CIA

CIA – Syria and Iraq ‘can be put back together again’, suggests autonomous regions

Brennan said that compared to al Qaeda, Daesh is a lot less “deliberate” in its planning and more “free-wheeling,” willing to carry out attacks on shorter notice.
“You look at 9/11 and other major attacks, and it was very deliberate, methodical, a lot of planning went into it. I think ISIL tries to move from idea to bang within months or within weeks,” Brennan said, using the administration’s preferred acronym for Daesh .

The CIA’s venture-capital firm, like its sponsor, operates in the shadows

Forterra Systems Inc., a California startup focused on virtual reality, was in need of money and its products didn’t have much commercial appeal. Then funds came in from a source based far from Silicon Valley: In-Q-Tel Inc., a venture-capital firm in Virginia funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. One catalyst for the 2007 infusion, according […]

Watergate: CIA withheld data on double agent

An internal history of the Watergate scandal prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency – intended to help the Agency make a clean breast of its own wrongdoing and kept in classified vaults for more than four decades – reveals how the spy service used a double agent to keep tabs on the burglars whose arrests […]

Spy Catcher: Jeanne Vertefeuille

“At first, I wanted to jump across the table and strangle him. But then I started laughing. It was really funny, because he was the one in shackles, not me.” This was the reaction of CIA officer Jeanne Vertefeuille upon learning that Aldrich Ames, the most damaging mole in CIA history, had once given his […]

CIA reveals its secret briefings to Presidents Nixon and Ford

In the last few weeks the two presidential nominees have received their initial intelligence briefings. Although the experience must have been different for each — it was Donald Trump’s first, whereas Hillary Clinton is an experienced intelligence consumer — they were both recipients of a product authorized by President Barack Obama, the intelligence community’s most […]

How to pass a CIA background check

“Withholding information from us will not work in your favor,” says Ronald S. Patrick, deputy director of talent development at the Central Intelligence Agency, which receives up to 150,000 résumés a year. Applicants who are offered a job go through a monthslong security clearance, including an intense background check. To pass, you can’t have been […]

Russian hybrid warfare sparks new US Jedburgh unit

It’s called unconditional warfare, but the name isn’t as important. This is a role that A-teams are supposed to be able to execute, now. It’s not a new capability that’s never existed before. Instead, it just fell out of favor in preference for direct action. This effort will take SF back to its roots.

CIA wants to train A.I. to understand satellite photos

For more than half a century, spy satellites have circled the globe, taking pictures of the world below. First launched by the United States and the Soviet Union as ways to keep tabs on each other, satellite photography progressed from a state secret to a common mapping tool, with public photos taken from space available […]

CIA gate-crasher gets 30-day sentence

A man who drove his car into a fence at CIA headquarters in Virginia earlier this year explained Tuesday in court that he suffers from bipolar disorder and was experiencing a manic episode at the time. “It has always been difficult for myself and my family,” Thomas Luu told a judge in Alexandria federal court […]