Central Intelligence Agency

Latest Articles

Review: Killers

Did we ask to see Ashton Kutcher as 007?
As a CIA operative in Robert Luketic's spy thriller/rom-com, Ashton Kutcher looks strapping, if nothing else.
By TOM MEEK | June 09, 2010

The Cannes 2010 jury picks some winners, but some head-scratchers, too
Apichatpong Weerasethakul must have done something right in one or more of his previous incarnations.
By LISA NESSELSON | May 28, 2010

Meet Evan Thomas

The parallel careers of Newsweek's premier wordsmith
Narrative is the throughline in the professional life of Evan Thomas.
By PETER KADZIS | May 13, 2010

High ideals and crazy dreams

Truthers hurt
I have nothing against conspiracy theories.
By AL DIAMON | April 28, 2010

Springtime for Militia

Gun nuts from around the country converge upon the murder capital of the nation, Washington, D.C.
I’m scrubbing my armpits in the campground bathroom at Fort Hunt Park in Virginia. It’s taken more than 20 hours for me to get here for today’s firearm-friendly Restore the Constitution rally, which is supposed to commence shortly.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 21, 2010

Are doctors complicit in prison torture?

The Maine medical community looks at solitary confinement
In the past few years an outcry has arisen over the involvement of military and CIA medical professionals and psychologists in torture. Some critics have even suggested criminal prosecution of the medical staff involved or, at least, revocation of their professional licenses.
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 21, 2010

Review: Green Zone

Follow the yellowcake road to the Emerald City
Paul Greengrass's Green Zone takes us on a frenetic trip down memory lane — back to the beginning of the Iraq War.
By SHAULA CLARK | March 17, 2010

China expert sees a nation at the 'shadow-line'

Across the Globe
Joseph Conrad wrote of a "shadow-line," an indistinct boundary between youth and adulthood that adolescents awkwardly straddle; one moment there is impressive poise and maturity, and the next, a slip into past boorish, immature behavior.
By PETER VOSKAMP | March 17, 2010

Acid flashback

Letters to the Boston editor, February 5, 2010
Don Lattin may be right that the “most important” experiments of Timothy Leary’s Psilocybin Project took place at 64 Homer Street, in Newton.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | February 03, 2010

Review: The Spy Next Door

Brian Levant’s cheap misfire
Let’s hope Chan’s fans back East never get a whiff of this one.
By BRETT MICHEL | January 13, 2010

An Obama confidant on the surge in Afghanistan

War Dept.
Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.
By STEVEN STYCOS | December 02, 2009

Yes Men take aim at Coca-Cola

Drinking It All In Dept.
An odd press conference took place last week in Post Office Square as a man claiming to be an executive at a soft-drink giant touted “a new era for Coca-Cola,” in which its Dasani bottled water will be labeled “Deception.”
By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | November 04, 2009

You're all guilty!

In his new book, Three Felonies A Day , Harvey Silverglate dissects the corrupt justice practiced by federal prosecutors
Silverglate's thesis is as provocative as it is simple: justice has become sufficiently perverted in this nation that federal prosecutors, if they put their minds to it, could find a way to indict almost any one of us for almost anything. It is a truly radical notion.
By PETER KADZIS | September 28, 2009

10 years later, we told you so

Ten years of being right (well, mostly)
Like many in the alternative press, we pride ourselves on being ahead of the game. Sometimes, of course, that means we're wrong about what might be coming down the pike — that's part of the risk of being "out front" and not just reacting to the news as it happens.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 16, 2009

Living with HPV

It afflicts millions, yet no one talks about this nightmarish STD. Now one woman bares all.
The results are “normal.” I breathe a sigh of relief. But should I be relieved? It’s been two years since I heard a registered nurse tell me “You have HPV,” and I am still getting scraped from the inside out, still making appointments to see doctors, and still terrified that I’ll get cancer.
By LISA SPINELLI | September 04, 2009

Shooting from the lip

Kennedy's gaffe on Iran manages to make a bad image worse
Washington – Edward M. Kennedy's presidential campaign has a serious problem, and the problem appears to be Edward M. Kennedy. During the week in which leadership was transformed from a word in the lexicon of his campaign rhetoric to a measurable reality, Kennedy succeeded in verbally vanishing himself to a political isolation.
By MARCO TRBOVICH | August 26, 2009

Cheney's latest crime

Plus, Coakley's welcome move against DOMA
As if there were any doubt, the latest CIA scandal once again reminds the nation that whatever former vice-president Dick Cheney touched turned to slime.
By EDITORIAL | July 15, 2009

Human rights watch

Acknowledging, and punishing, torture
Last week, on the heels of anti-torture panels and protests in Portland, Washington DC, and elsewhere, the Justice Department told the nation that it would have to wait a few more days before information about American torture policies and practices is made public.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 24, 2009

Jim nauseam

Constant comparisons to Jimmy Carter are driving Barack batty. And they're unfair — to Jimmy Carter.
In the early days of the Obama administration, one politically perilous warning keeps resurfacing for the man in the Oval Office: "Don't turn into another Jimmy Carter."
By STEVEN STARK | April 02, 2009

Review: MI-5

Breaking new ground with old tools
When in 2002 BBC1 launched Spooks , from independent producer Kudos Film and Television, it must have been something of a courageous act.
By CLIF GARBODEN | March 31, 2009

Whitehouse: Pushing to pull the truth about Bush's war skullduggery from under bus

Digging deep
Rhode Island's Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse had a Joseph Welch moment during last week's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
By PETER VOSKAMP | March 11, 2009

Propping up a puppet

Obama gets it wrong on Afghanistan
"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer," Yogi Berra once said. President Obama should do the same.
By TED RALL | February 25, 2009

Proud to jump the shark

Macho, loopy, and entertaining as hell, The Unit is prime Mamet
Who but David Mamet would have the macho audacity to name his TV show after the male genitalia?
By JON GARELICK | February 25, 2009

Crossword: ''Just add vodka''

Mixing it up a little
Mixing it up a little
By MATT JONES | January 29, 2009

00-Panetta

Why Leon might be right for the CIA. Plus: Al Franken, Roland Burris, and Caroline Kennedy.
President-elect Barack Obama's pick of Leon Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency caught Washington by surprise.
By EDITORIAL | January 12, 2009