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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.

CIA panel to suggest no punishment for spying on Senate Intelligence Committee

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Widespread_US_Police_Surveillance_Is-219f71accff4c57da00fcb7272c025e4CIA officials accused of tampering with a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the agency’s use of torture will not be punished, The New York Times reported.

After several years, the Senate investigation’s findings were finally released earlier this month, causing a public stir with exhaustive descriptions of CIA torture methods and a conclusion that the agency received little or no useful information using the techniques.

But the 6,000-plus page document had a fraught path to existence, highlighted by a public feud between the Senate and the CIA over accusations that the agency had searched a computer network being used by Senate staffers conducting the investigation.

Reportedly, the CIA was looking to see if investigators had gotten hold of documents the agency claimed were off limits.

In its own review of the matter, the CIA inspector general cited three CIA technology officers and two lawyers as culpable of ordering the clandestine searches. The accused have defended the actions as lawful, and even said CIA Director John Brennan condoned the searches.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ex-CIA Official: Pelosi, Dems 'Fully Aware' of CIA's Interrogation Methods

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Fox News

Fox News

Screen Shot 2014-12-15 at 1.20.45 AMOn “Fox News Sunday,” Chris Wallace spoke to Jose Rodriguez, the former director of the National Clandestine Service of the CIA, who oversaw the agency’s interrogation program.

Bolling Blasts CIA Torture Report: ‘I Have Zero Sympathy for the Terrorists’

Rodriguez said that the CIA’s controversial enhanced interrogation techniques that appear the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “torture report” were both legal and approved by the Justice Department.

He added that thorough investigations of the CIA’s program were conducted and no prosecutable offenses were found.

“No one tortured anybody else,” Rodriguez said.

Judge Jeanine: ‘Your Ivory Tower, Liberal, Kumbaya Naiveté Is Dangerous’

As for the report’s conclusion that the CIA misled Congress, Rodriguez said that he very clearly remembers briefing Nancy Pelosi in September 2002.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Dems Dangerous CIA Report And The Top Republican Who Joined Them

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Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 6.30.26 PMBy Julian Hattem and Kristina Wong.

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released an exhaustive review of the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects under President George W. Bush.

The executive summary of their controversial report runs more than 500 pages, and contains new information based on a review of more than 6 million classified documents provided by the CIA. Here are some of the highlights.

CIA wrongly held 26 people and accidentally interrogated sources

Of the 119 people detained and harshly questioned by the CIA during its program, at least 26 were wrongly held, the report concludes.

In one instance in the spring of 2004, the CIA realized that it had detained former sources only after shackling them upright in a position where they could not sleep for 24 hours.

“The two detainees had tried to contact the CIA on multiple occasions prior to their detention to inform the CIA of their activities and provide intelligence,” the report says, but their messages were not translated until after the interrogation.

Read more from this story HERE.

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McCain Joins With Dems In Support of CIA Report

By Alexandra Jaffe.

Republican Sen. John McCain broke with members of his party Tuesday, lauding the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on torture and decrying the use of torture as having “stained our national honor” and doing “much harm and little practical good.”

McCain, a survivor of torture himself from his Naval service during the Vietnam War, said from the Senate floor that the techniques outlined in the report “not only failed their purpose — to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies — but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world.”

Many Republicans have argued against releasing the report, especially as the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria grows, and U.S. intelligence officials have warned that its release could cause backlash from nations and groups hostile towards the nation. American embassies in the Middle East have been put on heightened security alert for its release.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Intelligence Chairman Rogers: Report Will Spur Attacks

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Tensions grew Sunday over the impending release of a Senate report examining the alleged use of torture by the CIA, with a top House lawmaker saying that the release will cause “violence and deaths” abroad.

The comments by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, came after Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday urged Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the senator in charge of the report on CIA interrogations, to reconsider the timing of the release. Obama administration officials said they still support making the report public.

Rogers is regularly briefed on intelligence assessments. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign governments have said privately that the release of the report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives.

“I think this is a terrible idea,” Rogers said. “Our foreign partners are telling us this will cause violence and deaths…Foreign leaders have approached the government and said, ‘You do this, this will cause violence and deaths.’ Our own intelligence community has assessed that this will cause violence and deaths.”

Rogers questioned why the report needed to become public, given that the Justice Department investigated and filed no criminal charges.

Read more from this story HERE.