“I started off in Washington at the Central Intelligence Agency and went to law school at night while I was working at CIA,” recalled William Barr in a 2001 oral history for the University of Virginia. The new Attorney General, approved by the Senate on Thursday, has what Trump might call “deep state” credentials. Barr...
Category: CIA
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A Right-Wing Bubble Bursts: Durham Talks and Brennan Walks
The soft sobbing sounds you hear come right-wing media scribes who are crying in their beer. For months, the faithful tribunes of Trumpism have been hyperventilating about the Justice Department’s investigation of the FBI and CIA’s decision to investigate the Trump-Russia contacts in 2016. On the scarcest of evidence these partisans have hyped the possibilty...
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Haspel Hangs on at CIA, With Little Support from White House or Democrats
From the reliable James Risen and Matthew Cole at The Intercept. CIA director Gina Haspel confided to a former colleague that she wouldn’t be surprised if Trump replaced her by September. Haspel has tried to placate the president and hindered her own agency in the process. Haspel’s efforts to appease Trump while shielding the CIA...
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Brennan Is Reportedly Not a Target of John Durham investigation
If this Washington Examiner report proves to be true, it will be a bitter pill for right-wing media. The Examiner and other pro-Trump outlets have talked themselves into believing, on the basis of very little evidence, that Durham had a criminal case against former CIA director John Brennan. The Obama-era CIA director has been told...
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The Pro-Trump CIA Man: QAnon Madness and Upward Failure
Michael Scheuer is a pure product of the CIA. A career operations officer, he ran the first agency task force that hunted Osama bin Laden. He authored the agency’s rendition program, which kidnapped suspected terrorists (and sometimes innocent people) and tortured them. He combined a deep knowledge of Islamic jihadist movements with a willingness to...