Why has American been at war for the entire 21st century? What accounts for the reality of “endless wars,” a phrase that even President Biden used to justify U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan? One obvious answer is that the Washington foreign policymaking class–a community now known as “the Blob” to critics–favors military interventions and rejects non-military...
Author: Jefferson Morley (Jefferson Morley)
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The CIA Debated Kidnapping or Killing Julian Assange
This more than solid scoop comes from the very reliable Zach Dorfman, Sean D. Naylor and Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News. While Assange had been on the radar of U.S. intelligence agencies for years, these plans for an all-out war against him were sparked by WikiLeaks’ ongoing publication of extraordinarily sensitive CIA hacking tools, known collectively as “Vault...
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Spy Talk: 5 Ways to Read an Intelligence Report
From the reliable SpyTalk, retired CIA official Ronald Marks has some commonsense advice for those trying to understand the intelligence process. First of all, do remember it is analysis, not crystal ball gazing. Never in my long history with the CIA has there been one perfect piece of information that tells the whole story. The...
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A Short Course in the CIA’s Use of Torture
From What does it take to excite America’s moral nerve endings? Bombing kids with cluster bombs or shredding wedding parties with drone attacks doesn’t seem to do it any more. Nor does torture. Oh, sure, there was a collective gasp when lurid photos of American soldiers laughing as they prodded naked Iraqi captives with electrodes...
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Sidney Gottlieb: Mastermind of MKULTRA
“He was creator and destroyer, an outlaw who served power, a gentle hearted torturer… above all he was an instrument of history,” writes Stephen Kinzer of Sidney Gottlieb, chief of the CIA’s mind control program notoriously known as MKULTRA. The revelations of Kinzer’s fascinating and disturbing biography, Poisoner in Chief, are unsettling enough. Kinzer, former...