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Articles on CIA

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Several countries are developing microwave weapons, like this U.S. Air Force system designed to knock down drones by frying their electronics. AFRL Directed Energy Directorate

Experts suggest US embassies were hit with high-power microwaves – here’s how the weapons work

High-power microwave weapons are useful for disabling electronics. A new report says they ‘plausibly explain’ some ailments suffered by US diplomats and CIA agents in Cuba, China and other countries.
Dan Coats, left, then director of national intelligence, told Congress in 2019 about the potential danger of a pandemic. Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Was the coronavirus outbreak an intelligence failure?

Warnings about major disease outbreaks are supposed to come from national and international medical intelligence and surveillance agencies that most Americans have never heard of.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela with former American world boxing champion Marvin Hagler. The undated photo was taken after Mandela’s release. Louise Gubb/GettyImages

How Mandela stayed fit: from his ‘matchbox’ Soweto home to a prison cell

Prison life is about routine: each day like the one before; each week like the one before it, so that the months and years blend into each other.
Benny Marty/Shutterstock.com

US and Iran have a long, troubled history

Some of the major events in US-Iran relations highlight the differences between the nations’ views, but others presented real opportunities for reconciliation.
Protesters chant slogans and hold up posters of Qassem Soleimani during a demonstration in front of the British Embassy in Tehran on Jan. 12, 2020. AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi

The long history and current consequences of the Iranian-American conflict

The history of the Iran-United States relationship is complex and often brutal. Understanding it helps put today’s turmoil into sharper focus.
A new group of Central American migrants walk past Mexican Federal Police after wading across the Suchiate River, that connects Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Oct. 29, 2018. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy)

Why does the migrant ‘caravan’ exist? And how did it come to be?

A migrant caravan of almost 7,000 people who left Guatemala and Honduras is heading north towards the United States. The reasons they are leaving are complex but involve a U.S.-backed violent history.
A London bus displays anti-apartheid message at the height of South Africa’s isolation. Flickr/rahuldlucca

Apartheid, guns and money: book lifts the lid on Cold War secrets

As South Africa became an international pariah, it began working in shady ways through even more shady operators, including getting arms from the Soviet Union and China.
Violeta Chamorro President of Nicaragua meets with former President Bush in the Oval Office at the White House in 1992. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Washington has meddled in elections before

Decades ago, the CIA created a secret department dedicated to spreading anti-communist propaganda around the globe. A scholar explains how it is comparable to Russian meddling through social media.

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