governmentality

CIA Ops Simultaneously Working in the Private Sector

Politico is reporting today that the CIA has a policy in place that permits operatives to use their expertise by working for private companies on the side, allowing top bidders to gain access to the country's top-level intelligence talent.

Critics of the policy point to the intelligence failures that the U.S. seems to face all too often. Defenders argue that approval must be given by the CIA only after a detailed description of the work is provided.

And further that the policy prevents brain-drain at the CIA:

But sources familiar with the CIA’s moonlighting policy defend it as a vital tool to prevent brain-drain at Langley, which has seen an exodus of highly trained, badly needed intelligence officers to the private sector, where they can easily double or even triple their government salaries. The policy gives agents a chance to earn more while still staying on the government payroll.

But still, in true CIA fashion...

There is much about the policy that is unclear, including how many officers have availed themselves of it, how long it has been in place and what types of outside employment have been allowed. The CIA declined to provide additional details.

Read the full report at Politico.

Suicide Attack on Iran's Revolutionary Guards by U.S.-Backed Group Kills 29

A suicide bomber blew himself up, killing 29 people including a number of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and tribal leaders, according to an AFP report.

What the AFP report does not discuss is the relationship between the United States (chiefly through the CIA) and Jundallah, the group reportedly responsible for attack. Brian Ross and Christopher Isham reported on this relationship between the U.S. and Jundallah in 2007.

It's clear that the U.S. has been advising Jundallah for the last several years, but what's unclear is the kind of monetary or logistical assistance the U.S. has been offering.

Iran, without being specific, was quick to point out the American role in all of this.

Iran's parliament speaker said the United States was behind the attack, while the Guards accused Western powers of carrying out the assault, the deadliest against them since a bombing in February 2007 in the same province killed 13 people.

"Based on the information... as a result of today's terrorist action... so far 29 people have been martyred and 28 have been wounded," the interior ministry said on its website.

[...]

"We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action. This is the sign of America's animosity against our country," Larijani said.

"Mr. Obama has said he will extend his hand towards Iran, but with this terrorist action he has burned his hand," he said referring to US President Barack Obama's repeated diplomatic overtures to Tehran.

Maybe tomorrow we can discuss all the levels of hypocrisy here.

White House: Cheney Got Facts Wrong on Interrogations

Ex-CIA Station Chief Charged with Rape

Remember earlier this year when that CIA station chief was accused of sexual assault, rape and videotaping it all?

Well, six months later and he's finally charged. And he could face life in prison if convicted according to the Department of Justice. 

From Reuters:

Andrew Warren, 41, was charged with one count of sexual abuse for allegedly assaulting a woman, who was not named, on Feb. 17, 2008. The federal grand jury's indictment was returned under seal on June 18 and made public on Tuesday.

The State Department earlier this year confirmed that the United States was investigating allegations that the CIA station chief in Algeria had raped at least two Muslim women after lacing their drinks with a drug.

The indictment charged that the victim was "incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct and was physically incapable of declining participating in, or communicating unwillingness to engage in the sexual act."

After surrendering his passport, Warren was released.

Hide and Seek: ex-CIA Weapons Inspector

After a 9 month hold up with CIA reviewers, Charles Duefler's book, Hide and Seek, is finally out. Duefler, the former U.N. weapons inspector who then headed the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group, offers some great insight and even better storytelling.

Washington Post reports:

During his final days in U.S. captivity, Saddam Hussein wrote poetry, flirted with American nurses, expressed his desire to restart a nuclear weapons program and asked to be put to death by firing squad like a soldier, not hanged like a common criminal, according to a new book by Charles A. Duelfer, who was the CIA's top weapons investigator in Iraq.

CIA Station Chief in Algeria Accused of Rapes

ABC News is reporting that the CIA Station Chief in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly slipping a knockout drug into the drinks of at least two Muslim women and then raping them, all the while videotaping.

The suspect in the case is identified as Andrew Warren in an affidavit for a search warrant filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. by an investigator for the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service.

Officials say the 41-year old Warren, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.

According to the affidavit, the two women "reported the allegations in this affidavit independently of each other."

You will notice that there are significant time gaps between the time of the incidences, the reporting of the incidences and the legal action taken. I'll be curious to see how this investigation plays out. Who was protecting Warren?

Was he moved from his post in Egypt to Algeria because of similar allegations? It seems he conducted himself this way in Egypt, but was he moved instead of removed? If so, who did it?

Could there be any worse symbol of the way the United States operates in the Middle East? After the CIA sending rockets into Pakistan and now this, it's almost like they're trying to ruin Obama's attempts to make better relations in the region.

Here's the 17-page affidavit. (Some readers have notified me that they are having problems with this link. It's also available on the story's page. Link below.)

Read the full report here.

George Tenet Drunk In Prince Bandar's Pool, Cursing Neocons

UPDATE

Beresford forwarded George Tenet's statement on the matter:

Tyler approached me in June of 2007 with this bogus story. Initially he told me that his sources told him that I was allegedly staying at Prince Bandar’s home in Riyadh alone when the supposed incident happened. I informed him that I had never stayed at Bandar’s home alone and on the date in question was accompanied by two senior U.S. intelligence officials and my full contingent of security staff. 

And then he provides this strange statement, supposedly from Prince Bandar's office.

I'm going to check around on this a bit. More soon!

ORIGINAL POST

Jeffrey Goldberg is reading Patrick Tyler's new book and look what he found:

An enraged George Tenet, drunk on scotch, flailing about Prince Bandar's Riyadh pool, screaming about the Bush Administration officials who were just then trying to pin the Iraq WMD fiasco on him ...Tyler reports in a footnote that, when asked, Tenet initially denied staying at Prince Bandar's palace, then denied that he had said anything in the pool. "He disputed the remarks attributed to him and denied that his memory might have been affected by the amount of alcohol he was reported to have consumed on top of a sleeping pill," Tyler reports.

Tyler reports:

"According to one witness, he mocked the neoconservatives in the Bush administration and their alignment with the right wing of Israel's political establishment, referring to them with exasperation as, "the Jews."

Read Goldberg's post here.

Secretary Of State Or CIA, Not Obama

In the middle of reporting on the situation in India, MSNBC decided to have a couple of experts discuss what Obama should say/do.

Ummm...nothing?

I'm happy to talk about Obama, but this just isn't his place. This is an actual crisis, not a time to ask for the president-elect's plans or ideas. Later, fine. For now, we need to hear from the Condi Rice and the CIA to find out more about the terrorist group and what State is going to do to aid India.

I'll post the video or the transcript of the absolutely ridiculous discussion as it becomes available.