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Attorney General Eric Holder Defends Legality of Targeted Killings of U.S. Citizens Overseas

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 06 (News Analysis) - Using armed drones, President Obama has overseen the targeted killing of at least three U.S. civilians overseas — more than President Bush did in office. Are the killings legal? Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, says Attorney General Eric Holder’s defense on Monday of the Obama administration’s policy authorizing the assassination of U.S. citizens abroad “left open more questions than it answered.” She says Holder’s speech amounted to a broad defense of the administration’s claimed expansive authority to kill its own citizens, far from any battlefield and without judicial review or oversight of legal standards.

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Leaked Stratfor Email Suggests Secret U.S. Indictment of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 29 (News Report) - "Somehow you have a private intelligence company, Stratfor, a 'shadow CIA,' as people have called it, having information about this sealed indictment—secret again—that Julian Assange doesn’t have, that WikiLeaks doesn’t have, that his lawyers don’t have," says Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is a legal adviser to both Assange and to WikiLeaks. "What you see here is secrecy, secrecy, secrecy." News of the indictment comes less than a week after Army Private Bradley Manning was arraigned for allegedly leaking classified U.S. military and State Department doc

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WikiLeaks: Leaked Emails Expose Inner Workings of Private Intelligence Firm Stratfor, a “Shadow CIA”

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 28 (Special Report) - Julian Assange said the files implicate some of the world’s largest firms in corporate espionage. Firms with ties to Stratfor include Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, and sectors of the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Coke asked Stratfor to keep tabs on the protest plans of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the stories based on the material. They will come out in the next coming days and weeks,"

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Wikileaks Publishes Millions Of Confidential Emails From Security Firm

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Feb. 27 (News Report) - The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks began publishing on Monday more than five million emails from a U.S.-based global security analysis company that has been likened to a shadow CIA.

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Petraeus’s CIA Fuels Iran Murder Plot

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Ray McGovern - Oct. 13 (News Analysis) - Before Ignatius’s article, I had seen no one allude to the fact that much about this crime-stopper tale had come from the CIA. In public, the FBI had taken the lead role, presumably because the key informant inside a Mexican drug cartel worked for U.S. law enforcement via the Drug Enforcement Administration.

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Genocide-Linked General Otto Pérez Molina Poised to Become Guatemala's Next President

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Sep. 15 (News Analysis) - Human rights groups have accused Pérez of being directly involved in the systematic use of torture and acts of genocide in Guatemala in the 1980s. Pérez has run largely on a platform of using "an iron fist" to crack down on drug cartels. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Mayan activist, Rigoberta Menchú, is one of nine other candidates challenging Pérez.

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Columbia Spent U.S. Anti-Drug Aid on Hiding Government Ties to Drug Rings

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

yahoo.com - By Ujala Sehgal - Aug. 22 (News) - The U.S.-funded counterinsurgency campaign against a Marxist rebel group in Columbia was viewed as so successful that it has become a model for strategy in Afghanistan. But things were not what they seemed: the Washington Post reports that U.S. ally and former president Alvaro Uribe has been implicated in "egregious abuses of power and illegal actions," involving U.S. aid an "possibly U.S. officials" -- all under the cover of fighting drug trafficking. American cash, equipment, and training were sent to Columbia to help break up cocaine-smugglers, but were actually used "to carry out spying operations and smear campaigns against Supreme Court justices, Uribe’s political opponents and civil society groups."

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As Biden Visits China, Author David Wise on "Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War with China"

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Aug. 18 (News Report) - Vice President Joe Biden arrived in China yesterday to begin a five-day trip aimed at reassuring leaders there of the stability of the U.S. economy and to begin building a relationship with that country’s most likely next president, Xi Jinping. The visit to the largest foreign creditor to the United States falls right after the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, and just days after the Financial Times reported that Pakistan gave Chinese officials access to the wreckage of the top-secret U.S. stealth helicopter that crashed in the compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad during the U.S. raid in May.

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How the U.S. Government uses its media servants to attack real journalism

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Jul. 17 (News Analysis) - Earlier this week, the truly intrepid investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill published in The Nation one of the most significant political exposés of the year. Entitled "the CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia," the article documented that the CIA uses and effectively controls a secret prison in Mogadishu, where foreign nationals who are rendered off the streets of their countries (at the direction of the U.S.) are taken (along with Somali nationals) to be imprisoned with no due process and interrogated (by U.S. agents). Although Somali government agents technically operate the facility, that is an obvious ruse: "US intelligence personnel pay the salaries of intelligence agents and also directly interrogate prisoners" and are "there full-time," Scahill reported.

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Former CIA Legal Chief Wanted for Murder by Drone

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Peter Beaumont, - Jul. 16 (News Report) - 'Campaigners against US drone strikes in Pakistan are calling for the CIA's former legal chief to be arrested and charged with murder for approving attacks that killed hundreds of people.'

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Jeremy Scahill Reveals CIA Facility, Prison in Somalia as U.S. Expands Covert Ops in Stricken Nation

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Jeramy Scahill - Jul. 13 (Special Report) - In a new investigative report published by The Nation magazine, independent journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill reveals the CIA is using a secret facility in Somalia for counterterrorism as well as an underground prison in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Scahill says the CIA is training a new Somali force to conduct operations in the areas controlled by the militant group, Al Shabab, and in Mogadishu. While a U.S. official told The Nation that the CIA does not run the prison, he acknowledged the CIA pays the salaries of Somali agents.

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Red Cross Provided With Location of Secret Somali Prison Used by CIA

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Jeremy Scahill, Amy Goodman - Jul. 13 (News Report) - Democracy Now! correspondent and The Nation investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill provides an International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson with the location of the secret prison used by the CIA he uncovered in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, which the Red Cross says it didn't know existed. "There are scores of people that have been held without charge in this basement and some for more than 18 months," Scahill says. "The Red Cross should be insisting on access to the prison, which is within [a] Somali government compound."

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American Banks 'High' On Drug Money

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Clarence Walker - Jun. 12 (Investigative Report) - A fraud investigator helped expose the shocking world of multi-billion dollar drug laundering by American banks and the surprising lack of oversight by the Feds. Martin Woods, an Englishman in his mid-40s, is blessed with a Sherlock Holmes instinct and demeanor. Woods is an expert at sniffing out "dirty" money passing through International Banking Systems. A police officer for 18 years and later a detective with London Metro Police Agency, Woods capitalized on his unique expertise as a fraud expert by joining Wachovia's London-based Bank in March 2005 as an anti-money laundering officer. It wasn't long after taking the job that he discovered that his own employer, one of America's leading banks, was a major player in aiding the "bloodthirsty" Mexico drug cartels to launder billions of dollars in drug money through Wachovia banks. Woods traced and identified a "number of suspicious transactions" related to Mexico-based Casa de Cambios (CDC).

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100% Scared: How the National Security Complex Grows on Terrorism Fears

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tom Engelhardt - Jun. 12 (News Analysis) - Americans don't expect 100% safety from illness, car crashes, or even shark attacks. But our obsession with 100% safety from terrorism is fueling the military-industrial complex.

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A Monster of Our Own Creation

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Robert Scheer - May. 09 (News Analysis) - 'He was our kind of guy until he wasn't, an ally during the Cold War until he no longer served our purposes. The problem with Osama bin Laden was not that he was a fanatical holy warrior; we liked his kind just fine as long as the infidels he targeted were not us but Russians and the secular Afghans in power in Kabul whom the Soviets backed.' Robert Scheer, Truthdig

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Discovery of Bin Laden Hideout Spotlights Concerns About Pakistan's Intelligence Service

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

ProPublica - By Sebastian Rotella - May. 02 (News Analysis) - The killing of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani city dominated by the military has spotlighted a conundrum that Western counterterror agencies have grappled with for years: Is Pakistan's powerful intelligence service an ally, an enemy or a mix of both? This time the debate is likely to take place in public, not behind the closed doors of national security outposts in Washington. In fact, White House homeland security adviser John Brennan seemed to confront the issue head-on Monday when he said that the presence of the world's most wanted man in a fortress-like compound near the homes of retired generals and a military academy raises questions that the Pakistani government must answer. The Obama administration took the extraordinary step of keeping Sunday's commando raid secret from Islamabad. Although Obama cited "counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan" as a factor in the successful hunt for bin Laden, U.S. officials have not given details on the extent and nature of that Pakistani assistance. The ISI has been suspected of playing a double game in previous cases: the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, the mysterious escape from Pakistani custody in 2007 of an al-Qaida operative accused in the London transport bombings and a plot to bomb U.S.-bound commercial flights, charges of ISI involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attack and recent allegations by top military brass that the ISI supports militant networks fighting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

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Syria Lifts Emergency Law as Protesters Come Under Fire in Syrian City of Homas

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 19 (News Report) - Syrian police reportedly opened fire and used tear gas today on thousands of anti-government protesters who occupied a key square in the Syrian city of Homs. More than 10,000 protesters gathered there Monday after funerals for an estimated 25 activists killed over the weekend. They demanded the immediate lifting of Syria's longstanding emergency laws, the release of political prisoners, and the immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, newly released diplomatic cables from the online whistleblower WikiLeaks show the United States has secretly financed Syrian opposition groups and activities since at least 2005. We speak with Bassam Haddad, director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Mason University. [includes rush transcript]

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Jeremy Scahill and Ex-DIA Analyst Joshua Foust on "The Dangerous U.S. Game In Yemen" & CIA Ops in Libya

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill, Joshua Foust - Mar. 31 (News Analysis) - Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Yemen on Wednesday as part of the unwavering protests for the resignation of U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh. We speak to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill, who argues the U.S. secret war has unintentionally played a significant role in weakening Saleh's regime; and Joshua Foust, who recently left his post as Yemen analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency. We also get their reaction to the latest news CIA operatives are on the ground in Libya as part of a covert Western force to aid the U.S.-led bombing campaign.

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Arrest of CIA Agent Sheds Light on American Covert War in Pakistan, Straining U.S.-Pakistani Relations

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 23 (News Report) - U.S. officials have admitted an American detained in Pakistan for the murder of two men was a CIA agent and a former employee of the private security firm Blackwater, now called Xe Services. Up until Monday, the Obama administration had insisted Raymond Davis was a diplomat who had acted in self defense. The arrest of Davis has soured relations between the United States and Pakistan, and revealed a web of covert U.S. operations inside the country, part of a secret war run by the C.I.A. The _Guardian_ of London first reported Davis’ CIA link on Sunday and noted that many U.S. news outlets knew about his connection to the CIA, but did not report on it at the request of U.S. officials. We speak with Declan Walsh, the Pakistan correspondent for the _Guardian_, who first broke the story.

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With an $80 Billion Budget, How Did Our Intel Agencies Fail to See the Revolution That Exploded in Egypt?

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Tom Engelhardt - Feb. 17 (News Analysis) - After 30 years as Washington’s eyes and ears in Cairo, it turns out that the CIA didn’t have an insider’s clue about Mubarak’s psychology. No wonder our fabulous “community” of intelligence analysts and operatives was napping when history came calling. And maybe it’s fortunate for us that the future can’t be bought, that no matter how much money a declining superpower puts on the barrelhead, it’s as likely to be surprised as any of us; in fact, deeply entrenched in the stalest of Washington thinking, our intelligence agencies may have been even more surprised than most of us by what the future had in store. In our startlingly brain-dead American world, that realization in itself should have felt like a breath of fresh air as one startling Egyptian event after another unfolded.

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Anna Ardin, Julian Assange Rape Accuser, May Have Ceased Pursuing Claims

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Dec. 09 (News) - The rape accusations against Julian Assange may be falling apart as one of his accusers leaves Sweden. Anna Ardin, one of two women behind the rape charges against the WIkiLeaks founder, may no longer be cooperating with prosecutors, the Australian website Crikey reports.

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Secret report: CIA created 'safe haven' for Nazis

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Ynetnews - By Yitzhak Benhorin - Nov. 14 (Special Report) - The Central Intelligence Agency created a “safe haven” in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II for intelligence gathering purposes, the New York Times revealed Sunday, citing a 600-page report "which the Justice Department has tried to keep secret for four years."

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The Financial Puzzle Behind 9/11

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By David DeGraw - Oct. 22 (Special Report) - During the 1980s and early ’90s, the CIA worked in partnership with BCCI in what was, at the time, the agency’s largest covert operation ever, pumping an estimated $10 billion into funding the Afghan mujahedeen. Through this operation, Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network was formed. Bin Laden had accounts in BCCI and ran CIA/BCCI-funded camps.

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Gagged for 6 Years, Nick Merrill Speaks Out on Landmark Court Struggle Against FBI's National Security Letters

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Nick Merrill, Amy Goodman, George Christian - Aug. 11 (Special Report) - For six years the FBI has barred a New York man from revealing that the agency had ordered him to hand over personal information about clients of his Internet start-up. Finally allowed to speak, Nick Merril joins us in his first broadcast interview to talk about how he challenged the FBI's use of national security letters. We also speak with Connecticut librarian George Christian. He and three other librarians also sued the US government after receiving a National Security Letter demanding information about library patrons.

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"Top Secret America" _Washington Post_ Investigation Reveals Massive, Unmanageable, Outsourced US Intelligence System

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Bill Arkin - Jul. 19 (Investigative Report) - An explosive investigative series published in the Washington Post today begins, "The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." Among the findings: An estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances. More than 1,200 government organizations and nearly 2,000 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in 10,000 locations. We speak with one of the co-authors of the series, Bill Arkin.

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