Megalomaniacal internet retailer Amazon began as an online seller of books—as CEO Jeff Bezos once explained it to a horrified Kansas City bookseller—because it allowed the company to gather data on affluent, educated shoppers. Their latest customer is the entire intelligence apparatus of your democracy. Checkmate!
National security wonks this week are wondering: Which U.S. spooks in Northern Virginia put out a classified ad seeking a chef with a Top Secret security clearance? Two things are known: The hiring agency runs the CIA's cafeteria, and CIA workers don't think much of their cafeteria.
Whether you were touched by what the Associated Press described as his contentious, expletive-laden speech against the Sunni extremist group ISIS (now the Islamic State), or simply thought that his "Hello Kitty" notebook was cute — please be advised: Syrian Rebel Leader Zahran Alloush is not your friend, OK?
In an attempt to counter his influence in Pakistan, the CIA once made a heat-sensitive action figure of Osama bin Laden that morphed into a demon. The goal was to scare children and their parents away from al-Qaeda.
People either really, really love the Central Intelligence Agency or really, really fear it. It's hard to tell which.
The cover of the CIA's top officer in Kabul was accidentally blown after the White House released his name to journalists accompanying President Obama's surprise trip to Afghanistan.
Now that polio is out of control in Pakistan, the White House has finally decided to let it be known that the CIA is very sorry about using public-health efforts as cover in its secret war—thereby encouraging anti-vaccination violence—and we won't do it anymore. (Unless we're lying about that, as more misdirection.)
Spy agency mouthpiece Michael Hayden yesterday criticized Sen. Dianne Feinstein for showing "deep, emotional feeling" about the Senate's report on the CIA's torture program. Michael Hayden is really something (a torture apologist).
According to a report in McClatchy, the CIA secretly monitored computers used by Senate Intelligence Committee staffers that the spy agency had provided for the review of thousands of pages of classified documents.
It's never been a secret that the United States has heavily funded and influenced the Colombian government's battle against FARC, which the U.S. believes to be a terrorist organization. What has been secret however, is just how far the CIA has gone in Colombia, which includes the targeted killings of FARC leaders.
Do you have a job that overworks you? Wish you had more time at home with the kids, or just alone with your thoughts? You should join our elite secret outfit of people who pretend to work for the Central Intelligence Agency to get out of doing their day jobs.
Since March 2007, the CIA has insisted publicly that Robert Levinson was merely a private citizen when he disappeared in the Iranian resort getaway of Kish Island. Today, weeks after Levinson became the longest-held American hostage ever, that story was revealed by the AP as a lie.
Ostensibly concerned that terrorists would disguise themselves as gamers in order to secretly communicate, agents from the NSA, CIA, Pentagon and Britain's GCHQ have posed undercover in online realms like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Xbox Live. In fact, the practice grew so popular with the spy agencies that…
According to a report in the Associated Press, the CIA converted prisoners at Guantanamo Bay into double agents trained to help the U.S. assassinate terrorists in the prisoner's home country. In exchange, the double agents received millions of dollars paid from the agency's secret accounts. The program, which took…
Just like their Snowden-exposed colleagues at the NSA, the CIA is storing data in bulk that includes personal and financial information about American citizens. According to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, the CIA has built a giant database of international money transfers handled by companies like…
As part of a voluntary contract, the CIA pays AT&T more than $10 million per year for access to the company's giant database of international phone records, which includes information on Americans, according to a report in the New York Times.
Edward Snowden, last seen grocery shopping in Russia, received a derogatory report in 2009 when he worked at the CIA, where his supervisor suspected him of attempting to access classified files to which he did not have security clearance.
Three months after President Obama authorized the order, Syrian rebels have received their first shipment of weapons from the CIA. According to the Washington Post, the deliveries of light, “trackable” weapons began two weeks ago, along with vehicles, communications equipment and other non-lethal aid from the State…
A new leak from former security contractor Edward Snowden, published in the Washington Post, reveals the "black budget"—the money spent on the U.S. government's intelligence-gathering operations—for 2013. And it's colossal: A total of $52.6 billion, covering the CIA, the NSA and lesser-known agencies like the National…
The CIA is reportedly going to unprecedented measures to halt its operatives from speaking to the press or Congress about its role in Benghazi, Libya. According to a CNN report, the agency is holding monthly polygraph tests and using intimidation with its operatives involved in Benghazi at the time of last year's…
