WORLD
March 1, 2009 | Greg Miller
At night, when the lawns are empty and the lamps along the walking paths are the only source of light, Topcider Park on the outskirts of Belgrade is a perfect meeting place for spies. It was here in 1992, as the former Yugoslavia was erupting in ethnic violence, that a wary CIA agent made his way toward the park's gazebo and shook hands with a Serbian intelligence officer. Jovica Stanisic had a cold gaze and a sinister reputation.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 21, 2006 | Scott Martelle, Times Staff Writer
Tony Mendez is on the phone, his voice muffled by a hissing connection that's a couple of wavelengths shy of pure. At least he says he's Mendez. And the hiss, once you get to thinking about it, might actually be from an eavesdropper's equipment. You never know. "Absolutely yes," Mendez says with a laugh when asked about the likelihood that the line is tapped at his Maryland farm. "Assume nothing."
NATIONAL
September 17, 2006 | Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
At the National Counterterrorism Center -- the agency created two years ago to prevent another attack like Sept. 11 -- more than half of the employees are not U.S. government analysts or terrorism experts. Instead, they are outside contractors. At CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., senior officials say it is routine for career officers to look around the table during meetings on secret operations and be surrounded by so-called green-badgers -- nonagency employees who carry special-colored IDs.
NATIONAL
July 16, 2009 | Greg Miller
In movies, the CIA has so many prolifically lethal assassins roaming the world that the main problem often seems to be reining them in. But details that spilled out this week about a real CIA assassination program indicate that when the plotting is being done by spies instead of screenwriters, the obstacles are not so easy to surmount. According to current and former U.S.
NEWS
February 8, 1995 | RICHARD A. SERRANO, TIMES STAFF WRITER
President Clinton's choice to head the CIA is retired Air Force Gen. Michael P.C. Carns, a former Vietnam War fighter pilot who, supporters say, could bring fresh ideas to an embattled spy agency unsure of its role in the post-Cold War era. Carns, 57, served 35 years, earned four stars and rose to Air Force vice chief of staff before retiring in September. Clinton is expected to formally nominate him later this week, White House and congressional officials said Tuesday.
NATIONAL
May 28, 2009 | Josh Meyer
The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions. Under the "global justice" initiative, which has been in the works for several months, FBI agents will have a central role in overseas counter-terrorism cases.
NATIONAL
August 31, 2009 | Greg Miller
Their transformations took place in a sensory cocoon: aboard a CIA aircraft, shackled in place, deprived of sight and sound by blindfolds, headsets and hoods. They emerged into an existence that was hidden for most of the last eight years, but now is possible to glimpse through dozens of declassified files released by the Obama administration last week. Scattered throughout, in the CIA's clinical style, are descriptions of the prisoners' surroundings, the extraordinary security measures with which they were handled, the often brutal search for answers they were thought to possess, and what passed for everyday life.
NATIONAL
January 16, 2009 | Greg Miller
Outgoing CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said Thursday that the most pressing issues facing his successor include Iran's nuclear ambitions and surging violence in Mexico -- but not the war in Iraq. Hayden also defended the agency's use of harsh interrogation methods and said he had advised the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama against going too far in dismantling the agency's controversial counter-terrorism programs.
OPINION
February 21, 2006 | Danielle Pletka, DANIELLE PLETKA is vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
GALLONS OF ink have been spilled since 2003 about how the Bush administration ignored internal predictions of post-war instability, terrorism and rising Islamism in Iraq. Intelligence, critics argue, was "cherry-picked" to bolster the argument for war. What much of the public doesn't realize is that the CIA's Monday-morning quarterbacks, who originated many of the complaints, are themselves handpicking intelligence to boost their antiwar cause.
NATIONAL
April 18, 2009 | Greg Miller
The release of internal Bush administration interrogation memos this week answered long-standing questions about the CIA's techniques for getting prisoners to talk, but left unsettled a debate in Washington over whether those methods worked. The White House and the Senate Intelligence Committee are in the early stages of inquiries designed to address that issue, which nearly eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks remains one of the most divisive in the intelligence community.