Free Republic

More than 70 foreign nationals working as spies for the CIA in Iran and China were systematically identified and slaughtered in the past decade, due to a ridiculously weak web-based system the CIA used to communicate with foreign assets it couldn’t reach directly. This according to a devastating November 2 report in Yahoo News written by journalists Zach Dorfman and Jenna McLaughlin (center-left, but generally trustworthy). Although the Iranian roll-up occurred in 2011, and the Chinese rout occurred from 2010 to 2012, the CIA did not remedy the root cause of the problem in its transient messaging scheme until 2013,...

A new report could prove that President Trump was right when he tweeted about a so-called "Pakistani mystery man" who kept Democratic National Committee documents and servers out of the hands of investigators. The report, by The Daily Caller's Luke Rosiak, says that Imran Awan -- the IT aide of former DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) -- took a laptop with him in 2017 after being banned from the House computer network for “unauthorized access to data.” The report also says that Awan left the laptop, which had the username "RepDWS," "in a phone booth with a letter...

A retired CIA officer reportedly working with Blackwater founder Erik Prince to pitch the White House on a global, private spy network which as we reported yesterday would allow the White House to circumvent and counter "deep state enemies" within U.S. intelligence agencies, is said to have made the stunning claim that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster worked with the NSA to perform surveillance on Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Steve Bannon and others, according to a report in The Intercept. Former CIA agent John R. Maguire and Blackwater founder Erik Prince The former CIA agent, John R. Maguire -...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday the Trump administration is not preparing to set up a private global spy network to circumvent U.S. intelligence agencies. "I haven't asked [President Trump], but it's not something that's currently in the works," Sanders said at the daily White House press briefing. The denial followed a report in The Intercept that the administration was considering reliance on private spies to avoid "deep state" biases against Trump and to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo supplemental information. The idea reportedly is being considered at the urging of Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Oliver North,...

"IRAN SPY NETWORK 30,000 STRONG Pentagon report: Iranian intelligence linked to spying, terror attacks" SNIPPET: "Iran’s intelligence service includes 30,000 people who are engaged in covert and clandestine activities that range from spying to stealing technology to terrorist bombings and assassination, according to a Pentagon report." SNIPPET: "“MOIS provides financial, material, technological, or other support services to Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), all designated terrorist organizations under U.S. Executive Order 13224,” the report said. The spy service operates in all areas where Iran has interests, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Central Asia, Africa, Austria, Azerbaijan, Croatia, France,...

The U.S. cable networks won't be covering this one tonight (not accurately, anyway), but Trapwire is making the rounds on social media today—it reportedly became a Trending hashtag on Twitter earlier in the day. Trapwire is the name of a program revealed in the latest Wikileaks bonanza—it is the mother of all leaks, by the way. Trapwire would make something like disclosure of UFO contact or imminent failure of a major U.S. bank fairly boring news by comparison. And someone out there seems to be quite disappointed that word is getting out so swiftly; the Wikileaks web site is reportedly...

Tomas Alfredson's marvellously chill adaptation of John Le Carré's cold war thriller features a delicate performance from Gary Oldman along with a first-rate supporting cast. A thunderstorm rolled into Venice overnight, flash-bulbing the sky and lancing the boil of heat that has enveloped the city these past six days. One could have sworn that the temperature dropped still further, to practically Baltic levels, during the morning screening of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a marvellously chill and acrid cold war thriller from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Right here, right now, it's the film to beat at this year's festival.

A Cold War-style spy swap for the alleged Russian agents was being hammered out last night. All ten Russians held by the U.S. - including 'femme fatale' Anna Chapman - will reportedly be exchanged for ten prisoners being held in Russian jails who have spied for the West. The swap could begin as early as today, with Britain playing a pivotal role. [....] Say what? Why so fast? Have we even had a chance to interrogate these people? Are they part of bigger spy networks? What's going on here?