I first spent time with Dan Ellsberg at a writer’s retreat in 2016. I was writing The Ghost about counterintelligence chief James Angleton. I asked Ellsberg about him and quickly learned everything I heard about Ellsberg was true. He is a profound student of U.S. policy and U.S. empire. He combines an encyclopedic yet personal...
Category: News
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CIA Thought Putin Would Quickly Conquer Ukraine
U.S. intelligence reports at the time predicted that Kyiv would fall quickly, perhaps in a week or two at the most. The predictions spurred the Biden administration to secretly withdraw some key U.S. intelligence assets from Ukraine, including covert former special operations personnel on contract with the CIA, the current and former officials said. Their account...
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DHS Scrambles to Counter Violent Extremism in America
Federal efforts to counter violent extremism “aim to educate and prevent radicalization before a crime or terrorist act transpires, and differ from counterterrorism efforts such as collecting evidence and making arrests before an event has occurred,” according to the Government Accountability Office, or GAO. In 2017 GAO noted the programs had suffered from a lack of...
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Vicious Blame Game Erupts Among Putin’s Security Forces
Sergei Beseda, one of the heads of the Fifth Service of the FSB, who gathers political intelligence on Ukraine and cultivates the pro-Kremlin opposition in Kyiv. The general was sent to the infamous Lefortovo prison in Moscow, which has had a horrible reputation since the Stalin purges — innumerable victims have been murdered in the...
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Sex, Lies, and UFOs: Pentagon Counterintelligence Chief Ousted
In May 2021, Reid was named in yet another formal IG complaint, this time involving former Director of National Programs Special Management Staff at OUSD(I&S), Luis Elizondo. In his complaint, Elizondo accused Reid of playing a central role in obfuscating information regarding the Pentagon’s intriguing newfound interest in “unidentified aerial phenomena,” more commonly known as...