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Washington (AFP) - Former CIA directors and another half dozen of America's most senior spies have issued an unprecedented condemnation of President Donald Trump, after his decision to blacklist their colleague John Brennan. In a statement, ex-CIA bosses appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents -- including Robert Gates, George Tenet, Porter Goss, Leon Panetta and David Petraeus -- denounced Trump's decision to strip Brennan of his security clearance.

Twelve former senior intelligence officials issued a statement late Thursday criticizing President Trump’s “ill-considered and unprecedented” decision to strip former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance.

WASHINGTON – Countering resistance to President Donald Trump's pick for CIA director, the spy agency gave lawmakers a declassified memo Friday showing she was cleared years ago of wrongdoing in the destruction of videotapes showing terror suspects being waterboarded after 9/11. Gina Haspel is facing opposition from some Democrats and rights groups critical of her activities related to the shredding of 92 videotapes in 2005 and her overall role in the CIA's harsh interrogation program, which critics have portrayed as one of the shadiest chapters in the agency's history. Friday's release, however, did not satisfy opponents who want to know...

Ah, I remember spending a solid month on this story back in spring 2009 when Obama and Cheney were having their war of words over enhanced interrogation. Porter Goss claimed that he and she were both briefed on waterboarding in September 2002 as members of the House intel committee, a hugely incendiary accusation given Pelosi’s status as Speaker and therefore an anti-torture liberal light. Pelosi contended that, in the NYT’s words, “the lawmakers were told only that the C.I.A. believed the methods were legal — not that they were going to be used.” Then, as the media turned up the...

On September 4, 2002, Porter Goss, then the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Nancy Pelosi, the ranking Democratic member, were given a classified briefing by the CIA on what the Agency calls "enhanced interrogation techniques," or, in persistent media parlance, "torture." In particular, the CIA briefed the members on the use of these techniques on Abu Zubaydah, a high-ranking al Qaeda operative captured in Pakistan the previous March. Abu Zubaydah was a name the future Speaker was already familiar with. That spring, information obtained from the terrorist had the FBI and other government agencies scrambling...

Two weeks ago Democrats were in full attack mode, intending to prosecute any and all who “tortured” enemy combatants. Thanks to the backbone of some former senior CIA folks and I might add, the Washington Post, there has been an abject reversal, culminating in a letter from the House Intelligence Committee to all CIA personnel. Here's the story. Recently the CIA has come under assault recently like no other time. The first insult was the appointment as Director of Leon Panetta, a political hack with no previous intelligence experience. The agency soon became a punching bag, in an orgy of...

Four former CIA directors opposed releasing classified Bush-era interrogation memos, officials say, describing objections that went all the way to the White House and slowed release of the records. Former CIA chiefs Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet and John Deutch all called the White House in March warning that release of the so-called "torture memos" would compromise intelligence operations, current and former officials say. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to detail internal government discussions. President Barack Obama ultimately overruled those concerns after internal discussions that intensified in the weeks after the former directors intervened. The...

July 2, 2006Biased Times And Post Badmouth Bush The New York Times has done it again – laced Uncle Sam’s feet in a sack for the race between liberty and terrorism.  It revealed last week a secret monitoring program for international electronic bank transfers between Al Queda cells.This was done legally with cooperation of the Brussels-based Worldwide Interbank for Financial Telecommunication.  The “Gray Lady” of journalism (so called presumably for venerable age) considered this an encore for a similar, irresponsible revelation last December.  In that, the Times asserted the National Security Agency (NSA) was tapping illegally into telephone calls...

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King is lashing out at his fellow Republicans in Washington after Homeland Security Czar Michael Chertoff cut anti-terrorism funding for New York City, warning Thursday morning that unless the cuts are restored, he'll launch an investigation into what he called "orgies" involving CIA agents at the Watergate hotel. "[The cut] to me raises very serious questions about the judgment and the sincerity of the Department [of Homeland Security] and everything they do," King told WABC Radio's John Gambling. "If they can't get something like this right, how can we trust them to get anything...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, a 64-year-old ex-high school wrestling coach, ordinarily is not a shouter. But according to Capitol Hill sources, he engaged in a high-decibel rant last week when he met with Vice President Dick Cheney. The speaker was enraged by the sacking of his friend and former colleague, Porter Goss. Hastert was so vituperative that a private session with President Bush in the living quarters of the White House was scheduled immediately (although Hastert aides said the meeting had been planned previously). The speaker toned down his volume on the hallowed ground and did more listening than...

Symposium: China: Time Bomb WalkingAs President Bush met with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House this week, the issue of China’s rise as a global superpower took center stage. Serious concerns are mounting in Washington in regards to China’s increasingly aggressive global posturing. Indeed, Beijing continues to militarily threaten Taiwan, to support a nuclear North Korea, and to forge alliances with anti-American regimes everywhere, including with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s nuclear-aspiring Mullahs. As the military and economic threat of Beijing becomes increasingly apparent, the question arises: were we complicit in creating this communist monster? If we were,...

Porter Goss has just resigned his post as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. His executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, is apparently under investigation. Goss' designated successor, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, faces a tough confirmation fight. What is going on at our premier intelligence agency? The Goss appointment, back in September 2004, was yet another political effort to deal with serial leaking of CIA classified information. Many agency analysts, both employed and retired, have been in veritable revolt against the general strategy of the war against terror — in particular, the effort to depose Saddam Hussein and birth a...

CIA Official's Home, Office SearchedBy KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Law enforcement officials executed search warrants Friday on the house and office of CIA's outgoing executive director, the FBI said. The agency's third ranking official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, has been under investigation by the FBI, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the CIA's inspector general, said FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego. Under a sealed warrant, officials searched Foggo's Virginia home and his office at the CIA's Langley, Va., campus, Langwell said. She could provide no other details.

Valerie Plame should be the next Director of Central Intelligence, not Gen. Mike Hayden. Now that the CIA's Praetorian Guard has -- with the connivance of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte -- rid itself of Porter Goss, the CIA is confidently preparing to march back into the intelligence dark ages that preceded 9/11. Gen. Hayden -- former head of the National Intelligence Agency and most famous for his strong defense of the NSA terrorist surveillance program -- is slated to be nominated for the DCI post today. Hayden, now Negroponte's deputy and choice for DCI, will face tough questioning in...

CNN just broke on Anderson Cooper 360 that former NSA Chief General Hayden will replace Goss as the head of the CIA. It hasn't been announced yet by the president though.

Hayden considered pride of (Pittsburgh) North Side By David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, May 7, 2006 Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the U.S. armed forces who could be President Bush's choice to head the Central Intelligence Agency, is a highly intelligent and hard-working man who learned valuable lessons growing up in Pittsburgh, according to former teachers and a classmate.

ALL the ingredients for a spy thriller involving prostitutes, poker, a congressman called Randy and parties at the legendary Watergate complex may lie behind the sudden resignation of Porter Goss as director of the CIA last Friday. The saga has already been named “Hookergate” and the CIA is buzzing with rumours that there is more to Goss’s departure than meets the eye. The timing is certainly curious, coming hard on the heels of the CIA’s confirmation last week that Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the number three in the nation’s spy centre who was hand-picked by Goss, had attended poker games at...

The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post all lead with the forced resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss after only 18 months on the job. President Bush is expected to appoint a replacement next week. The NYT and Post seem pretty certain that the replacement will be Air Force General Michael V. Hayden, who is currently a deputy for John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence.A former GOP congressman, Goss was CIA director for only a few months before Bush effectively demoted him by making Negroponte his boss. Negroponte, not Goss, now gives the president his daily...

CIA Director Porter Goss abruptly resigned yesterday amid allegations that he and a top aide may have attended Watergate poker parties where bribes and prostitutes were provided to a corrupt congressman.

News that Porter Goss had resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency fueled speculation he'd make a bid for the U.S. Senate. Southwest Florida officials expressed their surprise Friday at his resignation as they lined up to praise the longtime former congressman from Southwest Florida for his decades of service. Some expressed the hope that he will run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Tallahassee. Soon after the announcement was made in Washington around 1:45 p.m. Friday, rumors began to swirl in the nation's capital and in Tallahassee that Goss resigned so he could...