In the film 'Zero Dark Thirty' she was known as 'Maya,' the CIA analyst who spent years tracking down Osama bin Laden. Her story is more complicated with its ties to rendition and torture, and now several news outlets have revealed her identity. ● In real life, however, her story is more complicated with ties to the rendition and torture of terrorist suspects, as well as a missed opportunity to head off the attacks of 9/11. And now she’s been forced out of the shadows with several news outlets revealing her identity. Most recently, that’s the website The Intercept, whose stated missions are “to provide a platform to report on the documents previously provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden” and “to produce fearless, adversarial journalism across a wide range of issues.” For years, the CIA has argued forcibly against naming the analyst, frequently referred to as a bin Laden expert. Some outlets, including the Associated Press have agreed to use only her middle name – Frances – since both her first and last names are unusual and easily identifiable.

The Intercept ■ Meet Alfreda Bikowsky, the Senior Officer at the Center of the CIA’s Torture Scandals

Today, 21 December 2014, WikiLeaks releases two classified documents by a previously undisclosed CIA office detailing how to maintain cover while travelling through airports using false ID – including during operations to infiltrate the European Union and the Schengen passport control system. This is the second release within WikiLeaks' CIA Series, which will continue in the new year.

RT.com: Leaked CIA docs teach operatives how to infiltrate EU

Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of several Spanish cities to express their anger at a new "public security Law" [Remember George Orwell]. ● Approved by the country’s parliament last week, the new legislation sets large fines for offences such as burning Spain’s flag or holding protests outside government buildings. In Madrid, several thousand people demonstrated in the centre of the city. “We are returning to the time of Franco (Spanish Dictatorship) and it is completely unconstitutional, we must protest because we cannot remain silent,” said protester Eva Alcazar. Another demonstrator said: “They are imposing a law that is cutting our freedom. The fines and penalties are more severe for protesting and taking to the streets. If you photograph a policeman beating up a citizen they punish the photographer and not the police officer.” The bill will go to the senate next where it is expected to pass as the ruling People’s Party holds a majority. Opposition parties and human rights groups have heavily criticised the law. They believe it is an attempt by the government to muzzle protesters over their handling of the deep economic crisis that has gripped the country for several years.

Though it has been entirely unreported in the West, China has been saying all week that it stands ready to support Russia if its help is needed. With $3 trillion of reserves the sums necessary would from China’s point of view be small change. The only condition is that Russia must first ask China for assistance, as this editorial in the semi-official English language Chinese newspaper Global Times sets out. Global Times belongs to The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, so an editorial published by Global Times has official sanction and represents the opinion of the Chinese government. Putting the question beyond any further doubt were comments pledging support for Russia from the Chinese Foreign and Commerce Ministers as reported by the Russian TASS news agency.

Larchmonter 445/Vineyard of the Saker ■ The China-Russia Double Helix [PDF]
Sputnik News: China Ready to Assist Russia in Solving Economic Problems: Foreign Minister

The allegations centre on at least four institutions where thousands of children are said to have been experimented upon in conditions described as “like something out of Auschwitz”. It is alleged that Porton Down, the top secret military facility in Wiltshire, was involved in trialling drugs for use in the Cold War on youngsters who were regarded as “feeble-minded”. One survivor told this newspaper he has obtained written and video evidence that he will pass to the public inquiry into historical abuse of children in care when it begins next year. The man, now in his 50s, has been advised by lawyers to conceal his identity for his own safety until his full submission can be lodged at the inquiry announced by Scottish Education Secretary Angela Constance. However, he was willing to divulge some of his intended testimony about the treatment he and others suffered. He said:

“Six and seven year olds were tied to racks and given electric shocks. "I was incarcerated with orderlies armed with rubber coshes. "We were imprisoned, experimented upon, lobotomies, you name it, they did it. “I was there, I saw it with my own eyes. We were imprisoned, experimented upon, lobotomies, you name it, they did it. "I was classed as a misfit, a mental oddity, made a ward of court. "My mother was killed and I became an orphan, so they took it upon themselves to have me experimented upon.”

N. Korea has demanded an apology from the US for “recklessly” circulating an unsubstantiated rumor about Pyongyang’s culpability in the recent Sony hack, warning the “proportional” response promised by Obama will be met with the “toughest counteraction.” ● The FBI report of the investigation into the hack at the Sony Pictures Entertainment is based on “intentional allegation rather than scientific evidence” of the North Korean involvement, said the Policy Department of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK. “After all, the grounds cited by the FBI in its announcement were all based on obscure sci-tech data and a false story and, accordingly, the announcement itself is another fabrication,” the statement reads, that accuses the US of “gangster-like behavior”. [Hard to disagree with that.]

An Israeli reconnaissance drone has been downed over the southwestern Syrian city of al-Quneitra reportedly by the Syrian army. ● Citing military sources, media reports said the Skylark unmanned aerial vehicle “was brought down” on Sunday when it was doing reconnaissance over Quneitra in the Golan Heights. Quneitra is located in the demilitarized zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights monitored by the UN peacekeepers since 1974. No further details have been given yet. There has been no comment from the Israeli officials so far.

Two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead Saturday afternoon as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner — in what investigators [say they] believe was a "crazed" gunman’s ­assassination-style mission to avenge Eric Garner and Michael Brown. ● “No warning, no provocation [plenty] — they were quite simply assassinated, targeted for their uniform,” Police Commissioner William Bratton said. Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were working overtime as part of an anti-terrorism drill in Bedford-Stuyvesant just before 3 p.m. when they were shot point-blank in the head by lone gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who had addresses in Georgia, Maryland and Brooklyn. Moments after killing the two officers, Brinsley, too, was dead, having turned his gun on himself on a nearby subway platform as cops closed in.

Sandy English ■ New York City police pledge “wartime” response to killing of two officers
Sputnik News: US Police Departments on High Alert After Multiple Killings of Officers

Buried accounts of horrors in the U.S.-led war on terror raise questions about the 9,000 documents still withheld by the CIA. ● After the release of the CIA torture report by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) the world is reeling in shock at the level of brutality revealed in the documents. In fact, the whole report is nothing more than a confession of sadistic procedures that could have been lifted from the diaries of Torquemada, from “rectal feeding” to nude beatings and humiliation — horrors that were well-known but not officially confirmed. But the report remains incomplete. Indeed, some 9000 documents have been withheld. What new horrors could be discovered with the publication of these records? Perhaps the most gut-wrenching story to emerge from Bagram has been buried in the German media and remains unknown to much of the world. Published by German author and former politician Juergen Todenhoefer in his latest book, "Thou Shalt Not kill, the account stems from a visit to Kabul. At a local hotel, a former Canadian soldier and private security contractor named Jack told Todenhoefer why he could not longer stand working in Bagram. "It's not my thing when Afghans get raped by dogs,” Jack remarked.

Darkmoon ■ Rape dogs used by US in Afghanistan || It is no surprise that Todenhofer should be “roundly maligned by pro-Israel and US-friendly figures.” This is because any exposé of America’s torture regime, whether at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib or Bagram base, invariably leads to the subject of Israeli torture advisors standing by to offer hot tips to the Americans on the best torture techniques. “The CIA did not just emulate Israel’s legal system to sanction torture,” we read in a recent report, “but it copied the same Israeli torture methods.” (See "Israel — America’s Torture Consultant“)

After Donald Rumsfeld testified on the Hill about Abu Ghraib in May, there was talk of more photos and video in the Pentagon’s custody more horrific than anything made public so far. “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse,” Rumsfeld said. Since then, the Washington Post has disclosed some new details and images of abuse at the prison. But if Seymour Hersh is right, it all gets much worse. Hersh gave a speech last week to the ACLU making the charge that children were sodomized in front of women in the prison, and the Pentagon has tape of it. The speech was first reported in a New York Sun story last week, which was in turn posted on Jim Romenesko’s media blog, and now EdCone.com and other blogs are linking to the video.

Possibilité que Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et des fonctionnaires de la CIA soient jugés pour torture? Demande de procès pour crime de guerre déposée en Allemagne. ● Un groupe de défense des droits à Berlin, en Allemagne, a déposé une plainte pénale contre les architectes du programme de torture de l’administration de George W. Bush. Le Centre européen pour les droits constitutionnels et les droits humains (ECCHR) a accusé les anciens fonctionnaires de l’administration Bush, y compris l’ancien directeur de la CIA George Tenet, le secrétaire à la Défense Donald Rumsfeld, de crimes de guerre, et a appelé à une enquête immédiate par un procureur allemand. Le mouvement suit la publication d’un rapport du Sénat sur ​​la torture de la CIA qui comprend le cas d’un citoyen allemand Khalid El-Masri, qui a été capturé par les agents de la CIA en 2004 en raison d’une erreur d’identité et torturé dans une prison secrète en Afghanistan. Jusqu’à présent, aucune personne impliquée dans la programme de torture de la CIA a été accusé d’un crime – sauf le dénonciateur John Kiriakou, qui avait révélé des informations classifiées concernant l’usage de la torture par l’administration Bush. (…)