Latest news with #C.I.A
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Thunderbolts*' Axes the Asterisk to Market Its Surprise Title Reveal
If you wondered why there's an asterisk attached to the title of the new movie 'Thunderbolts*,' you won't have to wait any longer to find out. Sure, you could have satisfied your curiosity the old-fashioned way by seeing the movie in theaters over the weekend, where it claimed the No. 1 spot at the box office. But as of Monday morning, the big reveal teased by that symbol will now be front and center on the movie's billboards, which have switched from 'Thunderbolts*' to the surprising title introduced in the film's closing credits. (If you would like to remain unspoiled, read no further and avert your eyes from billboards for the time being.) So long, Thunderbolts: This team of misfits, headed by Florence Pugh's weary assassin, Yelena Belova, ends the film rebranded as 'The New Avengers.' And now, on billboards, the movie itself will follow suit. The name change happens in the final scene of the Jake Schreier-directed film: The wily C.I.A director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tricks the newly assembled superteam into storming a news conference at which she introduces them to the world as the New Avengers. Then, as the end credits begin, the title 'Thunderbolts*' is ripped away like a comic-book page, revealing the new moniker. After three days in theaters, that rebrand has now made its way to billboards. 'It felt like, if Val is also trying to pull a switcheroo and sell the New Avengers to the world, we could do that, too,' Schreier said in an interview with The Times on Saturday. 'Especially given that the asterisk has been on the movie for a year, hopefully it doesn't feel sweaty — it feels like this was a plan and we built up to it.' Incorporating the new moniker into the marketing may also be an acknowledgment that keeping a movie secret is harder than ever these days, when surprises can be splashed across social media within milliseconds of release. Schreier, who pitched the asterisk during his initial meetings on the movie, credits Marvel Studios and its president, Kevin Feige, for a willingness to experiment with the title switch. 'It's very fun that they were open to embracing that,' Schreier said. He acknowledged that clips containing the spoiler have already made their way online, so why not make it work in their favor? 'It's so interesting in this world, and Kevin talks about it sometimes, where sometimes they wanted things to leak and they don't,' Schreier said. 'I think we all assumed that it would be a bigger part of the conversation already, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.'
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
C.I.A. Aims to Recruit Chinese Nationals With New Videos
A pair of new C.I.A. videos released Thursday aim to encourage Chinese nationals to spy for the agency, appealing to their frustrations with and fears of Beijing's government and its corruption. The Mandarin-language videos are modeled on a series of videos the agency made in recent years asking Russians to spy for the United States, appeals that previous C.I.A. leaders said helped develop new sources. The appeal to Chinese nationals reflects the priority John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, has placed on increasing the agency's intelligence collection on China. In a note to C.I.A. officers last month, Mr. Ratcliffe said China was atop the agency's priority list. 'No adversary in the history of our nation has presented a more formidable challenge or a more capable strategic competitor than the Chinese Communist Party,' Mr. Ratcliffe wrote. 'It is intent on dominating the world economically, militarily and technologically, and it is aggressively trying to outcompete America in every corner of the globe.' Mr. Ratcliffe has also told members of Congress that the C.I.A. needs to rebuild its human intelligence collection efforts: case officers recruiting Chinese officials to steal secrets from the Chinese government. Last year the C.I.A. released instructions in Mandarin about how people in China could safely use the dark web to contact the agency. The text-only instructional video was viewed 900,000 times. While the Chinese internet is locked down and censored, American officials believe that more sophisticated Chinese officials know how to work around those controls. A U.S. official said the agency would not have made the most recent, highly produced, videos if the instructional video had not worked. One of the new videos released Thursday shows a midlevel official struggling in his daily life as he attends to a more senior official, who is living a comfortable life of fancy meals, clothes and cars. 'The party raised to believe that our dedication to the path they lead us on would bring prosperity to us all,' the midlevel official narrates. 'But the gains of our collective efforts are indulged by a select few. So, I must forge my own path.' The final scene shows the midlevel official using a mobile phone to securely contact the C.I.A. The other video plays on fears that the Chinese government is arresting and ousting senior officials without explanation. 'I see my position rise within the party as those above me are cast aside,' the video's narration says. 'But now I realize that my fate is just as precarious.' The video shows the senior official avoiding Chinese government agents closing in on him. As he fears for his career, the senior official says he must find ways to protect his family. The video closes again with images of the official contacting the C.I.A. 'My purpose remains the same,' the video concludes. 'Only my path has changed. No matter what my fate may bring, my family will know a good life.'
New York Times
11-04-2025
- New York Times
Military Judge Throws Out Sept. 11 Case Confession as Obtained Through Torture
A military judge on Friday threw out the confession that a man accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks made to federal agents in 2007 at Guantánamo Bay, ruling the statements were the product of a campaign of torture and isolation carried out by the C.I.A. The ruling by Col. Matthew N. McCall was the latest setback to prosecutors in their long-running quest to bring the death-penalty case to trial, despite the years the five defendants had spent in secret C.I.A. prisons. Ammar al-Baluchi, 47, was so thoroughly psychologically conditioned through abuse and threats during his time at the agency's overseas prisons, or black sites, from 2003 to 2006 that he involuntarily incriminated himself in 2007, the judge wrote in a 111-page decision. Mr. Baluchi, who is charged in the case by the name Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, is accused of sending money and providing other support to some of the hijackers who carried out the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. He is the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the attack. Mr. Mohammed and two other defendants in the case reached plea agreements with prosecutors that are now being contested in federal court. A fifth defendant was found mentally unfit to stand trial, a condition his lawyer blames on his torture at the hands of the C.I.A. Testimony derived from C.I.A. documents showed that Mr. Baluchi was routinely kept naked and beaten during his first days of agency custody in a program of 'enhanced interrogation,' which was designed by two psychologists on contract to the C.I.A. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
25-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Intelligence Chiefs Distance Themselves From Information Shared in Signal Chat
The nation's top two spy chiefs who participated in a Signal chat discussing U.S. strikes in Yemen rejected assertions that detailed military information on planned and completed strikes was classified intelligence under questioning from Democratic senators on Tuesday. But even as the two officials, C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, acknowledged the sensitivity of information about strike targets, they sought to evade specifics on the content of the chat, offered carefully parsed answers on responsibility for the leaks and declined to release the details of the exchanges. Ms. Gabbard initially declined to confirm that she was even added to the chat. And Mr. Ratcliffe, who said it was up to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to determine what information could be shared in an unclassified chat, flatly rejected the conclusion of one Democratic senator who asked him to agree that the entire episode had been a serious and damaging mistake. It took the intelligence chiefs several rounds of questions from lawmakers about the Signal chat, detailed Monday in The Atlantic, to describe their view of events. But the picture that emerged from two hours of testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee — a previously scheduled hearing that was supposed to be about the array of threats against America — was the spy chiefs' contention that no sensitive information from their areas of responsibility was shared. Instead, Mr. Hegseth is under the microscope for his decision to put sensitive defense information, most likely classified, into the chat. Signal, a widely available messaging platform, uses a powerful form of encryption. But it does not have the security protections of classified government computers. Both Mr. Ratcliffe and Ms. Gabbard were in the group chat set up by Michael Waltz, the national security adviser. Mr. Waltz, or a staff member, inadvertently also included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, in the chat. Ms. Gabbard and Mr. Ratcliffe declined to answer many questions about the chat, including whether personal or government phones were used. But Ms. Gabbard did acknowledge that at least part of the chat took place while she was on a long overseas trip to India and other countries. Mr. Ratcliffe defended his use of the app as 'lawful,' and said that the C.I.A. had placed it on his official government computer. Democratic lawmakers pressed the two intelligence chiefs on a variety of issues. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona asked Mr. Ratcliffe if targeting information should have been discussed, and Mr. Ratcliffe said it should be conducted 'though classified channels.' But Mr. Ratcliffe also noted that it was up to Mr. Hegseth, who held the classification authority, to determine what was appropriate to share. The relentless questioning by Democrats clearly annoyed Mr. Ratcliffe and Ms. Gabbard. When Mr. Ratcliffe said his testimony was being mischaracterized, Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, shot back: 'This sloppiness, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies is entirely unacceptable. You need to do better.' Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, pushed Mr. Ratcliffe to agree that the episode was 'a huge mistake, correct?' Mr. Ratcliff pushed back with a single word — 'no' — and he and the senator repeatedly talked over one another before Mr. Ossoff admonished him, calling the incident an embarrassment. 'There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error,' he said. 'And by the way, we will get the full transcript of this chain and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content.' enator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel, repeatedly warned the spy chiefs about the consequences of discussing sensitive information on platforms not designed for classified discussions, calling it 'sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior.' 'It not only violated all procedures, but if this information had gotten out, American lives could have been lost,' Mr. Warner said.
New York Times
08-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Sept. 11 Plea Deal Includes Lifetime Gag Order on C.I.A. Torture Secrets
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the prisoner at the military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, has agreed to never disclose secret aspects of his torture by the C.I.A. if he is allowed to plead guilty rather than face a death-penalty trial. The clause was included in the latest portions of his deal to be unsealed at a federal appeals court in Washington. A three-judge panel is considering whether former Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III lawfully withdrew from a plea agreement with Mr. Mohammed in the capital case against five men who are accused of conspiring in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000. The C.I.A. has never taken a public position on whether it supports the deal, and the agency declined to comment on Friday. But the latest disclosure makes clear that Mr. Mohammed would not be allowed to publicly identify people, places and other details from his time in the agency's secret prisons overseas from 2003 to 2006. It has been publicly known for years that Mr. Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times by the C.I.A. It has also been revealed that waterboarding was done by a three-person interrogation team led by Bruce Jessen and James E. Mitchell, two former contract psychologists for the agency. Details of Mr. Mohammed's violent treatment, including rectal abuse, have emerged in court filings and leaks. But the agency has protected the names of other people who worked in the 'black site' prisons, notably medical staff, guards and other intelligence agency employees who questioned Mr. Mohammed hundreds of times as he was shuttled between prisons in Afghanistan, Poland and other locations that have not been acknowledged by the C.I.A. as former black sites. Now, a recently unredacted paragraph in Mr. Mohammed's 20-page settlement says he agreed not to disclose 'any form, in any manner, or by any means' information about his 'capture, detention, confinement of himself or others' while in U.S. custody. He signed the agreement on July 31, after more than two years of negotiations between his lawyers and prosecutors, who are responsible for protecting national security secrets. Two military courts have ruled that Mr. Austin acted too late when he tried to withdraw from the settlement on Aug. 2, two days after the retired Army general he put in charge of the case had signed it. The settlement and similar agreements with two of Mr. Mohammed's co-defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are still mostly under seal while defense lawyers seek to enforce the agreement and hold a sentencing hearing at Guantánamo Bay. Secrecy surrounding the black site program has been one reason for long delays in starting the trial. Mr. Mohammed was first charged in this case in 2012. Defense lawyers have spent years litigating for government versions of what happened to Mr. Mohammed and the other four defendants in the case, forcing prosecutors to frequently seek permission from the military judges to withhold or redact certain evidence in the case. The settlement does allow Mr. Mohammed to continue discussing those details with his lawyers while they prepare for a lengthy sentencing trial before a military jury. Hs lawyers have an independent obligation to keep that information classified. Separately on Friday, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit extended an order preventing the military judge at Guantánamo from holding plea proceedings in the case.
