CIA

In the name of whatever you people hold as holy, stop throwing around the word MANPADS. The word has left its technical description, and has simply become a finger-point against America. It’s a lazy acronym. Meanwhile, in Iraq, Turkey, and Syria; the bulk of weapon systems deployed are based on Russian design platforms.   The guided […]

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter sees a variety of missions for the Pentagon’s new, secretive space center — and that includes fighting the Islamic State. The Pentagon chief said Thursday that the new Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center established by the Defense Department last fall has a role not only in preparing for potential […]

The CIA’s internal watchdog claims it accidentally deleted its only copy of the controversial “torture report” outlining the agency’s use of enhanced interrogations techniques, the latest wrinkle in the saga over the report’s publication. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s 6,700-page report has not yet been made public by the Obama administration and has been at the […]

A tip from a CIA spy to authorities in apartheid-era South Africa led to Nelson Mandela’s 1962 arrest, beginning the leader’s 27 years behind bars, an article in the Sunday Times reported. The newspaper cited comments reportedly made by Donald Rickard, a former US vice-consul in Durban and CIA operative, to British film director John […]

Harry Truman had been vice president for only 82 days when Franklin Roosevelt died, so there was quite a lot he needed to learn when he became president in 1945. “He didn’t even know the atomic bomb existed,” historian David Priess said. “He didn’t know about the Manhattan Project.” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper […]

An appeals court ruled on Friday that more than 6,000 pages of the so-called Senate torture report cannot be made public because they consist of congressional records that are not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, which only covers federal agencies. The unanimous ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]

The dispute between Twitter and the U.S. intelligence industry that broke into public view this week actually began as long ago as last fall, sources familiar with the matter tell CNBC. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Twitter has cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from a service that sifts through the entire output […]

Another deal with the devil . . . After splitting with Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra is being presented to the West as a moderate force. It’s nothing of the sort. The jihadist force’s reputation is being cleaned up, to suggest it is deserving of CIA support. So ol‘ Doc Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s chief executive successor, has […]

Reddit recently asked an interesting question, and I decided to expand on it here, at SOFREP. You’re in the CIA and you suspect a fellow agent to be a spy. They’re 25-35 and speak perfect English. What question do you ask to determine whether they grew up in the U.S.? Isaac Asimov once answered this questions […]

A former CIA agent has lodged another appeal at Portugal’s Constitutional Court against her extradition to Italy to serve a four-year sentence for her part in the U.S. extraordinary renditions program, a court official said Thursday. Sabrina de Sousa has asked the Constitutional Court to appoint a three-judge panel to review a decision last month […]

Want someone to spill the beans? You’d better ditch the aggressive interrogation techniques. Coercing won’t get you anywhere,” Michael Floyd, a former CIA official, tells The Post. “You have to make them comfortable so they can be vulnerable and open up to you.” Floyd, co-author of “Get the Truth” (St. Martin’s Griffin; out now), shares […]

Usama bin Laden was just found in a third-floor room and killed over the weekend – at least, that’s what you might think if you were following the CIA on Twitter. The CIA raised eyebrows for its decision to “live tweet” on Sunday the daring SEAL Team 6 raid on bin Laden’s Pakistani compound – […]