SpyTalk: May 9, 2010 - May 15, 2010

Report advises Africa-based GIs: Mind the nomads

Some things never change: American GIs have always pitched in to help the locals with medical clinics and digging wells. In the Horn of Africa task force, however, where about 1,650 military and civilians based in Djibouti work quietly on...

By Jeff Stein  | May 14, 2010; 8:35 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
Categories:  Intelligence  
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How will the CIA deal with 'rendition' supervisor?

The CIA is apparently standing by the counterterrorism official who supervised the “extraordinary rendition” and harsh treatment of an innocent man six years ago, even as Spanish prosecutors stir up new interest in the case with their request for the...

By Jeff Stein  | May 14, 2010; 4:04 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
Categories:  Intelligence, Justice/FBI  
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Backchannel chatter: Secrets of the leaks trade

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) wants to see how the 1917 Espionage Act can be updated to reflect the cottage industry of official Washington: leaking. One of the witnesses at a hearing Cardin held Wednesday, former CIA general counsel Jeffrey...

By Jeff Stein  | May 13, 2010; 5:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
Categories:  Backchannel chatter, Intelligence, Justice/FBI  
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Spanish prosecutors want 13 CIA agents arrested

Spanish prosecutors are asking a judge to issue arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents who they believe were involved in the spy agency’s 2004 “extraordinary rendition” of a German citizen, according to Spain's El Pais newspaper. Prosecutors claim jurisdiction in...

By Jeff Stein  | May 12, 2010; 6:40 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (1)
Categories:  Intelligence, Justice/FBI  
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Chair of homeland security panel blasts DHS intelligence chief

Well, that didn’t take long. As we reported last night, DHS intelligence chiefs were expected to take some heat Wednesday morning at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, chaired by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.). But the hearing had hardly opened...

By Jeff Stein  | May 12, 2010; 11:20 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (3)
Categories:  Intelligence, _Admin  
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DHS intelligence officials face Hill questions

Top DHS intelligence officials could get some heat on Capitol Hill on Wednesday about a string of near homeland security disasters, from the attempted sabotage of a Northwest Airlines flight last December to the improvised bomb left in an SUV...

By Jeff Stein  | May 11, 2010; 9:34 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (13)
Categories:  Intelligence  
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Rosen claims AIPAC made promises in spy case

Steve Rosen is flashing a new weapon in his defamation suit against his former employer, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful lobbying group usually referred to as AIPAC. Rosen, a central figure in the Israeli espionage scandal that...

By Jeff Stein  | May 11, 2010; 12:21 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (8)
Categories:  Intelligence, Justice/FBI  
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Holder & Company jump the gun on Shahzad

"I'd rather be an unemployed musician than an unemployed pipe fitter," one band member says to another in The Commitments, the story of struggling rock musicians in hardscrabble Dublin. I don’t know how much Faisal Shahzad’s unemployment played a role...

By Jeff Stein  | May 10, 2010; 7:00 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (10)
Categories:  Intelligence, Justice/FBI, Military  
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