Tag Archives: CIA

The Washington Post reports: Gina Haspel is expected to tell the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that she “will not restart” the CIA’s brutal interrogation program if confirmed to lead the agency, according to excerpts of her remarks released by the agency in advance of what is expected to be a contentious confirmation hearing. Haspel’s hearing comes just days after …

“I believe she should double down and say, ‘I’m proud of what I accomplished, whether it was black sites, enhanced interrogation, and I dare anyone to sit in my shoes and accomplish as much as I’ve done.’ And she could even, if she wanted to, if they could un-classify everything, tell us everything that you were able to pick up, …

The Washington Post reports: Gina Haspel, President Trump’s nominee to become the next CIA director, sought to withdraw her nomination Friday after some White House officials worried that her role in the interrogation of terrorist suspects could prevent her confirmation by the Senate, according to four senior U.S. officials. Haspel told the White House she was interested in stepping aside …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump plans to pardon I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a person familiar with the president’s decision. The person said the announcement could come as early as Friday. The person, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the decision ahead of its public announcement and demanded anonymity, …

CNN reports: Mike Pompeo, President Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, will face an uphill climb to win Senate confirmation. He will testify today during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Trump selected the former CIA director to run the State Department after he fired former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The announcement to replace the top …

GOP Sen. Rand Paul today published a blistering op-ed attacking Trump’s pick to head the CIA. An excerpt: Over the past several days, there has been an increasingly granular debate about the degree of Gina Haspel’s participation in the torturing of detainees at the CIA’s Thailand “black site,” with neocons going out of their way to try to defend the …

Already underway. The Washington Post reports: FBI Director Christopher A. Wray is appearing Tuesday morning before a Senate panel, where he is expected to field questions on security clearances for White House personnel and whether he remains confident in the independence of his agents. Wray is one of six top intelligence agency heads testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee for …

USA Today reports: President Trump said Saturday that he will allow more than 3,000 classified files on the JFK assassination to be released next week by the National Archives as ordered by Congress. The classified files were scheduled to be made public by Oct. 26, barring intervention by the president, under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act …

CNN reports: Former CIA director John Brennan slammed President Donald Trump’s “dangerous” and “ugly” comments on the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — writing a personal letter to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer after “The Situation Room” anchor spoke publicly about the fact that he lost all four grandparents to the evils of Nazism. “Wolf: Just watched …

From an op-ed Julian Assange has written for the Washington Post: When the director of the CIA, an unelected public servant, publicly demonizes a publisher such as WikiLeaks as a “fraud,” “coward” and “enemy,” it puts all journalists on notice, or should. Pompeo’s next talking point, unsupported by fact, that WikiLeaks is a “non-state hostile intelligence service,” is a dagger …

Newsweek reports: The CIA allegedly developed tools to infect Apple Macs and iPhones in order to spy on them, according to documents released by WikiLeaks on Thursday. The Dark Matter leaks are the second tranche of the whistleblowing organization’s Vault 7 cache of classified documents, which WikiLeaks claims to have obtained from a former CIA contract worker. Projects undertaken by …

The New York Times reports: WikiLeaks on Tuesday released thousands of documents that it said described sophisticated software tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions. If the documents are authentic, as appeared likely at first review, the release would be the latest coup for the anti-secrecy organization and a serious blow …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s decision to reorganize the National Security Council in a way that removes the director of intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from always attending the principals’ committee is “stone cold crazy,” former National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday. Rice retweeted another Twitter user, P.E. Juan, who said: “Trump loves and …

The New York Times reports: American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said. The continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will …

Gosh, hearing about this when it started totally could have affected the election. McClatchy reports: The FBI and five other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have collaborated for months in an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the November election, including whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided President-elect Donald Trump, two people familiar with the matter said. The agencies …

Politico reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s online remark comparing the intelligence community to Nazi Germany was “repugnant,” outgoing CIA Director John Brennan told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “Tell the families of those 117 CIA officers who are forever memorialized on our wall of honor that their loved ones who gave their lives were akin to Nazis,” he continued. “Tell …

Reuters explains what spawned Hair Furor’s latest tantrum: CIA Director John Brennan on Sunday offered a stern parting message for Donald Trump days before the Republican U.S. president-elect takes office, cautioning him against loosening sanctions on Russia and warning him to watch what he says. Brennan rebuked Trump for comparing U.S. intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany in comments by the …

Politico reports: President-elect Donald Trump renewed his criticism of the intelligence community Friday morning, blaming it once again for leaking an unverified report containing compromising and salacious allegations about him to the media and citing the Russian government as proof that the dossier’s allegations are false. That report, which had circulated for months among government officials and media institutions, was …

NOW he’s against leaks. The New York Times reports: Russia has denied having any compromising material on President-elect Donald J. Trump, saying on Wednesday that an uncorroborated report containing salacious allegations about him was “pulp fiction” intended to hurt Russian-American relations. “The Kremlin has no compromising dossier on Mr. Trump, such information is not consistent with reality and is nothing …

And we can bet that Trump knows what they know. Hence, the Putin love affair. CNN reports: Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. The allegations were presented in …