MetaFilter posts tagged with CIA and terrorism

Leon Panetta and the C.I.A.

homunculus — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:20:09 -0800

The Secret History: Can Leon Panetta move the C.I.A. forward without confronting its past?

Vang Pao

homunculus — Sun, 11 May 2008 13:05:22 -0800

Gen. Vang Pao’s Last War. "The U.S. government relied on Vang Pao and his Hmong soldiers to battle Communism in the jungles of Laos. Why is the Justice Department now calling him a terrorist?" The Hmong in America and Vang Pao were previously discussed here and here.

Pouring from the annals of government design

chlorus — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:48:56 -0800

Remember the new, inscrutable license plate put out by the state of Oklahoma commemorating 9/11? Well, apparently the CIA can design logos pretty well too. Presenting the Terrorist Buster.

Torture Teachers

homunculus — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:05:26 -0800

Rorschach and Awe. "America's coercive interrogation methods were reverse-engineered by two C.I.A. psychologists who had spent their careers training U.S. soldiers to endure Communist-style torture techniques. The spread of these tactics was fueled by a myth about a critical 'black site' operation."

Kafka-esque doesn't do it justice. This is 'Alice in Wonderland.'

StopMakingSense — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 09:45:27 -0800

Newsfilter: U.S. Seeks Silence on CIA Prisons
"The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods that their captors used to get them to talk...the government, in trying to block lawyers' access to the 14 detainees, effectively asserts that the detainees' experiences are a secret that should never be shared with the public."

Previously: (1) (2)

Missed Opportunities

Postroad — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:11:29 -0800

Missed Opportunities ...Lawrence Wright tells, for the first time, the story of the F.B.I. agent who had the best chance of foiling the 9/11 plot. Here, with Amy Davidson, Wright talks about how turf wars with the C.I.A. got in the way. Wright’s book “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” will be published by Knopf in August.

Personality, Ideology and Bush's Terror Wars

Postroad — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:22:37 -0800

Personality, Ideology and Bush's Terror Wars [...]Just as disturbing as Al Qaeda's plans and capabilities are the descriptions of the Bush administration's handling of the war on terror and its willful determination to go to war against Iraq. That war, according to the author's sources who attended National Security Council briefings in 2002, was primarily waged "to make an example" of Saddam Hussein, to "create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States."[...]

CIA Spider Web

pwedza — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 13:03:28 -0800

Report on CIA "Spider Web" - image

Lest we forget: Outsourcing Torture

y2karl — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 09:51:13 -0800

Outsourcing Torture The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program.

Sarin Gas in Iraq...

darian — Mon, 17 May 2004 08:54:26 -0800

Sarin gas bomb used in Iraq... Could this be the beginning of chemical warfare by the insurgents? Sarin is a particularly nasty one too that has been previously used by terrorists. Did the CIA actually call it correctly?

CIA Warned of Attack 6 Years Before 9-11

Postroad — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 05:01:42 -0800

CIA Warned of Attack 6 Years Before 9-11 Six years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA warned in a classified report that Islamic extremists likely would strike on U.S. soil at landmarks in Washington or New York, or through the airline industry, according to intelligence officials.

John Dean case for War in Iraq

thedailygrowl — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 01:42:37 -0800

John Dean's analysis of the administrations case for War. "What I found, in critically examining Bush's evidence, is not pretty. The African uranium matter is merely indicative of larger problems, and troubling questions of potential and widespread criminality when taking the nation to war. It appears that not only the Niger uranium hoax, but most everything else that Bush said about Saddam Hussein's weapons was false, fabricated, exaggerated, or phony."

CIA Santa

( .)(. ) — Mon, 30 Jun 2003 04:49:56 -0800

The CIA's problems with terrorism began way way way before to 9/11 (Happy Monday Morning!)

American killed by American government in anti-terrorism campaign

skoosh — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 17:23:47 -0800

Ten days ago in Yemen, a car carrying several men, including an American citizen, was blown up. They were deliberately killed by a missile fired from a CIA drone aircraft. The American is from Lackawanna, New York, about nine miles away from my house. When I first heard about this bombing, I thought of Orlando Letelier. Where are the lines now separating law enforcement and war, targeted strikes and murder?

raaka — Sat, 12 Oct 2002 19:00:17 -0800

“President Bush’s case against Saddam Hussein ... relied on a slanted and sometimes entirely false reading of the available US intelligence, government officials and analysts claimed yesterday.” Another article on the same subject says, “Rumsfeld’s recent remark that the United States has ‘bulletproof’ evidence of links between Al Qaeda and Hussein struck many in the intelligence community as an exaggerated assessment of the available evidence.” One paper explains the differences this way, “The C.I.A. has to maintain its credibility for objective estimates. The White House is mobilizing the public and preparing foreign nations for a potential American invasion of Iraq.”

nofundy — Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:14:34 -0800

Freeh's misplaced priorities. "The threat level grew so high that by December 1998, the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, issued a "declaration of war" on Al Qaeda, in a memorandum circulated in the intelligence community. Yet, Ms. Hill said, the intelligence agencies failed to adequately follow up on the declaration, and by Sept. 10, 2001, the F.B.I. still had only one analyst assigned full time to Al Qaeda. "

Whereas Freeh had 85 agents assigned to the continous microscopic inspection of Clinton's zipper. Politics trumps national security?

johnnyboy — Tue, 05 Mar 2002 06:46:03 -0800

Danny pearl, did the wall street journal endanger their own reporter. The handing over of a laptop to the C.I.A and the department of Defense may hve led to the singling out of a Journal employee.

euphorb — Wed, 13 Feb 2002 17:01:17 -0800

U.S. authorities had seven chances to catch the hijackers before September 11th.

xyzzy — Tue, 09 Oct 2001 14:19:14 -0800

Who ya gonna call?! *cue scary 80's music*

MiguelCardoso — Sun, 16 Sep 2001 15:29:37 -0800

Realism Urgently Needed - Or Not? David Ignatius's column today in The Washington Post addresses the question of effectiveness in the war against terrorism. He tells the sobering story of the CIA's collaboration with the terrorist Ali Hassan Salameh. The downside: "The most obvious (lesson) is that collecting intelligence about terrorists is a truly dirty business. This world cannot be penetrated without help from members or friends of the terrorist network". The upside: "Paradoxically, these tragic days have probably been an ideal time for the CIA to be recruiting new sources of intelligence about terrorism. The barbaric attacks Tuesday aroused disgust around the world --- not least among civilized Muslims. Some of these disgusted Muslims will surely want to help the United States and its allies put the terrorists out of business." The crucial moral question: It's really a classic means/ends debate. Is it right - or just acceptably expedient - to collaborate with known terrorists in order to strike out at those we don't yet(or otherwise will never) know about?

redhead — Fri, 14 Sep 2001 08:21:57 -0800

bin Laden has a mentor?

lia — Wed, 12 Sep 2001 11:29:56 -0800

"A plan to hijack US commercial planes and slam these into targets like the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, was first uncovered in Manila in 1995 after police arrested four suspects in a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II." So perhaps what happened yesterday shouldn't have been an entirely unforeseeable event.