CIA Torture

Increasing social criticism in Berlin and a new, committed tone of film realism: The Red Hangar from Chile

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 23:35:02 GMT

A growing number of younger filmmakers are turning their attention to history and the current threats to human relationships posed by war, state repression, fascist violence and extreme exploitation.

CIA psychologist defends waterboarding at military hearing

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 03:14:57 GMT

Testifying in a pretrial hearing, a doctor who devised CIA “enhanced interrogation” techniques such as “waterboarding” and “walling,” and was paid $81 million under a Pentagon contract, defended the procedures.

Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974): America “is a country with many dark secrets”

Mon, 13 May 2024 21:39:25 GMT

The film expresses the broadly felt suspicion in the population—at that time and even more so today—that there is something sinister and rotten in the American state.

Musicians withdraw from SXSW Festival over Gaza, inclusion of military and “war profiteers”

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 03:15:10 GMT

The musicians have reacted to the strong connections between the festival and the US military and corporate arms makers.

El Conde: The Chilean dictator Pinochet and counterrevolution through the years

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 02:23:44 GMT

It is a complicated, dark, disturbing film about fascism, bourgeois corruption and counterrevolution. The film is currently streaming on Netflix.

Biden rejects medical treatment as part of a possible plea bargain for Guantanamo prisoners tortured by CIA

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 04:10:40 GMT

The five men were abducted shortly after the 9/11 attacks under the pseudo-legal provisions of the “war on terror” legislation passed by Congress. This legislation sanctioned the “rendition” of “enemy combatants” anywhere in the world, including citizens of the US, and their indefinite detention, without formal charges or a trial, at CIA sites and military facilities, where they were subjected to “enhanced interrogation,” i.e., torture.

The case of Texas A&M: A university integrated into the military-intelligence apparatus

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 20:42:48 GMT

Texas A&M is a major hub for the US State Department-CIA training of the next generation of military officers and intelligence recruits.

Guantánamo Diary Revisited: Mohamedou Slahi seeks out his torturers

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 02:37:56 GMT

In the film’s opening, John Goetz argues that “it’s a David and Goliath story … the whole weight and power of the American government focused against one individual.”

CIA co-opts Harriet Tubman to boost its efforts to recruit spies and assassins

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 01:28:05 GMT

The seamless marriage of identity politics and US imperialism is a devastating exposure of the real reactionary content of politics based on race, gender and sexuality.

The Gray Man: A CIA killer on the run

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 02:36:19 GMT

The action thriller follows an assassin in a secret CIA program as he attempts to uncover high-level wrongdoing, rescue a young girl and preserve his own life.

Trump’s CIA director Gina Haspel watched as a detainee was tortured at US black site in Thailand in 2002

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 16:06:42 GMT

One of the psychiatrists who waterboarded detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri testified that Gina Haspel, who later became director of the CIA, observed the torture sessions.

CIA has been secretly collecting information on US citizens for decades

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 05:30:24 GMT

Under the authority of an executive order signed by President Reagan in 1981, the CIA has been gathering, storing and analyzing data on US citizens for decades without any oversight.

Military jury calls torture of Majid Khan “a stain on the moral fiber of America”

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 04:14:11 GMT

The condemnation by the jurors of Khan's torture underscores the utter criminality of the Bush administration’s “rendition” and “enhanced interrogation” programs, for which no senior officials have been held criminally liable.

Guantanamo prisoner Majid Khan describes years of torture at CIA black sites

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 05:13:05 GMT

Khan spent two hours before a jury of US military officers reading out a 36-page document that cataloged atrocities approved and applied in the name of “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

New York Times cites US torturer Michael Chertoff on Chinese “repression”

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 04:24:49 GMT

Over the weekend, the New York Times published an editorial calling China the world’s leading purveyor of “transnational repression,” based entirely on a report produced under the supervision of a war criminal.

“Humans of CIA” recruitment campaign sells youth “identity politics imperialism”

Thu, 20 May 2021 02:10:28 GMT

The intelligence agency’s promotion of intersectionality and critical race theory is a testament to the reactionary anti-Marxist character of identity politics.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez funds the CIA Democrats

Sun, 04 Apr 2021 23:31:07 GMT

According to Politico, Ocasio-Cortez donated $160,000 to 32 “frontline” Democrats, a list that includes many prominent “CIA Democrats,” former representatives of the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

Christopher Nolan’s Tenet: The postmodern would-be blockbuster

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 02:20:34 GMT

The film centers on the ability to manipulate time. The events, on a single viewing, are difficult to follow, at times almost incomprehensible.

An interview with Mohamedou Ould Salahi, detained and tortured by the US military, CIA

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 03:40:08 GMT

Salahi, now living in Mauritania, was kind enough to answer a number of questions by email recently.

Biden taps William Burns to head Central Intelligence Agency

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 04:58:45 GMT

With four decades as a diplomatic point man for US imperialism, Burns has been pivotal in regime-change operations and the consolidation of pro-US dictatorships.

Witnesses recall Collateral Murder attack: “Look at those dead bastards,” shooters said

Sat, 19 Sep 2020 06:11:59 GMT

“The publication of that video and those words was the equivalent of the death of George Floyd and his words ‘I can’t breathe’. They had a profound effect on public opinion in the world.”

CIA releases TV recruiting ad for streaming video services

Sat, 27 Jun 2020 05:00:00 GMT

The CIA has released a TV commercial portraying the agency as a diverse workplace and appeals to young people to become US spies.

Psychologist responsible for devising torture methods testifies at Guantanamo Bay hearing

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 05:00:00 GMT

James Mitchell, an Air Force veteran and psychologist who was a leading architect of torture methods used at US “black sites” testified that he threatened to cut the throat of the son of detainee Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

America’s torturers and their co-conspirators must be prosecuted

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Five years after the release of the Senate report on CIA torture, the gruesome drawings contained in the Seton Hall Law School paper on “How America Tortures” are a powerful indictment of the entire US political establishment.

Pentagon fires Guantanamo prison commander for calling attention to US crimes

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Vice Admiral Ring was removed from his post after telling the media that the US prison camp had to prepare for “end-of-life” care for detainees.

Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: The ISO discovers its muse—the CIA—Part 3

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 05:00:00 GMT

For Hensman, being “moral” means embracing the lies and provocations used to market US wars.

Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: The ISO discovers its muse—the CIA—Part 2

Sat, 15 Dec 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Hensman’s arguments tend inescapably in one direction: that US wars have been the main liberating force during the last quarter century.

CIA director briefs Trump on Khashoggi torture tape

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 05:00:00 GMT

CIA Director Gina Haspel, dispatched to Turkey to investigate the murder of the Saudi journalist, has intimate familiarity with acts of torture and tapes recording them.

CIA Democrats call for aggression against Russia, run pro-war campaigns in 2018 congressional races

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Democratic challengers seeking Republican congressional seats, particularly those with a military-intelligence background, are pushing for ever greater military spending.

The CIA Democrats and the US midterm elections

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 05:00:00 GMT

While working people are looking for an alternative to the reactionary policies of the Trump administration, they will not find it in the Democratic Party.

The CIA Democrats: A balance sheet of the primaries

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 05:24:05 GMT

Candidates with a military-intelligence background have won the Democratic congressional nomination in 30 districts considered competitive by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

CIA Democrat complains of political spying by Republicans

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Democrat Abigail Spanberger, whose main political “credential” is eight years as an undercover CIA operative, is denouncing the Republican Party for obtaining a copy of her full federal security clearance document.

Political warfare deepens as Democrats, ex-spies circle the wagons around Brennan

Mon, 20 Aug 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The intervention by Brennan and other ex-intelligence officials on the Sunday talk shows demonstrates the degree to which the spy agencies have become a dominant political force.

Trump revokes security clearance for former CIA chief Brennan: Ruling class warfare intensifies

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The warfare within the American state pits against each other two deeply reactionary factions of the capitalist ruling elite, personified by Trump and Brennan.

Cables document CIA Director Haspel’s direct role in torture at black site in Thailand

Wed, 15 Aug 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The 16 cables from Haspel published by the National Security Archive document scenes fit for a medieval dungeon.

Britain’s role in US rendition and torture revealed

Thu, 05 Jul 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The sheer number of abuse and torture cases testifies to a level of criminal depravity far greater than previously admitted.

Senate Intelligence Committee approves “black site” torturer to head CIA

Thu, 17 May 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Behind the threadbare trappings of parliamentary procedures, American “democracy” has been reduced to a dictatorship run by a military/intelligence/industrial apparatus.

Two Senate Democrats assure Haspel’s confirmation as CIA director

Tue, 15 May 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Joe Donnelly of Indiana joined Joe Manchin of West Virginia to give the former torture supervisor a seemingly unassailable margin in the Senate.

US Senate pays homage to CIA torturer

Thu, 10 May 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Gina Haspel, nominated by Trump to head the CIA, defended her intimate role in the torture of detainees as “lawful” at her Senate confirmation hearing.

CIA expands its Signature School program to University of Illinois Chicago

Fri, 04 May 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The program permits the CIA to have a regular recruiting presence on the university’s Chicago campus.

The Democratic Party and the confirmation of Mike Pompeo

Fri, 27 Apr 2018 05:00:00 GMT

The nominal “opposition” party paved the way for the installation of an advocate of war, mass surveillance and torture as the new US secretary of state.

Seven days in March: The Trump administration and the breakdown of American democracy

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Actions taken by the Trump administration this week reveal its ever more open turn to authoritarianism, while the Democrats have become the party of the CIA.

Trump taps torturer to head CIA

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 05:00:00 GMT

Touted as the first woman to head the US spy agency, the nomination of Gina Haspel marks a further rehabilitation of the methods of torture and forced disappearances.

CIA contractors settle ACLU torture lawsuit

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 05:00:00 GMT

The ACLU settled its lawsuit against two psychologists on behalf of three victims brutally tortured by the CIA.

Part Two: Amazon, war propaganda, and the suppression of free speech

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 05:00:00 GMT

Amazon won the confidence of the CIA through its suppression of WikiLeaks, and since constructing the C2S cloud has become ever more deeply connected to the military-intelligence apparatus.

Right-wing furor over Canadian government’s “apology” to child Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 05:00:00 GMT

In 2003 and 2004, Canadian officials colluded with their US counterparts in Khadr’s Guantanamo Bay interrogation, despite knowing he was a minor, had no legal representation, and had been tortured.

Part One: Amazon cashes in on war crimes and mass surveillance

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 05:00:00 GMT

Since signing a $600 million deal with the CIA in 2013, Amazon has become ever more integrated with the American state apparatus and implicated in its crimes.

US, UAE operate network of torture chambers in Yemen

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 05:00:00 GMT

The brutal torture regime began during the Obama administration and continues under President Donald Trump.

CIA’s cover blown in Brazil, but still safe in the New York Times

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 05:00:00 GMT

Whatever the reason for the public exposure of the CIA’s top man in Brasilia, there was one quarter where his secret remained safe: the pages of the Times.

Congressional Republicans seek to obliterate record of CIA torture

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 05:00:00 GMT

The fate of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report, which exposed the most sadistic and depraved crimes perpetrated by the Central Intelligence Agency, is a milestone in the collapse of the rule of law and the emergence of a police state.