I didn’t know Matthew Aid, a leading scholar of the National Security Agency who passed away this week, but I learned a lot from his book The Secret Sentry. For anyone who wants to know how NSA really works, his book is a good place to start. Easier yet, take a look at this document collection...
Category: <span>United States</span>
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Haspel Memos Illuminate 4 Keys to the Culture of Torture
CIA director Gina Haspel supervised the torture of an alleged terrorist at a CIA black site in November 2002, according to declassified records obtained by the non-profit National Security Archive. Haspel’s supervisory role at the secret prison in Thailand was known before she was confirmed as CIA director in May with virtually no public hearings or declassification...
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What was in John Brennan’s emails?
In 2015, WikiLeaks published a tranche of emails hacked from the account of future CIA Director John Brennan. Among the documents was “The Conundrum of Iran,” a draft paper, on U.S. policy toward Iran that Brennan wrote in July 2007, with recommendations for the next president. When Barack Obama was elected, Brennan became national security adviser,...
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Former CIA Officer Makes the Case for Stripping Former Officials of their Security Clearances
In Consortium News, John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer who went to jail for telling a reporter about the agency’s torture program, argues that security clearances for retired official has “abuse written all over it.” I think Trump is using the clearance issue as a means to get control the intelligence community, but Kiriakou’s questions are...
