The anonymous whistleblower who has threatened Trump's presidency

WASHINGTON - Only a handful of people know his or her identity, but the whistleblower whose complaint threatens to implode Donald Trump's presidency is already being lauded as both a hero and a traitor.

Six weeks after submitting a damning complaint about Trump that was made public Thursday, neither the president nor his intelligence chief knows their name or job, much less Democrats who have made the complaint the basis of an impeachment probe of the US leader.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the person is a man who works for the Central Intelligence Agency and had been seconded for a time to the White House.

The whistleblower's explosive complaint depicts Trump using his official powers to pressure Ukraine's president to get dirt on former vice president Joe Biden, currently the most likely Democrat to face Trump in next year's presidential election.

Democrats have accused the president of abuse of power in seeking foreign interference in a US election, two years after Russia meddled in the 2016 vote to help Trump's campaign.

The complaint only identifies the whistleblower as a member of the sprawling US intelligence community, 16 separate bodies with 100,000 people.

But it suggests the person is a skilled analyst deeply knowledegable about Eastern European politics with strong contacts in the White House.

'BY THE BOOK'

He or she recruited attorney Andrew Bakaj, a specialist in national security and whistleblower law, to help prepare the August 12 complaint for the inspector general of the intelligence community.

"I don't know the identity of the whistleblower. I just hear that it's a partisan person," Trump said earlier this week.

"I don't know who the whistleblower is," acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, the leader of the intelligence community, said Thursday.

Federal whistleblowers have strong protections under a special law governing officials wanting to report wrongdoing by colleagues or superiors, but they have to go through a strictly defined process.

Maguire said the person acted "by the book."

"I think the whistleblower did everything in the right way," he told the House Intelligence Committee.

TRUMP: 'ALMOST A SPY'

But protecting the person could be hard. Bakaj has agreed to have them appear behind closed doors at the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to answer questions about the complaint.

Trump has already launched a campaign of personal attacks, accusing the whistleblower of relying on secondary reports from others in the intelligence community and holding a bias against the president.

"Who is this so-called 'whistleblower' who doesn't know the correct facts. Is he on our Country's side," Trump asked in a tweet this week.

And on Thursday, Trump appeared to threaten them.

"They're almost a spy," Trump said in a private meeting, according to a recording published by the Los Angeles times.

"You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now."

PRAISE FOR COMING FORWARD

But many others praised the person for risking their career and possibly personal safety by coming forward.

"I want to thank the whistleblower for their courage. They didn't have to step forward," said Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in a hearing on the complaint Thursday.

Bakaj would not confirm The New York Times report that the whistleblower works for the CIA.

But he assailed the newspaper for endangering the person.

"Any decision to report any perceived identifying information of the whistleblower is deeply concerning and reckless, as it can place the individual in harm's way," The New York Times quoted Bakaj as saying.

"The whistleblower has a right to anonymity."

The nonprofit group Whistleblower Aid opened a public donation site seeking funds for the person's legal fees on Wednesday.

"The US intelligence officer who filed an urgent report of government misconduct needs your help," the group said.

"This brave individual took an oath to protect and defend our Constitution."

One day after the launch, the site had raised more than $79,000 from around 2,200 donors.

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Trump move to declassify Russia intel draws sharp criticism

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump is defending his unprecedented decision to give his Justice Department chief unfettered access to the country's deepest foreign intelligence secrets amid an outcry from the spy community and a veiled warning from the US intelligence czar.

The president said Attorney General Bill Barr needed unilateral power to declassify any top secret material to get to the roots of the 2016-2018 investigation into whether his election campaign colluded with Russia.

Barr "will be able to see how this hoax, how the hoax or witch hunt started, and why it started," Trump said.

"It was an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States. It should never ever happen to anybody else, so it's very important."

But politicians and former intelligence community leaders said Trump and Barr are threatening to expose the country's most protected sources of secrets on Russia to mount a political attack on a legitimate investigation that exposed a serious threat to the United States.

REOPENING THE RUSSIA MEDDLING INVESTIGATION

The brief order issued late Thursday tells the heads of each of the bodies of the intelligence community, including the CIA and National Security Agency, to support Barr in his review of what he has called suspected improper "spying" on Trump by the FBI and intelligence bodies.

It also gives Barr the power to access and declassify any information he views necessary, which could extend to the top-secret sources of information that intelligence chiefs used to conclude that Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over a concerted effort to sway the election on Trump's behalf in 2016.

The same information led to the investigation of Trump by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose final report in April detailed numerous acts of possible collusion, but concluded none amounted to criminal conspiracy.

Critics said Trump and Barr, who has become one of the president's staunchest defenders, were playing fast and loose with intelligence for political reasons.

"The president has granted sweeping declassification powers to an attorney general who has already shown that he has no problem selectively releasing information in order to mislead the American people," said Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"People risk their lives to gather the intelligence material that President Trump and Attorney General Barr are so eager to politicize."

'REALLY BAD IDEA'

Former CIA deputy director John McLaughlin called for Congress to thwart the move.

"Giving Barr declassification authority for this investigation is a really bad idea," he said on Twitter.

"The agencies can cooperate but must retain their legal responsibility for protecting sources."

Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence who oversees the various intelligence branches, stepped carefully, but also made clear that Barr should not play loose with the country's secrets.

"I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the intelligence community in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk," he said.

'DANGEROUS ABUSE OF POWER'

Barr himself has stunned law enforcement and intelligence officials with his willingness to question whether there was a genuine foundation for the investigation into Russian election meddling and into the many suspect contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

The investigation was launched in mid-2016 after campaign advisor George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in London that Russians had offered dirt on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. 

The subsequent investigation, which included authorized national security wiretaps, found a concerted effort by Russia to develop contacts, exchange information and negotiate deals, from a Trump real estate project in Moscow to the lifting of sanctions on Russia. 

Those acts and episodes have all been made public in detail in congressional testimony and Mueller's report. 

But Trump continues to insist that the investigation had no foundation and that the spying on his advisors was illegal, the product of a menacing "deep state."

Former CIA officer Evan McMullin warned that Trump's move "is truly a dangerous abuse of power."

"Barr will selectively release sensitive information, as he did with Mueller's report, to shape a favorable narrative for Trump and impede the intelligence community's ability to collect intel on foreign threats."

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'I spy with my little eye': CIA launches Instagram account

WASHINGTON - The Central Intelligence Agency opened its own account on Instagram Thursday with a picture of a desk of mysteries teased by the children's game prompt "I spy with my little eye."

The photo tempts with intrigues and adventure: a wig suggesting disguises, maps of China and the Gulf, foreign banknotes, a burn bag for getting rid of secret documents, a notebook with Arabic, and other items -- mostly real operation souvenirs of CIA officers.

Next to a wall is a photo with the words: "I want to travel the world."

The Instagram posting was an expansion of the premier US spy agency's effort to recruit a younger generation of officers, agents and analysts, having already been on Twitter and Facebook for years.

The agency has been openly recruiting from universities and industry, and Instagram gives it a way to reach a large, younger demographic: most of its regular users are under 30.

"We're looking to spark the curiosity of Instagram's users about the many ways CIA's global mission has us going where others cannot go and doing what others cannot do," the agency said in a statement.

"Through the account, we'll give a peek into agency life, but we can't promise any selfies from secret locations." 

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US ex-spies warn of danger in 'warfare' between Trump, intel chiefs

WASHINGTON - The critical relationship between President Donald Trump and the US intelligence community is irreparably broken, with high risks for the country in a crisis, former senior CIA officers said Wednesday.

One week after Trump blasted his spy chiefs as "naive" and told them to "go back to school" for challenging his views on Iran and North Korea, the CIA officers said the rift between the two sides had become extremely dangerous.

"When you have that open warfare, it can affect intelligence judgments and it can affect policy judgments," said George Beebe, former director of Russia analysis at the CIA.

When the intelligence community needs to deliver a warning to the president of a looming crisis, he said, you now have a situation where "the first thought going through his mind is, 'they are playing some game to try to make some trouble for me.'"

"If the intelligence community warns, but its audience for that warning won't hear it, dismisses it, effectively, the result is not different than if there were no warning at all," he said. 

DISPUTE OVER GLOBAL THREATS

Beebe and other ex-Central Intelligence Agency officers were speaking at a roundtable discussion at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington think tank, following the newest public rupture between Trump and his intelligence chiefs.

Their annual Worldwide Threat Assessment presented to Congress on January 29 contradicted Trump's claims that the Islamic State group has been defeated, that North Korea will forego its nuclear weapons, and that Tehran is actively seeking nuclear weapons.

Trump blasted back that they were wrong, before summoning Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Gina Haspel to his office over the issue.

"The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong!" he tweeted. 

"Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!"

Trump has been at odds with the intelligence community since its public report after his November 2016 victory that Russia had meddled in the election on his behalf.

He branded the report "politicized" and "fake news" and later accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin's insistence that there was no meddling.

"Lots of presidents have fallen out of love with us over time," former CIA assistant director for analysis Mark Lowenthal said.

"But the relationship with Trump is different. We have never had a president stand up with a foreign leader, let alone a Russian leader, and say I believe him, I don't believe US intelligence."

Lowenthal said Trump's distrust has been "very debilitating" for intelligence analysts, potentially affecting their judgment.

CRISIS TEST 

Paul Pillar, a Georgetown University professor who spent 28 years in the CIA, stressed that setting US policy is president's prerogative.

But, he said, Trump needs the intelligence community's input into his policy.

"The biggest concern seems to be Trump's overall resistance to ingesting new information, in either written or briefing form, and thereby overcoming his ignorance about many world events," said Pillar.

"He has not really been tested with a true international crisis," he added.

"This is another thing to worry about: that the intelligence input would be discredited, it would be seen with suspicious eyes, and that would impede an effective and safe response to whatever the crisis is."

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US to make final conclusions on Saudi killing in days: Trump

WASHINGTON - The United States will make final conclusions by early next week over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump said Saturday, following reports that the CIA had held Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly changed its official narrative of the October 2 murder, first denying any knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts and later saying he was killed when an argument degenerated into a fistfight.

Earlier this week, a Saudi prosecutor exonerated the crown prince of involvement in the brutal murder.

Speaking to reporters in Malibu, California after surveying damage from wildfires, Trump said a "full report" on "who did it" would be completed by Monday or Tuesday.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert earlier said reports indicating the United States had already made final conclusions in the case were "inaccurate."

"There remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr Khashoggi," she added.

The State Department will continue to seek facts and work with other countries to hold those involved in the killing accountable, Nauert said, "while maintaining the important strategic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia."

"In the meantime, we will continue to consult Congress, and work with other nations to hold accountable those involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi."

She noted that Washington had already taken "decisive measures" against individuals, including visa and sanctions actions.

The remarks appeared to contradict reports that the Central Intelligence Agency had determined Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a vocal critic.

'TRULY SPECTACULAR ALLY'

The killing and the international uproar it triggered has frayed ties between Washington and longtime ally Riyadh, which has sought to end discussion of the murder and rejected calls for an international investigation.

But ahead of a briefing by his secretary of state and CIA director, Trump demured when asked about possible retaliation against Riyadh.

"They have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development," Trump told reporters.

"And I also take that -- you know, I'm president -- I have to take a lot of things into consideration."

The Washington Post, which broke the story, said the CIA found that 15 Saudi agents flew on government aircraft to Istanbul and assassinated Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate.

Khashoggi, a Post columnist, had gone to the consulate to obtain documents necessary to marry his Turkish fiancee.

European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini meanwhile reiterated calls for a "thorough, credible and transparent" probe into Khashoggi's killing.

"The need remains to shed full clarity on the circumstances surrounding this horrendous crime as well as to ensure accountability for all those responsible for it," she said in a statement.

Reiterating the EU's categorical opposition to the death penalty, Mogherini said "we will continue to stress that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia must put in place measures to ensure that something like this can never happen again."

"In due course, the EU and its member states will consider how they can act together towards appropriate measures against those responsible, in support of the rules based international system," she added.

In the latest version of the events presented by the Saudi prosecutor on Thursday, a 15-member squad was formed to bring Khashoggi back from Istanbul "by means of persuasion" -- but instead ended up killing the journalist and dismembering his body in a "rogue" operation.

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CIA concludes Saudi Crown Prince behind Khashoggi murder: reports

WASHINGTON- The US Central Intelligence Agency has concluded Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, US media reported Friday, citing people close to the matter.

The US assessment directly contradicts the conclusions of a Saudi prosecutor one day prior, which exonerated the prince of involvement in the brutal murder.

But The Washington Post, which broke the story, said the CIA found that 15 Saudi agents flew on government aircraft to Istanbul and assassinated Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate.

Queried by AFP, the CIA declined to comment. 

Khashoggi, a Post columnist, had gone to the consulate to obtain documents necessary to marry his Turkish fiancee.

Saudi Arabia -- which quickly dismissed the reported CIA findings -- has repeatedly changed its official narrative of the October 2 murder, first denying any knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts and later saying he was killed when an argument degenerated into a fistfight.

In the latest version presented by the Saudi prosecutor on Thursday, a 15-member squad was formed to bring Khashoggi back from Istanbul "by means of persuasion" -- but instead ended up killing the journalist and dismembering his body in a "rogue" operation.

The CIA examined multiple intelligence sources, the Post said, among them a phone call between the prince's brother -- the Saudi ambassador to the United States -- and Khashoggi.

The ambassador reportedly told the late journalist that he would be safe to go to the consulate in Istanbul and get the papers he needed.

'SOME THINGS YOU CAN'T DO'

But a Saudi embassy spokesperson said that Ambassador Khalid bin Salman had never discussed "anything related to going to Turkey" with Khashoggi.

"Amb Prince Khalid bin Salman has never had any phone conversations with (Khashoggi)," the statement posted on the ambassador's Twitter account said.

"The claims in this purported assessment is false," it said.

The US intelligence agency also said in determining the crown prince's role it considered him a "de facto ruler" of Saudi Arabia: "The accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved," the Post quoted an official as saying.

That official dubbed Prince Mohammed a "good technocrat" -- but also someone unpredictable who "goes from zero to 60, doesn't seem to understand that there are some things you can't do."

The New York Times later reported that the CIA findings were also based on calls from the kill team to one of the crown prince's senior aides.

But the paper said that while the intercepts showed Prince Mohammed was working to lure Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, the crown prince had not said in the calls that he wanted Khashoggi killed.

The Times cited officials as saying US and Turkish intelligence so far have not found direct evidence connecting the prince to Khashoggi's killing.

Following the reports, US Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday said Washington "is determined to hold all of those accountable who are responsible for that murder."

On the sidelines of an APEC summit in Papua New Guinea, Pence described the Saudi journalist's killing as an "atrocity" and an "affront to a free and independent press" but declined to comment on classified information.

The CIA conclusions threaten to further fray relations between Washington and longtime ally Riyadh, which has sought to end discussion of the murder and rejected calls for an international investigation.

"We are going to follow the facts," said Pence.

But he added the US wanted to find a way of preserving a "strong and historic partnership" with Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 17 people, including close aides of Prince Mohammed, suggesting a coordinated effort between Riyadh and Washington to pre-empt the threat of harsher actions from an outraged US Congress.

US President Donald Trump has shied away from directly blaming the Crown Prince but on Friday agreed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that "any cover up of the incident should not be allowed."

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Trump revokes ex-CIA chief's security clearance, slamming critic

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump moved to penalize a sharp critic on Wednesday, revoking the security clearance of Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan for making what he called "a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations" about his administration.

The Republican president, in a statement read to reporters by White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, also announced he was evaluating whether other former high-ranking officials, all of whom have criticized him, should have their security clearances withdrawn as well.

The decision came a day after Brennan, who headed the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency under Democratic President Barack Obama, leveled a blistering attack against Trump for the president's tweeted criticism of former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who wrote a book critical of Trump.

"It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation," Brennan wrote.

Trump, without mentioning specific comments made by Brennan, said the former CIA leader had engaged in "frenzied commentary" and had sought to "sow division and chaos" about the Trump administration.

"Mr. Brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations – wild outbursts on the internet and television – about this administration," Trump said.

Brennan, in a tweet, said he would not back down.

"This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent," he said. Trump said he may also revoke the clearances of other critics, including former U.S. national intelligence director James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden and former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, among others.

Also on the list was Bruce Ohr, a current Justice Department official in the criminal division.

"BANANA REPUBLIC"

Republican lawmakers gave mixed reviews to Trump's decision, with some criticizing it and others saying Brennan had acted inappropriately with his comments about the president.

“I don’t like it at all," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, referring to Trump's decision. "It feels very much like a banana republic kind of thing.”

Brennan has frequently appeared on cable television news shows and sent out lashing tweets to attack Trump's foreign policy positions.

He was particularly biting about the president's joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki a month ago. Trump said he tended to believe Putin's denials about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election despite the U.S. intelligence community view that Moscow was to blame.

Brennan suggested in a tweet that Trump could be impeached, saying his performance in Helsinki "rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes & misdemeanors'” and was "nothing short of treasonous."

High-ranking government officials sometimes retain their security clearances after leaving office, allowing them the ability to provide advice as needed to their successors.

"At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior ... That conduct and behavior has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that has been due to him," Trump said.

Brennan faces no formal charges or allegations of violating any regulations or laws. Another former CIA director, John Deutch, had his security clearance revoked in 1999, three years after he resigned as CIA chief, after he violated security rules for keeping classified information on computers at his home.

Ned Price, a former National Security Council spokesman for Obama and former CIA official, said Trump was trying to shift public attention away from the critical book by Manigault Newman.

"The proximate target was John Brennan, but the real intent of today’s announcement was to simultaneously shift and silence," he said.

"The White House knows as well as anyone that Brennan, in his criticism of Trump, has never disclosed classified information. And that’s always been the metric when it comes to a revocation of a clearance," Price said.

Hayden, asked for his response to Trump’s announced review of his security clearance, replied in an email, “Meh.” “With regard to the implied threat today that I could lose my clearance, that will have no impact on what I think, say or write,” Hayden wrote. 

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CIA chief denies agency role in Iran unrest, predicts new violence

WASHINGTON - The head of the CIA on Sunday denied his agency had any role in fomenting the recent anti-government protests in Iran but predicted the violent unrest "is not behind us."

Mike Pompeo, named a year ago by President Donald Trump to head the intelligence agency, told Fox News Sunday that economic conditions in Iran "are not good."

"That's what caused the people to take to the streets," he said. He blamed what he called Tehran's "backward-looking" regime for turning a deaf ear to the voices of the people.

Asked about a claim by Iran's prosecutor general, Mohammad Javad Montazeri, that a CIA official had coordinated with Israel and Saudi Arabia -- Iran's regional rivals -- to work with exiled Iranian groups to stir dissent in Iran, Pompeo replied simply: "It's false."

"This was the Iranian people -- started by them, created by them, continued by them, demanding a better set of living conditions and a break from the theocratic regime."

LOOMING DEADLINES 

Trump has repeatedly tweeted his support for Iranian protesters while castigating the Tehran regime, seizing on the recent unrest to again slam the multiparty nuclear deal with Iran as deeply flawed.

Trump faces deadlines around mid-month on whether to renew temporary waivers or restore US sanctions on Iran. In October, Trump refused to certify that Iran was respecting its commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord, but did not reimpose sanctions or abandon the deal itself.

The administration has not revealed its intentions, but the Iran unrest is seen as a possible pretext for blowing up the nuclear accord.

The US Congress has been working on legislation aimed at tightening terms of the agreement in ways that might satisfy Trump's demands, and Pompeo expressed careful optimism that it might succeed.

"They could do something," he said. "They could take some of the weaknesses from the agreement... extend deadlines (and) snap back sanctions into place where they could really happen."

But Bob Corker, head of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week that while talks on Iran were continuing with the White House and its European partners, no new bill was imminent.

Any agreement, Corker said, would take several more weeks to work out.

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White House eyes replacing Tillerson with CIA chief: report

The White House has developed a plan to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo within the next several weeks, the New York Times reported Thursday.

Under the plan, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas would take over for Pompeo at the helm of the CIA, the paper said in its online edition, quoting senior administration officials.

It was not immediately clear whether President Donald Trump has given final approval to the plan developed by his chief of staff John Kelly, according to the paper.

Asked by reporters about the matter at the start of his Oval Office meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, Trump only said, "He's here. Rex is here."

Tillerson has been at odds with Trump's White House on a range of issues such as Iran, Qatar and most recently North Korea.

According to the report, Cotton, a Republican who has been a key ally of Trump on national security issues, has signaled that he would accept the CIA job if offered.

Under the plan, the shake-up of Trump's national security team would happen around the end of the year or shortly after, it said.

While some administration officials initially expected Tillerson to be replaced by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Pompeo has become the White House favorite.

Pompeo has impressed Trump during daily intelligence briefings and become a trusted policy adviser even on issues beyond the CIA's normal mandate such as health care, according to the paper.

The rift between the president and his chief diplomat came to light in early October following a news report that Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid policy disputes with Trump.

It was also reported that Tillerson called Trump a "moron" after a July 20 meeting at the Department of Defense with members of Trump's national security team and Cabinet officials.

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WikiLeaks offers CIA hacking tools to tech companies: Assange

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO - Wikileaks will provide technology companies with exclusive access to CIA hacking tools that it possesses so they can patch software flaws, founder Julian Assange said on Thursday, presenting Silicon Valley with a potential dilemma on how to deal with the anti-secrecy group.

If the offer is legitimate, it would place technology companies in the unusual position of relying on Assange, a man believed by some US officials and lawmakers to be an untrustworthy pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to share cyber vulnerabilities stockpiled by a secretive US spy agency.

It was not clear how WikiLeaks intended to cooperate with the companies. The group published documents on Tuesday describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code. It did not publish the full programs that would be needed to actually conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and Internet-connected televisions.

"Considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details that we have so that the fixes can be developed and pushed out, so people can be secure," Assange said during an online press conference from the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Assange took refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies.

Microsoft Corp and Cisco Systems Inc, whose wares are subject to attacks described in the documents, said in response to Assange that they welcomed submissions of any vulnerabilities through normal reporting channels.

"We've seen Julian Assange's statement and have not yet been contacted," a Microsoft representative said. "Our preferred method for anyone with knowledge of security issues, including the CIA or Wikileaks, is to submit details to us at secure@microsoft.com so we can review information and take any necessary steps to protect customers."

Representatives of Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Huawei, whose products were also featured in the CIA catalog, did not answer requests for comment.

Responding to Assange, CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu, said in a statement: "As we’ve said previously, Julian Assange is not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity."

"Despite the efforts of Assange and his ilk, CIA continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries."

WikiLeaks' disclosures this week caused alarmed in the technology world and among consumers because of the potential privacy implications of the cyber espionage tactics that were described.

One file described a program known as Weeping Angel that purportedly could take over a Samsung smart television, making it appear it was off when in fact it was recording conversations in the room.

Other documents described ways to hack into Apple iPhones, devices running Google's Android software and other gadgets in a way that could observe communications before they are protected by end-to-end encryption offered by messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp.

Several companies have already said they are confident that their recent security updates have accounted for the purported flaws described in the CIA documents. Apple said in a statement on Tuesday that "many of the issues" leaked had already been patched in the latest version of its operating system.

WikiLeaks' publication of the documents reignited a debate about whether U.S. intelligence agencies should hoard serious cyber security vulnerabilities rather than share them with the public. An interagency process created under former President Barack Obama called for erring on the side of disclosure.

CIA SECURITY

President Donald Trump believes changes are needed to safeguard secrets at the CIA, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing on Thursday. "He believes that the systems at the CIA are outdated and need to be updated."

Two US intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday that intelligence agencies have been aware since the end of last year of a breach at the CIA, which led to WikiLeaks releasing thousands of pages of information on its website.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said contractors likely breached security and handed over the documents to WikiLeaks. The CIA has declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents leaked, but the officials said they believed the pages about hacking techniques used between 2013 and 2016 were authentic.

Contractors have been revealed as the source of sensitive government information leaks in recent years, most notably Edward Snowden and Harold Martin, both employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton while working for the National Security Agency.

Assange said he possessed "a lot more information" about the CIA's cyber arsenal that would be released soon. He criticized the CIA for "devastating incompetence" for not being able to control access to such sensitive material, and asked whether Obama or Trump were made aware of the breaches.

Assange's group released Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that US intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He is regarded with distaste by many in Washington, although Trump, then the Republican candidate, supported the group's email releases last year.

Ben Sasse, a Republican senator, said in a statement on Thursday that Assange should "spend the rest of his life wearing an orange jumpsuit." He is "an enemy of the American people and an ally to Vladimir Putin" who has "has dedicated his life’s work to endangering innocent lives, abetting despots, and stoking a crisis of confidence in the West," Sasse said.

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CIA blasts WikiLeaks for publishing secret documents

The Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday accused WikiLeaks of endangering Americans, helping US rivals and hampering the fight against terror threats by releasing what the anti-secrecy site claimed was a trove of CIA hacking tools.

A CIA spokeswoman would not confirm the authenticity of the materials published by WikiLeaks, which said they were leaked from the spy agency's hacking operations.

Nevertheless, said spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak, "The American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure designed to damage the intelligence community's ability to protect America against terrorists and other adversaries."

"Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm," she said.

Horniak defended the CIA's cyber operations, which the WikiLeaks materials showed focused heavily on breaking into personal electronics using a wide range of malware systems.

"It is CIA's job to be innovative, cutting-edge, and the first line of defense in protecting this country from enemies abroad," she said.

- Massive leak -

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published nearly 9,000 documents it said were part of a huge trove leaked from the CIA, describing it as the largest-ever publication of secret intelligence materials.

"This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA," it said.

The documents showed that CIA hackers can turn a TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control one's car.

Most experts believe the materials to be genuine, and US media said Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a criminal probe into the leak.

The source of the materials remained unclear. The investigation could focus on whether the CIA was sloppy in its controls, or, as The Washington Post reported, it could be "a major mole hunt" for a malicious leaker or turncoat inside the agency.

WikiLeaks itself said the documents, hacking tools and code came from an archive that had circulated among US government hackers and private contractors.

An investigation would come as the CIA is already enmeshed in a politically-charged probe into Russia's alleged interference in the US election last year in support of President Donald Trump's campaign.

WikiLeaks, which has stunned the US government with a series of publications of top secret political, diplomatic and intelligence materials, said the publication Tuesday was only the first of a series of releases of CIA hacking materials.

That raised concerns that the site could release the actual hacking tools it obtained along with the documents. Experts worry those could fall into the hands of anyone, including US enemies and criminals.

 - Tech sector scrambles for fixes -

The WikiLeaks documents detailed the CIA's practice of exploiting vulnerabilities in hardware and software, without ever informing producers of them.

The CIA allegedly found ways to hack into personal electronics from leading companies like Apple and Samsung, Android phones, popular Microsoft software, and crucial routers from major manufacturers.

The documents suggest it can also infiltrate smartphones in a way that allows it to get around popular messaging encryption apps.

The tech sector was scrambling to understand how their products were at risk.

"While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities," Apple said in an emailed statement.

"We're confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities," Google director of information security and privacy Heather Adkins said in a released statement.

"Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections."

Samsung and Microsoft both said they were "looking into" what WikiLeaks revealed.

 - Encryption apps safe-

Joseph Hall, a technologist with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights organization, said the documents raise questions about the US government's pledge last year to disclose vulnerabilities to technology firms.

That pledge means "security flaws should get back to the companies so they can get fixed, and not languish for years," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union commented in a tweet: "When the govt finds software security holes, it should help fix them, not hoard them and leave everyone vulnerable."

Companies that make encryption programs and apps targeted by the CIA said the revelations show the agency has not been able to break their software.

Open Whisper Systems, which developed the technology for the Signal encryption app, said the CIA documents showed that Signal works.

"None of the exploits are in Signal or break Signal Protocol encryption," the group said in a tweet.

"The existence of these hacking tools is a testimonial to the strength of the encryption," said Steve Bellovin, a Columbia University computer science researcher, in a blog post.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

CIA chief warns Islamic State may have other attacks ready

WASHINGTON - CIA Director John Brennan warned on Monday that the attacks in Paris claimed by the extremist Islamic State movement were not a “one-off event” and that the militants may have similar operations ready to launch.

Foiling those plots, however, could prove difficult because Europe's intelligence and security resources are severely stretched trying to keep track of the hundreds of European extremists who have returned home from fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"A lot of our partners right now in Europe are facing a lot of challenges in terms of the numbers of individuals who have traveled to Syria and Iraq and back again, and so their ability to monitor and survey these individuals is under strain,” Brennan said.

Brennan’s comment at a Washington policy institute came as France, Belgium and other countries intensified a manhunt for suspects in Friday’s attacks on a concert hall, sports stadium, restaurants and bars in Paris that killed 129 people.

U.S. intelligence still hasn’t confirmed that the Islamic State was responsible, said Brennan. But, he added, the Paris attacks and the suspected bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt on Oct. 31 that killed all 224 passengers and crew aboard “bear the hallmarks” of the Islamist group.

The Islamic State, which threatened in a new video on Monday to attack in Washington, appears to have formed an external operations branch that may have readied follow-up strikes to the Paris attacks, he said.

“I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline,” Brennan said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “And security intelligence services right now in Europe and other places are working feverishly to see what else they can do in terms of uncovering it.”

Careful planning for the Paris strikes is believed to have taken place over several months “in terms of making sure they had the operatives, the weapons, the explosives, the suicide belts,” Brennan said.

The attacks did not surprise the U.S. intelligence community, which had “strategic warning” that ISIL was planning to strike somewhere outside of the Middle East and was “looking at Europe in particular,” Brennan said.

“I certainly wouldn’t consider it (the Paris attacks) a one-off event,” he said.

One major problem is the huge burden that tracking extremists who’ve returned from Syria has imposed on resource-short European intelligence agencies, he said.

European officials estimate that as many as 5,000 Europeans have gone to fight in Syria since 2011. That number includes an estimated 1,400 French nationals, of whom some 900 have returned to France.

Moreover, between 10,000 and 20,000 individuals have been flagged by French authorities as potential security threats under a procedure known as an “S Notice,” said Roland Jacquard, a French counter-terrorism expert.

“We're in a situation where the services are overrun. They expect something to happen, but don't know where and you have to see how much stress they are under,” said Nathalie Goulet, the head of a French Senate investigation into jihadi networks.

Belgium, where investigators believe the Paris attacks were plotted, has been striving to keep track of more than 70 returnees from Syria. Officials estimate that 350 Belgium nationals have gone there to fight.

U.S. and European officials say that as many as two dozen to three dozen officers must work around the clock to keep a single suspect under full-time surveillance.

At least two men identified by French investigators as having carried out the Paris attacks were known to European and U.S. intelligence agencies before the carnage.

A Belgian man suspected of masterminding the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was identified in the New York Times in January as a prime suspect in a foiled plot to strike targets in Brussels. He also was known to U.S. spy agencies, said a U.S. government source.

Another problem confronting intelligence services is that militant groups have intensified their security measures as a result of “unauthorized disclosures,” said Brennan.

While he did not elaborate, Brennan may have been referring to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of the agency’s massive communications monitoring operations and leaks of classified documents by Wikileaks.

(Reporting by Jonathan S. Landay; Editing by Alistair Bell and Stuart Grudgings)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

CIA condemns 'malicious' hack of director's personal email

WASHINGTON - The CIA on Wednesday condemned the hacking of director John Brennan's personal email account, describing it as a crime and saying so far there was "no indication" that any classified information was released.

"The hacking of the Brennan family account is a crime and the Brennan family is the victim," the Central Intelligence Agency said after anti-secrecy campaign group WikiLeaks published documents it said had come from the account.

"The private electronic holdings of the Brennan family were plundered with malicious intent and are now being distributed across the web," it said.

"This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted. There is no indication that any of the documents released thus far are classified."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Ex-CIA officer get 3.5 years for NY Times leak

WASHINGTON. United States - Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was sentenced Monday to 3.5 years in prison for leaking classified information to a New York Times journalist.

Sterling was convicted in January of revealing details of a botched US attempt during president Bill Clinton's administration to thwart Iran's nuclear program.

"The court has to impose a very clear message," US District Judge Leonie Brinkema said at Sterling's sentencing in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.

Sterling, who had been free on bail pending sentencing, was told to report to a federal prison in his home state of Missouri to serve his sentence.

His conviction marked a victory for President Barack Obama's administration in its crackdown on whistleblowers.

The case had dragged on in court for years as prosecutors pressed Times journalist James Risen to reveal his sources. He refused to do so.

Risen was first subpoenaed in 2008, but he fought against it until the subpoena expired the following year.

President Barack Obama's administration subsequently took the unusual step of renewing the subpoena in 2010.

The legal fight ended seven years after the original subpoena, in January this year, after Attorney General Eric Holder said prosecutors would not force Risen to reveal his sources after all.

Higher sentence 'appropriate'

Sterling's 42-month prison sentence contrasted sharply with the two years' probation and $100,000 fine given to disgraced former CIA chief David Petraeus for sharing classified information with his mistress.

"I'm satisfied that a higher sentence is appropriate in this case because (Petraeus) admitted his guilt," Brinkema said.

Dana Boente, the US district attorney for eastern Virginia, welcomed Sterling's sentence in a statement issued shortly after it was handed down.

"For his own vindictive purposes, Jeffrey Sterling carelessly disclosed extremely valuable, highly classified information that he had taken an oath to keep secret," Boente said.

"His attempt to leverage national security information for his own malicious reasons brought him to this sentence today."

From November 1998 through May 2000, Sterling was assigned to a classified clandestine operational program designed to undermine the Iranian nuclear program, officials said.

In 2000, he filed a complaint against the Central Intelligence Agency alleging racial discrimination.

Prosecutors claimed that Sterling disclosed classified information in retaliation for the CIA's refusal to settle the lawsuit.

Prosecutors ultimately dropped their attempts to call Pulitzer Prize-winning Risen to testify after it became clear he would not reveal his sources, even if jailed, for his account of the bungled CIA operation described in his 2006 book, "State of War."

The case sparked outcry among media watchdogs, with more than 100,000 supporters signing an online petition delivered to the US Justice Department calling for an end to the prosecution.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Did torture really help US find al Qaeda chief?

WASHINGTON - Hailed as a major success in the U.S. "war on terror," the capture of Indonesian cleric Hambali if often touted by the U.S. intelligence community as evidence that harsh interrogation produces results.

But the U.S. Senate report on CIA interrogation methods released this week suggests that more mundane steps - email monitoring, a tip off from a CIA source and help from Thailand - may have been what brought down Hambali, head of militant group Jemaah Islamiah.

"Frankly, we stumbled onto Hambali," the report quoted the head of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterterrorism center in southeast Asia as saying in 2005.

Conflicting stories about the trail of clues that led investigators to Hambali illustrate one of the main disputes over the U.S. interrogation of terror suspects: Awful as it was, did it actually work?

Senior CIA officials told Congress, the White House and the Justice Department for years that a snippet of information from the brutal interrogation of senior al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed led to Hambali's capture.

Accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Mohammed was repeatedly subjected to some of the CIA's harshest methods after he was captured. He was waterboarded - a technique intended to simulate drowning - 183 times, and was slapped, grabbed and deprived of sleep, according to the Senate report.

Mohammed told CIA interrogators in early 2003 about a plan to have a former resident of Baltimore, Majid Khan, send $50,000 to southeast Asia to fund al Qaeda attacks.

The spy agency says that information helped investigators uncover a network of terror suspects in southeast Asia that led to Hambali himself. Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, was detained in Ayutthaya, Thailand, in 2003.

Described by former President George W. Bush as "one of the world's most lethal terrorists," Hambali is suspected of having been involved in plotting the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of a nightclub in Bali that killed more than 200 people. He has been held at the Guantanamo U.S. military prison in Cuba without trial since 2006.

TORTURE PLAYED "NO ROLE"

Although the CIA frequently presented the capture of Hambali as evidence that torture did produce valuable intelligence, the Senate report said that the harsh treatment of Mohammed, known as KSM, did not help catch Hambali.

In 2003, Hambali was among Asia's most wanted men. The main go-between for the Jemaah Islamiah group of Southeast Asia and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, Hambali was considered the only man from the region to win a place at al Qaeda's top table.

His capture was seen as a coup for the Bush administration and Southeast Asian governments fearful of Jemaah Islamiah's ability to launch attacks across the region.

The CIA gave "inaccurate representations regarding the capture of Hambali" in 18 documents sent to policymakers and the Department of Justice between 2003 and 2009, said the report, compiled by the Democratic majority on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"A review of CIA operational cables and other records found that information obtained from KSM during and after the use of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques played no role in the capture of Hambali," the report said.

Before Mohammed gave up information about Khan during interrogation, the CIA was already assembling leads that would eventually bring it and Thai investigators to Hambali, the report said.

Some clues came from monitoring emails between al Qaeda and Khan, who was later captured in Pakistan. He gave Pakistani investigators details about al Qaeda's links to Southeast Asia that eventually pointed to Hambali, the report said.

In contrast to the CIA's use of torture, Pakistani interrogators pried information from Khan with a soft questioning technique known as "rapport building," the report said.

A CIA source contributed to the capture of Hambali by identifying an associate of Khan in Thailand who gave information to Thai authorities that brought them closer to the Indonesian militant, the Senate document said.

After Hambali's capture, Thailand also claimed credit.

"We received tipoffs from local people that there were strange-looking people staying around there so we checked their background and passports and realized that they were the people we were looking for," then Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in 2003.

Former intelligence officials disputed the Senate committee's assertions that the CIA interrogation program played no role in the hunt for Hambali.

"The report errs in not recognizing that a piece of information can be useful and even critical to reaching an analytic conclusion, even if there also are other pieces of information that were at least as useful," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA analyst.

They said the United States never would have tracked down and killed bin Laden in 2011 without information acquired in the interrogation program, although the Senate committee strongly refutes that.

The committee said the CIA misrepresented how it got useful information from a detainee that helped locate bin Laden.

The terror suspect, Hassan Ghul, did tell his captors the name of Bin Laden's courier as the CIA reported but he did so before undergoing torture, not during it, the report said

Hambali, the nom-de-guerre of Indonesian-born Riduan Isamuddin, was believed to be in the process of organizing a follow-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, possibly involving airplanes, but this time directed at the West Coast of the United States, former CIA officials say.

Michael Hayden, the ex-director of the CIA, told Fox News on Wednesday that the agency is still using information gleaned from harsh interrogations, which have since been banned.

"These interrogations of all the detainees gave us kind of a Home Depot-like storage of information on al Qaeda on which we relied, well we are still relying on it today."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Retired Fil-Am major general denounces CIA torture

REDWOOD CITY, California – The Filipino-American army general who wrote the official 2004 report on the abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, sounded off on a scathing report on torture that was released by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

For the first time since the controversial report on the CIA’s torture of detainees was released, retired U.S. Army Major General Antonio Taguba admonished what he called "indefensible" acts cited in the report.

Here is the full transcription of Gen. Taguba’s statement, given Wednesday in an exclusive phone interview with Balitang America:

"It’s difficult to defend the indefensible, especially coming from senior government leaders who intentionally and purposely misled, deceived and lied about the torture program to the American people and Congress.

These are the same officials that took an oath, assumed their offices to defend the country and obey the Constitution of the United States to the best of their ability, to which they failed hugely in doing so.

The Senate’s report is one of several reports that have condemned torture, identified the CIA whose mission was not originally detaining and torturing detainees — because their mission was for espionage, selecting intelligence and defending our country.

So they extended that mission, thinking and believing that they had the legal authority when members of the executive offices of the White House, in stark violation of Constitution, the Geneva Convention, and laws of warfare to which the United States is a signatory.

The Senate’s report is one of many since the revelation of Abu Ghraib in 2004. The Senate Armed Services Committee report in 2008 had several findings and conclusions that the military, the CIA, and other element agencies committed the illegal detainee abuse, torture, and inhumane treatment.

However, the question that still requires answers is that who and what individuals will be held accountable for violating the rule of law? Even if they are not prosecuted, their reputation, character and identify will be known and they will not be able to hide from the truth.”

Gen. Taguba said his 2004 report played a major role in this latest report on what he calls violations of the rule of law.

Read more from Balitang America.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

CIA interrogation techniques 'amounting to torture' - report

WASHINGTON - The CIA misled the White House and public about its torture of detainees after the Sept. 11 attacks and acted more brutally and pervasively than it acknowledged, a U.S. Senate report said on Tuesday, drawing calls to prosecute American officials.

The Senate Intelligence Committee's five-year review of 6.3 million pages of CIA documents concluded that the intelligence agency failed to disrupt a single plot despite torturing al Qaeda and other captives in secret facilities worldwide between 2002 and 2006, when George W. Bush was president.

The CIA interrogation program was devised by two agency contractors to squeeze information from suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The interrogations took place in countries that included Afghanistan, Poland and Romania.

Some captives were deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours, at times with their hands shackled above their heads, and the report recorded cases of simulated drowning or "waterboarding" and sexual abuse, including "rectal feeding" or "rectal hydration" without any documented medical need.

It described one secret CIA prison, its location not identified, as a "dungeon" where detainees were kept in total darkness and shackled in isolated cells, bombarded with loud noise and given only a bucket in which to relieve themselves.

Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, speaking on the Senate floor after releasing the report, said the techniques in some cases amounted to torture and that "the CIA's actions, a decade ago, are a stain on our values, and on our history."

The U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said the report revealed a "clear policy orchestrated at a high level within the Bush administration" and called for prosecution of U.S. officials.

Civil rights advocates also called for accountability.

"Unless this important truth-telling process leads to prosecution of the officials responsible, torture will remain a 'policy option' for future presidents," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch in New York.

The CIA dismissed the findings, saying its interrogations secured valuable information. Many Republicans criticized the decision by Democratic lawmakers to release the report, which was put together by the committee's Democratic majority, saying it would put Americans at risk.

The report found the techniques used were "far more brutal" than the CIA told the public or policymakers. Before the report's release, the United States boosted security at its military and diplomatic facilities abroad.

The report said the CIA had tried to justify its use of torture by giving examples of what it called "thwarted" terrorist plots and suspect captures, but the "representations were inaccurate and contradicted by the CIA's own records."

CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS UNLIKELY

Despite the calls for accountability, there seemed little prospect of criminal prosecutions of those who implemented the program, or measures to hold politicians who authorized it accountable.

A law enforcement official said the U.S. Justice Department had no plans to conduct any investigation of the CIA's actions.

Intelligence officials said that at one point, the Justice Department, through a specially designated prosecutor, conducted a criminal investigation into around 20 cases of allegations the CIA abused detainees. However, that investigation was closed without charges being filed.

President Barack Obama signaled he was more interested in focusing on the future than reopening a dark and contentious period from the country's recent past.

While in office Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, and other Bush administration officials said the "harsh interrogation" program was justified by results that included halting plots and catching terrorists.

Bush ended many aspects of the program before leaving office, and Obama swiftly banned "enhanced interrogation techniques" after his 2009 inauguration.

FAULTY INTELLIGENCE

The report says CIA records showed that seven of 39 CIA detainees subjected to harsh interrogations produced no intelligence at all while in CIA custody. Others made up stories, "resulting in faulty intelligence."

The CIA had failed to use adequately trained and vetted personnel, the report said. The two psychologists contracted to set up the program and run it had no experience in interrogation or specialized knowledge of al Qaeda.

The report accuses the CIA of failing to thoroughly brief Bush about the interrogation techniques. Senate investigators said official records suggested that while the CIA planned to brief Bush in 2002, the White House subsequently told the agency Bush was not getting the briefing.

Investigators say Bush was not fully briefed on the program until 2006, around the time he shut it down, and expressed discomfort at learning the full details. In his memoirs Bush said he had been briefed on the program.

Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s, said Americans were entitled to the truth about the program and its disclosure that such methods were ineffective.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Petraeus to testify at Capitol on Benghazi

Top U.S. lawmakers snubbed calls for Watergate-type hearings on the Libya U.S. Consulate attack as ex-CIA chief David Petraeus agreed to testify on the assault.

"At this point, I think that the standing committees of the House, whether they be the Oversight Committee or the Intelligence Committee, are working diligently on these issues," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "And at this point, I think that's appropriate."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., similarly said he opposed a resolution by three Republican senators to create a select or special Senate investigative committee to probe the Sept. 11 consulate attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, including two CIA contractors.

"No," Reid told reporters when asked if he favored the special committee proposed by Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

The senators said the committee was needed because many senators don't trust the administration's account of the attack. Administration officials first said the attack was a result of a spontaneous protest and not a planned terrorist attack.

Some lawmakers have suggested the White House attempted to cover up the circumstances of the attack by saying it was spontaneous.

Administration officials confirmed last week the consulate was essentially a front for a much larger CIA base about a mile away. Most of the 30 Americans evacuated after the attack were CIA employees or contractors, not diplomats.

"We want to probe everybody who was involved, all the way up to and including the president of the United States," McCain said.

The Senate Watergate Committee, known officially as the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, played a pivotal role in gathering evidence in 1973-1974 that led to the indictment of 40 Richard Nixon administration officials and the conviction of several Nixon aides for obstruction of justice and other crimes.

Its revelations prompted the House to introduce articles of impeachment against Nixon. Nixon resigned Aug. 9, 1974.

Petraeus, who resigned as CIA director Friday over an extramarital affair, agreed to testify before the House and Senate intelligence committees on the Benghazi attack as early as Thursday, lawmakers said.

The former four-star general -- who ran the CIA for 14 months, including during the Benghazi attack -- was to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session Thursday or Friday, panel Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., told several news organizations Wednesday.

The hearing would not address his affair, committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said.

Petraeus is to testify separately behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee Friday, the committee said Wednesday evening.

Petraeus successor acting CIA Director Michael Morell was to testify in private before the House and Senate intelligence committees Thursday. Other top-ranking intelligence officials scheduled to testify included National Intelligence Director James Clapper, Petraeus' boss.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee was to hold an open hearing on the Benghazi attack beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a closed briefing Tuesday.

source: upi.com

CIA website down, Anonymous hackers suspected

For a few hours Friday night (US time), the website of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) went offline in what appeared to be a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, a computer security firm said.

Sophos said a group claiming to have ties with hacktivist group Anonymous posted a tweet about the hack Friday afternoon (early Saturday in Manila).

"CIA TANGO DOWN," said the group, bearing the Twitter handle "YourAnonNews".

The CIA website appeared normalas of 6:30 p.m. Saturday (Manila time).

But Sophos also pointed out it remains unclear whether Anonymous was indeed behind the outage.

"Anonymous doesn't have members, isn't a group in a conventional sense, and has arguably no official channels of communication. Without a defined hierarchy, anyone can claim to represent Anonymous if they wish, which means that even Anonymous itself can't actually claim that they did or did not launch an attack," it said.

Anonymous had been active in opposing recent legislation that had been criticized for their potential to muffle freedom of expression on the Internet.

On the other hand, Sophos noted there was no immediate suggestion that the CIA's own systems have been compromised.

For now, it said it merely appeared the CIA's servers have been so bombarded with traffic that their site is no longer accessible from the outside world. — TJD, GMA News

source:gmanetwork.com