Tag Archives: CIA and AT&T

Oilmen. Is There Anything They Can’t Do?

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In the months before President Trump moved to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) turned to an old friend for advice on who should replace the autocratic leftist.  Former Chevron executive Ali Moshiri told the agency that if the U.S. government tried to oust the entire Maduro regime and install the democratic opposition led by María Corina Machado it would have another quagmire like Iraq on its hands, according to people familiar with the matter. She didn’t have the support of the country’s security services or control of its oil infrastructure, Moshiri argued. His recommendation: Stick for now with another autocratic leftist, Maduro’s longtime deputy and economic manager Delcy Rodríguez. The option was later presented to Trump in a secret CIA assessment.  Moshiri’s hidden hand in Washington spycraft, by the WSJ in March 2026, offers a window into how Trump embraced the energy industry’s unsentimental playbook for dealing with autocratic regimes. And it marks a dramatic turnaround for Chevron’s prospects in Venezuela, where the company’s decision to stay invested during decades of political upheaval now leaves it with a strategic advantage as the oil begins to gush again

Excerpt from Joel Schectman et al., He Was Chevron’s Man in Venezuela—and a CIA Informant, WSJ, Mar. 15, 2026

U.S. CIA In China

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The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released a new video on on Feb. 13, 2026 seeking to capitalize on upheaval at the top of China’s armed forces to recruit potential spies. The 95-second Mandarin-language video shows an officer walking through a military installation musing about ruthless power struggles at the top of the armed forces. “What the leaders are truly protecting is only their own selfish interests,” the narrator states. “Their power is built on countless lies. But now, these walls of lies are crumbling, leaving us only to clean up the mess.” The highly produced video was released less than a month after Chinese leader Xi Jinping purged two top generals, including his highest-ranking deputy in the military, Gen. Zhang Youxia…

“Anyone with leadership ability will inevitably be feared and ruthlessly eliminated,” the narrator says. “I cannot allow these madmen to shape my daughter’s future world.”

Xi has removed more than 60 top officers and defense-industry executives since 2023…The turmoil has left the Central Military Commission, the top body that controls the military, with just two members: Xi himself and the head of the military’s body for internal investigations.

The video concludes with the officer opening a laptop while parked in an isolated spot and calling up a page that says “Contact the CIA” in Chinese. The closing credits display a CIA address on Tor, an anonymizing network.

The CIA posted the videos on YouTube, which is blocked in China, as are many other Western social-media and news sites. Those sites can be accessed using VPNs, and the CIA’s advertisements occasionally run in Hong Kong, where YouTube isn’t blocked.

CIA’s efforts in China were devastated between 2010 and 2012 when nearly 20 spies working for the CIA were executed or imprisoned, leaving the agency struggling to rebuild its human espionage capabilities in China.

Excerpt from CIA Seeks to Recruit Spies Out of China’s Military Turmoil, WSJ, Feb. 13, 2026