Favorite After failing to convince the Biden administration to ship NATO fighter jets to Ukraine, the military-industrial complex is now trying to coax the White House into sending unmanned fighter jets to counter Russia’s invasion. Kyiv reportedly met with the major defense contractor General Atomics about obtaining the “Hunter-Killer” MQ-9 Reaper drone, armed with Hellfire…
All posts tagged National Security
As the SEC Cracks Down on Shady SPACs, CIA Officials Get In on the Action
Favorite Top leadership for Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, have quietly launched a separate “blank check” fund that stands to fuel astronomical fortunes for former intelligence officials. In-Q-Tel, which receives funding and directions from the CIA, was founded by the CIA in the late ’90s to spur private sector innovation with the goal…
American Phone-Tracking Firm Demo'd Surveillance Powers by Spying on CIA and NSA
Favorite In the months leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two obscure American startups met to discuss a potential surveillance partnership that would merge the ability to track the movements of billions of people via their phones with a constant stream of data purchased directly from Twitter. According to Brendon Clark of Anomaly Six —…
U.S. Quietly Assists Ukraine With Intelligence, Avoiding Direct Confrontation With Russia
Favorite As hawkish members of both parties and the press call on President Joe Biden to pursue military involvement in Ukraine, including by implementing a “no-fly zone,” a complicated tightrope act by U.S. intelligence is receiving relatively little public attention. Current and former U.S. officials knowledgeable about the operations told The Intercept that the U.S.…
Peter Daszak Answers Critics and Defends Coronavirus Research
Favorite Since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Peter Daszak has been at the center of a heated, and at times vicious, debate over the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The parasitologist helms the New York-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance, a wildlife conservation organization that aims to understand and prevent infectious diseases; the organization has received more…
“Jan 6th is gonna be crazy. … lol”: DHS Officials Expected Violence at the Capitol, Kept It to Themselves
Favorite In the days leading up to the January 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol, officials inside the Department of Homeland Security were feeling anxious. Within the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, the sole component of the federal government authorized to disseminate threat information to state and local law enforcement agencies, analysts had…
Echoes of FBI Entrapment Haunt Failed Plot to Kidnap Gretchen Whitmer
Favorite In October 2020, the FBI and the Justice Department announced the arrest of six Michigan militia members who called themselves the Wolverine Watchmen. The FBI claimed that federal agents had thwarted an elaborate plot hatched by the men to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “These alleged extremists undertook a plot to kidnap a sitting…
Even After Acknowledging Abuses, the U.S. Continued to Employ Notorious Proxy Forces in Cameroon
Favorite Months after the head of U.S. Africa Command announced that funding for Cameroon’s armed forces would be slashed due to human rights concerns, the Pentagon continued employing members of an elite Cameroonian military unit long known for committing atrocities — including extrajudicial killings — as proxies through a classified Special Operations counterterrorism program, The Intercept has…
Oath Keepers Leader Stewart Rhodes Has Made His Worst Fears Come True
Favorite In the days before his arrest, Stewart Rhodes could feel the authorities circling. He met me on a chilly Dallas evening in January in a room I’d booked at a chain hotel not far from where he lived, the neon lights of office parks and strip malls glowing outside. He wore dark jeans and…
A Pastor’s Legal Fight Against CBP Exposes a Reckless Surveillance Operation
Favorite The sun was beginning to set as Kaji Dousa neared the border. It was two days into 2019, and the line she was about to cross separating San Diego and Tijuana was the site of a politicized battle over the arrival of thousands of asylum-seekers playing out on televisions screens around the world. Dousa,…