Gina Haspel shows signs of shaping intelligence to avoid offending the President, former officials tell Politico. I’ve long been watching Haspel’s MAGA tendencies: praising Trump as a consumer of intelligence and applauding his attack on sanctuary cities in his State of the Uniion Address. Nine current and former officials said in interviews that CIA Director...
Category: Countries
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SpyTalk Review of Books and Movies
In SpyTalk, veteran intelligence reporter Jeff Stein reviews a diverse slew of recent books in the realm of espionage and national security. Three recommendations A Hollywood feature on The Trial of the Chicago Seven, coming October 16, starring Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen and Frank Langella, among others, as the colorful anti-Vietnam War defendants, their lawyers and...
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Democrats Call for Declassifying ‘Outside Threats’ after Briefing by Trump Officials
The committee was briefed by Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency, and Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security, on the Pentagon’s cybersecurity efforts to secure the Nov. 3 election. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Armed...
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Xinjiang Data Project Documents China’s High Tech Social Controls
Drawing on open source data including satellite imagery, Chinese government documents, official statistics and a range of authoritative reports and academic studies, the Xinjiang Data Project documents the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing program of human rights abuses and tech-enhanced authoritarianism in Xinjiang, and explores its global implications. This is a case study in repressive technology,...
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Why Snowden Agreed to Give Up $1 Million
While this may look like a legal victory for the government, it also formalizes a negotiating process between Snowden and the U.S. government. Snowden has long said that he would come back to face trial on Espionage Act charges, if he could mount a “conscientious objector”-type argument in court. The government has never allowed that...