James Risen Article Index for
James
Website Links For
James
 

Information About

James Risen




Mr. Risen is the author of the book ''State of War'' (January 2006) that claims among other things that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ignored intelligence reports that Iraq had abandoned its nuclear arsenal plans 10 years ago. It also alleges that the CIA carried out an operation in 2000 ( Operation Merlin ) intended to delay Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program by feeding it flawed blueprints for key missing components - which backfired and may actually have aided Iran, as the flaw was likely detected and corrected by a former Soviet nuclear scientist the operation used to make the delivery.

James Risen also writes in ''State of War'' that ''"Several of the Iranian {Link without Title} agents were arrested and jailed, while the fates of some of the others is still unknown"'' after a CIA official sent in 2004 to an Iranian agent an encrypted electronic message, mistakenly including data that could potentially identify ''"virtually every spy the CIA had inside Iran"''. The Iranian was a double agent and handed over the information to Iranian intelligence. This also has been denied by an intelligence official. Mr. Risen also alleges the Bush Administration is responsible for transformation of Afghanistan into a " Narco-state ", from which comes 80% of the world's Heroin .

The publication of this book was expedited following the December 16 , 2005 NSA leak story. The timing of the ''New York Times'' story after the Iraq election in mid December 2005 is a source of controversy since the story may have been held for over a year. The ''New York Times'' story appeared two days before a former NSA employee, dismissed in May 2005, requested permission to testify to two Congressional intelligence oversight committes. Byron Calame , the Public Editor of the ''New York Times'' wrote in early January 2006 that two senior ''Times'' officials refused to comment on the timing of the article.

Mr. Risen says this book is based on information from a variety of anonymous sources. The Department Of Justice (DOJ) has begun an investigation of the sources of the national security leak involving NSA. This DOJ investigation will follow an earlier investigation of the Valerie Plame leak that resulted in former ''New York Times'' reporter, Judith Miller , being jailed before she agreed to reveal her source.


BOOKS

  • James Risen (2006), ''State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration'', Simon & Schuster; Free Press, January 2006, ISBN 0743270665


  • Milton Bearden and James Risen (2004), ''The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB'', Random House

  • James Risen and Judy Thomas (1998), ''Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War'', Perseus Publishing



SEE ALSO

  • COINTELPRO - FBI counter-intelligence program investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States

  • ECHELON - secretive world-wide signals intelligence and analysis network run by the UKUSA Community, capturing radio and satellite communications, telephone calls, faxes and e-mails nearly anywhere in the world

  • Carnivore - FBI wiretapping of email and internet communications through proxy computers installed at Internet Service Provider s

  • CALEA - ''to make clear a telecommunications carrier's duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes''

  • Operation Mockingbird - alleged Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign Media



EXTERNAL LINKS