What did U.S. intelligence and the White House know about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi—and when did they know it? Those are the Top Secret questions haunting Washington right now. A National Security Agency official tells me that the codebreakers,...
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NSA: White House Knew ‘Disappeared’ Saudi Dissident Was In Danger. Why Didn’t They Protect Him?
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Why the FBI’s Kavanaugh Investigation is a Minefield—for the FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation occupies an exalted and somewhat awkward position in American society. It’s simultaneously our lead federal law enforcement agency, with a broad remit, and our main domestic intelligence agency. The FBI catches Mafiosi, bank robbers, spies...
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Putin’s Killer Spies Have Finally Gone Too Far
Ever since the near-fatal poisoning in March of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the bucolic English city of Salisbury, suspicion has focused on the Kremlin for the brazen crime. Employing Novichok, a weapons-grade nerve agent, to strike down the...
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The Hidden Russian Hand Behind Germany’s Violent Right-Wing Riots
This week, Germany has been convulsed with rioting in the eastern city of Chemnitz, where right-wing protesters have clashed with police for days. The murder of a German man on Sunday, reportedly by two Middle Eastern migrants, birthed angry protests...
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Donald Trump’s Nightmare Isn’t Robert Mueller
Judging from the unhinged tone of his tweets—which is nothing new, but still perhaps the best barometer of our 45th president’s mood on any given day—Donald Trump is worried about his future. He should be, as the Special Counsel investigation...
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There’s Nothing New About Trump’s Russian Spy Problem
Kremlin agents have deeply penetrated the nation’s capital. Spies for Moscow have burrowed into Congress, into every cabinet department and virtually every agency in Washington, sometimes at the top level. The White House itself is compromised. Meanwhile, media friends of...
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Why did Trump choose to parrot Putin on Montenegro?
The tiny Balkan country of scarcely more than 600,000 people is known mostly for its sunny Adriatic beaches – so why is Trump portraying it as a threat? For three decades, since returning from his mysterious trip to Moscow in...
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Donald Trump Tosses Word-Salad, Ends His Presidency in Helsinki
It was like nothing anybody had ever seen. Nobody acquainted with Donald Trump expected the July 16 Helsinki summit—which wasn’t really a summit, more like a one-on-one-date between the presidents of Russia and the United States, to use the reality...
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This Is How Vladimir Putin Manufactures Conflict Between Nations
As Helsinki’s one-on-one presidential summit looms, with foreign policy mavens fearing that Vladimir Putin will run circles around a clueless Donald Trump, it’s time to examine what makes the Kremlin’s Chekist-in-Chief tick. Our president’s troubling statement that Putin and his...
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The Spy Brief: Dead Drop: 30 June 2018
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Here are some recent intelligence and security stories that you might have missed but which are informative and even fun. Truth is not infrequently stranger than fiction, especially in espionage. Enjoy! Vienna wants Berlin to comment on reports that German...