SpyTalk: September 26, 2010 - October 2, 2010

Blackwater firm partners with State Dept., CIA insiders

Nothing like a new suit of clothes -- and a good tailor -- for a fresh start. So it seems for the firm formerly known as Blackwater, which has won yet another government security contract, despite its long and continuing...

By Jeff Stein  | October 1, 2010; 5:41 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (14)
Categories:  Financial/business, Intelligence, Lawandcourts  | Tags:  Erik Prince, International Development Solutions, U.S. Training Center  
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CIA hired Karzai brother before 9/11, Woodward says

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half-brother of Afghanistan’s president and boss of the strategically important Kandahar province, has been on the CIA payroll for over a decade, Bob Woodward writes in his new book, “Obama’s Wars.” By the fall of 2008,...

By Jeff Stein  | September 30, 2010; 7:13 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Media  
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Backchannel Chatter: DHS badges don’t get no respect

More than seven years after 22 agencies were squished together to create the Department of Homeland Security, togetherness remains a dream. Take security badges. Early last year a study showed that most agencies had just begun to implement Homeland Security...

By Jeff Stein  | September 29, 2010; 9:35 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (3)
Categories:  Backchannel chatter, Homeland Security, Intelligence  
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Pelosi: No ‘retreat’ on GAO and spy agencies

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today praised the intelligence authorization bill passed by the Senate last night for providing “a framework for” congressional investigators to look at the spy agencies’ books. The White House had threatened to veto any bill that...

By Jeff Stein  | September 28, 2010; 8:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
Categories:  Congress, Intelligence, Lawandcourts, Politics  
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Senate approves intelligence authorization bill

Congressional advocates of more CIA oversight have a Holy Grail of sorts within sight -- a new intelligence authorization bill. The last one was passed in 2004. Key congressional Democrats confirmed Monday that Senate and House Intelligence committee leaders and...

By Jeff Stein  | September 27, 2010; 6:10 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (5)
Categories:  Congress, Intelligence  | Tags:  Anna G. Eshoo, GAO, Nancy Pelosi  
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FBI cheating confirmed by Justice Department

The Justice Department said Monday it found "a significant number of FBI employees engaged in some form of improper conduct or cheating" on an exam and suggested the scandal may eventually spread far beyond the four field offices it investigated.

By Jeff Stein  | September 27, 2010; 1:40 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (9)
Categories:  Intelligence, Justice/FBI  | Tags:  Robert S. Mueller III  
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