Tag: cia

US destroys Iranian submarine; Report: CIA facilities hit in drone attacks

The United States has destroyed an Iranian submarine and 16 other vessels as part of its ongoing military campaign against Iran, while two CIA facilities in the region were reportedly damaged in Iranian drone attacks.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said American forces have struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran using more than 2,000 munitions since the start of the operation, which the U.S. has dubbed Operation Epic Fury.

In a briefing, Cooper said U.S. forces are carrying out strikes against Iran “24/7” and that the Iranian regime’s ability to retaliate is rapidly weakening.

“In retaliation, the Iranian regime has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,000 drones,” Cooper said. “We are seeing Iran’s ability to hit us and our partners is declining, while our combat power, on the other hand, is building.”

Cooper said U.S. bombers have conducted major strikes against Iranian military infrastructure. B-2 stealth bombers and B-1 bombers carried out what he described as “uncontested surgical strikes against multiple missile facilities,” while B-52 bombers targeted ballistic missile sites and command-and-control posts.

He said the campaign has also dealt a major blow to Iran’s naval forces.

“We are also sinking the Iranian Navy — the entire navy,” Cooper said. “Thus far, we’ve destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine, that now has a hole in its side.”

“For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping,” he added. “Today, there’s not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Gulf of Oman.”

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CIA Moves To Arm Kurdish Forces To Foment Govt Collapse In Iran: Officials

Here are the most critical developments unfolding in the US-Iran conflict: 

  • CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, sources say: CNN
  • State Department securing military aircraft, charter flights to get Americans out of Middle East
  • Iran International is claiming (unverified) Iran’s Assembly of Experts chose Mojtaba Khamenei as new Ayatollah under heavy IRGC pressure to ensure hardline continuity and regime stability after his father’s death
  • Drone hits CIA station in Saudi Arabia, also reportedly a consulate in Dubai. WaPo: A suspected Iranian drone attack hit the CIA’s station in Saudi Arabia in what would amount to a significant symbolic victory for the Islamic Republic as it lashes out at U.S. targets and personnel across the Middle East.
  • IAEA’s Grossi says there has been no evidence of Iran building a nuclear bomb; Iran’s large stockpile of near-weapons grade enriched Uranium and refusal to grant IAEA full access are cause for serious concern
  • Trump Weighs Backing Militias to Dislodge Iran’s Regime. Future insurgency fragmentation and Iraq-style nightmare coming to Iran?
  • Trump tries to articular war justification: says if we have a little high oil prices, could be for a little while, but they will drop, and could even be below the levels before, but that he ‘had to’ act or else Iran would have ‘used nukes’. Claims Israel didn’t force America’s hand. Admits leadership vacuum.
  • US to offer military protection to ships/insurance in the Strait of Hormuz 
  • The Pentagon has released Operation Epic Fury’s objectives; 1- Demilitarization of Iran: destruction of its missile forces, production facilities, and naval fleet 2- Elimination of the terrorist regime 3- Protection of the United States from current and future threats 4-  Ensuring that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons
  • UAE mulling joining US-Israel attack on Iran, and the Saudis too, to stop Iranian missile and drone strikes on their countries.
  • The American Embassy in Riyadh has been hit in another drone attack, with WSJ reporting it was struck twice Tuesday, resulting in damage to the roof. More embassies across region are shuttering, including the US Embassy in Beirut.
  • President Trump mulling arming anti-Tehran militias. But he hasn’t decided yet while urging Iranians to rise up and be Washington’s ‘boots on the ground.’
  • The Israelis just struck the meeting of the Iranian Supreme Council where officials were gathering to choose a new Supreme Leader, a senior Israeli official told Fox News. “Israel struck while they were counting the votes for the appointment of the supreme leader.”
  • US-Israel bombing is expanding inside Iran. Explosions heard in the northwestern cities of Tabriz and Urmia, as the capital no longer the only focus.
  • Iraq’s crude oil output is being significantly curtailed. An update from Iraq specifies a shutdown of 460,000 bpd at West Qurna 2 and a cut of 700,000 bpd at Rumaila, while warning that more than 3 million bpd could be forced offline in the coming days if tanker access remains limited.
  • Export crude bottlenecks are developing across Iraq. Storage at southern export terminals is nearing critical capacity because tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been paralyzed. Iraq has also halted most Kurdistan-to-Turkey exports via Ceyhan, leaving only about 50,000 bpd for domestic use.
  • Iranian retaliation expanded on Tuesday, with Gulf states’ energy infrastructure hit by multiple drones. This included a drone strike on Fujairah in the UAE, a key bunkering and crude-loading hub outside the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a drone strike at the Port of Salalah in Oman.
  • The U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran is intensifying. Strikes are said to be hitting major targets, including state media, military command sites, and leadership compounds, with the reported Iranian death toll rising to 787 since the start of Operation Epic Fury.
  • The war is spreading into a broader regional conflict. Israel has expanded attacks into Lebanon, including renewed strikes on Beirut and a ground move into the south, while regional actors such as Qatar and possibly Saudi Arabia are portrayed as being drawn more directly into the conflict.
  • France sending aircraft carrier to Mediterranean, says Macron

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Declassified CIA files reveal chilling blueprint to manipulate Americans’ minds through covert drugging with vaccines

A newly released CIA document reveals a chilling blueprint to manipulate minds through covert drugging experiments.

The report, added to the CIA’s reading room in 2025, details the government’s once top-secret Project Artichoke that ran from 1951 to 1956, focusing on behavior control, interrogation techniques and psychological manipulation.

The seven-page document, titled ‘Special Research for Artichoke,’ with an attachment labeled ‘Suggested Fields for Special Research Relative Artichoke,’ outlines proposals to develop chemicals capable of altering human behavior.

It discusses drugs designed for both immediate effects, like truth serums and long-term influence, potentially administered through food, water, alcohol or cigarettes.

Researchers also suggested that such substances could be disguised in medical treatments such as vaccinations or injections.

The CIA was also looking into methods beyond chemicals, listing hypnosis, sensory deprivation, gases and other psychological methods for interrogation and behavioral control.

Artichoke served as a precursor to the CIA’s MKUltra program, which later broadened mind-altering experiments on a larger scale.

Many files were destroyed in the 1970s, leaving the full extent of the research and how far it progressed unknown.

The document was declassified in 1983, but has resurfaced on social media, where users are shocked to see the CIA discussing methods for ‘drugging entire populations.’

Project Artichoke emerged during the early Cold War, a period marked by intense anxiety over communist powers and reports of brainwashing techniques used on American prisoners of war in Korea. 

Internal CIA memos suggested that US intelligence feared enemy nations had developed ways to control human thought and behavior, prompting the agency to explore its own capabilities.

The declassified document reveals the depth of this research, noting the need for a study ‘to determine what drugs are best suited for direct use on subjects along the lines of amytal and pentothal and which drugs are best for an indirect or long-range approach to subjects.’ 

The researchers involved in the secret program emphasized that long-term compounds should be capable of producing ‘an agitating effect (producing anxiety, nervousness, tension, etc.) or a depressing effect (creating a feeling of despondency, hopelessness, lethargy, etc.).’ 

They also outlined practical considerations for concealment, such as substances that could be introduced surreptitiously in ‘food, water, Coca-Cola, beer, liquor, cigarettes, etc.,’ highlighting the CIA’s focus on undetectable methods of influence. 

Moreover, the report recommended consulting with the Army Chemical Warfare Service, noting they have conducted ‘exhaustive studies along these lines’ that could provide specific guidance for the program.

Beyond drugs, Artichoke explored a wide range of psychological tools. 

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CIA Admits There Was Political Bias In Obama-Era Intelligence

For years, anyone who questioned whether Washington’s intelligence machinery tilted left was told they were peddling conspiracies. That narrative fell apart on Friday, when CIA Director John Ratcliffe ordered the official retraction or major revision of nineteen intelligence products produced during the Obama years, citing political bias and substandard analytic tradecraft. It’s the first official acknowledgment that America’s most powerful spy agency let politics color its assessments.

“The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as DCIA — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” Director Ratcliffe said in a statement. “There is absolutely no room for bias in our work and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record. These actions underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis. Our recent successes in Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE and Operation MIDNIGHT HAMMER exemplify our dedication to analytic excellence.”

The bombshell came after the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) completed an independent review of hundreds of finished CIA reports spanning the past decade. This period includes Barack Obama’s second term and the Russian collusion hoax.

The PIAB identified nineteen intelligence products that “failed to be independent of political consideration.” Deputy Director Michael Ellis led an internal review that confirmed the findings. Ratcliffe’s response was swift and blunt. “The intelligence products we released to the American people today — produced before my tenure as DCIA — fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned,” he said. “There is absolutely no room for bias in our work… These actions underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis.”

That’s a rather diplomatic way of saying that Barack Obama’s CIA got caught red-handed playing politics. The agency admitted that at least some of its Obama-era intelligence relied on questionable sourcing, including political activist groups. One report even drew on material from Planned Parenthood, something one official described as “clearly not an appropriate use of CIA resources.” For an organization that prides itself on independence and tradecraft, that revelation is a true humiliation.

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CIA Retracts 19 Different Intelligence Reports After Review Found Leftist Political Bias

CIA Director John Ratcliffe has ordered the withdrawal or major revision of 19 intelligence assessments after an internal review found they did not meet the agency’s standards for analytical rigor and political neutrality, the agency said Friday.

The CIA released unredacted versions of three of the affected reports, all of which had a strong left-wing political bias.

The topics covered included LGBT activists in the Middle East, women and white violent extremism, and access to contraception during the COVID pandemic.

The reports spanned multiple administrations, including one produced under Obama, one during Trump’s first term, and one during Biden’s tenure.

According to the agency, the reports “fall short of the high standards of impartiality that CIA must uphold and do not reflect the expertise for which our analysts are renowned.”

“There is absolutely no room for bias in our work, and when we identify instances where analytic rigor has been compromised, we have a responsibility to correct the record,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.

”These actions underscore our commitment to transparency, accountability, and objective intelligence analysis,” he continued.

The reports were identified during a broader review conducted by Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which examined hundreds of CIA analytic products from the past decade.

An internal review led by Deputy Director Michael Ellis reached the same conclusion, the agency said.

The move follows earlier efforts by Ratcliffe to revisit past intelligence work tainted by political bias within the agency.

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CIA knew about Kiev plot to blow up Nord Stream – Der Spiegel

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) discussed a plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea with Ukrainian saboteurs, German outlet Der Spiegel has reported, citing sources in Kiev.

Berlin apparently believes the September 2022 explosions that crippled the key connectors that delivered Russian gas to Germany were detonated by several Ukrainian frogmen who, possibly with the assistance of Poland, allegedly rented a small yacht, sailed into the Baltic and blew up the pipelines.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed deep skepticism over this German version of events, highlighting then US-president Joe Biden’s open threats to blow up the pipeline, the presence of NATO ships above the explosion sites in the weeks prior to the blasts and arguing that such an operation could not have been executed without direct government assistance.

According to the latest Der Spiegel report, Ukrainian agents told the CIA about a plot to destroy Nord Stream in spring 2022, during a series of meetings following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

The Americans “apparently liked the plan,” the Ukrainian sources told the outlet, and the two sides exchanged technical details about the operation, reportedly code-named ‘Diameter’.

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Red Defection: CIA deploys new video seeking to lure Chinese soldiers to U.S. amidst PLA turmoil

he CIA deployed a new recruitment video in the Mandarin language, hoping to lure Chinese soldiers to defect amidst significant turmoil inside the People’s Liberation Army where two generals have been removed by President Xi Jinping.

The new video, entitled “The Reason for Stepping Forward: To Save the Future,” follows a series of videos dating to late 2024 that the Agency said have been successful in encouraging some Chinese to defect or cooperate with the United States.

The prior videos had some “success” in getting around Chinese Internet censorship, prompting CIA Director John Ratcliffe to make the new one, a senior U.S.official told Just the News, “If the videos didn’t work we wouldn’t be making more of them.”

The new video “illustrates the real gulf between the Chinese elites who want what is best for their banks and the Chinese citizens who want what’s best for their country,” the official said,

The new video which debuted on YouTube, portrays a Chinese military officer who contacts the CIA after becoming disillusioned with his country’s leadership and thinking of his young daughter’s future. 

“This is the world I know, defending the homeland and protecting the people. But day after day, the truth becomes increasingly obvious. What leaders are really protecting is their own self interest,” the narrator states.

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CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool

Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual.

The announcement posted to the CIA’s website offered no reason for the decision to end the Factbook, but it follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions.

First launched in 1962 as a printed, classified reference manual for intelligence officers, the Factbook offered a detailed, by-the-numbers picture of foreign nations, their economies, militaries, resources and societies. The Factbook proved so useful that other federal agencies began using it, and within a decade, an unclassified version was released to the public.

After going online in 1997, the Factbook quickly became a popular reference site for journalists, trivia aficionados and the writers of college essays, racking up millions of visits per year.

The White House has moved to cut staffing at the CIA and the National Security Agency early in Trump’s second term, forcing the agency to do more with less.

The CIA did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday about the decision to cease publication of the Factbook.

HERE WE GO AGAIN: CIA, Clinton-Linked Trump Impeachment Originator Peddles New ‘Whistleblower’ Intel Complaint.

The lawyer who spearheaded the first failed partisan impeachment effort against President Donald J. Trump is now setting his sights on Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, complaining that his client’s complaint has yet to be sent to Congress due to classification issues.

The classified whistleblower complaint has remained stuck inside Gabbard’s agency for months, prompting an unusual internal standoff and drawing attention to the lawyer representing the whistleblower, Andrew P. Bakaj, known for his role in President Trump’s first impeachment case.

The current complaint was submitted in May 2025 to the intelligence community’s inspector general and was classified at a level that has complicated its handling. According to people familiar with the matter, the document has been stored in a secure safe accessible only under strict protocols.

Bakaj has publicly complained about the situation, saying, “From my experience, it is confounding for [Gabbard’s office] to take weeks—let alone eight months—to transmit a disclosure to Congress.”

Gabbard’s office has pushed back strongly, rejecting claims that it is obstructing the process. Officials have characterized the allegations as “baseless and politically motivated,” arguing that the complaint presents unique classification and jurisdictional challenges that must be resolved before any congressional notification can occur.

Bakaj, the chief legal counsel at the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, has repeatedly pressed intelligence officials to transmit the complaint to Congress. He previously served as lead attorney for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer whose 2019 whistleblower disclosure helped trigger the first failed impeachment of President Trump during his first term. Later reports revealed the whistleblower had direct ties to the Biden family’s business affairs in Ukraine.

Bakaj’s continued involvement in sensitive national security complaints appears to reinforce perceptions that whistleblower mechanisms are being abused as political weapons. In the current case, intelligence officials say the inspector general determined some of the allegations against Gabbard lacked credibility, while being unable to assess other claims. Bakaj has disputed that characterization, saying he was never informed that any part of the complaint had been deemed not credible.

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Ex-CIA Chief David Petraeus Briefs Officials in Israel Overseeing “New Gaza”

Former CIA Director David Petraeus—one of the godfathers of the modern doctrine of counterinsurgency warfare—last week visited the U.S.-military run coordination center established in southern Israel to oversee the so-called ceasefire in Gaza, multiple sources from the diplomatic community told Drop Site News.

In his remarks at the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, Petraeus praised Israel’s shift to clearing, holding, and rebuilding—a change from his previous criticism that Israeli forces were not implementing lessons from the U.S. counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, in particular the creation of “gated communities.”

One week prior to Petraeus’s visit, the U.S. Army presented the CMCC with plans for a “Gaza First Planned Community” in Rafah, as first reported by Drop Site. The residential compound would house up to 25,000 Palestinians in an area under full Israeli military control and would include biometric entry, identity checks, reeducation programs, and controls over aid and housing.

According to two sources with knowledge of the daily workings of the CMCC, the “Gaza First Planned Community” is intended to function as a pilot project—the first known step in the overall reconstruction plan of a “New Gaza.” The compound will be funded by the UAE, according to The Guardian.

Petraeus’s January 21 appearance at the CMCC coincided with President Donald Trump’s inauguration of the so-called Board of Peace the following day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. At the ceremony, Trump said he was “committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarized, properly governed and beautifully rebuilt,” adding: “I’m a real estate person at heart and it’s all about location. And I said, look at this location on the sea, look at this beautiful piece of property.” Trump was followed by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who listed among the priorities for the coming 100 days a “Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza.” There will also be a process to “synthesize the security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments,” Kushner said.

In his remarks to the CMCC, Petraeus compared the 2007 U.S. troop surge in Iraq to the military operation in Gaza. Petraeus, who presided over a massive escalation of U.S. troops during the occupation of Iraq and the arming of local militias in what became a brutal sectarian civil war, is the former commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). He also dramatically expanded night raids and CIA and Special Operations missions inside Afghanistan. He was a key player in the expansion of U.S. covert warfare in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa before President Barack Obama installed him as CIA director.

Apart from promoting the implementation of gated communities based on his history in Iraq and Afghanistan, Petraeus is likely taking a special interest in Gaza because of the business opportunities Trump appears to be selling. Soon after his resignation from the CIA in 2012, Petraeus began work for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), a powerful U.S. private-equity and investment company. Petraeus is currently a partner at KKR, chairman of the KKR Global Institute, and chairman of KKR Middle East, which has offices in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Petraeus also used his CMCC address to highlight the field manual for counterinsurgency that he developed at the end of 2006. That manual (which is available here) “establishes doctrine (fundamental principles) for military operations in a counterinsurgency (COIN) environment.” In it, Petraeus writes “Not all Islamic insurgents or terrorists are fighting for a global revolution. Some are pursuing regional goals, such as establishing a Sunni Arab-dominated Iraq or replacing Israel with an Arab Palestinian state.”

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