New York Times reports that his words are turning into reality in Afghanistan. The agency is ramping up its mission against the Taliban in the country, sending out small paramilitary units with...

Bomb-Sniffing Dog Hates CIA Job, Opts for Early Retirement

Things are looking up for Lulu now that she's not punching a clock anymore in training program

(Newser) - Government agencies routinely make hiring and firing announcements, but a recent one from the CIA caught Gizmodo's eye. A Twitter thread revealed the agency has laid off Lulu, a recruit in its K9 training program tasked with detecting explosives. Lulu, described in her CIA profile as being a "...

18 CIA Operatives Have Died in Afghanistan: Report

That's a death toll on par with Laos and Vietnam decades ago

(Newser) - Eighteen. It's a number the New York Times says hasn't been reported until now, and the number you'd arrive at by counting select chiseled stars in a wall at the CIA HQ in Langley, Va. It represents the number of CIA operatives killed in Afghanistan since 9/11,...

Settlement Reached in Landmark Torture Lawsuit

ACLU sued 2 psychologists who designed the harsh CIA interrogation program

(Newser) - A settlement was announced Thursday in a landmark lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against two psychologists involved in designing the CIA's harsh interrogation program used in the war on terror, the AP reports. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Trial had been scheduled for Sept....

CIA Files on JFK Assassination Call Out Mexican Woman

Politico takes a look at what's been newly released so far

(Newser) - Late last month, the National Archives began to release thousands of documents related to John F. Kennedy's assassination that had been kept secret for decades. The JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 mandated the files be released 25 years later (though there's one loophole ), and as...

Trump Ending CIA Program in Syria Opposed by Putin

The CIA will stop arming opponents of Assad

(Newser) - President Trump has decided to halt the CIA's years-long covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Russia had long pushed the United States to end the program, per the AP . The phasing out of the secret program was reported by the...

This Might Be the Weirdest CIA Misdeed Ever

Contractors fired after hacking vending machine to steal snacks

(Newser) - The CIA may be famous for daring acts of espionage, but in 2013 several agency contractors learned the hard way not to use their shadowy skills to steal from vending machines. A declassified report from the Office of Inspector General says several agency contractors conspired to steal more than $3,...

CIA Told Psychologists They'd Be to Blame for Terrorist Nuke

It was part of pressure on them to continue harsh interrogation techniques

(Newser) - The two psychologists who were handsomely paid by the CIA to devise harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding say they had reservations about using them but were pressured by US security officials to keep going. "They kept telling me every day a nuclear bomb was going to be exploded...

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