Let’s Talk About Torture
Former CIA leaders are writing a book that will whitewash their crimes against humanity.
Bad Pizza . . . and Even Worse Intelligence
The capture of CIA sources in Beirut represents a coup for Hezbollah.
Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up: Uprising Interviews Saul Landau
This new documentary weighs the convictions of the Cuban 5 against the crimes of anti-Castro Cubans, and examines the historical context that motivated all parties.
Repackaging Assassination
An idea for a new CIA-based reality show.
Secrecy Industry Hits Home
Unchecked growth in intelligence agencies raises troubling questions and even affects how we interact with neighbors.
At Local Level, Secrecy Industry Puts a Damper on Neighborliness
Unchecked growth in intelligence agencies even affects how those who live near them interact with neighbors.
Spy vs. Spy
If we ask some hard questions about the means and ends of intelligence-gathering, perhaps we might discover that all this spycraft is as overrated on our side as on theirs.
Clapper: Managing the Intelligence Enterprise
James Clapper, Obama’s choice to head up national intelligence, has extensive ties to private intelligence outfits and the policies of the previous administration.
CIA Accountability Hits New Lows
The CIA’s involvement in targeting drug traffickers in Peru and terrorists in Pakistan shares a similar lack of accountability.
Mind-Reading Technology Threatens Our Liberties
Exposing the human brain to these devices creates physical and political risks.
The Intelligence Oversight Mess
The latest assassination scandal reveals a longstanding congressional oversight problem.
A New Approach to Intelligence?
The Obama administration has yet to make substantive change in the way the United States does intelligence work.
Book Discussion: Spies for Hire
Come meet author and Foreign Policy In Focus contributor Tim Shorrock, when he speaks at IPS about his new book, SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.
Since 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, newspaper headlines and the blogosphere have been afire with revelations about the U.S. government’s enormous use of private sector contractors to carry out the tasks of war: Halliburton’s lucrative Iraqi reconstruction contracts, CACI International’s civilian interrogators at Abu Ghraib, and the shooting of noncombatants in Baghdad by the shadowy security firm Blackwater, to name just a few. But the size and scope of the private sector’s influence on U.S. intelligence agencies—and the government’s unsettling efforts to hide the truth from the public—have never been known until now. In SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing (Simon & Schuster; May 6, 2008; $27.00), investigative journalist Tim Shorrock presents the first-ever comprehensive profile of the astonishingly lucrative intelligence contracting industry—where profit often trumps patriotism.
SPIES FOR HIRE exposes how, from the tracking of al-Qaeda to the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens, private contractors have infiltrated every corner of intelligence gathering in America. Drawing on insider documents and exclusive interviews with sources including former agency operatives and CEO’s of private intelligence firms, Shorrock lifts the highly secretive veil off the mysterious world of intelligence contracting, demonstrating the shocking truth that over 70 percent of the massive U.S. intelligence budget is now spent on contractors, with minimal congressional oversight. Bankrolled with tax money, these private firms are exerting enormous influence on governmental policies that affect all Americans.
Iran Hawks Find New Supporters Against the NIE
The organized challenge against the 2007 NIE on Iran this month included an Iranian exile group which for years has cried wolf about Iran.
Bush Still Spinning Nukes in Iran
Despite the perception that the NIE halted the possibility of war in Iran, we all need to be organizing to shut down the Administration’s war mongering. This season of peace demands no less.