Posts in "CIA"

By Cody London at 4:04PM

May 23, 2010

"Wicked Problem"

Dennis Blair

Last semester I took a history course on the CIA in the third world. One of the problems presented by the professor concerning the overall intel apparatus of the United States was that there was not a "grand master" intelligence head. The head of the CIA was originally going to be that spearhead, organizing and collaborating amongst all law enforcement/intel agencies toward the ultimate goal of a "safe(r) society" -- but that hasn't happened. The professor's rationale was that the blunders of the past could have been averted if it weren't for the lack of collaboration and central authority in our intelligence community.

Today apparently the intelligence community is a "wicked problem." Recently Obama ousted Dennis Blair the director of intelligence and now no one is jumping at the opportunity to feel that vacancy -- not surprisingly given the recent mishaps and missteps with regards to the failed attempts from the crotch bomber and the Times Square bomber.

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By Jihan Huq at 7:13AM

May 21, 2010

Gitmo Shutdown = More Drone Attacks

According to this administration's math, shutting down Gitmo will mean more drone attacks.

Get ready for more "Shock and Awe" people! The ever peace-loving White House is planning to force the CIA and Pentagon to increase more drone attacks in Pakistan and around the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.

How realistic is it? Apparently, not so much.

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By Matt Cockerill at 6:38PM

Mar 27, 2010

CIA Sees Obama as a Key Tool in Continuing NATO War

Despite an MSM blackout and dissapointing recent gains for the war's popularity, about half of Americans oppose the "good war" in Afghanistan. Though this certainly isn't negligible opposition, overseas it's a different story.

Most people in most NATO countries were antiwar from the start. Pro-peace sentiment overseas, even in traditional US allies like the UK, continues to grow. As the occupation drags on, and the supposed "risk" of terrorism from withdrawl seems more abstract and less realistic, many people are concluding it's simply not worth it.

Since government everywhere and always depends on the consent of the governed, our charming CIA is trying to figure out ways to "manipulate public opinion in these foreign countries." The full leaked CIA document, reported on by Glenn Greenwald in his Salon column, just gets creepier. Writes Greenwald:

The Report seeks to provide a back-up plan for "counting on apathy," and provides ways that the U.S. Government can manipulate public opinion in these foreign countries.

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By Rachel Kania at 6:59PM

Jan 25, 2010

Ron Paul and Glenn Beck on the CIA and Foreign Policy

People have been making a huge deal of Ron Paul's comments made at the recent C4L regional conference. I'm not sure why this is newsworthy since the congressman was very open about his stance on the CIA throughout his presidential campaign. Indeed, it's refreshing to hear respectful discussion on such an important issue.

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By Matt Cockerill at 6:13PM

Jan 19, 2010

The implications of the warfare state -- should we fail to resist it.

The state's ability to get its "subjects" to go along with the killing operation is perhaps its most remarkable accomplishment. Yes, those in-the-know secular elites realize exactly what they're doing, but it's truly an amazing feat how they get a largely Christian populace to go along with what at best can be described an "ends-justify-the-means" type moral relativism, and at worst, corporatist politicians willing to commit mass murder to benefit the merchants and manufacturers with whom they are in cahoots.

Obviously, nationalism is front and center in this tragic moral defection, with most Americans believing -- explicitly or not -- that the lives of people ruled and looted by the same God-King are somehow more valuable than that of foreigners.

Which makes this 2002 story quite interesting. Six suspected terrorists were slaughtered by one of those evil unmanned aircrafts operated by CIA people playing God on their government joysticks. One of these human beings was an American citizen.

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By Jihan Huq at 9:31PM

Jan 6, 2010

Jordanian "Triple Agent" Responsible For Killing CIA Members In Afghanistan

It is evident that Jordanian Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi was responsible for killing the 7 CIA agents in Afghanistan, along with a Jordanian agent. Al Balawi was also an aspiring doctor who apparently worked at a clinic in a Palestinian refugee camp.

He was also an open Al Qaida sympathizer who started leaning towards radical ideas after the Gaza War. Even though he was a sympathizer, Jordanian Intelligence officials recruited him into the Jordanian's General Intelligence Directorate. Despite his several online postings of pro-militant Islamist sites, he was trusted by the CIA. Supposedly, Al Balawi also provded the Central Intelligence Agency with valuable tips on a top al Qaida leader.

However, what is most disturbing is that he was unchecked at the Nato base, in which he made his way to a secret CIA installation with a suicide vest. It is obvious that this has been a security failure in epic porportions; not only a security failure, it is also an intelligence failure. There was credible evidence that Al Balawi was not a reliable ally, yet little was done to delve into his militant background. I'd say the CIA has failed in on this one, just like Homeland Secuirty and the CIA failed on the Lap Bomber case.

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By Dustin Reid at 6:51PM

Jan 6, 2010

RON PAUL: "CIA helped radicalize [terrorists]"

ED SCHULTZ: What evidence do you have, congressman, and why do you believe that Al-Qaida would be less aggressive to kill Americans if we weren’t doing international intervention and going and fighting them on their soil and going after them?

RON PAUL: Well, they didn’t exist till we got over there. We helped create them. As a matter of fact, our CIA helped radicalize the Madrasah schools because we were allies with them when we were trying to fight the Soviets and put them out of Afghanistan. So yes, we helped initiate that because they understood our argument. “Hey look, these communists are bad people and they’re invading your country, they want to take over.”

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By Shaun Bowen at 6:16PM

Oct 23, 2009

The New Scandal Brewing

When the news of the White House/NSA wiretapping scandal hit the front pages, there was a public backlash. Pundits' heads spun, lawsuits were filed, and congressional hearings were scheduled. When Alberto Gonzalez testified he told us that the programs had ended and gave us his word that no new programs would be authorized without FISA approval, "scouts honor." Now we had Gonzalez "promise" that our telephones would not be unconstitutionally tapped, but to make sure we couldn't do anything about it, Congress passed immunity laws for telecommunication companies who had allowed our private conversations to be monitored.

Many had questions about how the NSA had operated the program. When whitsleblower Mark Klien, a former AT&T employee, revealed schematics he uncovered detailing the system at an AT&T office, we saw just how the system was structured. Klien was just a contract worker for AT&T when he first became suspicious. He noticed a room being built with a large amount of cables leading into it, yet no one in the office knew what is was being used for, nor did they have access to it. It turned out that the NSA had constructed the room to route all traffic into it. The data was then funneled through a data crunching system designed to scan everything coming in and pull data out that was flagged by a set criteria created by the NSA. So to boil it down, all your calls went into an NSA secret room where keyword software would initiate recordings. Now you know why AT&T needed lawsuit protection: otherwise their entire consumer base would have a case against them.

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By Preston Mui at 7:00AM

Jul 9, 2009

House Dems: CIA Withheld Secrets

From the New York Times: Seven House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee wrote that the CIA had misled them over the past 8 years.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Silvestre Reyes, Democrat of Texas, referred to Mr. Panetta’s disclosure in a letter to the committee’s ranking Republican, Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, Congressional Quarterly reported on Wednesday. Mr. Reyes wrote that the committee “has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one occasion) was affirmatively lied to.”

I'll give credit where credit is due; it's a good thing that the House Democrats are voicing opposition to government secrecy. After all, it's better than what Obama is doing:

In a related development, President Obama threatened to veto the pending Intelligence Authorization Bill if it included a provision that would allow information about covert actions to be given to the entire House and Senate Intelligence Committees

Wow. Makes you wonder what happened to all that talk of change, huh?

But if the members of Congress in this article really wanted change, they'd advocate for the transparency of not only the CIA, but the Fed too. None of the three Democrats mentioned in the article, Representatives Holt, Reyes, and Pelosi, are co-sponsors of H.R. 1207, Ron Paul's Federal Reserve Transparency Act.

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