SpyTalk: February 27, 2011 - March 5, 2011

Couples, CIA-style

Robert Baer, whose CIA exploits and exasperations in the Middle East were immortalized in the 2005 George Clooney thriller "Syriana", has a new role: conjugal co-author. “The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story,” Baer’s fifth book, is his...

By Jeff Stein  | March 4, 2011; 4:21 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (1)
Categories:  Entertainment, Foreign policy, Intelligence, Politics  | Tags:  Syriana; The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story; See No Evil  
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Libya: What should CIA be doing?

With the future of Libya still in the balance, some CIA operations veterans think it’s well past time the spy agency went past just trying to keep tabs on what’s going on and arm the rebels. “This guy, Gaddafi, has...

By Jeff Stein  | March 3, 2011; 8:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (5)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Military  | Tags:  Moammar Gaddafi; Charles Faddis; Art Keller  
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Rumsfeld complained of 'low level' GTMO prisoners, memo reveals

A newly found 2003 memo by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appears to directly contradict claims that Guantanamo held only the “worst of the worst” suspected terrorists. “We need to stop populating Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) with low-level enemy combatants,” Rumsfeld...

By Jeff Stein  | March 3, 2011; 7:30 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (1)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Lawandcourts, Military  
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Spy bloggers not ‘friending’ U.S. targets, Centcom says

The U.S. Central Command says its new “Persona” social media "infiltration" software is designed to cozy up to extremist bloggers overseas, not law-abiding Americans chatting on Facebook or similar sites. Earlier this month, the Web buzzed with a report that...

By Jeff Stein  | March 2, 2011; 1:31 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (17)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Media, Military  | Tags:  Gen. David Petraeus; Aaron Barr; HBGary Federal; Gen. Michael V. Hayden; Shannen L. Rossmiller  
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Gaddafi poison-gas videos fakes or frauds

You Tube videos purporting to show Moammar Gaddafi’s preparations for using chemical weapons on protesters are either crude propaganda or the product of Libyans who simply don’t know what they are looking at--or both, experts say. One of the videos...

By Jeff Stein  | March 1, 2011; 2:55 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Media, Military  
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Libya's poison gas unaffected by turmoil, official says

A senior administration official said Monday that the White House had no reason to believe the current turmoil in Libya has made its chemical weapons stockpiles more vulnerable to theft. Experts believe that Libya destroyed about 3,300 bombshells designed to...

By Jeff Stein  | February 28, 2011; 3:30 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Military  
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Musa Kusa, Libya's ‘envoy of death,’ escapes UN sanctions list

Musa Kusa, the Libyan foreign minister who became known as “the envoy of death,” is not on the United Nations sanctions list, a notable omission that has lit up the exile tweetersphere. Kusa earned the grisly moniker years ago for...

By Jeff Stein  | February 28, 2011; 8:39 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (3)
Categories:  Foreign policy, Intelligence, Lawandcourts  | Tags:  Musa Kusa; Moammar Gaddafi; President Obama  
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