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The Sorry State of Pakistan »

Osama bin Laden: killed and al Qaeda: on the run. That’s the balance sheet — more or less — that the U.S. has to share with the world. Meanwhile, its biggest ally in the War on Terror — Pakistan — has nothing to present except that its own people have been terrorized by militants, with [...]

Want To Know Who Really Ordered The Mission Against Bin Laden? It Wasn’t Obama… »

“The operation was at this time effectively unknown to President Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett and it remained that way until AFTER it had already been initiated. President Obama was literally pulled from a golf outing and escorted back to the White House to be informed of the mission. Upon his arrival there was a [...]

Osama bin Laden, Sleeps With the Fishes **UPDATED** »

Update below the fold. I had another post all ready to go this morning of Lara Logan’s interview on “60 Minutes,” but that can keep until tomorrow. Today, the big news, as President Obama announced late last night, Osama bin Laden has been killed. The reports have been a bit conflicting on just how he [...]

Countdown flashback: Larry Johnson on Mary McCarthy (+ Open Thread) »

Editor’s 01/24 Note: I am bumping this up so that you are sure to see Larry’s fascinating remarks about his appearances on Olbermann’s show as well as on Fox News. Look just below the video for Larry’s additional commentary in Truthtelling007′s post. Editor’s Note: Special thanks to our videographer Truthtelling007 who has a great compilation [...]

Bring it down a notch CIA »

The Islamabad station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency hastily departed from Pakistan last week after his cover was blown due to a suspected deliberate leak by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. This act is the latest evidence of the tense relationship between the two spy agencies.  It is believed that his cover was blown in retaliation [...]

Another K word »

In almost every briefing pertaining to South Asia, the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke says that he won’t use the ‘K word,’ by which he means Kashmir. This is sensible of him, knowing that any statement could escalate into an exchange of hot words between India and Pakistan (and India [...]

The Women Of The CIA »

Reprinted from The Daily Beast with the express permission of the author. The female CIA officers killed in December were a testament to the progress made in a historically paternalistic agency. Former CIA officer Valerie Wilson on the cracks in the spy world’s ceiling. The shocking massacre in Khost, Afghanistan, on December 30th left seven [...]

What’s Wrong with US Intel Agencies »

This piece reprinted from The Consortium News with the express permission of the author. It is time for serious soul-searching regarding the role of the CIA and the intelligence community. Last month’s operational and intelligence failures led to the deaths of seven CIA officers in Afghanistan and might have resulted in nearly 300 deaths on [...]

The Deadly Mole »

Recently, 7 CIA officers and a Jordanian intelligence officer, were killed, 6 injured, when someone got in Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan. It was a shocking event, especially as reports surfaced that the bomber was freely admitted to the camp. How could that possibly be that he would be allowed on base without even being [...]

One More Feckless Study On Intelligence Reform »

The prestigious Brookings Institution has joined the ranks of various government and public institutions to suggest reform steps for the Central Intelligence Agency and the intelligence community (IC). Unlike previous reform proposals, the Brookings study manages to overlook the serious systemic issues that face the world of intelligence analysis and to propose a full slate [...]

A Tale of Two Davids: The WPost’s Ignatius, Broder Compete For Biggest CIA Apologist »

David Broder, the senior op-ed writer at the Washington Post, has joined his colleagues (Fred Hiatt, David Ignatius, and Richard Cohen) in condemning Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to name a special counsel to examine possible law-breaking by CIA interrogators. And like his colleagues, Broder has put forth a list of irrelevant reasons for turning [...]

CIA IG Describes Interrogation Crime Scene And Becomes A Major Victim »

CIA Inspector General John Helgerson (left) announced his retirement seven months ago. A successor has not yet been named. President Barack Obama is permitting CIA Director Leon Panetta to weaken the Agency’s’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG has produced the only official and authoritative study of the abuses of the CIA detentions and [...]

Exposed: The WPost’s One-Sided Account of Torture and Abuse »

Editor: This op-ed was first published Aug. 29th at The Public Record, and is reprinted with the express permission of Mel Goodman. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was photographed shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan on March 1, 2003. The lead story in today’s Washington Post, headlined [...]

WPost’s Ignatius Forgives the CIA Again and Again »

Editor: This op-ed was first published Aug. 25th at The Public Record, and is reprinted with the express permission of Mel Goodman. The Washington Post’s David Ignatius simply cannot get off the wheel he spins for the Central Intelligence Agency. Only two days after the release of the 2004 CIA study of the detention and [...]

Washington Post Goes Judge Shopping in the Courthouse »

Editor: This op-ed was first published Aug. 25th at The Public Record, and is reprinted with the express permission of Mel Goodman. The Washington Post continues to campaign against any accountability for the detentions policies of the Central Intelligence Agency, using its own editorials and oped writers as well as outsiders who support the efforts [...]