America’s most senior intelligence officer says its classification system is broken
January 28, 2022 Leave a comment
THE MOST SENIOR INTELLIGENCE officer in the United States has said in a letter that the nation’s system of classification is flawed and undermines its national security. This view was expressed by Avril Haines, who heads the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the body that directs and coordinates America’s 18 intelligence agencies. Haines, 52, was appointed to the position last year by President Joe Biden, and is seen as a potential reformist of the US intelligence community.
Haines stated her view on classification in a letter sent to two Senators, Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.). The letter was in response to a formal query submitted by the two members of Congress. The query concerns the mounting backlog of classified information that is currently awaiting declassification on historical or ‘right-to-know’ legal processes. The latter require government agencies to release information to the public domain.
Some of the contents of Haines’ letter, marked “for official use only”, were reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. According to the paper, Haines opined that “deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner”. This affects the work of policy makers, the public’s perception of the American system of government, and the nation’s ability to share critical information with its allies, said Haines.
What is more, ongoing efforts to limit the “exponential growth” of classified information in government vaults “are simply not sufficient”. This is “a fundamentally important issue that we must address”, said Haines. In an essay she authored shortly before becoming Director of National Intelligence, Haines had criticized the government’s tendency to overclassify information, claiming that “it actually encourages leaking”. In response to Haines’ letter, Senators Moran and Wyden issued a statement saying the DNI “clearly recognizes that the current broken classification system harms US national security while eroding the public’s trust in government”.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 28 January 2022 | Permalink
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Lawyers of alleged Venezuelan coup mastermind claim CIA knew about his activities
January 31, 2022 1 Comment
Prior to his arrest for drug trafficking, Alcalá had been living in Colombia since at least 2019, from where he allegedly masterminded the so-called “enfrentamiento en El Junquito” (“El Junquito raid”), or “Operación GEDEÓN”. GEDEÓN refers to a failed coup plot against Maduro, which was carried out on May 3 and 4 by a group of up to 60 armed men. It is alleged that the coup was launched from Colombia with the support of Silvercorp USA, a private security group led by Jordan Goudreau, a Canadian-born former sergeant in the US Green Berets. At least six coup plotters, who participated in the first phase of the operation, are believed to have been killed by the Venezuela military. Many more were arrested before being able to reach a network of safe houses that had allegedly been set up their supporters inside Venezuela. At least two of the arrestees, Airan Berry and Luke Denman, are American citizens and former soldiers.
On January 28, the Associated Press reported that lawyers for Alcalá have filed a letter that claims his “efforts to overthrow the Maduro regime have been well known to the United States government”. This is because these activities were “reported to the highest levels of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council, and the Department of the Treasury”, according to Alcalá’s lawyers. The letter provides no details about which officials in the US government allegedly knew about Alcalá’s activities. In an accompanying document, however, the lawyers for the accused are seeking “documents and information” containing relevant communications between a number of US officials, including former Attorney General William Barr, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, senior White House officials, as well as the CIA station in Colombia.
According to the news agency, Alcalá’s lawyers hope that, by providing proof that the US government knew about their client’s paramilitary activities, his argument that he was not operating illegally will be bolstered. More broadly, however, the accusation raises fresh questions about what the administration of US President Donald Trump knew about the coup plot in Venezuela, which involved several American citizens. The government of the United States has consistently rejected allegations by the Venezuelan government that the coup was planned with American assistance or knowledge. The Associated Press said it contacted the CIA for comment, but received no response.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 31 January 2022 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Clíver Alcalá, coup plots, lawsuits, narcotics trade, News, Operación GEDEÓN, Operation Gedeon, Operation Gideon, United States, Venezuela