This November, the Central Intelligence Agency was forced to release a 90 page document. They did so begrudgingly, because in this document were the detailed reports of decades of experimentation on prisoners with the purpose of creating a “truth serum.” In the report, they discussed trapping prisoners in coffin-like boxes, repeatedly waterboarding prisoners, and kindly, […]
Tag: CIA
Power Plays
A Tug of War Between the President and the Intelligence Community On January 21, 2017, addressing several hundred key CIA officials, Donald Trump stood before the CIA Memorial Wall and announced, “there is nobody that feels stronger about the intelligence community and the CIA than Donald Trump”. Despite this declaration of support, his speech received mixed […]
The Grim Reaper
In 2000, an unarmed, unmanned CIA surveillance aircraft overflew Tarnak Farm in Afghanistan, taking video of the sprawling agricultural complex and a tall man dressed in a white robe. The figure in the tape, which was leaked in 2004, was believed to be Osama bin Laden. Tarnak Farm was not attacked in part because it […]
The Great Game
Part 3 of a series on U.S. cybersecurity. Part1. Part2. Part 4. By 2010, the Iranian nuclear program was clearly behind schedule. Despite dire predictions from the world powers, Iran seemed little closer to acquiring the bomb. The reasons for the delay were somewhat puzzling: perhaps the IR-1 centrifuges used at the nuclear facility at […]
The Viral Consequences: Pakistan’s Polio Crisis
With the world focusing on the Ebola outbreak ravaging through West Africa, it is easy to overlook an equally dangerous disease lurking behind global headlines: polio. Polio, a highly infectious disease that can cause irreversible paralysis in children, is entirely preventable if young children are frequently given vaccines. Hundreds of thousands of children in the […]
The Most Dangerous Game: U.S. Military Engagement in Yemen
As the U.S. prepares to withdraw its military presence from Afghanistan in 2014, the intelligence community has begun shifting the majority of its attention from the Af-Pak region, the mountainous area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the tiny country of Yemen. Faced with a plethora of domestic problems – such as a fragmented government that […]