Among his many accomplishments in life, the late George H. W. Bush was a secret intelligence professional. The statesman, who will lie in state in the Capitol through Wednesday, was a covert operator par excellence. As the first and only CIA director to ever occupy the White House, Bush could be called America’s most successful...
Category: CIA
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Influence Operation: ACLU Sues for Records of the CIA’s Haspel Nomination Campaign
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the CIA for records pertaining to the Agency’s campaign to support Gina Haspel’s nomination as director of the agency. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed Thursday, seeks records related to “Haspel’s potential conflict of interest in serving as the classification authority over information about her own role in...
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Hear No Evil: White House Barred Haspel from Senate Briefing on Saudi Arabia
President Trump didn’t want CIA director Gina Haspel to brief U.S. Senators on the agency’s assessment of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. “We were told during this briefing that it was the direction of the White House that she not attend,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters after the briefing. “I cannot recall a briefing...
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Haspel Out of Step With Trump’s Embrace of the Notorious MBS
The CIA and Gina Haspel loom as an obstacle to President Trump’s Saudi rescue mission. The White House wants to exonerate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi . This is not only because MbS has a tender filial bond with Jared Kushner, but also because the president and his cabinet want...
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Trump Ramped Up Drone Strikes in America’s Shadow Wars
From the Daily Beast: In 2009 and 2010, Obama launched 186 drone strikes on Yemen, Somalia, and especially Pakistan. Donald Trump’s drone strikes during his own first two years on the three pivotal undeclared battlefields, however, eclipse Obama’s—but without a corresponding reputation for robot-delivered bloodshed, or even anyone taking much notice. In 2017 and 2018...