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Based on over six million pages of secret CIA documents, the report details a covert program of secret prisons, prisoner deaths, interrogation practices, and cooperation with other foreign and domestic agencies, as well as the CIA’s efforts to hide the details of the program from the White House, the Department of Justice, the Congress, and the American people.

Over five years in the making, it is presented here exactly as redacted and released by the United States government on December 9, 2014, with an introduction by Daniel J. Jones, who led the Senate investigation.

The study edition of book the Los Angeles Times called, “The most extensive review of U.S. intelligence-gathering tactics in generations.” This is the complete Executive Summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the CIA’s interrogation and detention programs — a.k.a., The Torture Report.

Grounded in extensive research and reporting, Spy Schools reveals that globalization—the influx of foreign students and professors and the outflow of Americans for study, teaching, and conferences abroad—has transformed U.S. higher education into a front line for international spying. In labs, classrooms, and auditoriums, intelligence services from countries like China, Russia, and Cuba seek insights into U.S. policy, recruits for clandestine operations, and access to sensitive military and civilian research. The FBI and CIA reciprocate, tapping international students and faculty as informants. Universities ignore or even condone this interference, despite the tension between their professed global values and the nationalistic culture of espionage. Golden, the acclaimed author of The Price of Admission, unmasks this secret culture of espionage and its consequences at home and abroad.

SPYFAIL is about the highly dangerous and growing capability of foreign countries to conduct large-scale espionage within the United States and how the FBI and other agencies have failed to prevent it. These covert operations involve a variety of foreign countries—North Korea, Russia, Israel, China, and others—and include cyberattacks, espionage, psychological warfare, the infiltration of presidential campaigns, the smuggling of nuclear weapons components, and other incredibly nefarious actions.

With his trademark deep investigative style, James Bamford digs as deep as one can go into these clandestine invasions and attacks, uncovering who’s involved, how these spygames were carried out, and why none of this was stopped. Full of revelations, SPYFAIL includes access to previously secret and withheld documents, such as never-before-seen parts of the Mueller Report, and interviews with confidential sources. Throughout this stunning, eye-opening account, SPYFAIL demonstrates again and again how large a role politics, special interests, and corruption play in allowing these shocking foreign intrusions to continue—leaving America and its secrets vulnerable and undefended.

Spying has never been more ubiquitous—or less understood. The world is drowning in spy movies, TV shows, and novels, but universities offer more courses on rock and roll than on the CIA and there are more congressional experts on powdered milk than espionage. This crisis in intelligence education is distorting public opinion, fueling conspiracy theories, and hurting intelligence policy. In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology.

Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of U.S. espionage, from George Washington’s Revolutionary War spies to today’s spy satellites; examines how fictional spies are influencing real officials; gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America’s intelligence agencies; explains the deadly cognitive biases that can mislead analysts; and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight. A fascinating and revealing account of espionage for the digital age, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the reality of spying today.

The number of high-containment labs around the world conducting potentially risky scientific research is surging, despite a lack of global agreement on how to make sure they’re safe.

There are 69 so-called Biosafety Level 4, or BSL-4, facilities designed to study dangerous infectious pathogens in operation, under construction or planned worldwide, according to Global Biolabs, a tracking project run out of King’s College London and George Mason University in Virginia. About a decade ago, there were only 25.

Twenty years after the invasion of Iraq, controversy still rages over the existence of the “weapons of mass destruction” (WMDs) which provided the UK’s justification for taking part. New details about the search for WMDs have emerged as part of a BBC series, Shock and War: Iraq 20 years on, based on conversations with dozens of people directly involved.

“Crikey.” That was the one-word reaction from a senior MI6 officer when told by a colleague in late 2001 that the Americans were serious about war in Iraq.

CIA officers also recall the shock of British counterparts. “I thought they would have a heart attack right there at the table,” recalls Luis Rueda, head of the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group. “If they weren’t gentlemen, they would have reached across the table and slapped me.”

A man has been arrested for allegedly being a spy collecting information about Australian defence, economic and national security arrangements.

An Australian man has been charged with a foreign interference offence by federal police after an investigation from the nation’s top spy agency.

The Australian national, who normally lives and operates a business overseas, recently returned to Australia before he was arrested at a Bondi residence on Friday.

The AFP alleges the man was contacted by an individual, purporting to be from a think tank, via social media while he was offshore and made arrangements for him to meet with their representatives.

A 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the leaking of a trove of sensitive US intelligence documents relating to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Scores of documents were posted to an online internet gaming group.

Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was arrested in the town of North Dighton, Massachusetts, 70km south of Boston on Thursday afternoon, US time.

The Air National Guard is a military reserve force of the US.

“FBI agents took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident,” US attorney general Merrick Garland said on Thursday.

A high-level security review examining privacy concerns about TikTok and other Chinese social media giants is considering how to prevent political censorship and disinformation on the platforms.

The seven-month inquiry will be handed to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil in the coming weeks and comes as laws are set to pass in the United States that will give the Biden administration legal authority to ban companies including TikTok, which is owned by the China-based ByteDance.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported on new, classified intelligence from the US Department of Energy about the origins of COVID. It concluded with “low confidence” that the pandemic may have been due to a lab leak in Wuhan, China, rather than a natural disease transmission from animal to human.

The report is the latest chapter in a long saga about the origins of the pandemic, involving conflicting assessments from intelligence, policy and scientific communities around the globe.

If you had “leaking classified US military documents for the lulz” on your 2023 Bingo card, congratulations. The fast-paced drama surrounding the online disclosure of top-secret material ripped through this week’s news. We’ll dive into the details below, but there’s one key takeaway: This bizarre kind of leak may be only the beginning.

Anyone worried about chaos agents of a different variety now have a new way to protect their online identities. LinkedIn this week began to roll out new tools that allow you to verify your identity and your job. And for iOS users who want a built-in way to protect their security, we detailed how to use Apple’s all-in-one password manager.

When is sensitive information not just a resource that enables military leaders to take a tactical or operational action, but rather a weapon of its own capable of changing conditions on a battlefield and the outcomes of a conflict? Overclassification has long been an irritant for U.S. policy-makers, both from a normative perspective of promoting transparency and from a practical perspective of preventing intelligence “stovepipes” in which the flow of information is hazardously restricted. Nonetheless, since secrecy is the norm, the media notices any time the government willfully discloses secret information.

Disruptive cyberattacks by the People’s Republic of China (PRC)* are a growing threat to U.S. national security. Organizations need to understand what sparks these attacks. They need to anticipate risks. And they need to be ready to counter these threats. That’s why our cyber threat intelligence team wrote a new study on PRC cyberattacks called Same Cloak, More Dagger: Decoding How the People’s Republic of China Uses Cyberattacks.

The U.S. dollar has dominated global trade and capital flows over many decades.

However, many nations are looking for alternatives to the greenback to reduce their dependence on the United States.

This graphic catalogs the rise of the U.S. dollar as the dominant international reserve currency, and the recent efforts by various nations to de-dollarize and reduce their dependence on the U.S. financial system.

When I was a young man, I watched my hero, boxer Muhammad Ali, fight his way back from a politically imposed exile to the World Championship. Today’s history tends to overlook his losses and splits decisions with great fighters like Joe Fraser and Ken Norton. Split decisions are a painful part of a boxer’s life. It works that way in intelligence too. But, as with Ali, it should only be a part of the road to resolution.

In the past month, we’ve had two split decisions by the U.S. Intelligence Community — COVID origin at the Wuhan Lab and Havana Syndrome. Both have caused public outrage with wholesale rejection or simple reluctance to accept the most recent findings. Understandable. But answers still must be had.

The innovation of the smokeless rifle may not be as flashy as that of the aircraft and armored vehicles, but describing its impacts on the future of war required more than four-hundred pages of technical analysis in Jean de Bloch’s The Future of War.[1] The difficulty in forecasting the effects of new weapon systems stems from the fact that technology is not additive. A smokeless rifle not only increases visibility on the battlefield, but it also opens new possibilities for tactics and strategy.

With smokeless rifles, soldiers could fire upon their enemies without giving away their exact location while large formations could no longer hide under a cloud of smoke as they sent volleys across the battlefield. These changes required armies to reorganize their units to become nimbler and more maneuverable leading to deadlier clashes between opposing forces. States had to contend with deadlier conflicts by increasing their investments in new technologies while taking political stances that would maintain the will of the people in the face of high casualties.

How has civilian life been impacted by the war? What more can be done to end the conflict? Will President Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan lead to a treaty?

24 February 2023 marks one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Dr Sonia Mycak and Dr Anton Moiseienko join David Andrews to reflect on the last 12 months and discuss how the war might end.

Dr Sonia Mycak is a Research Fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies. She is a regular commentator on Russia’s war against Ukraine, both in Australia and abroad.

Dr Anton Moiseienko is a Lecturer at the ANU College of Law. His work focuses on transnational crime, economic crime and cybercrime, as well as legal and policy aspects of targeted sanctions.

David Andrews is the Policy Manager at the ANU National Security College.

Sameer Patil joins Andrew to discuss intelligence and cybersecurity in the world’s most populous nation. He formerly worked in the NSC Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi.

David Andrews is the Policy Manager at the ANU National Security College.

You know about the covert action using a Trojan Horse described in The Odyssey by Homer and The Aeneid by Virgil; you may even know about Sun Tzu’s chapter on “The Use of Spies” in the Art of War; but do you know that the Ancient Indian Sanskrit text Arthashastra is littered with references to espionage and intelligence – from recruitment to cover identities, through to seduction for secrets and disinformation.

This week’s SpyCast dovetails into the long and venerable history of intelligence in South Asia, by bringing it smack bang up to date, with a discussion on cyber with Sameer Patil.

And…

The origins of the phrase “Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai” are revealed in this episode.