CIA news stories on Newser

Blackwater Waging 'Secret War' in Pakistan

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 3:33:59 CST

An elite team of Blackwater operatives have been doing the CIA's dirty work in Pakistan, a Nation investigation finds. The team plans operations, including "snatch-and-grab" assassinations and drone strikes from a secret base in Karachi run by US Joint Special Operations Command, according to a senior source with direct involvement...

CIA Officer: We 'Broke the Law' With Kidnapping

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:30:37 CST

One of the CIA agents convicted in Italy today of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in 2003 says the mission "broke the law" and that she feels "abandoned and betrayed" by the US government. The case involving ex-officer Sabrina DeSousa and 22 other Americans is the first challenge to the US...

Italy Convicts CIA Agents of Kidnapping

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:12:48 CST

An Italian judge today convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street, in a landmark case involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program in the war on terrorism. Judge Oscar Magi acquitted three other Americans, citing diplomatic immunity. Former Milan CIA station chief Robert...

'Tortured' Rendition Victim Told He Can't Sue

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 4:01:55 CST

A Canadian citizen sent to Syria after being mistakenly arrested at JFK Airport cannot sue US authorities, a court has ruled. Maher Arar, who says he was tortured during the year he was held in Syrian custody, was told by a New York court that it has no legal right...

Cheney: Wilson Mission Was CIA 'Amateur Hour'

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:00:00 CDT

Dick Cheney's memory may have been a little iffy about the Valerie Plame leak, but Politico reports that the former veep left no room for doubt about his opinion of her husband's trip to Niger to investigate an Iraqi purchase of plutonium. "It was amateur hour out at the CIA,...

Cheney on Plame Leak: I Can't Recall

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:02:07 CDT

After years of effort by the Bush and Obama administrations to keep documents related to the CIA leak case secret, redacted portions of the special prosecutor’s 2004 interview with Dick Cheney released today show plenty of nothing. The then-VP apparently suffered acute memory loss: Cheney told Patrick Fitzgerald he couldn't...

CIA Kept Prisoners Alive So It Could Torture More

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:37:04 CDT

Detainees tortured to the brink of death were sometimes given medical treatment to keep them alive so CIA operatives could torture them further, a human-rights lawyer alleges. “The CIA engaged in some horrendous abuses, but they appear to have taken precautions to have actually prevented people from dying—which might...

Karzai's Brother a Bad Investment for CIA

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:32:19 CDT

No one in Afghanistan will be shocked by the allegations that Ahmed Wali Karzai is a drug runner on the CIA payroll, writes Aryn Baker. The accusations are old news, and Aghans have always figured brother Hamid for a US stooge anyway. But it’s probably fairly shocking to Americans, “who...

UN to US: Drone Attacks Could Be Unlawful

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:58:46 CDT

A UN human rights watchdog has some strong misgivings about the CIA drone attacks on suspected terrorists in Pakistan that have killed 600 people since last year. "Extralegal executions" are a violation of international law, Philip Alston tells the BBC. “These Predators are being...