News you may have missed #0015

  • Recession woes prompt rise in CIA applications. CIA recruiters point to the deep economic recession currently experienced in the US to explain the record numbers of applications for the Agency’s relatively few job openings this year. CIA recruiters say they have so far received “90,000 resumes and  […] will probably get close to 180,000 resumes” by the end of the year. The Agency employs around 20,000 people. The final number of job applications received in 2009 could be the largest number of job applications the Agency has ever received.
  • Ex-CIA analyst says only a new strike on US soil can help increase US security. Michael Scheuer, former chief of the Osama bin Laden unit at the CIA said during an interview with Fox News that “the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States”.

Analysis: Rare film on National Security Agency aired

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The Nova documentary series on PBS has aired a rare look at the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s signals intelligence and cryptological organization that rarely releases information to outsiders. The ultra-secret Agency is said to be the world’s largest intelligence institution, employing tens of thousands of technicians, analysts and mathematicians. The PBS film, titled The Spy Factory, features veteran author James Bamford, who has authored books on NSA for nearly 30 years. The primary focus of the documentary is on NSA’s share of the intelligence failure in detecting and preventing the 9/11 attacks. The film also examines NSA’s STELLAR WIND program, a warrantless eavesdropping scheme targeting communications of American citizens, which the Bush Administration authorized shortly after 9/11. Read more of this post

US Treasury intelligence division after bin Laden’s son

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews |
The US Treasury Department’s Division of Financial Intelligence has announced it intends to freeze all US assets of four individuals allegedly connected with al-Qaeda’s presence in Iran and Egypt. The four include Mustafa Hamid, who is said to be al-Qaeda’s semi-official envoy to the Iranian government, and Egyptian Islamic Jihad member Muhammad al-Bahtiyti. They also include Yemeni Ali Saleh Husain and Saad bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden’s sons, who is said to be in Iran. US intelligence agencies have been monitoring Saad’s movements ever since he left Sudan, along with his father, in 1996. Read more of this post

Analysis: Former CIA clandestine officer paints bleak picture of Agency

In a brutally honest exposé, a 25-year veteran of the CIA has publicly described the Agency as an organization mired in failure, mediocrity and incompetence. Art Brown, who headed the Asia division of the CIA’s Clandestine Service from 2003 to 2005, has called the Agency’s seven-year, multi-billion operation to find Osama bin Laden a “failure” that “no amount of ‘rendition’ of bin Laden lieutenants can mask”. Writing in The New York Times, the CIA veteran has revealed that Syria’s alleged construction of a nuclear reactor in the country’s eastern desert came “as a surprise” to the Agency. Read more of this post