2013 to 2019
The disclosures
The Snowden documents, the Senate torture report, Flint, Ferguson, and the 2018 bank rollback.
Key facts
- On June 5, 2013 the Guardian published a secret court order for every Verizon call record.
- The Senate found the CIA's interrogations brutal and ineffective, and the CIA admitted searching the committee's computers.
- The Justice Department found Ferguson's policing was driven by revenue.
Timeline
7 events in CIA, War & Covert Operations, oldest first
- 2013January 25, 2013CIA, War & Covert Operations
John Kiriakou sentenced to 30 months
The officer who confirmed the waterboarding program on television. No one who ran the program was charged.
- September 11, 2013CIA, War & Covert Operations
NSA memorandum on sharing raw intercepts with Israel published
Routine transfer of unminimized collection, under an agreement that creates no enforceable rights.
- December 9, 2013CIA, War & Covert Operations
NSA document on surveillance inside online games published
World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Xbox Live. No plot found.
- 2014July 31, 2014CIA, War & Covert Operations
CIA admits searching the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers
The director had denied it in March. No one was prosecuted or disciplined.
- December 9, 2014CIA, War & Covert Operations
Senate: CIA interrogations brutal, ineffective, and misrepresented to everyone
119 held, 26 wrongfully; one dead of hypothermia.
- 2016July 15, 2016CIA, War & Covert Operations
The 28 pages on Saudi support for the hijackers declassified
Withheld since 2002.
- 2019April 16, 2019CIA, War & Covert Operations
Congress votes to end the Yemen war; vetoed
The first use of the resolution's own procedure.
Stories (3)
- 2002 to 2023NSA Surveillance Inside Online Video Games and US Military Recruitment on TwitchA 2008 NSA document from the Snowden files described agents from the NSA, CIA, FBI, and Pentagon inside World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Xbox Live, so many that a group was set up to keep them from surveilling each other, with no plot found. The Army built a free game in 2002 to recruit teenagers and ran giveaways on Twitch in 2020 that led to a recruiting form. A 2019 Call of Duty put a real 1991 American bombing in Russia's name.CIA, War & Covert Operations
- 2007 to 2026CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou on Torture, Senate Spying, and Congressional OversightA former CIA officer who confirmed the waterboarding program on television in 2007 and went to prison in 2013 for naming a covert officer to a reporter says the committees that oversee the agency serve it, that the CIA searched the Senate committee's computers and no one was punished, and that officers were not permitted to spy on Israel while the NSA sent Israel raw intercepts under a memo that binds no one.CIA, War & Covert Operations
- 2002 to 2014The 2014 Senate Torture Report: CIA Black Sites, Waterboarding, and Zero ProsecutionsIn December 2014 the Senate Intelligence Committee published the findings of its five year study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program. The agency held at least 119 people in secret prisons, 26 of whom by its own standard should not have been held, and used what it called enhanced interrogation techniques on 39 of them. One died of hypothermia. The committee found the techniques were not an effective means of acquiring intelligence, that the interrogations were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented, and that the agency repeatedly gave inaccurate information to the Justice Department, the White House, Congress, its own inspector general, and the press. The Justice Department had closed its investigation in 2012 without a charge. The one CIA officer who went to prison in connection with the program was the one who had spoken about it publicly, convicted of giving a reporter the name of a colleague.CIA, War & Covert Operations