Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
Cyborg Insects
September 19th, 2015Via: Vice: I asked Anthes why she thought the military was so keen to work with insects. “I’d imagine there are several reasons,” she said. “Firstly those creatures are simpler to work with, biologically speaking. It’s much easier to commandeer an insect’s nervous system than a dog’s or a human’s. But also, for the specific […]
U.S. Training Helped Mold Top Islamic State Military Commander
September 15th, 2015Via: McClatchy: Ethnic Chechens are thought to be one of the largest groups of foreign fighters in the Islamic State. Now 30, Batirashvili is a key figure, reportedly a member of the group’s governing council, is said to be the Islamic State’s supreme military leader in northern Syria and Aleppo, and is perhaps the group’s […]
The CIA’s Most Famous Ship Headed for the Scrapyard
September 9th, 2015Via: PRI: The Hughes Glomar Explorer was more than just a giant ship — it was a giant secret, possibly the biggest and strangest covert operation the CIA pulled off during the Cold War. But now, 40 years after its original mission, it’s finally headed to the scrapyard.
British Tabloids: Spy Found Dead in a Bag Hacked Into Secret U.S. Data on Bill Clinton
August 30th, 2015Via: Daily Mail: The British spy whose body was found padlocked inside a bag in his flat had illegally hacked into secret data on former U.S. president Bill Clinton, it has been revealed. Gareth Williams, 31, was discovered in a holdall in the bath at his London home five years ago this month, but the […]
Frederick Forsyth Reveals MI6 Spying Past
August 30th, 2015Via: BBC: The Day of the Jackal author Frederick Forsyth has revealed he was working for MI6 for more than 20 years. The disclosure comes with the publication of the author’s autobiography The Outsider: My Life. Fans have long suspected that Forsyth, 77, acclaimed for his highly realistic spy novels, may have been involved with […]
The Zapruder Film Mystery
August 28th, 2015Via: E2 Films: The Zapruder Film Mystery from E2 Films on Vimeo.
Literary Magazines for Socialists Funded by the CIA, Ranked
August 26th, 2015Via: The Awl: The centerpiece of the CIA’s effort to organize the efforts of anti-Communist artists and intellectuals was the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Established in 1950 and headquartered in Paris, the CCF brought together prominent thinkers under the rubric of anti-totalitarianism. For the CIA, it was an opportunity to guarantee that anti-Communist ideas were […]
Afghanistan Has Cost the U.S. More Than the Marshall Plan
August 23rd, 2015Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. has now spent more on the reconstruction of Afghanistan than it spent on the Marshall Plan, which resuscitated Europe after World War II, according to a special inspector general. The Marshall Plan delivered $103 billion in today’s dollars to 16 European countries between 1948 and 1952. That has now been topped […]
IBM: Digital Rat Brain
August 19th, 2015Via: Quartz: In August 2014, IBM announced that it had built a “brain-inspired” computer chip—essentially a computer that was wired like an organic brain, rather than a traditional computer. These chips are designed to work like neurons—the brain’s nerve cells. Wired reported on Aug. 17 that the team working on the brain chips recently hit […]
NSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’
August 15th, 2015NSAT&T: Since 1985. Via: ProPublica: The National Security Agency’s ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T. While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly […]
