Central Intelligence Agency

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CIA terminates whistleblower who prompted flood of sexual misconduct complaints

The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency’s headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman’s attorney called the action a brazen retaliation.

https://apnews.com/article/cia-sexual-misconduct-harassment-spying-whistleblower-49b949a293f51416f51dca9daa9b6180?

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Former CIA official charged with being secret agent for South Korean intelligence

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former CIA employee and senior official at the National Security Council has been charged with serving as a secret agent for South Korea’s intelligence service, the U.S. Justice Department said.

https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-justice-department-foreign-agent-07bc57d23924fc4d6e8c465ad8ea77c9?

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As the CIA promises to crack down on sexual misconduct in its ranks, a new case of workplace assault emerges At an impromptu office party, a veteran CIA officer got drunk, reached up a colleague’s skirt, and forcibly kissed her in front of stunned co-workers, prosecutors alleged in the latest case of sexual misconduct to spill from the agency into a public court. An Associated Press investigation found Donald Asquith’s alleged assault last year happened just days after the CIA promised to crack down on sexual misconduct in its ranks. Read more.

Key points: “CIA takes allegations of sexual assault and harassment extremely seriously,” the agency said in a statement, adding that within days of the incident it restricted Asquith’s contact with the alleged victim and he retired three months later. Asquith’s case comes amid a flurry of activity surrounding sexual misconduct accusations at the CIA, including ongoing criminal investigations into an undercover officer in Europe suspected of knowingly infecting at least three CIA colleagues with an incurable sexually transmitted disease. The agency has not explained why that officer remains overseas.   A recent 648-page internal watchdog report that found systemic shortcomings in the CIA’s handling of such complaints was classified as “secret,” shielded as a potential threat to national security. The watchdog report followed an earlier AP investigation that found at least two dozen women in the CIA came forward to authorities and Congress with accounts of sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they described as a campaign to silence them.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ US intelligence agencies’ embrace of generative AI is at once wary and urgent   Lawmakers criticize CIA’s handling of sexual misconduct but offer few specifics   Wife of California inmate wins $5.6 million in settlement for strip search

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CIA employee accused of leaking classified info on Israeli attack plans to face charges in Virginia

WASHINGTON (AP) — A CIA employee accused of leaking classified information assessing Israel’s earlier plans to attack Iran was ordered by a federal judge Thursday to face felony charges in Virginia.

https://apnews.com/article/fbi-classified-documents-justice-department-israel-iran-af303d8e786839e7431b203b3cf40be7?

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CIA Leaker of Israel Intel Pleads Guilty Days Before Trump Takes Office

A CIA analyst who held a top-secret security clearance pleaded guilty Friday to leaking documents about Israel’s preparations for striking Iran.

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/17/cia-leaker-plea-asif-rahman/?

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CIA favors COVID lab leak theory

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

The debate over COVID's origins has included two main theories: that it came naturally from a market in Wuhan, China, or that it came from a lab leak there. In a new assessment, the CIA says it's more likely that COVID originated from a lab leak. Why it matters: "John Ratcliffe, the new director of the CIA., ... has said it is a critical piece of intelligence that needs to be understood and that it has consequences for U.S.-Chinese relations," The New York Times' Julian E. Barnes reports. Catch up quick: There's no new evidence. These conclusions came from a review ordered by the Biden administration and released this week by Ratcliffe. According to a CIA spokesperson, "CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting. CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible." ? What to watch: "Ratcliffe has promised a more aggressive CIA, and it is possible that he will order more actions to penetrate the labs in Wuhan or the Chinese government in a search for information," Barnes writes. "It will not be an easy secret to steal. The senior ranks of the Chinese government do not know, and do not want to know, American officials have said. So if there is intelligence, it is probably hidden in a place that is hard to get to."

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? CIA agent monitored Oswald before JFK assassination

For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an agent specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the killing in Dallas, Axios' Marc Caputo reports.

• Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents and concerning agent George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying.

? The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler."

• Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case agent name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate.
• For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting.

"The cover story for Joannides is officially dead," said Jefferson Morley, an author and expert on the assassination. "This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald."

• The information comes to light as part of President Trump's order that the government meet its obligations to disclose all documents under the JFK Records Act of 1992.

? Zoom in: Joannides was the deputy chief of the CIA's Miami branch, overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare." That included covertly funding and directing the Cuban student group, commonly referred to as DRE for its Spanish-language initials.

• On Aug. 9, 1963, more than three months before the Nov. 22nd assassination, four DRE operatives got into a scuffle with Oswald in New Orleans when he was passing out pro-Castro "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" pamphlets.

Zoom out: The new documents don't shed any additional light on Kennedy's shooting or settle the controversy over whether Oswald acted alone. Nor is there any evidence showing why the CIA covered up Joannides' ties to DRE.

• All the records disclosed so far show how the CIA lied about financing or being involved with DRE.

Read on.

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Solution to CIA HQ's 'Kryptos' sculpture's encrypted messages goes on auction after decades of mystery

When Jim Sanborn was commissioned to create a sculpture at CIA headquarters, he wanted to do something that spoke to its world of spies and secret codes. The result was a 10-foot-tall, S-shaped copper screen called “Kryptos.” The first three messages on the sculpture were cracked relatively quickly. But 35 years later, the fourth, K4, remains a source of obsessive fascination. Now, Sanborn, who has had a series of health scares, is auctioning off the solution to K4, anointing a new “Kryptos” keeper whom he hopes will keep its secrets and continue interacting with followers. Read more.

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Drug cartels

The CIA is escalating a secret war on drug cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico, CNN reported Tuesday. The agency's involvement has varied, according to sources, from more passive intelligence sharing and providing general support to direct participation in assassination operations. After the story was published, the CIA called the reporting "false" but did not specify which details it was disputing. Read more.

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CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Raul Castro’s grandson in Havana, US and Cuban officials say

HAVANA (AP) — CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raúl Castro’s grandson during a high-level visit to the island Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officials said.

https://apnews.com/article/cuba-us-meeting-cia-john-9a3e7946460f8e5e48424f3a59df3fe8?