Tag: cia

CIA Distances Itself From Trump’s Iran War With Media Leak

It seems that CIA and other US intelligence officials hope to distance themselves from Trump’s Iran war, now with the US-initiated conflict having dragged on for nearly five months (with no end in sight), after White House officials had in the opening days touted a swift, limited military excursion. 

They are leaking intelligence to the press which shows they have assessed that current American strikes on Iran are unlikely to change Iran’s negotiating position. With tankers in Hormuz on fire and others too afraid to move, Iran is vowing that it will keep its leverage over the strait at all costs.

The Washington Post report says that “Iran’s government is unlikely to feel significant impact or soften its negotiating position as a result of new rounds of U.S. military strikes like those now underway, according to a new intelligence assessment described by current and former U.S. officials.”

To a large degree this intel assessment is stating the obvious, which should have been well understood far in advance. It seems intel officials want to get it on record that they predict a quagmire as the White House seeks to extricate itself and the global economy from the crisis (of its own making) in the Gulf. Escalation in air strikes will only further stalemate the situation, the intel analysis forecasts. 

Stating the obvious is further on full display in lines from the WaPo report like the following: “Analysts at American spy agencies also have concluded that Tehran and Washington are, for now, stuck in an indefinite limbo between peace and war, the officials said — an uneasy dynamic given the increasingly deadly nature of the tit-for-tat hostilities between the two nations. The current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the assessments because of their sensitivity.”

President Trump has reportedly been briefed on the assessment. According to more:

The latest intelligence report was written primarily by the CIA, where analysts have underscored the Tehran regime’s staying power despite the loss of many of its top leaders and much of its military hardware to U.S. and Israeli attacks. In May, a CIA analysis concluded that Iran could survive a U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship.

As of Monday, Trump previewed harder hits on Iran to come after the killing of multiple US troops in Jordan and neighboring Iraq. At least two died during a ballistic missile attack in Jordan, while one service member was killed in northern Iraq.

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CIA Report: Venezuela ‘Could Have’ Used Voting Machines To Rig Elections

A newly declassified CIA report says the Venezuelan government “could have” used voting machines to rig elections. President Donald Trump declassified a series of documents and reports related to election integrity on July 16, including a “CIA Note” entitled, “Summary of Select Intelligence Reporting From 2004-2020 on Venezuela’s Electronic Voting Manipulation Capabilities.”

The note says that between 2004 and 2020, “intelligence established that Venezuelan government officials developed sustained interest and likely some capability in manipulating electronic voting systems, including Smartmatic technology, to influence electoral outcomes in Venezuela.” The document says it was produced under the auspices of the CIA’s deputy director of analysis and is dated June 29, 2026.

The CIA produced a baseline assessment of Venezuela’s 2012 presidential election that maintained mass electronic election fraud had not occurred. A 2013 CIA “devil’s advocate” analysis, the note says, provided “plausible scenarios” in which “large-scale electronic manipulation could have occurred in Venezuela’s 2012 election without detection.”

The note summarizes sources reporting that, prior to the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s “intelligence services … worked with the National Electoral Council and Smartmatic to develop plans to manipulate election results using preprogrammed voting machines.” The source or sources of that reporting, however, are censored in the document released Thursday.

The note includes claims that such plans included sending “altered machines” to roughly 300 voting centers in pro-Chavez areas “to ensure victory by approximately 1.5 million votes.” Chavez won that election by roughly 1.6 million votes, according to the note.

“[S]ources reported that Chavez congratulated his team for successfully implementing the manipulation plan,” the report continues. The “devil’s advocate” analysis found that elections in countries that “are clients of the technology provider could be in doubt.” But the CIA assessed that such manipulation did not occur in the 2012 Venezuelan election, because the opposition party conceded loss, the CIA didn’t confirm these possibilities were acted upon, and pre-election polls showed Chavez in the lead.

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Report: Indian Businessman Poses as CIA Agent to Land Billion-Dollar ‘Defense’ Deal with Indonesia

An Indian businessman named Gaurav Srivastava allegedly passed himself off as an operative of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to close a multi-billion dollar defense deal with the Indonesian government, according to civil suits filed in the United States by his former business partner.

A report from a U.S.-based non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) quoted the lawsuits filed in New York and California by Srivastava’s former business partner, Niels Troost.

According to the lawsuits, Srivastava somehow persuaded then-Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, currently the president of the country, that he was a CIA agent when the two attended high-level military procurement meetings in Washington and Jakarta in 2020.

By the end of that year, the faux CIA agent had alleged secured three “letters of intention to purchase” jet fighters and other defense items from the Indonesian government. He scored two more defense procurement commitments in 2021 and 2022. Products mentioned in the deals included big-ticket items like F-15 jet fighters, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, and C-130 transport aircraft.

Troost said Srivastava grew quite close to Subianto, becoming a frequent guest at his home and developing ties with his brother, a prominent Indonesian businessman. Subianto went on to become the president of Indonesia in October 2024.

The Indonesian Defense Ministry told Tempo, the OCCRP’s Indonesian partner, that all of the agreements secured by Srivastava were “preliminary,” none were binding contracts, and none led to a purchase by the Indonesian government.

“The entire process of Indonesian defense cooperation and procurement is always carried out with utmost caution, prioritizing the principles of good governance, national interest, and compliance with applicable mechanisms and regulations,” a defense ministry spokesperson insisted.

However, OCCRP noted that Subianto was photographed with Srivastava at signing ceremonies, Srivastava held press conferences to announce purchase agreements, and the U.S. government even issued formal approval for the sale of 36 F-15s in 2022 – the exact number of fighter jets mentioned in the agreements with Srivastava.

According to Troost, the reason he brought all of this up in a pair of U.S. lawsuits is that he was convinced Srivastava was a CIA agent. On that basis, he gave Srivastava a 50 percent share of his own company, believing the CIA man could help him win lucrative contracts with customers like Indonesia.

Srivastava allegedly proceeded to loot $51 million from Troost’s company and “loan” it to the Arsari Group, a company headed by Subianto’s brother. Srivastava then convinced the Arsari Group to give the loan money to him. He was able to wheedle the Indonesian company into giving him half, and proceeded to blow the money on a $25 million mansion in Los Angeles.

Srivastara allegedly presented himself as a mogul who controlled four firms of his own, but all four turned out to be shell companies that were eventually deregistered for not paying their taxes. None of those companies were named in the U.S. government approval for the F-15 sales to Indonesia. Boeing, which was involved in the process, gave up trying to sell F-15s to Indonesia four years later because Jakarta never finalized the deal. Subianto’s government is now shopping for Turkish-built KAAN jet fighters.

Indonesian authorities say they are investigating these transactions for possible corruption charges. Meanwhile, Troost went after Srivastava in New York and California on racketeering charges. In one of these filings, Troost referred to Srivastava as a “brazen con man of remarkable skill.”

Niels Troost is himself an interesting character, a Dutch commodities trader based out of Switzerland who was sanctioned by the European Union, and several individual European governments, for allegedly buying banned Russian oil after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The EU and Switzerland lifted their sanctions against Troost this year. Troost has claimed the sanctions were partly a result of his massive international business feud with Srivastava and has said he would not buy Russian oil because he supports Ukraine.

Srivastava, in turn, denies all wrongdoing and claims Troost’s allegations against him are part of an “aggressive scorched-earth disinformation campaign.”

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Secret CIA ‘workbook’ claims simple five-step exercise can supercharge the human body

A ‘workbook’ created by a secret US Army program claimed to have developed a simple five-step method of supercharging the human body. 

Created by the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences in Virginia in 1977, the 21-page document taught advanced mental skills for expanding awareness, remote perception, problem-solving, relieving pain and building energy.

However, on page 14 of the workbook, which was declassified and released by the CIA in 2003, users were taught how to ‘charge the body from great speed and strength’ with five easy steps.

Before tackling an intense activity such as lifting a heavy object or sprinting, the manual instructed users to close their eyes for a moment. Then, take a deep breath in.

While breathing in, the workbook said to mentally focus on two things at once: the exact physical action to be done and the ‘strong energy of red’ filling the body.

As the person breathes out, they open their eyes and immediately do the action – allegedly giving them a noticeable physical boost and better reflexes.

The classified workbook said: ‘You will be able immediately to perform the physical act you have pictured – with far greater strength, much more rapidly and with smooth total coordination of your physical body.’

The meditation training was part of a series of secret programs funded by the CIA from roughly 1972 to 1995, which explored methods of expanding consciousness and human potential for spies and special ops teams.

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Appeals Court Blocks Trump Administration from Firing 19 Intelligence Officials Assigned to DEI Jobs

A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked the Trump Administration from firing 19 intelligence officers assigned to DEI jobs.

The Virginia-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court judge’s injunction requiring the intelligence agencies to provide the officials with an opportunity to be reassigned.

A group of anonymous intelligence officers, who had been temporarily reassigned to roles implementing controversial Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs, previously filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the CIA.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, names ODNI, the CIA, and leadership — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—as defendants.

The plaintiffs, identified as “John Does 1-6” and “Jane Does 1-5,” claim they were unfairly targeted simply for their prior assignments to DEIA programs.

US Circuit Judge Nicole Berner, a Biden appointee, wrote the majority opinion.

Judge Berner said the CIA officials who were fired were deprived of due process.

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Former CIA Officer Drops Bombshell at MKULTRA Hearing: “I Don’t Believe the Research Stopped” — Luna Says Congress Was Lied to for 50 Years

Explosive testimony before the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets reveals decades of CIA crimes against unwitting Americans, evidence destruction, secret torture sites in Germany, and a continuing deep state effort to hide the truth from Congress and the American people.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) chaired a powerful hearing Tuesday titled “Mind Control and Accountability: Uncovering the Truth of the CIA’s MKULTRA Experiments,” dropping bombshell after bombshell on one of the darkest chapters in American intelligence history.

The CIA’s infamous MKULTRA program, which ran from 1953 to 1973, subjected countless unwitting victims, including American citizens, hospital patients, prisoners, and veterans, to LSD, psychological torture, electroshock, hypnosis, and sensory deprivation in a quest for mind control techniques.

In her opening remarks, Luna called the program “crimes committed by the Central Intelligence Agency against American citizens” and “crimes against humanity.”

“This was a deliberate, systematic governmental operation… authorized by the very top of U.S. intelligence apparatus,” Luna said.

She detailed how CIA Director Richard Helms personally ordered the destruction of MKULTRA records in 1973 as he left office. Sidney Gottlieb and his team spent an entire day burning 152 files.

Gottlieb then had his personal papers destroyed. The head of the CIA’s own records center protested in writing and was overruled.

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Ex CIA Director John Brennan Sues Trump Administration Over Russiagate Probe – Lawsuit Assigned to Anti-Trump Judge Jia Cobb

Former CIA Director John Brennan filed a lawsuit against President Trump, the Justice Department, and senior administration officials on Wednesday over the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into him.

Brennan filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming that he has been “vindictively singled out for investigation and prosecution.”

He is seeking a court order requiring the White House, Justice Department, ODNI, and the CIA to “preserve materials and communications potentially relevant to Director Brennan’s legal and constitutional challenges to any future criminal charges.”

The case has been assigned to far-left Biden-appointed Judge Jia Cobb. Cobb previously oversaw Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s lawsuit against the Trump Administration, blocked the Trump Administration from carrying out expedited deportations of illegal aliens under his “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” Executive Order, and blocked Trump’s National Guard deployment in Washington, DC.

“This Administration has adopted a policy of using criminal process and prosecution to punish the President’s perceived adversaries,” the 46-page filing begins. “It is against this backdrop that former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan (“Plaintiff” or “Director Brennan”), is being vindictively singled out for investigation and prosecution.”

It further points to the investigation of former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and an ongoing investigation into Minnesota officials, arguing that, likewise, “the evidence of vindictiveness in this matter is overwhelming.”

“President Trump has been condemning and calling for Director Brennan’s prosecution for years,” it reads. “Given these strong indicia of vindictiveness, Director Brennan expects that he will forcefully challenge any eventual indictment as the product of an unconstitutionally vindictive and selective prosecution.”

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Congress Confronts MKULTRA: Testimony Warns Of Ongoing CIA Mind Control Capabilities

The deep state’s favorite tools of control just got dragged back into the light. Today, the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets held the first congressional hearing on the CIA’s MKULTRA program since 1977.

What could have been a dusty historical review turned into a direct warning that the same machinery of mind control, memory manipulation, and behavioral experimentation may never have shut down – and could now run on far more powerful modern engines.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and her colleagues are doing what previous Congresses largely refused to do: forcing sunlight on one of the intelligence community’s darkest chapters.

The testimony made one thing unmistakable. The CIA lied to lawmakers decades ago about the program’s success. Advances in neuroscience, cyber tools, and artificial intelligence have handed covert operators capabilities Sidney Gottlieb could only dream of. And American citizens remain potential targets.

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They Told You Your Dishwasher Could Spy on You

Back in 2012, Wired published an article titled “CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher.” That was not some wild theory. That was based on remarks from then-CIA Director David Petraeus, who was speaking about the so-called Internet of Things at an In-Q-Tel summit, the CIA’s own venture capital arm. Petraeus called these technologies “transformational,” especially for their effect on “clandestine tradecraft.” In plain English, the intelligence world saw your home appliances, television, car navigation system, light switches, phone apps, and connected devices as the next great surveillance frontier.

Petraeus said that “items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled” through RFID, sensor networks, embedded servers, and internet-connected devices. That is the quote everyone should remember. They were not hiding it. They were telling you directly that the smart home would become the spy home. Once upon a time, they had to bug your chandelier. Now they simply wait for you to buy the device, install the app, connect it to Wi-Fi, and sign away your privacy in some user agreement nobody reads.

Wired correctly noted that these devices would produce tagged, geolocated data that could be intercepted in real-time. The dishwasher quote was not really about dishwashers alone. It was about the entire home becoming a listening post and tracking station. Your television, thermostat, lighting system, refrigerator, phone, PlayStation, car, smartwatch, and now even your pet’s microchip become pieces of a surveillance net. This is precisely how tyranny advances, not with a knock at the door, but with convenience, entertainment, and a monthly subscription.

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A CIA Senior Official Personally Stopped Analysts From Concluding COVID Came From the Wuhan Lab.

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This is not a theory anymore. It is a documented fact with a paper trail.

When CIA analysts were privately concluding in the earliest days of the pandemic that the furin cleavage site in the COVID virus looked consistent with gain of function modification, a senior official at the CIA’s Weapons and Counterproliferation Mission Center personally intervened to stop them from shifting to a lab leak finding.

Not bureaucratic inertia. Not competing evidence. A person. Making a decision. To stop the conclusion the evidence was pointing toward.

On June 4th 2021 that same CIA center briefed Fauci on classified COVID origins intelligence from the President’s Daily Brief. During that briefing Fauci steered the agency toward consulting scientists who had publicly advocated for a natural origin. The scientists he recommended were the ones who had already staked out the position he needed them to hold.

Meanwhile a pre-pandemic Department of Energy warning to Fauci’s own agency about the risks of the Wuhan Institute of Virology research apparently never reached the analysts tasked with investigating the virus’s origin. The people investigating whether the lab caused the pandemic were never told their own government had already flagged that lab as dangerous before the pandemic started.

Then when a whistleblower filed a formal complaint alleging that classified intelligence contradicted Fauci’s sworn testimony to Congress, the Biden DNI’s office routed it not to an independent inspector general but to HHS Secretary Becerra, Fauci’s own boss, who had already indicated the matter was considered.

The FBI told Congress it had interviewed a key witness before reaching its lab leak conclusion. ODNI’s own records show that interview happened months after the FBI had already made its call. And when finally interviewed the witness said nothing about COVID origins at all.

This is not incompetence. Incompetence is random. This is a pattern running in one direction consistently protecting one man from accountability for five years.

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