Trust Us, We’re Spies

The CIA spends taxpayers’ money, but it doesn’t want to say how, or on what. Now it’s fighting a Freedom of Information Act request to reveal the 1999 intel budget, claiming that exposing the numbers would pose a threat to national security.

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In late March, the CIA told a federal court it could not release information requested under the Freedom of Information Act by the Washington, D.C.-based James Madison Project, a public-interest group devoted to educating the public on U.S. intelligence, secrecy policy, and national security. The information review officer for the spy agency’s science and technology directorate argued in a lengthy brief that the release of the information in question would compromise national security.

This, of course, is part of the CIA’s job — protecting critical government secrets. But the documents in this case were from 1917 and 1918, and not even the judge could believe the subject matter: secret ink. The CIA argued that the requested information “comprises specific offensive and defensive secret writing methods” that make up “the basis of the CIA’s, and by extension, the U.S. government’s knowledge of secret writing inks and techniques of secret writing detection.”

Mark S. Zaid, the Madison Project’s executive director, said he was unsure whether to be “saddened or amused” by the CIA’s straight-faced arguments. The judge had no such dilemma; he was decidedly amused, quipping in court that the secret must already be out because as a child he had come across a recipe for secret ink in a breakfast cereal box.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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