CIA

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US Poised to Indict Raul Castro
US Poised to Indict Castro
May 15, 2026 7:34 AM CDT

US Poised to Indict Castro

Indictment expected over 1996 shootdown of 2 planes operated by American humanitarian group

(Newser) - Prosecutors in the US are moving toward criminal charges against one of the most prominent figures of Cuba's revolution: Raul Castro. A Justice Department official, speaking anonymously, said Washington plans to seek an indictment of the 94-year-old former president, with the timing left up to a grand jury but...

Iran Says Executed Student Admitted Spying for CIA

Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, alleged he was tortured into making a false confession

(Newser) - Iran has executed another alleged spy, this time a 29-year-old grad student from one of Tehran's top tech schools. A website associated with Iran's judiciary said Erfan Shakourzadeh was hanged Monday after being convicted of passing satellite-related information to the CIA and Israel's Mossad, and that his...

Mexico Expects US to Honor Its Laws: Sheinbaum

Ministry says CIA agents were operating in country without permission

(Newser) - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday ruled out a conflict with the US over an incident involving two CIA agents who died in an accident in the state of Chihuahua—agents who, according to Mexico, were not authorized to operate in the country. During her morning news briefing, Sheinbaum expressed...

Report: CIA Officers Killed in Mexico Were Leaving Drug Raid

Sheinbaum says secret involvement in raid would violate federal law

(Newser) - Two US embassy officials killed in a car crash in northern Mexico over the weekend were CIA employees tied to a ramped-up US role in the region's drug war, sources familiar with the matter tell the Washington Post , CNN , and New York Times . The Sunday accident in Chihuahua state...

Somebody Is Broadcasting Coded Signals in Persian
Somebody Is Broadcasting
Mystery Signals in the War
in case you missed it
Mar 28, 2026 3:48 PM CDT

Somebody Is Broadcasting Mystery Signals in the War

Radio sleuths baffled by Cold War-style string of numbers and the Persian word 'attention'

(Newser) - "Attention" is the first word, and it comes in Persian—three times—before a male voice launches into hours of measured, seemingly random numbers. The transmission, on shortwave radio, has aired twice daily since the US-Israel strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, reports Wired , citing the group Priyom,...

FBI Renews Push for Leads in Robert Levinson Mystery

Family hopes Iran war will produce information on the former FBI agent, or his remains

(Newser) - The FBI is still pushing to find out what happened to one of its own: Robert Levinson. Nearly 20 years after the retired FBI agent vanished on Iran's Kish Island, FBI Director Kash Patel marked both the March 9 anniversary of his disappearance and Hostage and Wrongful Detainees Day,...

For Decades, Israel Tracked Khameini. Finally, They Struck

Long-game operation involved hacked traffic cameras in Tehran, 'pattern of life' dossiers

(Newser) - Israel didn't just get lucky when it managed to kill Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei: It had been digitally circling his compound for decades. In a detailed reconstruction by the Financial Times , sources describe a long game built on hacked Tehran traffic cameras, deeply penetrated mobile networks, and...

CIA Ends Its World Factbook
CIA Ends Its World Factbook
Feb 5, 2026 12:00 AM CST

CIA Ends Its World Factbook

Unclassified version was first released more than 50 years ago

(Newser) - Close the cover on the CIA World Factbook: The spy agency announced Wednesday that after more than 60 years, it is shuttering the popular reference manual. All pages have been taken offline, including archived copies of earlier versions. The announcement posted to the CIA's website offered no reason for...

Report: Pentagon Has Possible Havana Syndrome Weapon

Testing underway on backpack-sized device purchased by Biden administration: CNN

(Newser) - The Pentagon has identified a possible hardware suspect behind Havana syndrome, the supposed mystery ailment that's dogged US personnel for nearly a decade—and it reportedly paid eight figures to get its hands on it. CNN reports a Homeland Security unit quietly bought a backpack-sized device that emits pulsed...

UK Pays Tortured Inmate Still Held at Guantanamo

Abu Zubaydah has never been charged

(Newser) - A long-running torture case tied to one of Guantanamo Bay's best-known "forever prisoners" has ended in a quiet payout from the British government. The UK has agreed to pay what lawyers described as a substantial sum to Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian detainee who was the first person subjected...

Gabbard Is Squeezed Out of Venezuela Operation

CIA director has a seat at the Trump's table, but not the national intelligence chief'

(Newser) - Tulsi Gabbard holds the nation's top intelligence title, but she was kept out of the loop on one of the Trump administration's biggest covert actions: the operation targeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. According to multiple people familiar with the matter, White House officials began excluding the director of...

CIA Turncoat Dies in Prison at 84
CIA Turncoat
Dies in Prison at 84
Jan 6, 2026 8:52 PM CST

CIA Turncoat Dies in Prison at 84

Cold War mole Aldrich Ames exposed US agents to the KGB.

(Newser) - Aldrich Ames, the career CIA officer who sold out America's spies to Moscow for cash in one of the worst breaches in the agency's history, has died in federal prison at 84. The Bureau of Prisons says Ames, locked up since 1994 under a life-without-parole sentence, died Monday...

CIA: Ukraine Did Not Direct Drones to Putin's Home

US reported assessment undercuts Putin claim, bolsters Ukraine's denial

(Newser) - US intelligence has found there's no truth to Russia's Monday claim that Ukraine tried—and failed—to hit Vladimir Putin's residence in northern Russia with a swarm of drones, according to US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times . The Journal's source...

Sources: CIA Carried Out Drone Strike Inside Venezuela

Covert attack on alleged drug hub heightens tensions with Maduro

(Newser) - For the first time, the CIA has reportedly taken its drone war inside Venezuela's borders. CNN , citing multiple sources, reports that the agency earlier this month bombed a remote dock on Venezuela's coast that US officials believed a major gang, Tren de Aragua, was using to stash drugs...

Sarah Beckstrom, Shot in Attack on Guard Members, Dies

Bondi pledges to seek death penalty in DC shooting

(Newser) - Army Spec. Sarah Beckstrom, one of two West Virginia National Guard members shot in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, has died, President Trump announced Thursday evening. She was 20, reports the AP . Her father, Gary Beckstrom, had told the New York Times earlier in the day that his daughter had "...

Bomb Threat Follows Post by Trump
Bomb Threat
Follows Post
by Trump
Nov 22, 2025 12:10 PM CST

Bomb Threat Follows Post by Trump

President accused Elissa Slotkin of sedition over video message to troops

(Newser) - Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin's Michigan home was targeted by a bomb threat on Friday, days after she and other former military service members in Congress released a video urging troops to reject "illegal orders" from the Trump administration. The threat followed President Trump's public accusations on Thursday...

CIA Hatched a Unique Plot to Disrupt Afghan Opium

Agency secretly dropped poppy seeds designed to make the resulting heroin less potent

(Newser) - The US is deploying aggressive—and very public —methods these days in its war on international drugs. It's a sharp contrast to a secret tactic used years ago in Afghanistan that the Washington Post is revealing for the first time. It seems the CIA secretly dropped modified seeds...

Ex-CIA Agent Spills on Russia and China's 'Honeypot' Spies

Operatives allegedly use romance and play the long game to access state secrets, technology

(Newser) - China and Russia are reportedly deploying "sex spies" to the United States in a bid to steal secrets and gain a strategic edge, according to a former CIA operative. Sharing his personal experience with Fox News Digital , J. Michael Waller said he encountered such tactics firsthand while working in...

US Tried to Flip Maduro's Pilot in a Secret Sting

Federal agent promised a lot of cash if pilot delivered Venezuelan strongman to US authorities

(Newser) - The US recently tried to recruit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's top pilot to help capture the embattled leader, according to an in-depth report by the AP . The plan began when an informant approached the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, claiming to have information about planes used by Maduro....

Somebody Finally Found the Secret of CIA's Kryptos Sculpture

Journalists used 'library science,' not cryptography

(Newser) - The decades-old mystery at the heart of the CIA's Kryptos sculpture was finally solved—not by cryptography, but by library sleuthing and a bit of misplaced paperwork. For more than 30 years, Jim Sanborn's copper artwork outside CIA headquarters in Virginia has taunted codebreakers with its four...

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