Reuters revealed that 39 officials spanning the White House, DOJ, CIA, FBI, and intelligence agencies coordinate Trump’s systematic retaliation against perceived enemies from the Russia probe and January 6 investigations through a secret ‘Interagency Weaponization Working Group.’ …
Oracle announced on August 15, 2023, that its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) received authority to operate Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) from the 18-agency Intelligence Community, marking a major expansion of Oracle’s access to the nation’s most classified …
OracleIntelligence CommunityDepartment of DefenseCIAintelligence-agenciessurveillancecloud-computingoracleclassified-information+1 more
By 2023, Amazon Web Services has consolidated its position as the dominant cloud infrastructure provider for the U.S. government, with multi-billion dollar contracts across the intelligence community, Department of Defense, and civilian agencies creating unprecedented government dependence on a …
Amazon Web ServicesCIANSAPentagonDepartment of Defensegovernment-contractssurveillance-infrastructurecloud-computingintelligence-agenciesaws+1 more
Palantir Technologies and Amazon Web Services announce a formal strategic partnership to optimize Palantir’s Foundry and Gotham platforms for deployment on AWS cloud infrastructure, integrating two of the most powerful surveillance and data analytics systems used by U.S. intelligence and …
Palantir TechnologiesAmazon Web ServicesCIADepartment of Defensesurveillance-infrastructuredata-analyticsintelligence-agenciesgovernment-contractspalantir+2 more
The Central Intelligence Agency awarded its Commercial Cloud Enterprise (C2E) contract to five major technology companies—Oracle, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, and IBM—on November 20, 2020. The multi-cloud contract, valued at tens of billions of dollars over a 15-year period, represents …
CIAOracleAmazon Web ServicesMicrosoftGoogle+1 moreintelligence-agenciessurveillancecloud-computinggovernment-contractscia+1 more
On November 20, 2018, President Trump issues an extraordinary written statement titled “Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia” that explicitly rejects CIA findings and defends Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite the intelligence community’s …
Donald TrumpMohammed bin SalmanCIAKing SalmanGina Haspeldonald-trumpsaudi-arabiajamal-khashoggiciaintelligence+4 more
On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a 59-year-old Saudi dissident journalist living in Virginia and writing for the Washington Post, is murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi enters the consulate at approximately 1:14 PM to obtain official documents for his upcoming …
Jamal KhashoggiMohammed bin SalmanSaudi Arabia governmentTurkish intelligenceCIAsaudi-arabiajamal-khashoggiassassinationhuman-rightsmohammed-bin-salman+3 more
The European Court of Human Rights issues rulings finding that Romania and Lithuania violated the European Convention on Human Rights by hosting CIA secret prisons where terrorism suspects were tortured. The court conclusively determines that Romania operated a CIA black site from September 2003 to …
European Court of Human RightsRomaniaLithuaniaCIAAbu Zubaydah+1 moretortureciablack-sitesinternational-lawromania+2 more
President Donald Trump announces his nomination of Gina Haspel to serve as CIA Director, making her the first woman nominated for the position despite her direct involvement in the CIA’s torture program and destruction of interrogation videotapes. Haspel ran the CIA’s “Cat’s …
Gina HaspelDonald TrumpMike PompeoCIAJohn Kiriakoutortureciatrumpblack-sitesimpunity+2 more
Amazon Web Services unveils a dedicated cloud computing region specifically designed to host classified government data at the “Secret” classification level, serving the CIA and all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. This AWS Secret Region operates as an air-gapped, isolated infrastructure …
Amazon Web ServicesCIAIntelligence Communitysurveillance-infrastructurecloud-computingintelligence-agenciesgovernment-contractsclassified-operations+1 more
On January 6, 2017, the U.S. Intelligence Community released a comprehensive assessment concluding that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an extensive influence campaign aimed at undermining the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), titled …
Vladimir PutinCIAFBINSADonald Trump+2 moreRussia InterferenceIntelligence CommunityElection SecurityPutinForeign Interference+1 more
Twitter exercised its contractual veto power to block U.S. intelligence agencies from accessing Dataminr’s social media surveillance platform, marking a rare instance of a tech company refusing to facilitate government intelligence gathering. The decision came as Dataminr was conducting an …
The Senate Intelligence Committee report reveals that CIA torture was far more brutal and sadistic than the agency disclosed, documenting techniques that go beyond the authorized list to include rectal feeding and rehydration used as punishment, mock executions, threats to sexually assault …
CIAGul RahmanSenate Select Committee on IntelligenceJames MitchellBruce Jessentorturewar-crimesciaenhanced-interrogationblack-sites+1 more
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence releases a 525-page executive summary of its comprehensive investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program, revealing that the program was far more brutal, widespread, and ineffective than the CIA disclosed. The report, based on a …
Dianne FeinsteinSenate Select Committee on IntelligenceCIAJohn BrennanBarack Obamatortureciawar-crimessenateaccountability+2 more
The European Court of Human Rights issues a landmark ruling finding that Poland violated the European Convention on Human Rights by allowing the CIA to operate a secret torture prison on its territory from December 2002 to September 2003. The court conclusively determines that Poland hosted a CIA …
European Court of Human RightsPolandCIAAbu ZubaydahAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiri+1 moretortureciablack-sitesinternational-lawpoland+2 more
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation reveals that the CIA paid private contractors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen $81 million to design, implement, and assess the effectiveness of the enhanced interrogation program. The psychologists had no interrogation experience, no background …
James MitchellBruce JessenCIAGeorge Tenettortureciaenhanced-interrogationprofiteeringwar-crimes
Amazon Web Services wins a $600 million contract to build a private cloud computing infrastructure for the Central Intelligence Agency, marking the CIA’s first major cloud computing contract and establishing Amazon as a central infrastructure provider for the U.S. intelligence community. The …
Amazon Web ServicesCIAIBMsurveillance-infrastructurecloud-computingintelligence-agenciesgovernment-contractscorporate-capture+1 more
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Alexander Sterling was indicted on espionage charges for allegedly revealing details about Operation Merlin—a botched covert operation to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program—to New York Times journalist James Risen. The case became a flashpoint in the conflict between …
Jeffrey SterlingJames RisenCIAObama AdministrationDepartment of Justicewhistleblower-prosecutionespionage-actpress-freedomiranaccountability
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act after being indicted under the Espionage Act for publicly confirming that waterboarding was official U.S. government policy. In a profound miscarriage of justice, Kiriakou became the only person …
John KiriakouCIAObama AdministrationDepartment of Justicewhistleblower-prosecutiontortureespionage-actaccountabilitywar-crimes
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism publishes comprehensive evidence that the CIA conducts “double-tap” drone strikes—following an initial strike with a second strike targeting rescuers, medical personnel, and civilians who rush to help victims. The investigation documents at least …
CIABarack ObamaPakistani civiliansdronesobamawar-crimescivilian-casualtiespakistan+1 more
The New York Times publishes an explosive investigation revealing that President Obama personally approves every name on a secret “kill list” for drone strikes during regular Tuesday National Security Council meetings dubbed “Terror Tuesdays.” The article exposes how the …
Barack ObamaJohn BrennanCIAJSOCTom Donilondronesobamatargeted-killingkill-listcia+2 more
The New York Times reveals that the Obama administration has adopted a secret policy counting “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants…unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.” This Orwellian methodology allows the administration to …
A CIA drone strike in Yemen kills Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and Islamic cleric, without charges, trial, or judicial process. Al-Awlaki becomes the first American citizen to be deliberately assassinated by his own government since the Civil War era. President Obama personally approved placing …
Anwar al-AwlakiBarack ObamaCIAJSOCJohn Brennandronesobamaassassinationtargeted-killingdue-process+2 more
A CIA drone strike on a tribal jirga (council meeting) in Datta Khel, North Waziristan kills at least 42 people, the vast majority of them civilians including tribal elders gathered to resolve a local mining dispute. The massacre represents one of the deadliest single drone strikes of Obama’s …
CIABarack ObamaPakistani civiliansdronesobamawar-crimescivilian-casualtiespakistan+1 more
President Obama secretly authorizes the CIA to conduct “signature strikes”—drone attacks that target groups of people based on patterns of suspicious behavior rather than confirmed identification of specific individuals. This policy shift enables the CIA to strike gatherings of …
Barack ObamaJohn BrennanCIALeon Panettadronesobamasignature-strikesciatargeted-killing+2 more
President Barack Obama authorizes the Department of Justice to release four previously classified memos from the Office of Legal Counsel written between 2002 and 2005 that authorized CIA torture techniques including waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and confinement in coffin-sized …
Barack ObamaEric HolderCIAJohn YooJay Bybee+2 moretortureciaobamaimpunitywar-crimes+2 more
President Barack Obama dramatically expands the CIA’s drone strike program in his first year in office, authorizing more strikes than George W. Bush conducted during his entire presidency. The expansion transforms armed drones from a limited counterterrorism tool into a systematic …
Barack ObamaCIAJohn BrennanLeon Panettadronesobamaciawar-crimestargeted-killing+3 more
Gul Rahman, an Afghan detainee, dies of hypothermia at a CIA black site in Afghanistan known as the “Salt Pit” after being shackled half-naked to a concrete floor in a freezing cell overnight. Rahman’s death is ruled a homicide by the CIA’s medical examiner, yet no one is …
Gul RahmanCIAAfghanistantortureciablack-siteswar-crimeshomicide+2 more
President George W. Bush publicly acknowledges for the first time that the CIA has been operating secret prisons to hold and interrogate terrorism suspects, confirming what journalists and human rights organizations had been reporting for years. In a White House speech, Bush admits that “a …
George W. BushCIAKhalid Sheikh MohammedAbu ZubaydahAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiritortureciablack-sitesbushguantanamo+1 more
President Bush nominates Air Force General Michael Hayden as CIA Director despite his role in implementing illegal NSA warrantless surveillance programs. Hayden’s appointment represented unprecedented militarization of CIA leadership and sparked Senate concerns about further politicization of …
Michael HaydenGeorge W. BushSenate Intelligence CommitteeNSACIA+1 morecia-militarizationhayden-appointmentsurveillance-expansionintelligence-politicizationconstitutional-violation
CIA National Clandestine Service director Jose Rodriguez orders the destruction of 92 videotapes documenting hundreds of hours of brutal interrogations of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri at secret CIA black sites. The tapes contain graphic evidence of waterboarding, stress positions, and …
Jose RodriguezCIAGina HaspelAbu ZubaydahAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiri+1 moretortureciaobstruction-of-justiceevidence-destructionwar-crimes+2 more
Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss personally lobby Senator John McCain in an extraordinary attempt to exempt CIA officers from proposed legislation banning “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” of any detainee held by the U.S. government. Despite the Senate voting …
Dick CheneyJohn McCainPorter GossCIADavid Addingtontortureciacheneyenhanced-interrogationcongress+2 more
Washington Post journalist Dana Priest publishes a groundbreaking investigation revealing the CIA operates a “hidden global internment network” of secret prisons, including facilities in “several democracies in Eastern Europe.” The article exposes the existence of CIA black …
CIADana PriestWashington PostPolandRomania+1 moretortureciablack-sitesjournalismwar-crimes+2 more
The Justice Department’s torture authorization memo represents the institutional culmination of WHIG’s constitutional crisis precedent establishment, demonstrating how systematic executive deception creates legal frameworks enabling executive immunity from constitutional constraints and …
John YooJay BybeeAlberto GonzalesWhite House Iraq GroupDepartment of Justice+5 morewhigconstitutional-crisis-precedentsexecutive-immunity-precedenttorture-authorizationrule-of-law-suspension+4 more
Canadian inquiry conclusively determines that Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was wrongly rendered by the United States to Syria where he was tortured for nearly a year based on false intelligence provided by Canadian police. The inquiry finds Arar had no connection to terrorism and that …
Maher ArarCIARoyal Canadian Mounted PoliceSyriaCanadarenditiontorturewrongful-detentionciasyria+1 more
Palantir Technologies was officially incorporated in May 2003 by Peter Thiel and PayPal alumni, just months after Congress defunded DARPA’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) program due to privacy concerns. The founders met with John Poindexter, the recently fired director of Total Information …
Peter ThielAlex KarpNathan GettingsJoe LonsdaleStephen Cohen+3 morepalantirpeter-thielalex-karpsurveillance-infrastructurefounding+4 more
Abu Zubaydah remains held in U.S. custody more than two decades after his capture in Pakistan in March 2002, despite never being charged with any crime. Zubaydah was the CIA’s first “high-value detainee” and the primary test subject for the torture program, waterboarded 83 times …
Abu ZubaydahCIAJames MitchellBruce JessenGina Haspeltortureciablack-siteswaterboardingguantanamo+2 more
Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered a 76-minute presentation to the UN Security Council presenting fabricated evidence to justify the Iraq War. Powell’s presentation included: mobile weapons labs based on testimony from ‘Curveball,’ a source who later admitted lying; aluminum …
Colin PowellGeorge W. BushDick CheneyCIACurveballiraq-warwmdunited-nationsintelligence-manipulationfalse-evidence
Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans under Douglas Feith systematically fabricates intelligence linking Iraq to al Qaeda, coordinating directly with the White House Iraq Group to disseminate these false claims as authoritative intelligence. The Pentagon Inspector General found that OSP developed …
Office of Special PlansWhite House Iraq GroupDouglas FeithMichael MaloofDavid Wurmser+4 moreospwhigiraq-alqaeda-fabricationintelligence-manipulationfeith+3 more
Following the authorization provided by the August 2002 Yoo-Bybee torture memos, the CIA begins systematically implementing “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorism suspects held at secret black site prisons. The program, developed by psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen …
CIAAbu ZubaydahAbd al-Rahim al-NashiriJames MitchellBruce Jessen+1 moretorturewar-crimesciaenhanced-interrogationwaterboarding+2 more
Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans under Douglas Feith institutionalizes the systematic bypassing of CIA intelligence vetting processes to provide fabricated intelligence directly to the White House Iraq Group for propaganda dissemination. The Pentagon Inspector General documented that OSP …
Office of Special PlansWhite House Iraq GroupDouglas FeithHarold RhodeKarl Rove+3 moreospwhigcia-bypassintelligence-manipulationfeith+3 more
Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith created the Office of Special Plans to manipulate intelligence on Iraq-al Qaeda relationships that were ‘inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community.’ Directed by Abram Shulsky, the OSP systematically cherry-picked intelligence …
Douglas FeithAbram ShulskyPentagonCIASenate Intelligence Committeeiraq-intelligenceospfeithintelligence-manipulationwmd-deception
Vice President Dick Cheney systematically orchestrated the creation and authorization of the CIA’s ’enhanced interrogation’ torture program through National Security Council Principals Committee meetings and legal manipulation. Working closely with legal counsel David Addington and …
Dick CheneyGeorge W. BushDavid AddingtonJohn YooCIA+3 moretorturewar-crimesciaenhanced-interrogationblack-sites+5 more
Following the September 11 attacks, President Bush authorizes the CIA to conduct “extraordinary rendition”—the extrajudicial kidnapping and transfer of terrorism suspects to foreign countries for detention and interrogation, often involving torture. CIA Director George Tenet and …
CIAGeorge W. BushGeorge TenetCofer Blacktortureciarenditionkidnappingwar-crimes+2 more
Oracle Corporation hired David W. Carney as Vice President of Information Assurance on September 4, 2001, just one week before the September 11 terrorist attacks, marking a significant deepening of Oracle’s relationship with the U.S. intelligence community. Carney retired after 32 years at the …
OracleDavid W. CarneyCIALarry Ellisonoracleciarevolving-doorintelligence-agenciesnational-security
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan creates strategic opportunity for BCCI to become primary financial conduit for CIA covert operations. BCCI’s existing relationships with Pakistan’s ISI, General Zia ul-Haq, and presence in regional banking markets position it perfectly to handle the …
CIAISI PakistanGeneral Zia ul-HaqBCCIAfghan mujahideen+1 moreafghanistan-invasioncia-operationsoperation-cycloneisi-pakistancovert-funding+3 more
Computer programmers Larry Ellison and Robert Miner founded the company that would become Oracle Corporation in 1977 after persuading the CIA to let them pick up a lapsed $50,000 contract to build a special database program. The company takes its name from “Project Oracle,” a CIA …
Larry EllisonRobert MinerCIAOraclesurveillanceintelligence-agenciescorporate-originsciaoracle
Final Church Committee report reveals extensive details about Project MKULTRA, documenting systematic psychological manipulation techniques developed by CIA during Cold War. The investigation exposed how intelligence agencies conducted unethical human experimentation, including drug-based mind …
Senator Frank ChurchCIAIntelligence CommunityDonald Ewen CameronNSA+1 morepsychological-manipulationinstitutional-researchgovernment-operationsintelligence-abusehuman-rights+1 more
The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, led by Senator Frank Church, comprehensively investigated illegal activities by US intelligence agencies. The committee exposed widespread constitutional violations including NSA’s Project …
Frank ChurchCIANSAFBIintelligence-oversightcivil-libertiescongressional-investigationsurveillanceinstitutional-reform
On April 22, 1975, the Senate formally established the Church Committee to investigate systematic abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies. Led by Senator Frank Church, the committee exposed unprecedented violations of constitutional rights by the CIA, NSA, and FBI, including illegal surveillance of …
Senator Frank ChurchSenator John TowerUS SenateCIANSA+2 moreinstitutional-resistanceintelligence-oversightdemocratic-safeguardsconstitutional-rightsgovernment-accountability