CIA

Redactions May Make Torture Report Hard To Read

August 6, 2014 Jonathan S. Landay and Michael Doyle, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Torture, White House

The Obama administration and the Senate Intelligence Committee are sparring over the administration’s deletions of fake names from the public version of a long-awaited report on the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation methods on suspected terrorists, McClatchy has learned. The outcome of the debate could impact the clarity and narrative flow of the report, the product of the most intensive congressional investigation of CIA operations since lawmakers examined the agency’s role in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal of the Reagan presidency. “Redactions are supposed to remove names or anything that could compromise sources and methods, not to undermine the source material so that it is impossible to understand,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., a member of the committee, said Sunday in a statement. “Try reading a novel with 15 percent of the words blacked out. It can’t be done properly.” The blackouts have added fuel to what already were serious tensions between the CIA and its congressional overseers over the report and the agency’s admission last week that its personnel had broken into a computer database that by agreement was for the exclusive use of committee staffers. In his statement, Heinrich didn’t identify the nature of the deletions made in a months-long declassification process in which the CIA and then the White House blacked out from the executive summary what they deemed to be sensitive national security information. The 480-page executive summary, findings and conclusions are the only part of the full 6,600-page top-secret report that are to be made public

UK Attempting To ‘Censor’ Senate Torture Report

August 5, 2014 Reprieve, www.reprieve.org.uk Educate! Censorship, CIA, Torture, United Kingdom (UK)

The British Government has admitted that it has “made representations” to the US concerning the release of material in a major forthcoming Senate report concerning the CIA’s torture and rendition programme. The admission, contained in a letter from former Foreign Secretary William Hague to legal charity Reprieve, has led to accusations that the UK is seeking to “censor” the contents of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report, which is currently undergoing a lengthy declassification process before its expected publication in the coming days. In the letter, received by Reprieve in July, Mr Hague states that “We have made representations to seek assurance that ordinary procedures for clearance of UK material will be followed in the event that UK material provide [sic] to the Senate Committee were to be disclosed.” The admission marks a change of tack from the Government: ministers had previously told Parliament when questioned about their role in the declassification process that “The release of the Committee’s report is a matter for the United States.” The admission has led to concerns being raised by Reprieve that the UK Government is attempting to “censor” the report in order to cover up embarrassing details. The concerns have been given weight by a series of recent leaks concerning the contents of the report, which allege that it contains information regarding the use by the CIA of the British territory of Diego Garcia to secretly detain prisoners.

Obama Admits He Banned Only “Some” Torture Techniques

August 4, 2014 Jeff Jaye, www.dissenter.firedoglake.com Educate! Barack Obama, CIA, Torture

Forgive the tongue-in-cheek, but it is almost as if the only person who reads and responds to my work on torture is President Obama. There was a cascade of coverage of the President’s August 1 remarks concerning John Brennan and his defense of his embattled CIA chief, as Obama was also widely derided for his seeming defense of those who tortured “some folks” after 9/11. (Obama did not mention that the order to torture came from the Oval Office.) “Well, at least he called the crimes out as ‘torture,” some observers noted. Others, including some in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), called for John Brennan’s resignation as CIA director after he admitted the CIA had spied on Congressional investigators who were writing a thousands-of-pages-long report on the CIA Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation program. An Executive Summary of that report, in a censored version produced by the CIA itself, is now back in the hands of the SSCI, who may or may not release it soon. The Committee has already decided the full 6000 or so page report itself will not be released for years (if ever), a cover-up of immense proportions. Jason Leopold, who has been covering the story for Al Jazeera America and VICE, noted astutely in a tweet the other day, that Obama’s comments at his August 1 press conference included a reference to his only banning “some” of the CIA’s torture techniques. Leopold believed Obama previously had always been more absolute in his prohibition of torture.

John Brennan: It’s About The Lying

August 2, 2014 Dan Froomkin, www.firstlook.org Educate! Barack Obama, CIA, Congress, Lying, Surveillance

I don’t want to understate how seriously wrong it is that the CIA searched Senate computers. Our constitutional order is seriously out of whack when the executive branch acts with that kind of impunity — to its overseers, no less. But given everything else that’s been going on lately, the single biggest — and arguably most constructive — thing to focus on is how outrageously CIA Director John Brennan lied to everyone about it. “As far as the allegations of the CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth,” Brennan told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell in March. “We wouldn’t do that. I mean, that’s just beyond the, you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we do.” Earlier, he had castigated “some members of the Senate” for making “spurious allegations about CIA actions that are wholly unsupported by the facts.” He called for an end to “outbursts that do a disservice to the important relationship that needs to be maintained between intelligence officials and Congressional overseers.” And what compelled Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein to make a dramatic floor speech in the first place, bringing everything out in the open, was that Brennan had responded to her initial concerns not by acknowledging the CIA’s misconduct — but by firing back with an allegation of criminal activity by her own staff.

CIA Director John Brennan Lied. Fire Him

August 2, 2014 Trevor Timm, www.theguardian.com Organize! CIA, Congress, Surveillance

As reports emerged Thursday that an internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector general found that the CIA “improperly” spied on US Senate staffers when researching the CIA’s dark history of torture, it was hard to conclude anything but the obvious: John Brennan blatantly lied to the American public. Again. “The facts will come out,” Brennan told NBC News in March after Senator Dianne Feinstein issued a blistering condemnation of the CIA on the Senate floor, accusing his agency of hacking into the computers used by her intelligence committee’s staffers. “Let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate,” he said. After the CIA inspector general’s report completely contradicted Brennan’s statements, it now appears Brennan was forced to privately apologize to intelligence committee chairs in a “tense” meeting earlier this week. Other Senators on Thursday pushed for Brennan to publicly apologize and called for an independent investigation. Sen. Ron Wyden said it well: .@CIA broke into Senate computer files. Then tried to have Senate staff prosecuted. Absolutely unacceptable in a democracy. — Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) July 31, 2014 But the director of the CIA – and the architect of America’s drone program, who will be all but defending torture for the next several weeks – should do more than that. Apologies aren’t enough: John Brennan should resign.

Join Us In Demanding: ‘Clapper And Brennan Must Be Fired!’

August 2, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Petitions and Online Actions CIA, NSA, Torture

This week it became clear that the head of the CIA, John Brennan lied when he said: “As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. We wouldn’t do that. I mean, that’s just beyond the scope of reason.” Yes, it is beyond the scope of reason, but it turns out that in fact the CIA was spying on the staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Last year, James Clapper, the head of the NSA, responded falsely to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden when he claimed that the NSA did not spy on Americans. Sen. Ron Wyden asked whether the National Security Agency “collected data on millions of Americans.” Clapper testified falsely, saying: “No sir, not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect but not wittingly.” Documents leaked by Edward Snowden showed his statement to be false and in fact Americans are subjected to dragnet surveillance by the NSA. President Obama has expressed his full support for both men, the Department of Justice has taken no action to investigate or prosecute either.

Senator Calls For John Brennan To Resign

August 1, 2014 Igor Bobic, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! CIA, Congress, Privacy, Surveillance

Following reports that Central Intelligence Agency employees improperly accessed computers used by U.S. Senate staff to investigate the agency, Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) on Thursday called for the resignation of John Brennan as CIA director. "After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan," Udall said in a statement. "The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences." According to a CIA Inspector General’s Office report first obtained by McClatchy, agency employees in 2009 hacked Senate computers being used to compile a report on the agency’s infamous detention and interrogation program -- a move that some critics have characterized as a significant breach of the separation of powers. Brennan has apologized to Senate intelligence committee leaders, including Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who took the floor earlier this year to excoriate the agency for skirting the law and attempting to intimidate Congress.

CIA Admits It Spied On Senate Committee

August 1, 2014 Johnathan S. Landay and Ali Watkins, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Privacy, Surveillance

An internal CIA investigation confirmed allegations that agency personnel improperly intruded into a protected database used by Senate Intelligence Committee staff to compile a scathing report on the agency’s detention and interrogation program, prompting bipartisan outrage and at least two calls for spy chief John Brennan to resign. “This is very, very serious, and I will tell you, as a member of the committee, someone who has great respect for the CIA, I am extremely disappointed in the actions of the agents of the CIA who carried out this breach of the committee’s computers,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the committee’s vice chairman. The rare display of bipartisan fury followed a three-hour private briefing by Inspector General David Buckley. His investigation revealed that five CIA employees, two lawyers and three information technology specialists improperly accessed or “caused access” to a database that only committee staff were permitted to use. Buckley’s inquiry also determined that a CIA crimes report to the Justice Department alleging that the panel staff removed classified documents from a top-secret facility without authorization was based on “inaccurate information,” according to a summary of the findings prepared for the Senate and House intelligence committees and released by the CIA.

35 Years Since The Triumph Of The Sandinista Revolution

July 26, 2014 Chuck Kaufman, www.upsidedownworld.org Educate! CIA, History, Nicaragua, Revolution, Sandinista

July 19, 2014 marks the 35th anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. On that day, the Sandinista troops led by the nine commanders of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) entered the capital city of Managua where they were greeted by hundreds of thousands of jubilant Nicaraguans. The triumphant guerrillas found a country in ruins. The previous ruler of the country, dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, had bombed the cities during the final offensive. When he fled the country two days earlier, he took not only the caskets containing his parents’ remains, but all the money in the national treasury as well. The Sandinistas were left with no money and a $1.9 billion international debt. Despite these handicaps, the Sandinistas set up a nine member National Directorate and five member Junta de Reconstrucción as the executive branch, and a Council of State which included political parties and popular organizations as the legislature. They launched an ambitious and revolutionary political program.

Counter-Intelligence: Spying Deters Democracy

July 24, 2014 Kim Petersen, www.dissidentvoice.org Educate! CIA, Democracy, NSA, spying

The importance of public opinion in “liberal democracies” also helps to explain why the CIA rose to such prominence, and why black ops became a mainstay of American foreign policy. The myth of the United States as a beacon of liberty and democracy is obviously incompatible with overthrowing democratic governments around the world. Hence the need to do it in secret. It’s a remarkably simple concept that seems to have eluded much of academia. Black ops are much more PR friendly and cost-effective than outright military aggression. This is not to say that military aggression isn’t important; it becomes crucially important when other mechanisms fail, and it is also vital for projecting raw power and securing control of resources and important geo-strategic locations on the “grand chessboard.”

How Many Politicians Is The NSA, CIA & FBI Blackmailing?

July 23, 2014 Sam Smith, www.prorevnews.com Educate! CIA, Congress, FBI, NSA, Surveillance

“One of my colleagues asked the NSA point blank will you give me a copy of my own record and the NSA said no, we won’t. They didn’t say no we don’t have one. They said no we won’t. So that’s possible.” Grayson is right: presumably, if the NSA wasn’t tracking lawmakers, it would have flatly denied it. Instead, those officials merely denied lawmakers access to whatever files the agency might have. That suggests one of two realities: 1) the NSA is keeping files on lawmakers 2) the NSA isn’t keeping files on lawmakers, but answered vaguely in order to stoke fear among legislators that it is. Regardless of which of these realities happens to be the case, the mere existence of legitimate fears of congressional surveillance by an executive-branch agency is a serious legal and separation-of-powers problem. Why? Because whether or not the surveillance is actually happening, the very real possibility that it even could be happening or has happened can unduly intimidate the legislative branch into abrogating its constitutional oversight responsibilities.

US: Putin Did Not Shoot Down Malaysian Airplane

July 22, 2014 Ken Dulanian, www.AP.org Educate! CIA, NSA, Russia, Ukraine

Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for "creating the conditions" that led to the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement. The officials briefed reporters Tuesday under ground rules that their names not be used in discussing intelligence related to last week's air disaster, which killed 298 people. But the officials said they did not know who fired the missile or whether any Russian operatives were present at the missile launch.

C.I.A Release Emails On WikiLeaks Crisis

July 16, 2014 Preeti Kaur, www.nytexaminer.com Educate! CIA, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

Recently released e-mails shine further light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (C.I.A) late 2010 high-level meetings with New York Times and government officials centering on WikiLeaks and Chelsea (Bradley) Manning. The emails convey the difficulties that the C.I.A and numerous government agencies had in grappling with WikiLeaks’ seismic release of Collateral Murder, Afghan War Diary, Iraq War Logs, and Cablegate documents. The released C.I.A emails, published by NYT eXaminer, reveal the ways in which almost a dozen Obama administration functionaries colluded to disparage WikiLeaks and Julian Assange as engaging in conspiracy to commit espionage with Manning. A number of the officials involved in these meetings with the New York Times later went on to launch campaigns to discredit other whistleblowers. The released emails come from the C.I.A in response to a NYT eXaminer Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. In April 2013, NYT eXaminer requested “copies of any [C.I.A] records for the three month period of November 1, 2010 through January 31, 2011 regarding communication the C.I.A had with New York Times’ Bill Keller, the Times’ Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet and their national security reporter Scott Shane – or any other representative of the Times – through in-person meetings, emails, and conference calls about Wikileaks’ Cablegate and Bradley Manning.”

Germany Expels CIA Station Chief In Spying Scandal

July 11, 2014 DW, www.dw.de Educate! CIA, Diplomacy, Germany, Surveillance

Germany has expelled the US’ top foreign intelligence chief from Berlin, but Washington has said little on the matter. Spying allegations threaten to fray ties between the allies, a possibility neither wants. The White House declined to issue a statement regarding the expulsion of a high-ranking CIA official from Berlin on Thursday. Instead, spokesperson Josh Earnest reassured reporters that the Obama administration was working to resolve the diplomatic row. "I don't want you to come away from this exchange thinking we take this matter lightly," Earnest said on Thursday. However, he could not comment on the current spying allegations against the US as that "would put at risk US assets, US personnel and United States national security." The German government asked the main CIA representative to voluntarily leave Berlin on Thursday. Officials declined to release the operative's identity.

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