A former senior federal official pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding the government of about $194 million, using invented classified programs to buy 298 gold bars, four luxury South Florida properties, watches and two BMWs. David J. Rush of Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court in Alexandria, after reaching
A former CIA official found with $40 million of gold bars in his home has reached a tentative plea agreement after being charged with theft for fraudulently inflating his salary, according to court records. A federal judge on Friday extended a deadline to formally indict defendant David J. Rush until Oct. 8, giving time for federal prosecutors
Newly declassified documents show that three years before 9/11, US intelligence officials were discussing the possibility that al-Qaeda “may fly an explosive airplane into a US city”. On Friday, the 25th anniversary of hijacked planes being crashed into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, the CIA released 71 daily presidential briefs spanning
Putin will be well aware of Donald Trump’s periodic disdain for Nato and he may have calculated that a low-key attack on say, Lithuania, is not going to trigger Nato’s mutual self-defence clause – Article 5 – and that the US will not respond. In which case it would make sense for part of the
The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Ratcliffe has met Russia’s intelligence services during his visit to Moscow, the Kremlin has said. Ratcliffe travelled to the Russian capital on Tuesday in a rare and unannounced visit. “There were contacts with the intelligence services,” Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters. “There
The trip is thought to be Ratcliffe’s first trip to Russia as CIA director, although he has maintained contact with his intelligence counterparts in Moscow. He played a role in negotiations for the release of Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina’s, who was jailed in Russia for over a year after being accused of providing support to
