The political momentum toward détente with Cuba may be moving so fast that the idea of a spy swap as the first step in a thaw may already be passé.
Continue reading Spy Swap With Cuba May Be Off the Table.
Jeff Stein: March 2009 Archives
Fingers are pointing every which way in the wake of Monday's blood-soaked assault on a police academy in Lahore, Pakistan, that left 27 cadets dead and twice that number wounded.
But according to the usually reliable Asia Times Online, the attack represented an ominous development in the already perilous Pakistan security situation.
Quoting "militant sources," the magazine said the raid was "the first major operation of the new nexus comprising al-Qaeda, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and Punjabi militants."
But according to the usually reliable Asia Times Online, the attack represented an ominous development in the already perilous Pakistan security situation.
Quoting "militant sources," the magazine said the raid was "the first major operation of the new nexus comprising al-Qaeda, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and Punjabi militants."
Continue reading Lahore Attack May Signal New Terrorist Partnership.
I had to laugh when I heard our next ambassador to Afghanistan say, "every poll will show that 90 percent of the people firmly reject the Taliban."
You can't make this stuff up.
Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry may be a great warrior, a very smart guy, and turn out to be a very fine ambassador. But that's a bunch of baloney.
You can't make this stuff up.
Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry may be a great warrior, a very smart guy, and turn out to be a very fine ambassador. But that's a bunch of baloney.
Continue reading Obama's Kennedy Moment in Afghanistan .
Considering the low hum about back door contacts with Iran, the changed wording of an otherwise routine resolution in the House Foreign Affairs Committee today seemed worth noting.
The subject of the measure was Robert Levinson, the former FBI agent who went missing two years ago on Kish Island, a flashy Iranian resort for foreigners 17 miles from the mainland.
Continue reading Mystery of Ex-FBI Agent Missing in Iran Gets Close House Attention.
A former CIA Soviet expert says that one of the agency's top Russian spies in the Cold War was a double agent under the control of Moscow.
Benjamin Fischer, who sued the agency for ruining his career because of his beliefs, argues that Adolf Tolkachev, a Soviet electronics technician at a classified military research facility, was working for Moscow when he offered himself to the CIA as a spy in the 1980s and stayed under their control for the six years he worked for U.S. intelligence.
The CIA considered Tolkachev its greatest prize in the 1980s, "a worthy successor" to Oleg Penkovsky, the infamous Soviet colonel two decades earlier who provided the U.S. with Russian secrets during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, in the words of an internal CIA paper.
Benjamin Fischer, who sued the agency for ruining his career because of his beliefs, argues that Adolf Tolkachev, a Soviet electronics technician at a classified military research facility, was working for Moscow when he offered himself to the CIA as a spy in the 1980s and stayed under their control for the six years he worked for U.S. intelligence.
The CIA considered Tolkachev its greatest prize in the 1980s, "a worthy successor" to Oleg Penkovsky, the infamous Soviet colonel two decades earlier who provided the U.S. with Russian secrets during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, in the words of an internal CIA paper.
Continue reading CIA's Top Soviet Spy Was Double Agent, Former Agency Analyst Claims .
A light-hearted piece in Sunday's New York Times, "Tips for the Sophisticated Fugitive," reminded me that Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, an Israeli businessman at the center of the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program, is still on the lam.
Many people would be shocked to learn that the two biggest contractors in the ultra-sophisticated NSA eavesdropping program are owned and run by Israelis, many of whom came from their country's own electronic spying services.
Many people would be shocked to learn that the two biggest contractors in the ultra-sophisticated NSA eavesdropping program are owned and run by Israelis, many of whom came from their country's own electronic spying services.
Continue reading Israeli in NSA Spying Program Comfortably on the Run in Africa.
Only two-plus years ago some members of the House Intelligence Committee and top FBI counterterrorism officials didn't know that there were important differences between the Sunnis and Shi'a battling for control of Iraq, or what side al Qaeda is on.
Now it might behoove them to learn that the objectives and tactics of Sunni and Shi'a terrorists also differ widely, according to a fascinating new study from the Combating Terror Center at West Point, N.Y.
Continue reading Fighting Styles of Sunni and Shi'a Terrorists Differ, Study Finds.
Interesting tidbits continue to shake out from the strange case of Andrew Warren, the erstwhile CIA station chief in Algeria accused of date rape.
Continue reading Accused CIA Rapist's Alleged Victims Did Not File Local Charges.
Candidate Obama called for doubling the size of the storied Peace Corps, but President Obama is falling far short of that pledge, with plans to ask Congress for perhaps a 10 percent budget increase in April.
That has a growing chorus of Peace Corps veterans hopping mad.
That has a growing chorus of Peace Corps veterans hopping mad.
Continue reading Peace Corps Alums Up in Arms Over Fate of Once Glamorous Service.
What makes a good spook tick?
For almost 20 years, Dr. David L. Charney, 66, has seen a parade of CIA personnel come to his Alexandria, Va., office, looking for help with their emotional problems.
Many of them come from the Directorate of Operations, recently renamed the National Clandestine Service (although most CIA people still call it the "D.O.").
These are the people who are commonly - and mistakenly - called "spies." But in reality they're the people who recruit foreigners to commit treason or turn on their terrorist buddies.
Despite such an exotic trade, their problems tend to be the same ones that bedevil ordinary people, Charney said: conflicts at work or at home.
Continue reading CIA-Approved Psychiatrist Treats Cloak and Dagger Set's Woes.
A story over the weekend pinpointing the location of Osama Bin Laden in Chitral, a remote, snow blanketed valley high up in Pakistan's side of the Hindu Kush, has triggered another round of speculation on the whereabouts of the fugitive terrorist chief.
Continue reading Osama Bin Elvis.
Andrew Warren, the former CIA officer accused of date rape in Algiers late last year, caused such a ruckus over parking dispute at a Washington, D.C. hotel three years earlier that the matter was referred to the FBI.
Continue reading CIA Man Accused of Rape Claimed to Be FBI Agent in Parking Row.
The Italian prosecutor who has been trying two dozen CIA agents on kidnapping charges says he will continue the case, despite a high court decision Wednesday that excludes the use of wiretapped conversations among top Italian intelligence officials.
Armando Spataro, reached by telephone on a train between Rome and Milan, said, "the trial will go on" despite the Constitutional Court's decision excluding transcripts in which intelligence officials discussed a CIA plan for the "extraordinary rendition" of an al Qaeda suspect from a Milan street to an Egyptian prison in 2003.
Armando Spataro, reached by telephone on a train between Rome and Milan, said, "the trial will go on" despite the Constitutional Court's decision excluding transcripts in which intelligence officials discussed a CIA plan for the "extraordinary rendition" of an al Qaeda suspect from a Milan street to an Egyptian prison in 2003.
Continue reading Exclusive: Italian Prosecutor Says CIA Kidnap Case 'Will Go On'.
In nothing else, Chas W. Freeman's surprise surrender Tuesday shows that when it comes to U.S. national security policy, the Arabs will never trump Israel in Washington, no matter how many think tanks they fund, law firms they hire and former American diplomats they buy.
Once Freeman's name surfaced as the Obama administration's choice to head the National Intelligence Council, he was as doomed as an Afghan villager in the cross hairs of a Predator drone.
Once Freeman's name surfaced as the Obama administration's choice to head the National Intelligence Council, he was as doomed as an Afghan villager in the cross hairs of a Predator drone.
Continue reading Saudis Impotent in Battle Over Chas Freeman for Intelligence Chief.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden more than backed up his boss's view Tuesday that U.S. and NATO troops are not winning the war in Afghanistan.
"We are not now winning the war, but the war is far from lost," Biden told a news conference in Brussels today after three hours of talks with NATO allies.
But an assertion by Biden that 70 percent of Taliban guerrillas could be persuaded to stop fighting or turn against their Afghan brothers-in-arms drew scoffs from experts in Kabul.
"We are not now winning the war, but the war is far from lost," Biden told a news conference in Brussels today after three hours of talks with NATO allies.
But an assertion by Biden that 70 percent of Taliban guerrillas could be persuaded to stop fighting or turn against their Afghan brothers-in-arms drew scoffs from experts in Kabul.
Lost in the weekend hubbub over President Obama's judgment that the U.S. and NATO forces were losing the war in Afghanistan was his interesting remark on renditions.
In a New York Times interview aboard Air Force One, the president reaffirmed that the administration is reviewing the policy of renditions - the practice of capturing a terrorist suspect and "rendering" him (or her) to the United States or elsewhere for detention -- but he pondered out loud one particularly difficult situation:
In a New York Times interview aboard Air Force One, the president reaffirmed that the administration is reviewing the policy of renditions - the practice of capturing a terrorist suspect and "rendering" him (or her) to the United States or elsewhere for detention -- but he pondered out loud one particularly difficult situation:
Continue reading Obama Muses on a Difficult Rendition Situation.
Hillary Clinton's diplomatic aplomb had to have been tested Tuesday when she walked into a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and found Uzi Arad at his side.
Arad, who spent 25 years in the Mossad, including a stint as Paris station chief in the 1980s, is barred from entering the U.S. because of his frequent contacts with Larry Franklin, the Pentagon official convicted of passing information to Israel.
Continue reading Uzi's Back: Israelis Likely to Push Harder for Striking Iran Soon .
Don't expect the CIA to turn over the family jewels on its interrogation videotapes to the American Civil Liberties Union, just because it lost a legal round this week.
Continue reading CIA Unlikely to Reveal Much More About Missing Interrogation Tapes.
Evidently $30 million and 10 years wasn't enough to finish the job of declassifying records on the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies with Nazi and Japanese war criminals.
Congress has just budgeted another $650,000 to finish the job - really, they're serious this time -- of poring through some 8 million postwar pages.
"There's a million pages of Army and CIA documents left" to read and catalog, said Miriam Kleiman, a spokeswoman for the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA.
Congress has just budgeted another $650,000 to finish the job - really, they're serious this time -- of poring through some 8 million postwar pages.
"There's a million pages of Army and CIA documents left" to read and catalog, said Miriam Kleiman, a spokeswoman for the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA.
Continue reading The Really Longest War: U.S. Still Spending on Nazi War Docs.
It's not everyday that a new CIA chief of staff arrives at work having already been portrayed in a movie.
That comes later, if things go badly enough.
But Jeremy Bash is making his entrance as CIA boss Leon E. Panetta's new chief of staff with just that credit in his portfolio.
That comes later, if things go badly enough.
But Jeremy Bash is making his entrance as CIA boss Leon E. Panetta's new chief of staff with just that credit in his portfolio.
Continue reading CIA Has a Bash, Jeremy Bash .