“Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.”

—The 54 foreign governments that helped the CIA torture, detain, and transport suspects in the years following 9/11, according to this detailed report.

“My reputation preceded me, and a rumor got started that I was a CIA hitman.”

This letter about prison life (PDF) by John Kiriakou, who’s serving 30 months in the federal pen for disclosing the name of a covert CIA agent to a journalist, makes for fascinating reading. Kiriakou also helped blow the whistle on the agency’s use of waterboarding.

For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince - except that it acted secretly - the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”

—Edward Snowden, the just-revealed NSA whistleblower, on his 2007 stint with the CIA in Geneva, Switzerland which he describes as formative in his decision which eventually led him to blow the whistle on the NSA’s security programs. Snowden publicly outed himself in The Guardian, the publication which initially published the documents which showed the federal government asking for metadata records from Verizon.

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Follow the world’s creators.

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”

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Follow the world’s creators.

Modern Art was CIA 'Weapon'

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”