Archives:
Former CIA spy laments Milan rendition
An ex-U.S. spy – once a CIA station chief in Italy – recently spoke to the Italian paper Il Giornale about his involvement in a 2003 CIA rendition heist, which took a Muslim cleric (Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr) suspected of terrorist involvement from his home in…
VP Biden to decide: CIA v. DNI
For the majority of folks, the CIA is the be-all and end-all in American intelligence, but as you likely know – there are 16 distinct U.S. intelligence agencies, and a rather long-standing dispute between the CIA and the…
New spy drama: The Spy and the Sparrow
Here’s something of note – an espionage thriller that doesn’t have the stamp of Hollywood all over it. The Spy and the Sparrow, part spy movie part intense family drama, premiered recently at the Seattle International Film Festival, which makes sense…
ROTC for spies?
Every year, the U.S. military gets loads of college grads joining its ranks who’ve already been through a fair amount of army training. This is thanks to the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program, which pays college tuition for…
CIA recruits Wall Street execs
Britain’s not the only country looking to recruit intelligence officers in unusual places. But while the Brits have turned to their nation’s teaching force, in the United States it’s not teachers we can spare, but rather? You got it, all those…
U.S. diplomat killed in 2003 was really a CIA spy
In 2003, Gregg Wenzel (33) died in Ethiopia in what was then reported to be a random traffic accident on the streets of Addis Ababa, caused by a drunken driver. Wenzel was supposedly a U.S. diplomat…
7 Italians plead innocent in CIA kidnapping
The trial against those allegedly involved in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric working in Milan continues to unfold in Italy. The defendants comprise seven Italians and 26 Americans, the latter who are…
Interning with the CIA
Ever wonder how people actually get jobs as spies? Well, like any other occupation these days, having some relevant experience on your resume gives you an edge. But intelligence agencies don’t expect things like:
“Summer 2008 – Practiced spying on neighbor to gather intelligence pertaining to rumor of affair.”
In fact, they offer the decidedly normal and out-in-the-open…
Russia Accuses U.S. Base of Spying
This Friday, April 3, the United States was accused by the Russian state television channel Rossiya of using its only air base in Central Asia as a cover for a big espionage operation whose focus is China and Russia. The accusation came with the teaser of a documentary about U.S. intelligence ops at Manas base in…
Ex-CIA Contractor Passaro Appeals 8-year Sentence
Lately, with Obama’s decisions to close down Guantanamo and give enemy combatant Ali Al-Marri a criminal trial, there’s been a lot of talk about human rights and the mistreatment of detainees. In this climate, it will be especially interesting to see what happens in the current case of David Passaro’s appeal.
Passaro, a former CIA contractor who…
New Dan Gordon Thriller Just Released
The namesake of this spy club is up to his eyes in new espionage adventures, and you can read all about them in the just-released third installment of the Dan Gordon Intelligence Thriller series – The Chameleon Conspiracy.
Gordon’s still working for the U.S. Department of Justice, but he’s on loan to the CIA to investigate a…
CIA Spy Angelina Jolie Spotted in NYC
Nothing quite like spotting sexy Angelina Jolie pretending to be an undercover agent on the streets of Manhattan. Last week, the actress was seen dangling, barefoot and a little bloody, from the side of an apartment building in Washington Heights, New York.
Of course, she was in the middle of filming for the new spy flick Salt,…
Leaked Report: U.S. intelligence failures hinder pr ...
A confidential, novel-length report compiled by the RAND national defense research institute for U.S. Joint Forces Command has been leaked to the public, exposing failed U.S. intelligence as a major hindrance to the counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan.
The report – based on dozens of interviews with British, Canadian, Dutch, and U.S. army, intelligence and diplomatic officials –…
Threats to U.S. National Security: Economy v. Terro ...
People have expressed concern that the Obama Administration won’t pursue Islamic militants – the likes of whom were responsible for the 9/11 attacks – with quite the same level of aggression employed by the Bush Administration.
But given recent events and endorsements, it doesn’t seem that Obama is giving up on Bush’s War on Terror, per se.…
CIA Wanted Gloria Estefan
Turns out your favorite Cuban-American singer could have been not very famous at all…if she had accepted an offer to join the CIA back when she was working as an interpreter for U.S. Customs at Miami’s international airport.
She recently shared the story of her alternate career path in the shadowy world of international espionage and intelligence…
NSA Joins Facebook for Spies
Baltimore Sun’s David Wood reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) has finally, several months after launch, decided to join a whopping 16 other US intelligence agencies in signing up for A-Space, the secure Facebook for intelligence analysts. You guessed it (or even if you didn’t), the ‘A’ stands for ‘analyst.’
You know that social networking has…
Criminal Trial for America’s Last ‘Enemy Combat ...
43-year-old suspected terrorist Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been officially indicted with providing material support to Al Qaeda and conspiring with others to provide material support to Al Qaeda. The two-count indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in the Central District of Illinois on Feb 26 and announced in a US Department of Justice…
Sexspionage: Talking about Wonder Women Spies
Former spies and spy lovers alike will converge in Raleigh, North Carolina from March 25 to 27, 2009 for the sixth annual International Spy Conference. This year’s intriguing conference theme “Sexspionage: Famous Women Spies and the Ancient Art of Seduction” will explore the careers of some of the most successful female spies in the world.
Speakers will include…
Angelina Jolie to Play CIA Agent / Russian Spy in M ...
Can’t get enough of those CIA agent spy dramas? Well, you’ve already got something to look forward to in 2010, when Columbia Pictures’ espionage thriller Salt is due to hit the big screen. There’s already been a lot of chatter about this movie, and it hasn’t even started shooting. Filming’s due to begin on Long Island, NY…
Iran: Questionable Espionage Charges and Uranium En ...
Iran’s ranking high on the espionage radar at the moment. They’ve just officially accused seven leaders of the Baha’i religion, whom they’ve been detaining in Iran for the last eight months, of spying on behalf of Israel.
The word on the street is that there are no legitimate grounds for the charges. Indeed, even the word not…
Convicted CIA Spy Continues Espionage from Federal ...
Spies may be the stuff of movies and thrilling page turners, but they’re not just a throwback to the Cold War, forever to be reincarnated in pop culture. This is the real thing, folks.
Last month, Harold Nicholson – one of the highest-ranking CIA officials ever to be convicted of espionage – and his son Nathaniel were…