CIA Archives - Page 5 of 12 - Foreign Policy In Focus

Has the Rendition Program Disappeared?

by V. Noah Gimbel | Jun 16, 2011

The day after Barack Obama took office, he signed a series of executive orders mandating the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as the global network of secret, CIA-run “black site” prisons. In addition, he committed the United States to observe the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. More than two years later, the Obama administration has not followed through on most of these promises, even reversing several commitments.

Raymond Davis Incident Shows How Tangled U.S.-Pakistan Web Is

by Conn Hallinan | Feb 28, 2011

Raymond Davis’s shootings in self defense shoot went beyond not only preventive, but preemptive. Conn Hallinan at the Foreign Policy in Focus blog Focal Points.

Obits for “Fabled Hero” of Vietnam War, Vang Pao, Omit CIA Drug Connection

by Conn Hallinan | Jan 11, 2011

Van Pao’s “secret army” was financed by the CIA as part of the war against North Vietnam. Is the U.S. also tolerating and empowering drug lords in Afghanistan?

Repackaging Assassination

by John Feffer | Sep 7, 2010

Greetings from Yemen. It’s been a year since I corresponded directly with you. Perhaps you remember my 2009 memo in which I recommended outsourcing our assassinations – er, sorry, our “targeted killings” – to China. I suggested that China would do a better job of it than Blackwater. I never received a reply from you. I trust that this memo had nothing to do with my transfer from Shanghai to Sana’a. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to be in the thick of things here in Yemen. But I sometimes miss pork dumplings as well as reliable electricity and running water.

My Weak Muslim President

by John Feffer | Aug 31, 2010

Except for a few residual Know-Nothings, Americans wouldn’t think twice about voting for a Catholic president. In the last election, President Obama abolished the presidential race taboo. And we’re likely to have a woman president in the next decade or so. Of course, we haven’t elected a Catholic since Kennedy, we might not break the race barrier again for a while, and let’s hope our first woman president isn’t Mama Grizzly herself.

Spy vs. Spy

by John Feffer | Jul 13, 2010

In espionage, as in sports, we generally see the heroism of our side and the perfidy of the opponent. The latest spy scandal involving the Russian “sleepers” is a case in point.

Outraged by Drone Strikes? Some Drone Operators Are Too

by Russ Wellen | Jun 3, 2010

Some CIA officers involved in the agency’s drone strikes program in Pakistan and elsewhere are privately expressing their opposition to the program within the agency, because it is helping al Qaeda and its allies recruit.

The CIA’s Lawyer Problem

by John Prados | Mar 8, 2010

Citizens on both sides of the political divide are outraged at the recently released Department of Justice report on the Bush administration’s torture memos, and what it shows about the lawyers who compiled those legal weapons and subverted the law. But while debate rages over whether or not legal pugilists John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee ought to be subjected to disciplinary action for their loose interpretation of laws prohibiting torture, the media is ignoring an equally disturbing issue. Buried in the weighty study from the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is evidence that points directly at the Central Intelligence Agency. When it came to “enhanced interrogation techniques” — the carefully parsed phrase for torture — the lawyers at Langley don’t seem to have applied a sniff test to these controversial policies.

CIA Accountability Hits New Lows

by John Prados | Feb 19, 2010

In a virtually unnoticed exchange on February 3, Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) called the CIA to task for its incredibly ham-fisted handling of an April 20, 2001 incident in Peru. In collaboration with a CIA aircrew working as part of a joint program to interdict drug trafficking, the Peruvian air force shot down a plane carrying an American missionary family, killing two. In an angry tone, the Republican congressman denounced the CIA’s response, released the actual film of the incident, and triggered an official statement from the agency — conveniently left off the CIA website to attract as little attention as possible.

The Intelligence Oversight Mess

by John Feffer, John Prados | Jul 20, 2009

Americans recently learned that the CIA dreamed up a plan to use “hit teams” of assassins to wipe out terrorist leaders and gather intelligence about them. More than that, congressional overseers of intelligence were deliberately kept in the dark, per orders from Vice President Richard Cheney.