Tag: cia

CIA Funding Wooly Mammoth De-Extinction Company

While the CIA is not generally known for dealing with ancient animals, the agency is one of the multiple entities financially backing Dallas-based biotechnology company Colossal Biosciences, which is trying to bring the wooly mammoth back from extinction.

Other individuals and groups with investments in the company include Peter Thiel, Tony Robbins, Paris Hilton and Winklevoss Capital.

“Biotechnology and the broader bioeconomy are critical for humanity to further develop. It is important for all facets of our government to develop them and have an understanding of what is possible,” Colossal co-founder Ben Lamm told The Intercept.

In-Q-Tel, Colossal’s new investor, is registered as a nonprofit venture capital firm funded by the CIA, according to The Intercept, which said that recently the firm had shown an interest in biotechnology and DNA sequencing.

In-Q-Tel published a blog post on September 22, which said: “Why the interest in a company like Colossal, which was founded with a mission to “de-extinct” the wooly mammoth and other species? Strategically, it’s less about the mammoths and more about the capability.”

It said that “leadership in biotechnology will allow the U.S. to help set the ethical, as well as the technological, standards for the use of this technology.”

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The CIA in Ukraine—Philip Agee Would Have Been Outraged

The U.S. establishment called the 2014 overthrow of President Victor Yanukovych in Ukraine a “revolution.” But given his commitment to social justice and equality, former CIA agent-turned-CIA-whistleblower Philip Agee would have known better. He would call it more accurately a violent, CIA-backed coup. 

Agee would have recognized the usual pattern within the United States’s imperialist, foreign policy: to protect U.S. interests in its attempt to make Ukraine a market satellite, even though the latter is on the other side of the world. Agee would have been aware of the imposition of private monopolies characteristic of capitalism, or what is called neoliberalism. The idea of taking advantage of the wealth, resources and labor in the former Soviet republic as it has done in other nations.  

Another familiar element in the imperial pattern would be the supporting of rights abusers in and out of government. The CIA is particularly known to support right-wing tyrants and death squads in the nations of Latin America, e.g., during the 1980s. It imposed what was called “enhanced interrogation techniques” when the U.S. Empire illegally invaded Iraq in 2003.

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Nord Stream Pipelines See ‘Unprecedented’ Damage After CIA Warned German Government Of Sabotage

Three lines in the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system saw “unprecedented” damage on Tuesday weeks after the Central Intelligence Agency warned Germany of possible attacks.

Russia severed natural gas flow through Nord Stream 1 earlier this month, citing mechanical issues as energy prices soared as much as twentyfold in some European Union member states. The Swedish Maritime Authority reported two leaks in Nord Stream 1 on Tuesday shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 was found, according to a report from Reuters. Operators are unsure when the pipeline, which started carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany in 2011, will be repaired.

“The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented,” Nord Stream AG said in a statement. “It is not yet possible to estimate the timing of the restoration of the gas transport infrastructure.”

Denmark limited shipping within a radius of five nautical miles on Tuesday after the damage was discovered. Before Russia nixed the flow of natural gas one month ago, Nord Stream 1 had only been operating at 20% capacity, which Moscow pinned on faulty equipment.

As natural gas poured into the Baltic Sea and the possibility of an explosion mounted, according to a report from The Guardian, some European leaders began blaming Russia.

“Today we faced an act of sabotage,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. “We don’t know all the details of what happened but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine.”

When asked about the possibility of sabotage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters “no option can be ruled out” at the moment.

“This is a very concerning news. Indeed, we are talking about some damage of an unclear nature to the pipeline in Denmark’s economic zone,” Peskov said. “This is an issue related to the energy security of the entire continent.”

A report from German news outlet Spiegel said that the CIA had cautioned Germany about possible attacks on Baltic Sea gas pipelines weeks ago. Berlin is presently assuming it was a targeted attack on the Nord Stream system, unnamed sources said.

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America’s Open Wound. The CIA Is Not Your Friend

“Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.” ― Baruch Spinoza

It hasn’t been a month since President Biden mounted the steps of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, declaring it his duty to ensure each of us understands the central faction of his political opposition are extremists that “threaten the very foundations of our Republic.” Flanked by the uniformed icons of his military and standing atop a Leni Riefenstahl stage, the leader clenched his fists to illustrate seizing the future from the forces of “fear, division, and darkness.” The words falling from the teleprompter ran rich with the language of violence, a “dagger at the throat” emerging from the “shadow of lies.”

“What’s happening in our country,” the President said, “is not normal.”

Is he wrong to think that? The question the speech intended to raise—the one lost in the unintentionally villainous pageantry—is whether and how we are to continue as a democracy and a nation of laws. For all the Twitter arguments over Biden’s propositions, there has been little consideration of his premises.

Democracy and the rule of law have been so frequently invoked as a part of the American political brand that we simply take it for granted that we enjoy both.

Are we right to think that?

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CIA launches a podcast, hoping to ‘demystify’ the agency and boost recruitment

There is no shortage of podcasts out there exploring the mechanics of espionage, celebrating fictionalized spies and detailing the real-world exploits of the country’s premiere intelligence agency. But only one, as of today, is officially unclassified.

The CIA launched ‘The Langley Files’ podcast on Thursday, attempting to step out from its own shadows to share stories from the agency’s 75-year history — and provide a little insight into what it takes to work there.

The goal of the podcast, according to a CIA spokesperson, is to provide a bit more transparency into an agency premised on secrecy.

‘“The Langley Files’ is a major milestone for CIA as the agency marks its 75th anniversary,” said CIA press secretary Susan Miller. “It is the latest in CIA’s ongoing efforts to be as open as possible with the public, sharing what we can about our mission, people, and history.”

And in telling stories on the history of the CIA — featuring senior CIA officials, agency historians and CIA museum experts as guests — the agency hopes to attract new interest from a young generation of potential recruits.

“We want to reach a wider and more diverse audience than ever before, so that people who might not have thought of joining CIA — or might not have known that there could be a place for their talents here — consider CIA in their career plans,” a CIA spokesperson said.

“The podcast supports the agency’s efforts to connect with talent from all backgrounds and walks of life,” the spokesperson continued. “To be successful in its national security mission, CIA needs to build the diverse, skilled workforce of tomorrow, and we hope ‘The Langley Files’ can serve as a way to reach those candidates.”

The podcast will be hosted by two agency officers, exploring new topics with special guests in each episode.

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There’s a conspiracy theory that the CIA invented the term ‘conspiracy theory’ – here’s why

Conspiracy theories have a long history, but the actual term “conspiracy theory” emerged much more recently. It was only a few decades ago that the term took on the derogatory connotations it has today, where to call someone a conspiracy theorist functions as an insult.

So it may come as no surprise that there is even a conspiracy theory about the origins of the label. This conspiracy theory claims that the CIA invented the term in 1967 to disqualify those who questioned the official version of John F Kennedy’s assassination and doubted that his killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, had acted alone.

There are even two versions of this conspiracy theory. The more extreme version claims that the CIA literally invented the term in the sense that the words “conspiracy” and “theory” had never been used before in combination. A more moderate version acknowledges that the term existed before, but claims that the CIA intentionally created its negative connotations and so turned the label into a tool of political propaganda.

The more moderate version has been particularly popular in recent years for two reasons. First, it is very easy to disprove the more extreme claim that the CIA actually invented the term. As a search on Google Books quickly reveals, the term “conspiracy theory” emerged around 1870 and began to be more frequently used during the 1950s. Even die-hard conspiracy theorists have a hard time trying to ignore this. Second, the more moderate version received a big boost in popularity a few years ago when American political scientist Lance DeHaven-Smith propagated it in a book published by a renowned university press.

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Senate doesn’t have to release full CIA torture report, judge rules

The U.S. Senate does not have to release its full report detailing the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation and detention program following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

Journalist Shawn Musgrave sought the 6,700-page document, citing a “common law right of access” to public records. The legal argument is conceptually similar to the Freedom of Information Act. Congress is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in 2016 that the report was a congressional record. Musgrave’s legal argument was made in an attempt to get around that limitation.

Common law right of access is decided in the District of Columbia Circuit based on a two-part test that requires a determination that the document is a public record and then balancing the government’s interest in keeping the document secret against the public’s interest in disclosure.

District of Columbia District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the report “does not qualify as a public record subject to the common law right of public access” because although it was part of the committee’s investigation, it was aimed at gathering information and did not make recommendations or propose legislation. Therefore, she said, it falls under the protections of the 1st Amendment‘s speech and debate clause protecting legislators’ speech while crafting legislation.

The government interest in keeping the information secret outweighs public interest, Howell wrote.

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Former CIA Station Chief: Intelligence Agencies Cannot ‘Be Reformed’ Unless POTUS Can ‘Fire Every Federal Employee’

Former CIA officer and station chief Scott Uehlinger told Breitbart News on Thursday that intelligence agencies cannot be cleansed of political and partisan corruption unless the president has the unitary power over the federal government’s personnel decisions.

Uehlinger discussed left-wing and partisan politicization of federal intelligence agencies on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with special guest host and retired Navy SEAL and FBI agent Jonathan Gilliam.

“It’s a real cause of concern, not just among regular folks, but [among] people who served in these agencies,” he stated. He emphasized the ubiquity of such political orientations among intelligence agency employees.

He remarked, “The infection in these organizations is not just the political appointees. It’s basically everyone from mid-grade-level and up, if not lower because they’re all the recipients of a super-liberal education.”

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George H.W. Bush, the CIA, and the Pennington Ruse

Officially, George H.W. Bush’s association with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began with his appointment to the post of Director of Central Intelligence by then President and former Warren Commission member Gerald Ford. However, speculation persists that Bush’s relationship with the Agency began long before his tenure as DCI.

How a politician with no known background in intelligence was able to ascend to the top post of a famously insular and opaque organization remains unclear. According to the CIA’s internal history, Bush was selected as an outsider to improve both morale and the Agency’s relationship with Congress.

However, evidence exists which points to a connection between George Bush and the CIA long before his assent to the Agency’s top post.

After the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reported in a memo to the State Department that he had verbally briefed a man named George Bush of the CIA on the reaction to President Kennedy’s death in the Cuban exile community.

During this time in Bush’s career, he was in charge of Zapata Offshore Company in Houston, Texas. When The Nation first published evidence of Bush’s involvement with the Agency in 1988, reporter Joseph McBride alleged that Bush’s position at the oil company was a cover for clandestine operations. McBride cited a November 29, 1963 memo from J. Edgar Hoover saying Bush “started working for the Agency in 1960 or 1961, using his oil business as a cover for clandestine activities.”

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