WASHINGTON (Reuters) – John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, had detailed, contemporaneous knowledge of the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on captured terrorism suspects during an earlier stint as a top spy agency official, according to multiple sources familiar with official records.

Those records, the sources said, show that Brennan was a regular recipient of CIA message traffic about controversial aspects of the agency’s counter-terrorism program after September 2001, including the use of “waterboarding.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, had detailed, contemporaneous knowledge of the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on captured terrorism suspects during an earlier stint as a top spy agency official, according to multiple sources familiar with official records.

Those records, the sources said, show that Brennan was a regular recipient of CIA message traffic about controversial aspects of the agency’s counter-terrorism program after September 2001, including the use of “waterboarding.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – France’s military intervention in Mali has revived trans-Atlantic tensions over security issues, this time involving a key counterterrorism battlefield, along with dismay from critics who see U.S. President Barack Obama as too reluctant to use military force.

According to interviews with officials from both sides, the French have privately complained about what they see as paltry and belated American military support for their troop deployment, aimed at stopping the advance of militants allied with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Veteran Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler is one of few westerners to have been taken captive by Islamist militant leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and to have lived to tell the tale.

Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda for the four-day siege in Algeria last week that resulted in the deaths of at least 23 hostages and 32 militants, according to a regional website.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Algerian militants planned their hostage-taking attack on a remote desert gas plant well before a French military operation against militants in neighboring Mali, European and U.S. national security officials said on Thursday.

Intelligence indicates that the hostage takers, believed to be members of a breakaway faction of al Qaeda’s North African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), had planned to capture the hostages and take them to a hideout where it would be harder to mount a rescue attempt, a European security official said.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Former Republican Senator
Chuck Hagel appears increasingly likely to be confirmed as U.S.
defense secretary, thanks to support from two key senators and
the lack of an overt campaign against him by mainstream
pro-Israel groups.

Hagel, whose comments on Israel, Iran and gay rights have
sparked opposition to his candidacy, on Tuesday won the backing
of Senator Charles Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, who had
been conspicuously on the fence. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a
California Democrat, also weighed in with support.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Former Republican Senator
Chuck Hagel appears increasingly likely to be confirmed as U.S.
defense secretary, thanks to support from two key senators and
the lack of an overt campaign against him by mainstream
pro-Israel groups.

Hagel, whose comments on Israel, Iran and gay rights have
sparked opposition to his candidacy, on Tuesday won the backing
of Senator Charles Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, who had
been conspicuously on the fence. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a
California Democrat, also weighed in with support.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Former Republican Senator
Chuck Hagel appears increasingly likely to be confirmed as U.S.
defense secretary, thanks to support from two key senators and
the lack of an overt campaign against him by mainstream
pro-Israel groups.

Hagel, whose comments on Israel, Iran and gay rights have
sparked opposition to his candidacy, on Tuesday won the backing
of Senator Charles Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, who had
been conspicuously on the fence. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a
California Democrat, also weighed in with support.

WASHINGTON Jan 9 (Reuters) – There were journalists in
droves, glasses of wine proffered by waiters and hors d’oeuvres
devised by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck at the Washington
premiere of a movie about the CIA, but prominent agency
officials were nowhere to be seen.

Although official records show the spy agency cooperated
generously with the makers of “Zero Dark Thirty,” which
dramatizes the 10-year hunt for Osama bin Laden, the movie’s
graphic depictions of torture have made it a political hot
potato of the kind Washington thrives on but which mystifies
Hollywood.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Republican senator threatened on Tuesday to block the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the CIA until the administration provides more information to Congress about the September 11, 2012, attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

Senator Lindsey Graham said his objection was not directed at Obama’s CIA nominee – 25-year agency veteran John Brennan – but was an attempt to extract information about the Benghazi attacks from the White House.