

The CIA's greatest hits—and misses—exposed by a filmmaker they definitely hate.
Season 1 • Episode 5
LatestOn New Years Eve 2011, Barack Obama signs into law (without much opposition) the National Defense Authorization Act—a law that allows the government to detain its own citizens without charge indefinitely, and even murder its own citizens without due process. Case in point was the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in 2011. This new law then leads to further secret drone strikes throughout Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq directed by Obama and institutions such as the CIA. What direction are we heading in from here?
A five-part documentary series that examines in-depth the influence of espionage agencies on governments and societies, both domestically and abroad.
Direction
Noble's meticulous archival deep-dive, zero fluff.
Editing
Relentless documentarian rhythm, evidence stacks like bricks.
Creator
Scott Noble
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Scott Noble self-funded the entire series through small donations, refusing institutional backing that might compromise editorial independence.
Released during Obama's second term, the series deliberately avoided partisan framing to critique surveillance state continuity across administrations—predicting bipartisan intelligence community defense that would dominate post-2016 discourse.