Appointment of Abrams to Public Diplomacy Commission Shows President Biden’s Close Ties to the CIA In September 1998, Desiree A. Ferdinand gave a sworn deposition, in a case filed with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, detailing the career of her father, Colonel Albert V. Carone, an army intelligence officer...
Between 1975 and 1989, the primary U.S. intelligence agency leveraged various financial assistance programs to shape Portuguese democracy and prevent the country from falling under Soviet influence. Here’s how. The involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Portugal is widely acknowledged. In fact, it was primarily thanks to...
In August 2022, Ukrainian security service (SBU) operatives hid explosives in a crate intended for a cat in a car driven by a woman and her twelve year old daughter. After the car passed through the Russian border, the SBU planted the bomb in the SUV of Russian journalist...
Mike Pompeo, CIA Director and Secretary of State in the first Trump administration, has long been a Ukraine war hawk, calling Russia’s actions genocide, stating that Crimea should be returned to Ukraine (when its people voted overwhelmingly to be part of Russia) and consistently advocating for increased...
Part 6 in our Biden Series: A Company Man? On May 9, 1981, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism was debating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (S. 391). Their goal: criminalize the unauthorized identification of U.S. intelligence agents. Then-Senator Joe Biden rose to his feet to denounce my...
The effects of this poisonous coup attempt—cooked up at Langley more than 30 years ago—had lingering consequences which exacerbated income equality, stifled economic growth and undercut human rights. Back in the 1980s New Zealand registered in the global consciousness because of its then-Prime Minister, the late David Lange, and his...
In early 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower authorized the CIA to provide secret campaign funds to Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi and other select members of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which favored close integration with the U.S during the Cold War. According to historian Michael Schaller, between 1958 and 1960...
Ronald Reagan is heralded by conservatives today as a heroic figure who rejuvenated American society after the malaise of the 1970s. Reagan’s worshippers, however, fail to acknowledge the rise of massive inequality in the 1980s, Reagan’s support for death squad operations in Central America, and the fact that Reagan only...
In this episode, we highlight the struggle of the workers at the Ford Cuautitlán Assembly Plant, just outside Mexico City. On January 8, 1990, workers at the plant were attacked by police and private hired thugs wearing Ford jackets. This happened during a prolonged period of labor action by the workers, and kicked off an occupation of the plant. This attack didn’t happen in a vacuum and the CIA played a role in squashing labor at the plant.
CIA operative Donald Rickard admitted to role in capture of African hero On August 5, 1962, Nelson Mandela was apprehended by South African authorities while driving with Cecil Williams, a white Communist theater director, from Durban to Johannesburg. At the time, Mandela, a leader of the military wing of the anti-Apartheid...