Parliamentary oversight of security and intelligence agencies in the EU

One of the reasons for the lack of posts on this blog the past months is that I co-authored this large study (446 pages), together with Aidan Wills, for the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE). The study came out today, and also includes a number of attachments written by national [...]

New details emerge about CIA agents involved in rendition and secret detention operations

Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo have new insights about the role of CIA officials who were involved in extraordinary renditions and secret detentions. 1. El Masri The article describes how Frances, a “counterterrorism analyst with no field experience pushed ahead” with El Masri’s rendition, despite the doubts some at the CIA’s Counterterrorism center had whether [...]

Interview with ex CIA head Michael Hayden

Hayden acknowledges some inefficiencies in the rapid post-9/11 scaling up of the intelligence community, but says the effectiveness of its efforts are reflected in the absence of an attack against the homeland. “How can you say we’ve not been successful?” he asks. This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted by PBS on Aug. [...]

Rights groups call for renewed CIA prison probe in Lithuania

Human rights groups are calling on Lithuanian prosecutors to reopen a criminal investigation into a secret CIA detention center set up in the country.The Lithuanian Prosecutor General recently closed the investigation into whether State Security Department (SSD) officials had colluded with the CIA to create and operate the secret sites on 14 January 2011, citing [...]

Durham Torture Tape Case Dies

The statute of limitations for charging any general crime by employees and/or agents of the US Government for destructing the infamous “Torture Tapes” has expired today, as the best available information on the date of the destruction suggests that this destruction occured on the 8th of November 2005. The general statute of limitations is 5 [...]

Foiled Yemen Bomb Plot Heightens Talk of Putting Elite U.S. Squads in CIA Hands

The Wall Street Journal reports that support was growing both within the military and the administration for shifting more operational control, including putting “elite U.S. hunter-killer teams” that operate secretly in the country, under CIA authority in Yemen. Allowing the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command units to operate under the CIA would give the U.S. [...]

US Senate approves intelligence authorization bill

Key congressional Democrats confirmed Monday that Senate and House Intelligence committee leaders and the White House have agreed on measures that would require the White House to share more information on covert operations with them. According to a draft authorization bill that the House sent the Senate on Friday, Sept. 24, the White House would [...]

U.S. Counterterrorist Pursuit Team in Afghanistan much larger than thought

The Washington Post reports about the role of Firebase Lilley,  a nerve center in the covert war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda which is used as a CIA hub to train and deploy a well-armed 3,000-member Afghan paramilitary force collectively known as Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams, or ‘Afghan OGA’s’ – other government agency. The Counterterrorist Pursuit [...]

Obama’s fight against terrorism secretly widens on two continents

The NYT has a new serie on the US’s “secret expansion” of the fight against terrorism, which increasingly is becoming a ‘covert war’. It comments: Yet such wars come with many risks: the potential for botched operations that fuel anti-American rage; a blurring of the lines between soldiers and spies that could put troops at [...]

Ruling Shows Government Obfuscated on CIA Interrogation Techniques

A court ruling that the CIA had interpreted Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests on specific interrogation techniques too narrowly must be followed by further disclosures by the government, said three prominent human rights groups. The groups—Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) [...]