Read an advance copy of my rave review of Scott C. Johnson's "The Wolf and the Watchman," which will appear in Sunday's Washington Post, here.
Showing posts with label cia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cia. Show all posts
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Rogue Agent: Marty Martin's Less Public Roles
Marty Martin took bows at Sundance for his role as a top CIA counterterrorism operative, dramatized in the riveting HBO documentary "Manhunt." But he's also been popping up in less savory, little noticed roles since 2007, including, now, an FBI investigation into shadowy right-wing forces behind allegations that New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat, patronized prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. Apparently you can take Marty Martin out of the CIA, but you can't take the CIA out of him.
READ MORE here.
READ MORE here.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Wigged Out in Moscow
Everybody take a breath.
There's nothing special about the Russian security service's bust of a reported American spy -- beyond the weird paraphernalia that the FSB says it captured with the suspect, one Ryan C. Fogle, officially third secretary at the American embassy.
Ted Danson wouldn't be caught dead in one of those wigs.
READ MORE, here.
There's nothing special about the Russian security service's bust of a reported American spy -- beyond the weird paraphernalia that the FSB says it captured with the suspect, one Ryan C. Fogle, officially third secretary at the American embassy.
Ted Danson wouldn't be caught dead in one of those wigs.
READ MORE, here.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
CIA's Pick to Run Spies: No Woman No Cry
The CIA's pick to head the CIA's National Clandestine Service was identified in a tweet Wednesday as Francis (Frank) Archibald, 57, head of the Latin America Division since about 2011 and a paramilitary specialist.
READ MORE, here.
READ MORE, here.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Famed CIA Widow Dies
Lorraine Adie Copeland, the widow of a famed CIA official who was a daring World War Two operative in her own right, died Saturday in her chateau in the south of France, surrounded by family members, including her son Stewart, drummer for the mega-hit rock bank The Police. She was 92.
READ MORE here:
READ MORE here:
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
New Twist in an Old Spy Case
Nearly two decades after his murder on a quiet road outside Tbilisi, Georgia, the late Central Intelligence Agency officer Freddie Woodruff is finally getting the full investigation he deserved.
READ MORE, here.
READ MORE, here.
Monday, April 29, 2013
SpyTalk Has a New Cloak
Starting today, you can find it at a lively new online magazine called AND -- based in NYC. Check it out. My first column, "New Twist in an Old Spy Case," about the mysterious 1993 death of Fred Woodruff, the CIA station chief in Tblisi, is here. Enjoy... I'll look forward to your thoughts, comments, whatever.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Why Didn't Russia Arrest Tamerlan Tsarnaev?
BY JEFF STEIN AND SALLY FARRINGTON
People are squabbling over whether the FBI and CIA let the Tsarnaev brothers slip through their fingers.
To that we'd add: If Tamerlan Tsarnaev was such a terrorist threat, why didn’t the Russians arrest him? Or take away his passport? After all, Chechan Islamists are far more a threat to Moscow than the United States, even counting their soldierly duty with al Qaeda in South Asia.
Philip Mudd, a former deputy director of both the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and the FBI National Security Branch, offered a heated defense of the intelligence agencies' performance in the Tsarnaev case on the Charlie Rose show Tuesday night.
The Tsarnaevs had no known involvement with terrorist groups, as far as we know more than 10 days out from the Patriots Day attack. Even “if they had an operational linkage back home,” Mudd said, “I can’t figure out what kind of capabilities that operational linkage offered them.”
At least one of the Tsarnaevs did frequent Islamist Web sites, though, and reportedly learned how to make their crude bombs from the online English-language al Qaeda magazine “Inspire.”
Otherwise, investigators say now, they had no help.
Honing in on people who merely visit radical Web sites would be a fool’s errand, Mudd suggested, far beyond the capabilities of the FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies, which are busy enough tracking real threats.
People are squabbling over whether the FBI and CIA let the Tsarnaev brothers slip through their fingers.
To that we'd add: If Tamerlan Tsarnaev was such a terrorist threat, why didn’t the Russians arrest him? Or take away his passport? After all, Chechan Islamists are far more a threat to Moscow than the United States, even counting their soldierly duty with al Qaeda in South Asia.
Philip Mudd, a former deputy director of both the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and the FBI National Security Branch, offered a heated defense of the intelligence agencies' performance in the Tsarnaev case on the Charlie Rose show Tuesday night.
The Tsarnaevs had no known involvement with terrorist groups, as far as we know more than 10 days out from the Patriots Day attack. Even “if they had an operational linkage back home,” Mudd said, “I can’t figure out what kind of capabilities that operational linkage offered them.”
At least one of the Tsarnaevs did frequent Islamist Web sites, though, and reportedly learned how to make their crude bombs from the online English-language al Qaeda magazine “Inspire.”
Otherwise, investigators say now, they had no help.
Honing in on people who merely visit radical Web sites would be a fool’s errand, Mudd suggested, far beyond the capabilities of the FBI, CIA and other intelligence agencies, which are busy enough tracking real threats.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Famed Cuban Counterspy Dies
BY SALLY FARRINGTON & JEFF STEIN
A former Cuban counterspy who successfully infiltrated the CIA during a decade-long run in the 1960s and '70s died a decorated hero last week, according to the independent Havana Times.
Nicolas Alberto Sirgado Ross first penetrated the CIA in 1966 while in London with a Cuban mission, said the online newspaper, which bills itself as “open-minded writing from Cuba.”
Sirgado’s decade was allegedly spent uncovering and thwarting CIA assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. The Havana Times credits Sirgado with foiling “several of the plots” on Castro’s life.
"His record as an undercover agent was the basis for the popular Cuban series “En silencio ha tenido que ser” ("It had to be in silence”) aired on national television in the 80s," reported the paper, launched in 2008.
He was 77. His body was cremated and a funeral held in Havana last Friday.
A former Cuban counterspy who successfully infiltrated the CIA during a decade-long run in the 1960s and '70s died a decorated hero last week, according to the independent Havana Times.
Nicolas Alberto Sirgado Ross first penetrated the CIA in 1966 while in London with a Cuban mission, said the online newspaper, which bills itself as “open-minded writing from Cuba.”
Sirgado’s decade was allegedly spent uncovering and thwarting CIA assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. The Havana Times credits Sirgado with foiling “several of the plots” on Castro’s life.
"His record as an undercover agent was the basis for the popular Cuban series “En silencio ha tenido que ser” ("It had to be in silence”) aired on national television in the 80s," reported the paper, launched in 2008.
He was 77. His body was cremated and a funeral held in Havana last Friday.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Shameless Lindsey Graham's Boston Cracks Blow Up in His Face
BY JEFF STEIN
Does Lindsey Graham have a screw loose? Or is he just shameless in his latest attempt to wring partisan advantage from a national tragedy?
Whatever, his latest attacks on an American intelligence agency blew up on him Monday like a trick cigar.
Does Lindsey Graham have a screw loose? Or is he just shameless in his latest attempt to wring partisan advantage from a national tragedy?
Whatever, his latest attacks on an American intelligence agency blew up on him Monday like a trick cigar.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Scribbling Spies: Former CIA Officers Present Books at National Archives
Three legendary spooks and a biographer are talking about their books at an all-day espionage literary fair Saturday at the National Archives in Washington, and I'm lucky enough to be their presenter.
It's free. Come on down!
If you can't, the fair, jointly sponsored by the Archives and the International Spy Museum, will also be webcast live (then immediately archived) on the National Archives UStream channel.
The luminaries of the dark-arts will include:
It's free. Come on down!
If you can't, the fair, jointly sponsored by the Archives and the International Spy Museum, will also be webcast live (then immediately archived) on the National Archives UStream channel.
The luminaries of the dark-arts will include:
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
How They Will Investigate the Boston Bombing
Former White House Counterterrorism Adviser Richard A. Clarke says U.S. security agencies have a wealth of investigative resources and techniques to employ against whomever carried out Monday's horrific bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
"While detectives and federal agents have started the laborious process of interviewing thousands of people in Boston, much of the work that is likely to be key to solving the Boston Bombing is technical and forensic," Clarke said on his FaceBook page.
Video from bystanders' cell phones, retail outlets and traffic cameras could provide quick clues to the perpetrators. The National Security Agency will also zero in on cell phone traffic around Boston and to such terrorist lairs and Pakistan and Yemen, he said.
The resources that the government can bring to the case a dozen years after the 9/11 attacks are stupendous, said Clarke, a White House counterterrorism adviser to both Bushes and President Clinton.
After agents from Israel's Mossad carried out an assassination in Dubai, Clark said, "the police in the United Arab Emirates were able to recreate most of the the assassination operation by using snippets from dozens of surveillance cameras. For the FBI in Boston, a similar process has now begun."
"While detectives and federal agents have started the laborious process of interviewing thousands of people in Boston, much of the work that is likely to be key to solving the Boston Bombing is technical and forensic," Clarke said on his FaceBook page.
Video from bystanders' cell phones, retail outlets and traffic cameras could provide quick clues to the perpetrators. The National Security Agency will also zero in on cell phone traffic around Boston and to such terrorist lairs and Pakistan and Yemen, he said.
The resources that the government can bring to the case a dozen years after the 9/11 attacks are stupendous, said Clarke, a White House counterterrorism adviser to both Bushes and President Clinton.
"First, the FBI will stitch together hundreds of hours of video camera recordings from private and public surveillance and traffic cameras, as well as recordings made by private citizens attending the race. They will look for when the bombs might have been left behind and then examine the faces of everyone who was in the area around that time. They will try to put names to those faces, using facial recognition matching software, drawing on drivers license, passport, and visa databases."
After agents from Israel's Mossad carried out an assassination in Dubai, Clark said, "the police in the United Arab Emirates were able to recreate most of the the assassination operation by using snippets from dozens of surveillance cameras. For the FBI in Boston, a similar process has now begun."
Saturday, April 13, 2013
CIA and Secret Warfare: When the Knives Came Out
The title of Mark Mazzetti's new book, "The Way of the Knife," is a little misleading. Sure, the badges of most special operations units feature a dagger, the symbol for stealth, if not hand-to-hand fighting. But in the post-9/11 shadow war against al Qaeda and its affiliates, it is presidents, prime ministers, warlords, kings and generals who wield the knives, stabbing each other in the back. Out in the field, at the tip of the spear, the weapons are spies, drones, algorithms and cash.
Read the rest of my review in the San Franciso Chronicle here.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Did Brennan Get a Free Pass from Mazzetti?
BY SALLY FARRINGTON
The New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti is churning up a lot of positive buzz with his new book, “The Way of the Knife,” excerpted in the Times this week.
But at least one critic who closely follows the shadow wars thinks current Obama administration officials, especially CIA Director John Brennan, the former White House counterterrorism advisor, is getting a free pass in Mazzetti’s account of the CIA’s drone war and other clandestine counterterrorism programs since 9/11.
The New York Times’ Mark Mazzetti is churning up a lot of positive buzz with his new book, “The Way of the Knife,” excerpted in the Times this week.
But at least one critic who closely follows the shadow wars thinks current Obama administration officials, especially CIA Director John Brennan, the former White House counterterrorism advisor, is getting a free pass in Mazzetti’s account of the CIA’s drone war and other clandestine counterterrorism programs since 9/11.
Vatican Thought Pinochet Got a Bad Rap, 1973 Document Shows
One of the more provocative documents to emerge from Wikileaks’ latest document dump is a 1973 State Department cable related to the U.S.-backed coup in Chile that ushered in 17 years of military rule.
The once-secret cable suggests Vatican support for the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who led the military coup that ousted the elected government of Dr. Salvador Allende.
According to Chile expert and Columbia University journalism professor John Dinges, the previously unknown cable, reporting on a conversation between a powerful Vatican official and an American diplomat in Rome, contradicts “the accepted narrative that the Chilean hierarchy ... reacted early and strongly against the human rights abuses after the military coup.”
Questions about the Catholic Church's relations with Latin American military dictatorships have been revived with the election of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires during Argentina's "dirty war," as pope.
Dinges has strong doubts, however, about the information in the cable.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Hactivists Who Attacked CIA Plead Guilty
Three more members of the “hacktivist” group LulzSec have pleaded guilty today to various computer hacking and “hacktivism-related counts,” reports The Independent’s Kevin Rawlinson.
The group admitted to cyber attacks against the CIA, the Arizona State Police and the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency and National Health Service, among other entities in 2011 according to Rawlinson.
The hackers also targeted the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS, known for its “God Hates Fags” protests.
The group admitted to cyber attacks against the CIA, the Arizona State Police and the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency and National Health Service, among other entities in 2011 according to Rawlinson.
The hackers also targeted the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS, known for its “God Hates Fags” protests.
CIA Checking Out Indian Casinos?
BY SALLY FARRINGTON
Politicians in Goa, the western India port city, are dodging questions about the CIA’s presence in the region. According to the Mumbai web site FirstPost India, agency officials may be investigating possible ties between regional casinos and terrorist groups.
Goa, the former Portuguese colony on India’s west coast, is the country’s richest state and well known for gambling and high class casinos.
There were no specifics in the report, including the identity of any terrorist groups. Nor was any evidence produced for the CIA's alleged presence in Goa or an explanation for spy agency operations there. But the CIA could well be focusing on the “five offshore casinos” within Goa, the web site suggested. Terrorist groups targeting the United States have been known to link with offshore businesses and banks, the agency figures, so why not offshore casinos?
Politicians in Goa, the western India port city, are dodging questions about the CIA’s presence in the region. According to the Mumbai web site FirstPost India, agency officials may be investigating possible ties between regional casinos and terrorist groups.
Goa, the former Portuguese colony on India’s west coast, is the country’s richest state and well known for gambling and high class casinos.
There were no specifics in the report, including the identity of any terrorist groups. Nor was any evidence produced for the CIA's alleged presence in Goa or an explanation for spy agency operations there. But the CIA could well be focusing on the “five offshore casinos” within Goa, the web site suggested. Terrorist groups targeting the United States have been known to link with offshore businesses and banks, the agency figures, so why not offshore casinos?
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Whither the Drones?
BY SALLY FARRINGTON
What will happen to the American drone program as combat operations in Afghanistan wind down? Aram Roston wonders over at Defense News.
Some have presumably found at least a temporary home in Niger, where they will keep an eye on insurgents in next door Mali.
“But most of the Air Force’s midsize UAVs have no home bases,” writes Roston, editor of Defense News’ IC4ISR Journal. “They’ve always been deployed.”
It’s hard to imagine the drones would be retired, given the current state of play in Pakistan and elsewhere. But finding a suitable future conflict zone to deploy them may be more difficult than thought, Roston says.
What will happen to the American drone program as combat operations in Afghanistan wind down? Aram Roston wonders over at Defense News.
Some have presumably found at least a temporary home in Niger, where they will keep an eye on insurgents in next door Mali.
“But most of the Air Force’s midsize UAVs have no home bases,” writes Roston, editor of Defense News’ IC4ISR Journal. “They’ve always been deployed.”
It’s hard to imagine the drones would be retired, given the current state of play in Pakistan and elsewhere. But finding a suitable future conflict zone to deploy them may be more difficult than thought, Roston says.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Hot Shots: Pentagon Power Grab Edition
The Spies vs. the Brass: One of the main reasons the CIA was founded in 1947 was to give the President straight dope on enemy weapon systems, independent of the Pentagon, which had a tendency to inflate Soviet threats in order to scare Congress into funding more and bigger missiles, planes, ships and tanks for itself.
Despite--or maybe because of--its rank conflict of interest, the Pentagon has never given up trying to muscle into the CIA’s territory. The current effort is centered on its campaign to wrest control of the drone program from the spy agency.
Despite--or maybe because of--its rank conflict of interest, the Pentagon has never given up trying to muscle into the CIA’s territory. The current effort is centered on its campaign to wrest control of the drone program from the spy agency.
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