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Declassified Cable: Pakistani Intelligence Agency Funded Deadly Attack on CIA Personnel. US Gov’t Won’t Comment

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The_CIA_Original_Headquarters_BuildingIt was the deadliest attack sustained by the CIA in 26 years, and according to a just-declassified U.S. intelligence cable, Pakistan’s military intelligence agency paid a notorious Islamist terror group $200,000 to carry it out.

State Department spokesman John Kirby, asked about the claim Thursday, declined to “speak about intelligence matters.”

The shock allegation – that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate financed the Haqqani network’s suicide bombing that killed seven CIA employees at Camp Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan on December 30, 2009 – is contained in a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document, marked secret and dated February 6 of the following year.

It was obtained, in heavily-redacted form, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute at The George Washington University.

Claims about collusion between the ISI and terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan are not new, but the document indicates that the military intelligence agency of a major recipient of U.S. military funding directly financed the costliest attack against CIA personnel since Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. (Eight CIA personnel were among 17 Americans killed in Beirut, where a total of 63 people died.) (Read more from “Declassified Cable: Pakistani Intelligence Agency Funded Deadly Attack on CIA Personnel. US Gov’t Won’t Comment” HERE)

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Top Journalist Admits Mainstream Media Is Completely Fake: ‘We All Lie for the CIA’ [+video]

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With the increasing propaganda wars, we thought a reminder of just how naive many Westerners are when it comes to their news-feed. As Arjun Walia, of GlobalResearch.ca, notes, Dr. Ulfkotte went on public television stating that he was forced to publish the works of intelligence agents under his own name, also adding that noncompliance with these orders would result in him losing his job.

He recently made an appearance on RT news to share these facts:

I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public.

But seeing right now within the last months how the German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia — this is a point of no return and I’m going to stand up and say it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do and have done in the past because they are bribed to betray the people, not only in Germany, all over Europe.


(Editor’s note: Keep in mind, “RT News” is a Russian-government influenced – some say “controlled” – news network.)

It’s important to keep in mind that Dr. Ulfkotte is not the only person making these claims; multiple reporters have done the same and this kind of truthfulness is something the world needs more of.

(Read more from “Top Journalist Admits Mainstream Media Is Completely Fake: ‘We All Lie for the CIA'” HERE)

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The Appearance of Disappearance: The CIA’s Secret Black Sites

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Twelve years ago, in a village on the edge of a pine forest not far from Lithuania’s elegant capital Vilnius, workmen constructed an unusual warehouse. It was the size of an Olympic swimming pool with no windows, many air vents and no stated purpose. The site had formerly been a riding stables and a paddock. It had also served as a local watering hole — a welcome one since the village lacked a bar or restaurant. The new building was shiny and modern, incongruous amid the tumbledown farm buildings and Soviet-era housing blocks. The convivial atmosphere of the riding club was replaced, in the words of one local inhabitant, by “this certain emptiness”.

Naturally, the neighbours were curious. They speculated about the new building’s function. Was it a military listening post? A drug factory? A clandestine organ transplant lab? None of them guessed that it might be a key facility in the US Central Intelligence Agency’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation programme, one of a secret network of “black sites”, set up in half a dozen countries to house undisclosed prisoners out of reach of lawyers, the Red Cross or other branches of the US government. Why should they? Lithuania was a long way from the front lines of the war on terror, and the village of Antaviliai, although only 20 minutes by car from the capital, was known for summer lake swims rather than for covert operations.

The secret detention programme, as it was gradually uncovered, stretched across the globe. The network of sites we have documented encompasses Antaviliai and Kabul, North Carolina and Skopje, Columbia County, Milan, Tripoli and Bucharest. In our journeys through this material, we have sought to portray the appearance of disappearance.

Sceptics like to invoke the power of photography, its ability to show what is real. Three years ago, at a hearing for a European Parliament civil liberties committee inquiry into complicity in illegal detentions, one MEP asked if he could see a photograph of a prisoner on a plane. Failing that, he would remain convinced of the fictional world in which it didn’t happen. In the same way, Valdas Adamkus, a former president of Lithuania, when asked during a visit to London in 2011 about CIA prisoners being held in his country, stated firmly that: “Nobody proved it, nobody showed it.” (Read more from “The Appearance of Disappearance: The CIA’s Secret Black Sites” HERE)

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‘Eyewash’: How the CIA Deceives Its Own Workforce About Operations

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Senior CIA officials have for years intentionally deceived parts of the agency workforce by transmitting internal memos that contain false information about operations and sources overseas, according to current and former U.S. officials who said the practice is known by the term “eyewash.”

Agency veterans described the tactic as an infrequent but important security measure, a means of protecting vital secrets by inserting fake communications into routine cable traffic while using separate channels to convey accurate information to cleared recipients.

But others cited a significant potential for abuse. Beyond the internal distrust implied by the practice, officials said there is no clear mechanism for labeling eyewash cables or distinguishing them from legitimate records being examined by the CIA’s inspector general, turned over to Congress or declassified for historians.

Senate investigators uncovered apparent cases of eyewashing as part of a multi-year probe of the CIA’s interrogation program, according to officials who said that the Senate Intelligence Committee found glaring inconsistencies in CIA communications about classified operations, including drone strikes.

At least two eyewashing cases are cited in the classified version of the committee’s final report, according to officials who have reviewed the document. In one instance, leaders at CIA headquarters sent a cable to the agency’s station in Pakistan saying operators there were not authorized to pursue a potentially lethal operation against the alleged al-Qaeda operative known as Abu Zubaida . But a second set of instructions sent to a smaller circle of recipients told them to disregard the other message and that the mission could proceed. (Read more from “‘Eyewash’: How the CIA Deceives Its Own Workforce About Operations” HERE)

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He Claimed to Be Ex-CIA and Was Quoted as an Expert on Fox News – Prosecutors Say It Was a Lie

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Wayne Simmons claimed to be something of an American James Bond, and if you watched TV or ran his name through Google, you’d have no reason to doubt him. In his public speaking engagements and frequent appearances on Fox News, the purported former CIA operative spoke authoritatively about terrorism and clandestine intelligence operations, which he claimed he helped run for nearly three decades . . .

But according to federal prosecutors, his claims of a 27-year career with the CIA were lies, and it was only by repeating such falsehoods that Simmons was able to briefly get actual security clearances and real government contracting work in more recent years.

On Thursday, federal authorities arrested Simmons and charged him with making false statements, major fraud against the United States and wire fraud . . .

In a brief appearance in federal District Court in Alexandria on Thursday, Simmons, dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt, sighed loudly when a magistrate judge ordered him jailed in advance of a detention hearing Friday and peered back toward the audience as U.S. marshals led him away. Simmons said little during the hearing, save for a brief discussion about who was representing him in the case. The judge twice warned him not to talk, noting that prosecutors could use any comments he made against him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Nathanson had asked the judge to detain Simmons, noting that investigators had recovered two guns when arresting him and that he had a previous federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. (Read more from “He Claimed to Be Ex-CIA and Was Quoted as an Expert on Fox News – Prosecutors Say It Was a Lie” HERE)

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Muslim-Convert CIA Official Who Directed Hunt for Bin Laden Is Being Removed from Post

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united states of americaThe head of the CIA’s Counter­terrorism Center, who presided over the agency’s drone campaign and directed the hunt for Osama bin Laden, is being removed from his post, officials said, a watershed moment as the CIA turns its focus to a new generation of extremist threats.

The move, part of a major reorganization under [suspected Muslim] CIA Director John Brennan, ends a nine-year tenure during which the center was transformed into a paramilitary force that employed armed drones to kill thousands of suspected terrorists and militants but also killed an unknown number of civilians.

As the architect of that campaign, the CTC chief came to be regarded as an Ahab-like figure known for dark suits and a darker demeanor. He could be merciless toward subordinates but was also revered for his knowledge of terrorist networks and his ability to run an organization that became almost an agency unto itself. He embodied a killing-centric approach to counter­terrorism that enraged many Muslims, even though he is a convert to Islam.

Because he remains undercover, The Washington Post has agreed to withhold his full name. He has been publicly identified in the past by both his actual first name, Mike, as well as that of his CIA-created identity, Roger.

U.S. officials said that Roger is expected to remain at the CIA in a new assignment which has yet to be determined and that he is being replaced by an agency veteran who has held a series of high-level positions, including running the CIA’s operations in Afghanistan. His name is Chris. (Read more from “CIA Official Who Directed Hunt for Bin Laden Is Being Removed from Post” HERE)

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CIA – Banned by Law from Domestic Spying – Aided Program to Spy on US Cellphones

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A Justice Department program used to gather data from U.S. cellphones apparently has a secret partner: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The CIA played a role in helping the U.S. Marshals Service develop technology that imitates cellphone towers, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The system, used on airplanes, allows federal agents to scoop up identifying and location information for thousands of cellphones in every sweep.

The spy agency’s role in the so-called “dirtbox” program was previously unknown, and is considered unusual, given that the CIA is banned from most domestic spying operations . . .

Development of the “dirtbox” devices began approximately 10 years ago when the CIA arranged for the Marshals Service to receive money to conduct surveillance, the Journal reported. The two groups worked together for years to develop the technology, versions of which are used overseas to track terror suspects. (Read more from “CIA Aided Program to Spy on US Cellphones” HERE)

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White House Knew CIA Snooped on Senate, Illegally Hacked Computer

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Photo Credit: CNNCentral Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan consulted the White House before directing agency personnel to sift through a walled-off computer drive being used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to construct its investigation of the agency’s torture program, according to a recently released report by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General.

The Inspector General’s report, which was completed in July but only released by the agency on Wednesday, reveals that Brennan spoke with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough before CIA employees were ordered to “use whatever means necessary” to determine how certain sensitive internal documents had wound up in Senate investigators’ hands. The conversation with McDonough came after Brennan first issued the directive, but before he reiterated it to a CIA attorney leading the probe.

Brennan’s consultation with McDonough also came before the CIA revealed the search to then-Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), whose staff was the target of the snooping.

The new information suggesting the White House was aware of — and did not stop — the CIA’s computer snooping is unlikely to improve the existing distrust between Senate committee members and the executive branch. Feinstein has said that the CIA’s computer search likely violated the constitutional separation of powers, an allegation the White House has declined to directly address.

The Oval Office’s prior knowledge of the controversial computer review will no doubt worsen the tensions that have erupted over the matter between the executive branch, its chief intelligence agency and the lawmakers tasked with their oversight. (Read more on how CIA snooped HERE)

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CIA Says it was flying UFOs and Takes Responsibility for UFO Sightings for Decades (+video)

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1004530-6-20141230101401-cia-all-those-1950s-ufo-sightings-it-was-usThe CIA tweeted a link this past week to a document that referenced its spy plane program from 1954 through 1974 and correlated flights of its spy planes with public UFO reports. Newsweek reports:

Through the program, the CIA secretly flew U-2 spy planes at altitudes of 60,000 feet above target countries, like the Soviet Union. At the time, most commercial flights flew between 10,000 and 20,000 feet, and military aircrafts flew below 40,000 feet. Most people thought man couldn’t reach such heights and assumed alien life was behind the mysterious objects in the sky.

“Consequently, once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports,” the document reads.

The CIA cross-referenced UFO sightings and U-2 flight logs, which “enabled the investigators to eliminate the majority of the UFO reports” the document reads. But the agency never revealed to the terrified people the truth behind the mysterious flying objects, until this year. Instead, investigators from Project BLUE BOOK, the Air Force program tasked with investigating UFO reports, attempted to attribute the sightings to natural phenomena.

The report was part of a series of documents that were declassified in 2013, along with those that detailed the existence of Area 51 in Nevada.

(Read more from this story about the “flying UFOs” HERE).

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No UFOs Or Drones – Mysterious Lights Over Dallas Solved

By CBS Local. There was lots of interest after some saw strange lights in the North Texas sky. Rumors pegged them as a UFO. And while they weren’t alien — they were illegal.

The culprit in this case – sky lanterns. You’ve probably seen the small, hot air balloon-like, paper lanterns being lifted high into the air by a small fire at the bottom.

A lot of cities have banned the floating lanterns, so when they show up in the sky many people don’t know what they’re seeing.

Islam Sesalem said, “It’s kind of funny. I didn’t know it was gonna get that kind of reaction.”

Sesalem says he organized the release of 37 Chinese sky lanterns. “The last couple years we set off balloons. This year I thought we’d do something different.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Intelligence Officials Say Obama Nominee Stole CIA Documents

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StarzakThe Obama administration’s nominee for a senior legal position at the Pentagon is one of the congressional staffers accused by Republicans and intelligence officials of stealing classified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency, Fox News has learned — and the controversy could imperil her shot at a major career promotion.

Sources on Capitol Hill and in the intelligence community say Alissa Starzak, a majority staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) who has been nominated for the position of general counsel to the U.S. Army, is one of two SSCI employees accused by the panel’s Republicans, and by career intelligence officers, of having “stolen” the so-called Panetta Review: a classified study of the agency’s treatment of detainees prepared by former CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Starzak is a former assistant general counsel for CIA and, more recently, a deputy general counsel at the Defense Department for legislative affairs. She was nominated for the Army’s general counsel position in July of this year. With an eye on the clock, as the Senate prepares to revert to Republican control early next year, the Armed Services Committee approved Starzak’s nomination — without a recorded vote — on Dec. 9. But the nomination expired a week later, and must now be re-submitted to the committee, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., as its likely chairman, in the next session of Congress.

Read more from the story alleging the Obama nominee stole CIA documents HERE.