CIA & Intelligence

By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 20th, 2025 The Washington Post invented a crisp little quip about Donald Trump during his initial run for the U.S presidency in 2016. They noted…

It perhaps has not been much noticed much over the holidays, but in November, the editors and publishers of five of the world’s best-known news organizations released an open letter…

In recent articles, we at have worked to bring readers a series of deep, multi-part investigations of questionable historical actions performed by the U.S. intelligence community. Those articles have proven…

The American Spark has decided to discuss a few key, well-documented instances in which U.S. officials worked to overthrow foreign governments too left-wing for their personal taste. The next three…

By Cliff Montgomery – Aug. 31st, 2019Edward Gibbon, the historian who wrote Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, believed that one had to go to the earliest possible sources…

By Cliff Montgomery – July 31st, 2019With Donald Trump in the White House, it’s important to remind ourselves of how previous U.S. administrations worked to overthrow foreign leaders they thought…

By Cliff Montgomery – June 30th, 2019The first of the American Spark’s promised studies on U.S. socio-economic hit-men will discuss the part they played in the 1953 coup of Iran’s…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 31st, 2019War is the continuation of politics by other means. – Carl von ClausewitzVice President Mike Pence recently told the West Point Class of 2019…

By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 30th, 2018Should America continue to trust the government of Saudi Arabia in light of the fact that a top journalist recently ‘disappeared’ at a Saudi…

By Cliff Montgomery – July 31st, 2018Most people understand the importance of keeping a leash on U.S. intelligence organizations like the C.I.A. Few people would think of keeping a similar…

By Cliff Montgomery – June 30th, 2018Covert actions and clandestine activities remain some of the greatest threats to a functional democracy.Just consider that the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military…

By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 30th, 2018“The Supreme Court has never directly addressed the extent to which Congress may constrain the executive branch’s power” regarding the classification of national security…

By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 28th, 2018It’s essential for a democracy to have a well-informed public. For a public to be well-informed, it needs journalists and other professional watchdogs who…

By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 29th, 2017Since Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. government employs a previously little-known section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to potentially spy on…

By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 30th, 2017A lot of frightened politicians would love to see American courts prosecute government whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden or watchdog organizations like WikiLeaks – it…

By Cliff Montgomery – Sept. 5th, 2016Even though U.S. officialshave long claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA) possesses onlya limited, minimal legal authority to collect data on Internetcommunications, a…

By Cliff Montgomery – June 18th, 2016The U.S. Senate is quietly considering “legislation that would empower the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to obtain your Internet records without a warrant”…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 30th, 2016 Congress is considering two bills which might expand the ability of the public to discover what U.S. government officials are actually doing in…

By Cliff Montgomery – June 15th, 2015 The Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepares top-notch reports on major political issues for U.S. Congressional members and committees. In February, CRS released a…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 31st, 2015“Encryption and anonymity enable individuals to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression in the digital age and, as such, deserve strong…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 28th, 2015Last weekend, the Senate defeated every legislative attempt to extend a controversial section of the so-called ‘Patriot Act’, which federal officials offer as a…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 12th, 2015Now it’s official. Last week, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency’s massive collection of telephone records is illegal. “A provision…

By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 30th, 2015Many cyber-analysts believe there is a “need for enhanced and timely exchange of cyber-threat intelligence, both within the private sector and between the private…