Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
259 Articles
Guest Post: Intelligence Legalism and the Torture Report
As I was reading the SSCI’s torture report last week, my mind went back to two Just Security posts last month (here and here), in which I argued that the U.S. Intelligence Community…
Why Do We Talk About Torture The Way We Do?
Editors’ Note: The following post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from…
The Torture Report is Only the First Step
Ed Note. This piece also appears in Foreign Policy. Great nations admit and learn from their mistakes. The United States took a major step forward this week with the long-delayed…
Five Torturous Steps to Hell
In a short and early section of the SSCI’s redacted summary of its torture report, we can read about the step-by-step descent from humanity to inhumanity, from the 20th century…
The Torture Report and the “Glomar Fig Leaf”
The Glomar Explorer, the CIA ship after which the much-abused legal doctrine is named Buried in the SSCI’s report is an arresting passage that suggests that the CIA was quietly…
Guest Post: They Knew It Was Illegal
The Senate Intelligence Committee report released December 9 confirms many already-reported facts about the CIA torture program, including the agency’s use of brutal stress positions,…
The Senate Torture Report Should Name Victims
The Senate Intelligence Committee finally appears ready to release a redacted summary of its report on CIA torture and abuse of suspected terrorists. The release of this document…
East Africa Embassy Bombing Defendant Contests Miranda Waiver
In the last scheduled pre-trial hearing for alleged al-Qaeda operative known as Anas al-Libi, the defendant took the witness stand on Wednesday to contest the United States government’s…
CIA Report: Giving Rebels Weapons Without Direct Support Rarely Helps
This morning, the New York Times ran a story about an internal CIA study commissioned in the last two years that found the agency’s historic efforts to arm rebels have had a…
A Briefing on European Developments in Accounting for and Advancing Counterterrorism Actions
Fallout from European action during the “War on Terror” is ongoing in national and regional courts. The European Court of Human Rights has taken up a number of cases…
United States Stops Spying on Western Europe—for Now
The CIA has paused its espionage activities against “friendly governments in Western Europe,” according to a report by the Associated Press and ABC News that broke on Sept.…
The Erosion of a Secret
Drone Timeline (Click to Enlarge) In connection with an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the CIA has…