Spooks Use Wiki to Share Intel

Intelligence, military officials often unable to read texts, emails

(NEWSER) - Nearly eight years have passed since 9/11, but national security agencies remain disturbingly low on translators for crucial dialects, the Washington Times reports. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives email and text-message each other freely in languages the CIA largely ignored before 2001. "I can't explain it," says a congressman. "No. 1, Congress has been pestering them. No. 2, you would think it's important for them to do their job." More»

(NEWSER) - A former CIA official who steered contracts toward a friend in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison, the Washington Post reports. Kyle Foggo was, at the time, the CIA’s executive director, the agency’s third-highest position. In exchange for lavish dinners and vacations, Foggo arranged lucrative contracts, including one in which the agency overpaid by 60% for water overseas. More»

Secret cooperation said to undercut Bush actions against genocide

(NEWSER) - The CIA is secretly working with the Sudanese government to send spies into Iraq, even as the US condemns the regime's role in the Darfur genocide, the LA Times reports. Sudan's position as a gateway for Islamic militants heading for Iraq and Pakistan makes it ideal for sending spies into Iraq. And Sudanese agents can penetrate where Americans cannot. More»

Amir Mirzai Hekmati's case wasn't 'complete': high court

(NEWSER) - Iran's Supreme Court judges have overturned an American's death sentence for alleged spying , saying that his case was "not complete." The high court has handed Amir Mirzai Hekmati's case to an affiliate court, the BBC reports. Hekmati was convicted of "co-operating with a hostile nation, membership of the CIA, and trying to implicate Iran in terrorism" in January; the US says it's "simply not true" that the Iranian-American national worked with the intelligence agency. More»

Agency expects to maintain large stations there for years

(NEWSER) - US troops may be leaving Iraq and Afghanistan, but the CIA isn't. The agency's stations in the two countries may see staffing levels fall off a bit, but they'll remain its biggest overseas locations for years, officials tell the Washington Post . The Obama administration is counting on the spies, along with Special Operations forces, to protect US interests as troops depart. "I would say the agency will be the last to leave," says one CIA veteran. "We were the first to get there." More»