WIN #16-04 dtd 17 May 2004
Weekly Intelligence Notes (WINs) are commentaries on Intelligence and related national security matters, based on open media sources, selected, interpreted, edited and produced by AFIO for non-profit educational uses by AFIO members and WIN subscribers. TO DISCONTINUE RECEIPT OF WINs/EBBNs -- click UNSUBSCRIBE at bottom of this newsletter, or email afio@afio.com and supply your name.
For your calendars:
AFIO Night at the Pops 2004 - 'An Evening of Spy Music'
Just a few seats remain; therefore, we have extended the deadline for purchasing tickets by one week. This second AFIO fund-raising night at the Pops event takes place Saturday 19 June 2004 in Boston, MA. For more information and registration, visit www.afio.com.
AFIO fall symposium/convention set for 29 October.
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CONTENTS of this WIN
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SECTION I -- CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
Just in Case You Missed Hersh vs. Rumsfeld
Call for Intel Community to Coordinate Resources
China Marks Advances in Military Cyber Capacity
SECTION II -- CONTEXT AND PRECEDENCE
SECTION III -- CYBER INTELLIGENCE
FBI Computer Upgrade Not Working
Merchant Mariners Win Cybersecurity Exercise
Phabot Arrest May Help in Countering Zombie PC Trade
SECTION IV -- EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
DAX Resources Corporation - Global Response Center
SECTION V -- BOOKS, SOURCES, AND ISSUES
BOOKS
AFIO Member Tells Tale of Treachery in High Places
Insider on Spy Facts vs. Spy Fiction
ISSUES
SECTION VI -- NOTES, LETTERS, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
COMING EVENTS
19 May - Inside the Mind of a Terrorist at the Spy Museum
16 May - The National Military Intelligence Association
20 May - Borders Book Singing - The D-Day Companion
23 May - KidSpy School: Spy Gadgetry Workshop
27 May - International Spy Museum -- Inside Stories: Tales from the OSS
29 May - The Office of Strategic Services Society
SECTION I -- CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED HERSH VS. RUMSFELD -- Defense secretary Rumsfeld and Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen Cambone authorized expansion of a secret program permitting harsh interrogations of detained members of Al Qa’ida and allowing these methods to be used on detainees at Abu Ghraib prison, according to an article in The New Yorker posted on the Internet 15 May. (www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact) In a statement released 16 May, the Pentagon dismissed Hersh's article as "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture." (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31805-2004May16.html) (DKR)
CALL FOR INTEL COMMUNITY TO COORDINATE RESOURCES -- The United States has built the world's most comprehensive spyworks, but it is a dysfunctional system that poorly understands its own strengths, according to FBI veteran Christopher Whitcomb. Writing in the New York Times, the former intelligence director for the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group, says the problem breaks down in two ways. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/14/opinion/14WHIT.html?th
First, the 15 semi-autonomous bodies that make up the intelligence community are poorly integrated. The kind of problems that result was demonstrated in October 2000, Whitcomb writes, when he joined a team of 75 investigators sent by the Justice Department to investigate the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen. The ambassador [Barbara Bodine] to Yemen provided supervision and the Defense department contributed an intelligence cell. Within days, cooperation between Justice, State and Defense broke down completely. The ambassador objected to F.B.I. and military procedures. When the Yemeni military locked onto U.S. cargo planes with surface-to-air missile radar, she admonished the Air Force for using counter measures. When the Yemeni military surrounded the hotel where Whitcomb was staying and prohibited the Justice team from leaving, she asserted that their possession of personal side arms offended the Yemenis. The result was that the Americans spent weeks fighting among themselves instead of bringing the Cole bombers to justice.
The second and most divisive problem is secrecy, says Whitcomb, acerbated by the individual agencies setting their own rules on secrecy. "They use compartmented clearances, many of which are protected by code words and so closely held that their very mention is a felony," says Whitcomb. "Individuals receive information on a need-to-know basis. The results can be dizzying."
Whitcomb illustrates the problem by imagining a C.I.A. asset in Syria learning about plans to detonate a dirty bomb in a mall in Iowa. "Common sense might dictate that the case officer immediately pass this information on to the local police or the F.B.I. -- but that could never happen," he writes. To begin with, very few law enforcement agencies in the United States have any sort of security clearance. Then other people are going to want the information first. If nuclear material were involved, the Energy department would claim a role. State would need time to figure out the impact of the plot on relations with Syria. The Federal Emergency Management Agency would have to be notified for consequence management, as would local, state and federal agencies. "And don't forget the politicians," Whitcomb adds.
Eventually, the joint CIA-FBI Terrorism Threat Integration Center would inform the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which would then give a sterilized briefing to Iowa authorities. Hundreds of agencies, working groups, special activities cells, data clearinghouses and decision-makers would play a role. Clearances must be checked, databases scoured, operations assessed, sources and methods protected. Agency gatekeepers determine need-to-know parameters while lawyers examine statutory restrictions, memorandums of understanding and presidential decision directives. There are also technical problems involving different computer systems, reporting protocols, command structures and legal guidelines.
A solution to the current dysfunction would begin with the government integrating all intelligence programs in a single agency. Make the Central Intelligence Agency just what it is supposed to be: central and give the DCI the resources and authority to go with the title, urges Whitcomb, who worked as an agent on domestic and international investigations, as a sniper on the Hostage Rescue Team and as an intelligence coordinator during his 15 years with the FBI. Next, the agency should be divided into counter-terrorism, war-fighting and diplomatic directorates. "Make the C.I.A. a service provider for other government agencies; create a common strategic goal." Third, the government should provide for both foreign and domestic spying. "It is naïve to think we don't need some sort of internal surveillance capacity." Finally, the classification process needs to be standardized and secrets made accessible to the people who need them. "Classification should be a means of channeling information, not hoarding it."
"Until the intelligence community learns to coordinate its resources," Whitcomb concludes, "we run the risk of choking on the very information brave people are dying to protect."
CHINA MARKS ADVANCES IN MILITARY CYBER CAPACITY -- The People's Liberation Army recently completed a series of Information Warfare combat exercises that proved that the PLA could succeed against a superior Western army, the American Foreign Policy Council (www.afpc.org) reports. Citing the official PLA Daily of 27 April, AFPC says the PLA Info-Warfare Group has "joined hands with the research institute to develop a simulated communication confrontation training system by using computer networks, multimedia and virtual technology." In a "Red Force vs. Blue Force" exercise, the Red Army launched several waves of attacks by adopting different electronic offensive tactics. In the exercise, the Red Force's "electromagnetic killers" directed precision strikes against the Blue Army's "soft and hard targets," paralyzing the adversary's communication systems.
The PLA's electronic advances do not seem to have affected a promise by Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi to ease curbs on exports of computers and other technologies that could be used in Chinese weapons systems, as reported by Charles Smith in NewsMax.com. Smith refers to a February 2004 U.S. General Accounting Office report according to which China does not adhere to treaties it has signed on dual use equipment. According to the GAO, Beijing continues to violate provisions, such as permitting inspections to verify that exported equipment is not being used for military purposes.
A Chinese Military Logistics 2004 trade exhibition in Beijing early in May was attended by over 170 manufacturers from 25 countries, including the United States. The PLA Daily reported, "The exhibits cover all kinds of logistics equipment and involve several technical fields. Many are the new backbone of the PLA, suitable for the field of war. For example, the visible logistics information technology equipment from the U.S. represents the advanced level of the world's logistics equipment technology."
On 8 May, AFPC reported, two Chinese men were arrested by federal authorities in Los Angeles for attempting to export controlled defense equipment that could be used in jet fighters, satellites and missile systems.
SECTION II -- CONTEXT AND PRECEDENCE
CIA TOUGH ON QA'IDA DETAINEES -- The Central Intelligence Agency has used coercive interrogation methods against a select group of high-level leaders and operatives of Al Qa’ida that have produced growing concerns inside the agency about abuses, according to current and former counter-terrorism officials, the New York Times reported on 13 May.
At least one agency employee has been disciplined for threatening a detainee with a gun during questioning, they said. In the case of Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, a high-level detainee who is believed to have helped plan the 9/11 attacks, interrogators used graduated levels of force, including a technique known as "water boarding," in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown, the Times said.
The secret detention system houses a group of 12 to 20 prisoners, government officials said, some under direct American control, others ostensibly under the supervision of foreign governments, according to the daily.
Secret rules for the interrogation of high-level Qa'ida prisoners, endorsed by the Justice Department and the CIA, authorized such methods. The rules were among the first adopted by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 attacks for handling detainees and may have helped establish a new understanding throughout the government that officials would have greater freedom to deal harshly with detainees, according to the Times.
Defenders of the operation said the methods stopped short of torture, did not violate American anti-torture statutes, and were necessary to extract information from uncooperative detainees. Interrogators were trying to find out whether there might be another attack planned against the United States.
Senior FBI officials have told agents to stay out of many of the interrogations of high-level detainees, counter-terrorism officials said, because of the severity of the methods employed. FBI officials have advised Director Robert Mueller that the interrogation techniques would be prohibited in criminal cases and could compromise FBI agents in future criminal cases.
President Bush signed directives authorizing the CIA to conduct a covert war against al Qa'ida following 9/11, but it is not clear whether he approved the specific rules for the interrogations. The White House and the CIA declined to comment on the matter to the Times.
Concerns are mounting among CIA officers about the potential consequences of their actions, the Times said. "Some people involved in this have been concerned for quite a while that eventually there would be a new president, or the mood in the country would change, and they would be held accountable," one intelligence source told the daily. "Now that's happening faster than anybody expected."
On 10 May, the White House announced the President intends to nominate Larry C. Kindsvater, of Virginia, to be Deputy Director of Central Intelligence for Community Management. Currently, Kindsvater serves as Executive Director for Intelligence Community Affairs in the DCI’s office. He previously served as Director of the Resource Management Office in the Deputy DCI’s office for Community Management. (DKR)
NO MORE HOODING DETAINEES -- Some interrogation methods used in Iraq have now been banned, the BBC reported 15 May, citing Defense officials in Washington. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3716497.stm) It is now prohibited to deprive prisoners of sleep for more than 72 hours, make them kneel or stand uncomfortably, or place hoods over their heads. The Pentagon approved the use of such measures last September if the senior military commander in Iraq gave permission. Such permission was never given, a U.S. military official told the BBC.
A prohibition on depriving prisoners of sleep for more than 72 hours already existed in the U.S. Army's standard field manual on interrogations. So did sensory deprivation for more than 72 hours and making prisoners assume uncomfortable positions for more than 45 minutes, according to the manual, excerpts from which were published by the New York Times on 14 May. The manual states "EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING COMPLIANCE" to the rules and that "VIOLATIONS MUST BE REPORTED IMMEDIATELY" to the officer in charge. Interrogation methods include:
Other tactics listed require the commanding general's approval of a request submitted in writing, for example:
Safeguards for detainees provided in the manual include:
The Geneva Conventions apply to operations in Iraq. (DKR)
SECTION III -- CYBER INTELLIGENCE
FBI COMPUTER UPGRADE NOT WORKING -- The FBI's nearly $600 million effort to modernize its antiquated computer systems to help prevent terrorist attacks is not on a path to success, the Associated Press reported on 11 May. AP cited a review, completed weeks after Director Mueller gave Congress assurances about the program, by technology experts for the National Research Council. They found that the FBI's Trilogy project does not adequately reflect the agency's priority on terrorism prevention since 9/11 and urged the bureau to build new systems from scratch to help in this role.
The study by the council, a nonprofit research board operating under the National Academies of Science, concluded that even ongoing improvements to the bureau's computerized system for tracking criminal cases would not help as there are significant differences between systems supporting investigation and those supporting intelligence.
CHINESE YOUTH WRECK CYBERCAFE -- A gang of 16 teenagers, barred from entering a cybercafe in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province in northwest China, used bins and fire extinguishers to beat up a staff member before wrecking the cafe, the online British journal The Register reported. (www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/12/china_cybercafe/) The gang had previously threatened to beat up anyone who attempted to check identity cards after being refused entry to the cybercafe. The attack was the latest in a series of assaults on an Internet chain in Xi'an and followed government moves to prevent minors from entering cybercafes. (DKR)
MERCHANT MARINERS WIN CYBERSECURITY EXERCISE -- Cadets of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy won over four other service academies in a recent cybertraining exercise organized by the NSA and West Point. (http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25867-1.html) During the Cyber Defense Exercise, teams from each academy had to design, build and configure a computer network that simulated a deployed joint services command. (DKR)
PHABOT ARREST MAY HELP IN COUNTERING ZOMBIE PC TRADE -- The arrest of the suspected author of the Phatbot Trojan could lead to valuable clues about the illicit trade in zombie PCs, The Register reported on 12 May. (www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/12/phatbot_zombie_trade/)
An unnamed 21 year-old man from the southern German state of Baden-Wűrttemberg was arrested on suspicion of creating the Agobot and Phatbot Trojans. He is yet to be formally charged. The arrest was overshadowed by the unmasking of the admitted Sasser author, Sven Jaschan. But the Phatbot case may shed the most light into the dark recesses of the computer underground.
Phatbot was been used to spam, steal information or perform DDoS attacks, according to Mikko Hyppönen, director of anti-virus research at F-Secure. "You could do anything you wanted with it," he said. Phatbot is a variant of Agobot, a big family of IRC bots. Hyppönen said people were selling tailor-made versions of the bot for various illegal purposes. Agobot is a security threat because it enables a single person to control a vast network of computers with the possibility of attacking Internet sites.
Meanwhile, copycats have released a pair of worms, Sasser-F and Cycle-A, targeted at the same vulnerability in Microsoft's operating system exploited by the Sasser worm. Both exploit a hole in Window's Local Security Authority Subsystem Service component. (www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/11/sasser_saga_continues/) (DKR)
SECTION IV -- EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
DAX RESOURCES CORPORATION - GLOBAL RESPONSE CENTER --
Positions Open: Console Operator's
Overview: As Console Operator in the Global Response Center, you will attend to telephone calls from the employees of a US corporation with worldwide locations. These employees are instructed to call the Center when an incident or situation occurs that affects their mission or well-being. The Center operates on a 24-hour, everyday schedule and is designed around several types of computer, communications and technology related equipment. Other responsibilities include being involved in all aspects of the Center, reporting incidents via a software system designed for this purpose, monitoring news media for actual or developing situations that could affect localities where the corporation has personnel and facilities abroad, and maintaining directories and information files. Technical training will be provided.
Qualifications: Candidate must be a U.S. citizen. Candidate must be capable of handling multiple tasks in a calm manner while in a potential high-stress environment, and should be “detail oriented.” Knowledge of Microsoft Windows (XP, 2000), Office (Word, Power Point & Excel) and Internet Explorer is highly desirable. A candidate who has had diverse life and work experiences and who has lived or worked abroad is strongly encouraged to apply.
Compensation: Full-time console operator – $30,000.00 per year plus health benefits. Part-time console operator - $15.00 per hour.
Contact: TARIK CLARRIDGE, telephone 703-319-9646; Fax 703-319-8205; E-mail: info@daxresources.com
SECTION V -- BOOKS, SOURCES, AND ISSUES
BOOKS
INSIDE THE RUN UP TO THE WAR – by Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, (Simon & Schuster, 468pp., $28.). Woodward, the veteran Washington Post assistant managing editor, gives the reader a remarkable, step by step account of the run up to the war in Iraq. Woodward, sometimes perturbing, reports how planning for the war began in November 2001 in the wake of 9/11.
Bush, Vice President Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz, Woodward tells us, believed in an American mission to export democracy and to have the world see America as a strong and determined power. Colin Powell emerges as a pragmatic, warning voice among what Larry Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff at State, has dismissively called utopians.
Woodward, who conducted exhaustive research in writing this book, gives a chilling account of the CIA relying on faulty information on Iraq’s WMD and its manipulation of questionable intelligence to make the case for war. Plan of Action, understandably, reached the top of the best-seller list. (DKR)
AFIO MEMBER TELLS TALE OF TREACHERY IN HIGH PLACES -- The latest novel by AFIO member John Weisman, Jack in the Box, appears on 25 May, published by William Morrow at $24.95. It can be ordered now from Amazon.com. Publishers Weekly calls it a high-caliber book and says, "What sets this novel apart from other espionage thrillers is the density of spy lore.”
Weisman tells a tale of betrayal in the highest reaches of the United States government. Former CIA Moscow station chief Sam Waterman is drawn into a maze of deception when he is called on to debrief the traitor Edward Lee Howard. The only CIA officer ever to defect to the KGB, Howard says he has decided to come home and come clean. He alleges that American intelligence, distracted by the war on terror, has been penetrated by high-level moles. If true, the government and the intelligence community would be thrown into chaos. But before Waterman can verify any of it, Howard is found murdered.
Desperate, Waterman scours his old haunts in Moscow, Paris, and Washington, D.C. As he delves deeper and begins to unravel a mind-bending conspiracy, his old friends -- and old enemies -- turn up dead. Through it all he begins to realize that the new CIA is nothing like the old one that truth is relative, and honor has become an afterthought.
Weisman's tale is filled with cutting-edge tradecraft and based on actual CIA operations. Jack in the Box goes deep inside the American intelligence community as few novels ever have. (John W., DKR)
INSIDER ON SPY FACTS VS SPY FICTION – by Frederick P. Hitz, The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage, (Knopf, 211 pp., $22). Hitz, a former CIA inspector general, provides a clear-sighted overview of 20th-century espionage. Now at Princeton University, his book grew out of a seminar in which works of spy fiction were compared to actual intelligence operations. The result is a singularly informative work that starts with Kipling, Conrad, Maugham and down to le Carré and other contemporaries. He concludes that real espionage cases are more bizarre than the fictional accounts.
Hitz recounts that according to former DCI Robert Gates, and a renowned case officer, Dwight "Dewey" Clarridge, there was no significant recruitments of Soviet spies during their many years of service and that those Soviets who did become assets were all walk-ins, all of whom were initially suspected of being provocateurs. An extremely valuable asset, Oleg Penkovsky, spent months trying to convince the agency he was for real. The Russians, on the other hand, gave a ready welcome to Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. While the West was cautious about using sexual favors to recruit assets, the Communist bloc used women operatives as honey traps, girls to catch men and men to catch women. (DKR)
LOOKING AT WHY THEY HATE US -- Paul Hollander ed., Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad, (Ivan R. Dee, 384 pp., $28.95). Hollander, editor of this collection of essays by political scientists, foreign policy experts and other scholars, writes in his introduction that anti-Americanism, currently at an all time high around the world, arises from a deep-seated, emotional predisposition rather than rational criticism of the United States.
In general agreement with this perspective, the contributors to Understanding Anti-Americanism examine the many skeins of such sentiments in their cultural contexts. France, for Anthony Daniels, is an anxious former leading colonial power that feels threatened by the invasion of Anglo-Saxon, meaning American, culture. Among German anti-Americans, Michael Freund discerns the influence of 19th and 20th century German philosophers.
Patrick Clawson and Barry Rubin argue that Middle Eastern anti-Americanism is a form of blaming others for the failures of Arab nationalism rather than something arising from U.S. foreign policy, and especially American support for Israel. David Brooks, Mark Falcoff and Walter D. Connor see a sense of failure, bitterness, and envy in their pieces on Latin American and Russian anti-Americanism. Closer to home, the book deals with the history of the Communist Party U.S.A. as well as Canadian and American feminists.
For some this collection will be persuasive. Certainly blaming the prosperous and powerful ‘other’ for the failures of one’s own society is a powerful factor in anti-Americanism. But so are the effects of American policy. There is a tendency, very noticeable in Washington, to believe that if we can just explain, and the other guys just listen, we can make ourselves understood and loved. Unfortunately for us, we are judged not by what we say, but by what we do. The same Arab kids who love our pop culture, hate us for what we are doing in their lands. (DKR)
ISSUES
HOW TO GET OUT OF IRAQ – Ray Close, a former station chief in Saudi Arabia, served as an 'Arabist' with the CIA for 27 years. John H. writes that Close was known to many agency colleagues as a wise veteran of the Middle East and a member of a family long known for its experience in the region. Close’s opinions are grounded in his operational career in the region. The following are Close's comments in a forum on "How to Get Out of Iraq" that appeared in the 24 May issue of the weekly The Nation.
The first thing we have to adjust to is the reality that nationalism is the most significant force in Iraq today. It is replacing the genuine feelings of gratitude that many Iraqis had toward the United States immediately following their liberation. We have always had a set of objectives -- based on neocon ideology, not Iraqi hopes -- which are unattainable because they offend the spirit of Iraqi nationalism.
One, we want long-term strategic military bases. Two, we count on retaining significant influence over Iraqi oil policy. Three, we favor unrestricted foreign investment in a country that has a history of intense hostility toward alien ownership of the country’s economic enterprises and natural resources. Four, we expect Iraq to support America’s role in the Middle East Peace process even when it would mean aligning Iraq policy with that of George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon. Failure to achieve those four objectives will appear to both Republicans and Democrats to be a failure of Bush’s overall policy. But the Administration has already boxed itself in to the point where there is no way it can modify those objectives to meet reality. There has to be regime change in Washington. It’s the only way to solve the Iraq problem.
(John H., DKR)
EVIDENCE OF SADDAM’S WMD -- No single issue has provoked more controversy about the war in Iraq than Saddam Husayn’s missing WMD. It has resulted in accusations that the Bush administration lied. Now, Kenneth R. Timmerman, writing in Insight magazine of 28 April asserts, the United States has indeed found WMD. (www.insightmag.com/news/2004/05/11/World/Investigative.Reportsaddams.Wmd.Have.Been.Found-670120.shtml) “Key assertions by the intelligence community that were widely judged in the media and by critics of President George W. Bush as having been false are turning out to have been true after all,” writes Timmerman, a senior writer at the Washington-based weekly. "Where were the missiles? We found them," an un-named senior administration official told Insight. Timmerman, however, does not report just where in Iraq they were found, or what has become of them.
Equipment for uranium-enrichment centrifuges, only useful in manufacturing nuclear weapons, were also found by the Iraq Survey Group, writes Timmerman. Timmerman cites testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last October by David Kay, then with the ISG. Found in Iraq were:
-- A prison laboratory complex that may have been used for testing biological weapons agents on human beings.
-- Reference strains of a wide variety of BW agents, found beneath the sink in the home of a prominent Iraqi BW scientist.
-- New research on BW-applicable agents, brucella and Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever, and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin.
-- Unmanned aerial vehicles with a range of 500 kilometers (311 miles) that is 350 kms (217 miles) greater than permitted by the United Nations to Iraq.
-- Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited Scud-variant missiles, a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001.
-- Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) - well beyond the 150-kilometer-range limit (93 miles) imposed by the U.N.
-- In addition, through interviews with Iraqi scientists, seized documents and other evidence, the ISG learned the Iraqi government had made clandestine attempts between late 1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300-kilometer-range (807 miles) ballistic missiles - probably the No Dong - 300-kilometer-range (186 miles) anti-ship cruise missiles and other prohibited military equipment.
In testimony before Congress on 30 March, Charles Duelfer, who had succeeded Kay at the ISG, said evidence had been found of a crash program to construct new plants capable of making chemical and biological warfare agents. In addition, 500 tons of natural uranium was discovered at Iraq's main declared nuclear site south of Baghdad. International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told Insight the uranium had been intended for a clandestine nuclear-weapons program.
“What the president's critics and the media widely have portrayed as the most dramatic failure of the U.S. case against Saddam has been the claimed failure to find ‘stockpiles’ of chemical and biological weapons,” Timmerman says. “But in a June 2003 Washington Post op-ed, former chief U.N. weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus called such criticism ‘a distortion and a trivialization of a major threat to international peace and security.’” Timmerman cites Douglas Hanson, who worked with the CPA intelligence unit in Iraq, as saying stockpiles of CW agents have been found. Hanson told Insight that the materials found in the stockpiles looked like pesticides and that, “Pesticides are the key elements in the chemical-agent arena...In fact, the general pesticide chemical formula (organophosphate) is the 'grandfather' of modern-day nerve agents.” “Caches of ‘commercial and agricultural’ chemicals don't match the expectation of ‘stockpiles’ of chemical weapons. But, in fact, that is precisely what they are,” Timmerman says.
Kay and Duelfer told Congress that Saddam had built new facilities and stockpiled the materials to re-launch production of chemical and biological weapons at a moment's notice.
At Karbala, U.S. forces came across 55-gallon drums of pesticides stored in a camouflaged bunker complex that was shown to reporters. As a result, more than a dozen soldiers, a Knight-Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi POWs came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to a nerve agent.
Hanson asked ironically, “One wonders about the advantage an agricultural-commodities business gains by securing drums of pesticide in camouflaged bunkers six feet underground. The 'agricultural site' was also co-located with a military ammunition dump - evidently nothing more than a coincidence in the eyes of the ISG...It seems Iraqi soldiers were obsessed with keeping ammo dumps insect-free, according to the reading of the evidence now enshrined by the conventional wisdom that 'no WMD stockpiles have been discovered.'"
As Timmerman sees it, “The discoveries Hanson describes are not dramatic. And that's the problem: Finding real stockpiles in grubby ammo dumps doesn't fit the image the media and the president's critics carefully have fed to the public of what Iraq's weapons ought to look like.”
Timmerman's argument received some reinforcement on 15 May when an improvised explosive device went off in Baghdad. Made from an artillery shell, it was found to contain the nerve agent Sarin. "Two explosive ordinance team members were treated for minor exposure to a nerve agent as a result of the partial detonation of the round," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, chief military spokesman in Baghdad, said on 17 May. "The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155 millimetre artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found."
The insurgents who planted the roadside bomb appeared to have thought the shell was an ordinary explosive one and to have been unaware it contained Sarin. The incident raised the question of how many more Sarin filled munitions there may be in Iraq.
Sarin is a colourless and odourless gas and is lethal in doses as small as 0.5 milligrams. (Lawrence S., DKR)
SECTION VI -- NOTES. LETTERS, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
LETTERS
COMING EVENTS
19 MAY -- INSIDE THE MIND OF A TERRORIST AT THE SPY MUSEUM -- Dr. Jerrold M. Post is a specialist in the psyche of terrorists. He has studied and tested terrorists across the globe and explored the role of extremism, fundamentalism and culture in the creation of the modern day terrorist. Post, founding director of the CIA Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior, will discuss the mind of the terrorist and answer questions from the audience at the International Spy Museum, 800 F Street N.W., Washington, D.C. on 19 May at 7 p.m. Admission is $20; for members of The Spy Ring and the OSS Society, $16. Space is limited and advance registration is required. To register, visit www.spymuseum.org or call Ticketmaster at 202- 432-SEAT, 410-481-SEAT, or 703-573-SEAT; or 202.393.7798 (202.EYE.SPY.U)
19 MAY - FT. MYERS OFFICERS' CLUB, ARLINGTON, VA -- The Board of Directors for the Potomac Chapter of the National Military Intelligence Association (NMIA) is pleased to announce the next event in its Intelligence Transformation luncheon series with featured guest speaker: LTG Patrick M. Hughes, USA (Ret), Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis Department of Homeland Security (DHS). LTG Hughes will brief us on his new position within the Department of Homeland Security and his role in transforming intelligence operations between DoD, CIA, law enforcement agencies, and other federal, state and local activities involved within the Global War on Terrorism. This luncheon is co-sponsored by the Capitol Club Chapter of the Association of Old Crows (AOC). To attend, RSVP to Lori Tugman (ltugman@mindspring.com or 703-921-1800) by Friday, 5/14. Please provide your name, title, office/company, phone number, and e-mail address when RSVPing. Your reservation will be confirmed via e-mail. Cancellation deadline is 5 PM, 5/14.
20 MAY - BORDERS BOOKSTORE IN PENTAGON CITY -- The D-Day Companion, by Dr. Russell Hart, Dennis Showalter, Dr. Andrew Gordon, and Dr. Christina Goulter. Osprey Publishing’s The D-Day Companion brings together twelve of the most respected military historians working today to provide a unique and incisive examination of the momentous events surrounding June 6, 1944. Four of these historians-Dr. Russell Hart, Associate Professor of History at Hawaii’s Pacific University; Dennis Showalter, Professor of History at Colorado College; and Drs. Andrew Gordon and Christina Goulter, teachers at the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College-come to Borders to share their views on history’s greatest amphibious assault and to discuss their unique contributions to this impressive book. Covering the strategic battles and turning points through the eyes of commanding generals, planners, tacticians and men on both sides of the Allied/German line, The D-Day Companion provides an insiders view of the planning, build-up, naval and air efforts, deception plans, and beach fighting involved in the operation. Each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of the campaign and is illuminated with remarkable photographs and maps. This is a beautiful book that gives new depth and fresh perspective to the events of D-Day. Come talk to the authors and pick up a copy of The D-day Companion as a Father’s Day gift for your favorite military history buff.
23 May -- KIDSPY SCHOOL: SPY GADGETRY WORKSHOP AT THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM -- 800 F Street N.W., Washington, D.C. on Sunday, 23 May from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. From cameras that shoot through a buttonhole to a secret listening device in the heel of a shoe --spies have always used the slickest tools in town. Here's the chance for KidSpies to invent their own way-cool spy gadgetry for a top secret agent on a mission! At our Invention Lab, ideas are encouraged, prototypes made, and concepts tested. Will your spy-idea work "in the field?" You could be the "Q" of the future! Ages 11-15; No Grown Ups Allowed! Tickets: $25 per KidSpy Members of The Spy Ring (Join Today!): $22 per person. Space is limited – advance registration required! To register, visit spymuseum.org or call Ticketmaster at 202- 432-SEAT, 410-481-SEAT, or 703-573-SEAT; or 202.393.7798 (202.EYE.SPY.U)
24-25 MAY - MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY - IACSP SYMPOSIUM -- International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, “Terrorism Trends & Forecasts Symposium” the Headquarters Plaza Hotel, Terrace Ballroom, Morristown, New Jersey. Topics To be covered will include: Where are we today in the war against terrorism? Terrorism Trends & Forecasts in the Middle East... Updates on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan...Latest weapons being used to fight terrorism... New Technologies being developed...Israel's Approach To Homeland Security... Surveillance Detection...Red Teaming, Industry Training update and much more. To reserve a seat visit our website www.iacsp.com or call 201-461-5422. Register with our Fax Form at http://www.iacsp.com/fax-syp.html. Standard Rate: IACSP Members: $450; Non-Members: $550. Please Note: Seating is limited. Also available are Vendor Tables: Limited Availability. Please contact us directly to order a table: Tel NJ: 703-243-0993, E-mail: steve@iacsp.com. Tel NJ: 201-461-5422 E-mail: phil@iacsp.com.
27 MAY - WASHINGTON, DC, INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM -- Inside Stories: Tales from the OSS, America's First Intelligence Agency. Three OSS veterans will open your eyes about espionage in the Second World War Heroism, daring undercover exploits, clever disguises, and luck were everyday fare at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) -- forerunner of the CIA. Hear about the extraordinary accomplishments of these American spies, intelligence officers, and commandoes, and the pivotal role this organization played in the Allied victory in WWII. Three OSS veterans: Fisher Howe, Elizabeth McIntosh, and Maj. Gen. John Singlaub (Ret.), will share stories about the OSS and their missions. The session will be moderated by historian Patrick O'Donnell, author of the newly released Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs: The Unknown Story of the Men and Women of the OSS. Presented in collaboration with the OSS Society. Tickets: $20. Members of The Spy Ring (Join Today!): $16 Members of the OSS Society: $16. Space is limited – advance registration required! For more info. visit www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp#1.
29 MAY - THE OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES SOCIETY -- forerunner to CIA -- will holds its 62nd anniversary reunion dinner on May 29, 2004 at the luxurious Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. Several hundred OSS veterans, their families, and distinguished guests are expected to attend the banquet -- part of a weekend celebration -- that will observe the founding of OSS in June 1942. During the weekend, guests will also attend the dedication of the National World War II Memorial. AFIO members are invited to attend the "business-attire-or-better" banquet and celebration at an all-inclusive cost of $150/person. Contact OSS Society President Charles Pinck at 202-207-2915 or via email at osssociety@aol.com.
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