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Central Intelligence Agency

Obama Justice Department Subpoenas New York Times Reporter In CIA Leak Case

Ryan J. Reilly | May 24, 2011, 11:25AM

The Obama administration's Justice Department has taken the extraordinary step of subpoenaing a journalist in a leak case against a former CIA operative.

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Topics: CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, James Risen, Jeffrey Sterling, Justice Department, Leaks

Wikileaks Releases Docs Showing Pakistan-Taliban Cooperation Against U.S. In Afghanstan

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 9:50AM

Soldiers in Afghanistan

The web site Wikileaks has released 92,000 documents related to the Afghanistan War, many of them classified, that paint a bleak picture of the ongoing war.

Wikileaks released the documents, which amount to a daily war diary dating from 2004 to 2009, to the New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian, in addition to publishing them online themselves.

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Topics: Afghanistan, Central Intelligence Agency, Pakistan, U.S. Military, War In Afghanistan, War on Terror, Wikileaks

Military Contractors

WaPo: U.S. Intelligence System Too Massive To Be Effective

Rachel Slajda | July 19, 2010, 9:55AM

The Pentagon

The Washington Post's big story on the country's sprawling intelligence system and the military contractors it employs -- the same story that caused the State Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence concern over what it reveals -- was published today.

The two-year project, compiled from public records, finds that the U.S. intelligence system has grown so much since Sept. 11, 2001, that it has become too big to manage or even fully understand.

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Topics: Central Intelligence Agency, DNI, Defense Department, Intelligence, Military Contractors

Torture

Bybee: CIA Used Some Techniques We Didn't Authorize

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2010, 10:59AM

Jay Bybee

In House Judiciary Committee testimony released yesterday, former Bush DOJ lawyer Jay Bybee said he hadn't authorized all of the enhanced interrogation techniques the CIA used -- a point that is at the heart of the criminal investigation into the CIA's use of torture.

Bybee, one of the authors of the infamous torture memos that authorized the use of waterboarding and other techniques, testified before the committee in May.

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Topics: Bush Administration, Central Intelligence Agency, House Judiciary, Jay Bybee, Office of Legal Counsel, Torture

Blackwater

Obama Just Can't Quit Blackwater

Justin Elliott | June 28, 2010, 12:02PM

A Blackwater employee

In fairness, Barack Obama never said he wanted to quit Blackwater. But it's still notable that the troubled firm made famous by helping to fight George W. Bush's wars has become a permanent part of the U.S. foreign policy tableau, with news of two big contracts issued to the firm by the Obama Administration in recent weeks.

CIA chief Leon Panetta, whose agency's $100 million contract with Blackwater for security in Afghanistan was recently revealed, explained on ABC Sunday (emphasis ours):

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Topics: Barack Obama, Blackwater, Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, Military Contractors, Obama Administration, Xe

Justice Department

Holder: CIA Torture Review Almost Done

Justin Elliott | June 18, 2010, 11:23AM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General said Thursday evening that the Justice Department prosecutor conducting a review of torture of detainees by the CIA, which was launched last August, is "close to the end of the time that he needs and will be making some recommendations to me," Main Justice reports.

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Topics: Central Intelligence Agency, Eric Holder, John Durham, Justice Department, Torture

Fort Hood Shootings

Rep. Hoekstra Accuses Obama Admin Of Withholding Information On Hasan -- Sort Of

Justin Elliott | November 9, 2009, 2:43PM

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and CIA Director Leon Panetta

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) is blasting President Obama for withholding from the Congressional intelligence committees information on the Fort Hood killings suspect, while at the same time acknowledging the leaders of those panels -- including Hoekstra himself -- have indeed been briefed on Nidal Malik Hasan.

"President Obama said people should not jump to conclusions about what happened at Fort Hood, but the administration is in possession of critical information related to the attack that they are refusing to release to Congress or the American people," Hoekstra said in a statement.

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Topics: Al Qaeda, CIA, Central Intelligence Agency, Fort Hood, Fort Hood Shootings, Leon Panetta, Nidal Malik Hasan, Pete Hoekstra

Nidal Malik Hasan

CIA Calls ABC Report That It Refused To Brief Congress On Fort Hood Suspect Bogus

Justin Elliott | November 9, 2009, 10:20AM

Major Nidal Malik Hasan

The CIA is denying an ABC News report that the agency has refused to brief Congress on any knowledge it has about Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major suspected in the shootings at Fort Hood last week.

"This is a law enforcement investigation, in which other agencies -- not the CIA -- have the lead. Any suggestion that the CIA refused to brief Congress is flat wrong," CIA spokesman George Little tells TPMmuckraker in a statement.

ABC's Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, and Brian Ross quoted an anonymous senior lawmaker as saying "the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts."