WIN #26-04 dtd 26 July 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.
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"Clandestine Operations in a Climate of Reform"
AFIO Summer Luncheon
10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Friday, 20 August 2004
Holiday Inn, Tyson's Corner, VA
Speakers: James L. Pavitt, DDO, CIA
and Peter Earnest, Executive Director of the
International Spy Museum, former CIA, and current
AFIO Board Chairman
Postcard is on its way to all current members
in DC / MD / VA. Out of this area or not yet renewed and current? Now's the time.
Reserve Now by sending charge info & names/numbers of guests
$30 per person
or Call AFIO HQ at 703.790.0320 to register
Also featured at Luncheon will be new book
with introduction by Peter Earnest.
Earnest will use - in this crowd of professionals -
the Handbook as springboard for discussion
of the serious aspects of tradecraft and "operational refinements"
when conducting clandestine ops.
Filled with clever tips on being a street-smart spy.
Attend luncheon to buy your copies. A perfect gift.
Many other new intelligence books will be available.
AFIO�s special Fall Symposium/Convention
29 October through 31 October at a variety of secure locations near Baltimore, MD.
Some of the seminars and all lodging will be at the academic campus of The National Maritime Center / http://www.ccmit.org 5700 Hammonds Ferry Rd, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090. Room reservations [$105/nite] should be made as soon as possible by calling Toll Free: 866-629-3196 or at 410-859-5700. All rooms come with special continental breakfasts.
Make your flight reservations now to arrive at BWI Airport by Thursday evening 28 October. Plan for arrival on 28 October with departure at noon on the 31st.
Further details on the program in coming months.
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CONTENTS of this WIN [HTML version recipients - Click title to jump to story or section, Click Article Title to return to Contents] [This feature does not work for Plaintext Edition recipients. If you wish to change to HTML format, let us know at afio@afio.com. However, due to recent changes in AOL's security standards, members using AOL will not be able to receive HTML formatted WINs from AFIO and will thus be receiving our Plaintext Edition. The HTML feature also does not work for those who access their mail using web mail. NON-HTML recipients may view HTML edition at this link: https://www.afio.com/currentwin.htm
SECTION I -- CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
Bush to Act in Days on 9/11 Commission Recommendations
U.S. Intel Tracking Muslim Militants in Bosnia
Brit Regiment to Specialize in Gathering Terrorist Intel
SECTION II -- CONTEXT AND PRECEDENCE
AFIO Member: No Czar, Please, Problems Are Being Addressed
Gerecht: �The Sorry State of the CIA�
Clarke: 9/11 Commission Pulled Punches, More Changes Needed
SECTION III -- CYBER INTELLIGENCE
Voice Communications Mining Said to Obscure Need for Internet Effort
Software Helps IC to Track Terrorists
Brits to Tie in Passport Data with Government ID Card
SECTION IV -- BOOKS, SOURCES, AND ISSUES
Books
A History of Military Intelligence
Sources
Full 9/11 Commission Report Online
Issues
Mossad Officer Said to Deal with Criminals for Stolen Passports
SECTION V -- NOTES, LETTERS, QUERIES AND COMING EVENTS
Notes
Secretary Abrams Orders Halt to All Work Involving Classified Discs
Israeli Intel Says Iran Could Have Nukes by 2007 -- or is it 2008?
Letters / Queries
Careers
US Investigations Services, LLC. Seeks Intelligence Professionals
Coming Events
20 Aug - Tyson�s Corner -- AFIO Summer Luncheon
25 August - Alexandria, VA - CT-CI Academy -- Interviewing & Interrogating in the New Millennium
7 September - Warren County, VA -- Naval Intelligence Foundation Golf Tournament
9 - 11 September - Barcelona, Spain -- Barcelona Security Forum 2004
12 -13 Sept - Washington, DC -- 13th Annual Arab-US Policymakers Conference
23 September - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum -- You�re Stepping On My Cloak and Dagger
26 - 29 Sept - Joint meeting USMC Tri-Association Intelligence Committee
8 - 9 Oct - East Lyme, Ct -- New England Chapter, Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association reunion
18 October - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum -- Operation Overflight: A Son�s Perspective
24 October - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum -- Spy School Workshop: Disguise 101
26 - 27 Oct - McLean, VA -- NMIA Classified Symposium
28 - 31 Oct - Linthicum, MD -- AFIO Annual Symposium
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SECTION I -- CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
BUSH TO ACT IN DAYS ON 9/11 COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS - President Bush plans to begin making decisions about restructuring the IC within days and may enact changes by executive order or regulatory action without waiting for Congress, the Washington Post reported White House officials as saying on 25 July.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14011-2004Jul25.html)
Aides suggested that despite opposition from some in the administration, Bush is headed toward backing some variation of calls in the 9/11 Commission's report released last week for a national intelligence director who would report directly to the president. Bush, who is spending this week at his home in Crawford, TX, was to discuss options with his national security team by a videoconference on 26 July, a White House official said. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice was expected to arrive at Crawford the same day. Last week, Bush ordered a task force of national security and homeland security officials to convene and work on intelligence changes.
The 9/11 Commission recommended that the current DCI position be superseded by a national intelligence director, in the Executive Office of the President, who would oversee and control the budget of the 15-agency IC. The report also called for a national counterterrorism center to pool intelligence about domestic and foreign terrorist organizations.
Bush's aides said that the White House staff worked over the weekend, seeking changes that would not cost money and so need Congressional authorization. The White House was looking at the commission's call for creation of incentives for agencies to share intelligence about transnational terrorism.
The commission report says more must be done than the White House says it has already done to tighten access to ports, airports and borders, and to crack down on terrorists' funding sources. Bush's aides said announcements may be made in those areas.
On 23 July, House and Senate leaders announced a rare August hearings to draft legislative changes in the light of the 9/ 11 Commission's report, the New York Times reported. (DKR)
U.S. INTEL TRACKING MUSLIM MILITANTS IN BOSNIA - U.S. military intelligence and the CIA have deployed hundreds of officers in Bosnia to track suspected Islamic militants amid concern that the country has become a refuge, recruiting ground and cash conduit for international terrorism, the Daily Telegraph (London) reported on 26 July.
According to a European intel official, the newspaper reported, "There is a flow of people heading in from Chechnya and Afghanistan on to Europe and back, then to Iraq. They are spreading the story that Bosnia is a one-stop shop close to Europe for terrorism needs: guns, money, documents."
Local sources say that the United States will have about 300 intel personnel monitoring Muslim foreign fighters who settled in Bosnia after the end of the 1992-95 war. These Muslims are believed to be providing documents and weapons to active mujahedin returning to the country after tours abroad.
Almost 750 suspected militants have come under close surveillance in Bosnia in recent years. Six Algerians were seized by the United States and sent to Guantanamo in 2002, under suspicion of plotting to attack the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo.
U.S. intelligence teams are led from a compound in Butmir, south of Sarajevo, where the NATO peacekeeping force has its headquarters. Most U.S. military now in Bosnia will leave when the peacekeeping mission is turned over to the European Union five months from now.
"The U.S. intelligence people are concentrating on suspected Islamists and not on known war criminals," Senad Slatina, of the International Crisis Group, said. "It is effectively becoming a witch hunt." Other agencies say U.S. operations have begun to sour relations with local people that were previously harmonious.
"The U.S. had everything going for it here," Madeleine Rees, head of the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights in Sarajevo, told the Telegraph. "It stopped the war, set up and funded human rights initiatives. But then it bypassed the local police, courts and legal system, and now confidence in the U.S. has plummeted."
The Wahabbi sect of Islam, followed by Usama bin Ladin, first arrived in Bosnia during the early 1990s, when Bosniak soldiers were joined in the fight against Serb and Croat forces by fighters from across the Muslim world. Most Bosnians now reject Wahabbism, according to the Telegraph. (DKR)
BRIT REGIMENT TO SPECIALIZE IN GATHERING TERRORIST INTEL - The British military is forming a new special forces regiment to be used primarily for gathering intelligence on Islamist terrorist groups, the Sunday Telegraph reported on 25 July. (www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/25/nrsr25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/25/ixnewstop.html)
The new Reconnaissance and Surveillance Regiment is to work closely with the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service. Its mission will be to penetrate groups, either directly or by turning terrorists into double agents. It will be given the authority to operate around the world, working closely with friendly intelligence agencies such as the CIA and Mossad. One officer told the Telegraph, "The SAS's role is essentially to kill people. This new regiment's role is to provide the intelligence for the SAS to do that."
The regiment, up to 600 troops strong, will at first be formed from members of a highly secret surveillance agency, the Joint Communications Unit Northern Ireland, which has worked in Ulster for more than 20 years. The unit has perfected the art of covert surveillance in urban and rural areas and created a network of double agents who supplied intelligence on terrorist attacks. Its success stemmed from its ability to plant listening devices and cameras in the homes and cars of terrorists, to bug phones and to monitor suspects at close quarters.
Recruitment of men and women volunteers for the new regiment has begun from all branches of the British armed forces. There is a particular interest in recruits who have a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance and in Muslims. (Cameron LC, DKR)
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SECTION II -- CONTEXT AND PRECEDENCE
AFIO MEMBER: NO CZAR, PLEASE, PROBLEMS ARE BEING ADDRESSED - The 9/11 commission largely ignored changes in the IC since 9/11, writes AFIO member Ronald Kessler. Likewise, he says in an article published in USA Today on 21 July, the recent report of the Senate Intelligence Committee focused on what the CIA knew about Saddam Hussein's WMD before the war. Such a one-sided view does a disservice to the men and women who are fighting the war on terrorism, and it provides a distorted basis for reform, says Kessler.
(www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-07-21-oppose_x.htm)
From FBI and CIA sharing of real-time information to the bureau's new emphasis on preventing terrorist plots, both agencies have addressed the shortcomings cited by both panels and by the previous 9/11 congressional inquiry, Kessler writes. That there has not been another attack testifies to the effectiveness of the FBI and CIA and the success of these hundreds of changes.
Kessler, author of The CIA at War and the forthcoming A Matter of Character, agrees that further improvements can be made. The DCI has no budgetary authority over other IC agencies and that deficiency clearly should be rectified, he says. But those proposing a Cabinet-level intelligence czar do not understand how President Bush has conducted the war on terror as he, in effect, is the terrorism czar, meeting every morning with the DCI and FBI director.
Kessler reports FBI Director Mueller as telling him that nothing concentrates the mind so much as a meeting every morning with the President. "His concern is not the number of indictments and arrests," Mueller said. "It's what we have done to ensure that there will not be another September 11. That covers disrupting terrorist cells, but also anticipating the attacks, looking at the threats and making sure we track down every piece of information related to the threat."
"Imposing an intelligence czar on top of the FBI and CIA directors who have immediate knowledge of the threats and the ability to take action would create another layer of bureaucracy," says Kessler. "Rather than strengthen the counterterrorism effort, it would weaken it." (DKR)
GERECHT: �THE SORRY STATE OF THE CIA� - �Money, manpower, focus, seriousness of purpose, a real fear of the enemy, a true unabashed, unashamed love of human intelligence collection, a �willingness to take risks�--William Casey and his CIA had all this,� writes Reuel Marc Gerecht who served in the agency when Casey was DCI. �But in practice the good old days were mostly a myth,� Gerecht continues in an article titled �The Sorry State of the CIA.� It was posted 16 July on the Website of the American Enterprise Institute. Gerecht joined AEI, where he is a resident fellow, after leaving the agency.
(www.aei.org/publications/pubID.20911/pub_detail.asp)
�For the Directorate of Operations, the 1980s were years of routine operational dishonesty, whose principal source was a defective system for determining who got promoted,� Gerecht goes on to say.
Such was the system that thousands of agents were recruited abroad neither for their intelligence-reporting potential nor their operational utility, but because that was how CIA operatives earned promotion, Gerecht writes. Case officers often referred to the sport as "collecting scalps."
Gerecht doubts the value of recruiting foreign agents, "as if foreigners with truly valuable information were willing to commit treason in sufficient numbers to sustain a promotion system primarily based on �scalps.�� The practice, though worse in Casey�s time, went back to the agency's early years. �It is understandable,� Gerecht writes, �that the CIA, new to the game of global espionage and covert action, would more indiscriminately recruit foreign agents. And spying is often adrenaline-rich. When men are so enjoying themselves, they can easily equate the thrill of clandestine operations with their importance.�
Occasionally, he writes, the truth could be heard as when a Soviet division chief would let slip that all of our valuable Soviet agents, never many in number, were volunteers. �That is, case officers had not recruited them--they had come forward to offer their services to the United States.�
Gerecht grants that there is a strong case to be made that Casey's covert-action enthusiasms, especially in the Third World and Poland, diminished the Soviet empire's will and resources. �But the gentleman as an espionage boss appears to have had no idea that his organization was a wreck.�
In comparing the tenures of Casey and George Tenet as DCI, Gerecht finds them alike in their institutional affections (particularly for DO), in their vision of how the CIA fits into the American system, in the sometimes unjust criticisms made of them, and in a failure to build and run competent espionage organizations. �It is, of course, their failure to confront the espionage problem that is the least appreciated outside the agency,� says Gerecht who is critical of both Congress and the press.
�When senators and congressmen and their staffers on the intelligence oversight committees cite press reports about the mood inside Langley, one realizes how light the grasp often is on Capitol Hill of the spirit and mechanics of American intelligence,� he writes. �For if journalism is usually a significant force in American life in creating pressure for the reform of dysfunctional institutions, it is less so with regard to the intelligence community.�
While Tenet�s departure should be an occasion for taking stock, with a view to revitalizing the agency, Gerecht concludes, the CIA�s muscle-bound bureaucratization, together with the failure of the press to accurately inform the public and the rest of the government about the agency's actual problems, together with current recriminations, �holds out little hope that we will see the innovation needed to combat bin Ladenism on the ground . . .Despite Tenet's constant discussion of rebuilding the clandestine service, we are still largely stuck in the past.� (DKR)
CLARKE: 9/11 COMMISSION PULLED PUNCHES, MORE CHANGES NEEDED - "Americans owe the 9/11 Commission a deep debt for its extensive exposition of the facts surrounding the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Yet, because the commission had a goal of creating a unanimous report from a bipartisan group, it softened the edges and left it to the public to draw many conclusions." So wrote Richard A. Clarke, former head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, in the New York Times on 25 July.
Clarke, author of "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," said the commission documented but left unarticulated what he calls the obvious truths that the Bush administration did little on terrorism before 9/11, and that by invading Iraq the administration has left the United States less safe
The commissioners did clearly state that Iraq had no collaborative relationship with al-Qa�ida and no hand in 9/11. They also disclosed that Iran provided support to al-Qa�ida, including to some 9/11 hijackers. �These two facts may cause many people to conclude that the Bush administration focused on the wrong country,� said Clarke, adding, �They would be right to think that.�
The Commission also got it right, says Clarke, when it identified the threat not as terrorism, which is a tactic and not an enemy, but as Islamic jihadism, which must be defeated in a battle of ideas as well as in armed conflict.
Clarke approved of the recommendations that a new cabinet-level national intelligence director and a new National Counterterrorism Center be created. But, he cautions, had these changes been made six years ago, they would not have significantly altered the way al-Qa�ida was dealt with and they would not have prevented 9/11. Other changes would help more.
One such change is to have more capable people throughout the agencies, especially the FBI and CIA. �In other branches of the government, employees can and do join on as mid- and senior-level managers after beginning their careers and gaining experience elsewhere,� Clarke writes. �But at the F.B.I. and C.I.A., the key posts are held almost exclusively by those who joined young and worked their way up. This has created uniformity, insularity, risk-aversion, torpidity and often mediocrity.�
Other changes should be to separate the job of CIA director from the overall head of the IC and to place CIA analysts in an agency that is independent from the one that collects the intelligence. This is the only way to avoid the groupthink that hampered the agency's ability to report accurately on Iraq. The only intelligence agency that got it right on Iraqi WMD was the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. Its analysts are encouraged to be independent thinkers.
Also the C.I.A. or the military must create a larger and more capable commando force for covert antiterrorism work, along with a network of agents and front companies working without diplomatic protection to support the commandos.
Restarting the Israel-Palestinian peace process is vital and we need to aid economic development and political openness in Muslim countries as well as seek to stabilize Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Finally, Clarke calls for creation of a pan-Islamic council of respected spiritual and secular leaders to coordinate, without United States involvement, the Islamic world's own ideological effort against al-Qa�ida.
(DKR)
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SECTION III -- CYBER INTELLIGENCE
VOICE COMMUNICATIONS MINING SAID TO OBSCURE NEED FOR INTERNET EFFORT - The United States has turned the challenges of accessing and mining voice communications to discern the intentions of our adversaries into an immeasurable success, says Michael A. Wertheimer. But ironically this very success, he wrote in the Washington Post of 21 July, represents the single greatest threat to the continuing viability of SIGINT. This is because it inhibits critical investments to create equal capabilities for the communications medium of choice for a growing number of commercial providers and their customers: the Internet.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A477-2004Jul20.html)
Wertheimer was an NSA cryptologic mathematician for 21 years, the last three as the NSA's senior technical director. He is currently with RABA Technologies LLC, an information technology consulting company in Columbia, MD. (DKR)
SOFTWARE HELPS IC TRACK TERRORISTS - The CIA, DoD and DIA are now using software that creates a 3-D virtual wall on computer monitors that facilitates tracking people, places, relationships and events, MercuryNews.com reported on 21 July.
(www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/9204808.htm)
Named TimeWall and produced by Sunnyvale's Inxight, it filters vast amounts of unstructured information from e-mail and Internet reports in two dozen languages. It also uses natural language processing to find phone numbers, names and other data to identify relationships, patterns and trends.
"Rather than an intelligence analyst reading all this stuff to decide what is interesting, the software pulls it out automatically and puts it on the wall,'' says Ramana Rao, Inxight's founder and chief technology officer.
(DKR)
BRITS TO TIE IN PASSPORT DATA WITH GOVERNMENT ID CARD - The United Kingdom Passport Service is to implement a new database to contribute to the government's proposed ID card program, Computing.co.uk reported on 21 July.
(www.computing.co.uk/news/1156779)
The service says it will implement what it called a person centric database rather than the existing 'passport centric' arrangement. The person centric database would provide support for the British government's ID card program as biometrics are attributable to an individual, not an application form.
The database will be keyed on the individual�s identifying characteristics rather than information on passport applications, as a person may make several passport applications over time, particularly if a passport is lost or stolen, a UKPS spokesman told Computing. (DKR)
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SECTION IV -- BOOKS, SOURCES, AND ISSUES
Books
A HISTORY OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE - John Hughes-Wilson, The Puppet Masters: Spies, Traitors and the Real Forces Behind World Events (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp.478.)
Available at www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/026-1367494-3593213
When Col. Hughes-Wilson, then a captain in a British infantry regiment, was posted to the Intelligence Corps, he wanted to read a general history of the role of intelligence in warfare, but could not find one. So, now retired, he has written one.
He opens with the story, from Herodotus, of Histiaeus, an Ionian prince, held captive by the Persians, who tattooed a message on a slave�s scalp, let the slave�s hair grow, and then sent him to Ionia with the verbal message that his head was to be shaved again. The result was a major war.
He goes on to show how George Washington used deception as deftly as Churchill�s staff did in the war against Hitler. Napoleon would claim his strategic insight brought him victories that in fact were the result of work by his intelligence staff. Then there was Julius Silber, at ease in both English and German. Employed by the postal censorship in London for most of the First World War, he regularly passed information to Germany, covered by
his own �Passed by Censor� stamp. He was never detected.
Taking up the present, Hughes-Wilson explores how current Western intelligence efforts have developed. (DKR)
HOW UBL GOT THAT WAY - Jonathan Randal, Osama: The Making of a Terrorist (Knopf, 336pp. $26.95)
Randal is an astute journalist with long experience of the Middle East. His earlier work, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? (1999) is a powerful account of the travails of the Iraqi Kurds and an important source for understanding the present situation in Iraq. In his new study, he places the Qa�ida leader in the context of events in the Islamic world that he records with a sharp eye. Among other things, Randal sets out the blowback from Clinton�s bombings in Sudan and Afghanistan that failed to kill UBL and resulted in many Muslims believing Allah had protected him, thus greatly enhancing his reputation. (DKR)
FAILURE IN THE LEVANT - Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 864 pp. $35)
Ross was chief U.S. negotiator for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the first President Bush, then President Clinton. He records the wheeling and dealing on all sides, the labor that goes into preparing any statement or gesture, and the one-step-forward, two-steps-back approach that characterized his ultimately ill-fated efforts from 1988 to 2001. Reading the Missing Peace makes one understand why Bush II began his administration by keeping his distance from the dispute in the Levant. (DKR)
Sources
FULL 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT ONLINE - The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States� complete report has been posted at www.9-11commission.gov. It is 585 pages in length.
Issues
MOSSAD OFFICER SAID TO DEAL WITH CRIMINALS FOR STOLEN PASSPORTS - A Mossad operative, Zev Barkan, has been dealing with Asian criminal gangs to obtain Australian and other passports stolen in Asia, a New Zealand aid worker has told the Sydney Morning Herald.
(www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/18/1090089038600.html?oneclick=true)
New Zealand authorities named Barkan as the kingpin in an attempt by two Israelis to obtain New Zealand passports. The two were jailed for six months last week in Auckland and the New Zealand government reduced it diplomatic relations with Israel. The government named the two Eli Cara and Uriel Kelman, as well as Barkan as Mossad officers. (See �Kiwis Jail Mossad Agents,� WIN #25-04 dtd 19 July 2004)
Barkan fled New Zealand ahead of the police and there are unconfirmed reports that he has since traveled to North Korea on a fraudulent Canadian passport.
The New Zealand aid worker, who has intelligence connections in Asia, said Barkan was also connected to an Israeli security company operating out of Thailand. "He goes to Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Thailand and deals with gangs who rob tourists of their valuables and passports," the aid worker said.
Intelligence analysts in New Zealand believe Barkan, a former navy diver in the Israeli Defense Force, was trying to secure a clean passport for use in a sensitive Israeli undercover operation in the region. The Herald has also been told that Barkan had grown up in Washington as Zev Bruckenstein, where his father was director of religious studies at a synagogue.
TVNZ reported it believed two more Israeli men were still being hunted by police in New Zealand in connection with the passport fraud.
A Foreign Affairs spokesman said Barkan, 37, had worked at Israeli embassies in both Vienna and Belgium.
(www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/22/1090464800751.html?oneclick=true)
The spokesman said there would be no further comment because lawyers acting for Kelman and Cara have lodged an appeal. (DKR)
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SECTION V � NOTES, LETTERS, QUERIES AND COMING EVENTS
Notes
SECRETARY ABRAMS ORDERS HALT TO ALL WORK INVOLVING CLASSIFIED DISCS - The Energy Department, in response to a security scandal at the Los Alamos weapons lab, has ordered a halt to classified work at as many as two dozen facilities that use removable computer discs like those missing at the New Mexico lab, Associated Press reported on 23 July. (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10205-2004Jul23.html see �Missing Discs Shut Down Los Alamos Lab,� WIN #25-04 dtd 19 July 2004)
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the stand-down at the operations involving nuclear weapons research was needed to obtain better control over the "controlled removable electronic media," or CREM, as the discs are known.
The stand-down will continue until an inventory of the devices is completed and new control measures on their use are put in place, said Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis. Employees using the discs must also undergo security training.
Nineteen workers have been suspended during an investigation into the disappearance of two discs at Los Alamos, reported missing on 7 July, and an incident in which an intern was injured in a laser accident. (DKR)
ISRAELI INTEL SAYS IRAN COULD HAVE NUKES BY 2007 � OR IS IT 2008? - Israeli intelligence told the government Iran will be able to build a nuclear bomb in 2007, Reuters reported on 21 July.
(http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticlejhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5734622)
However, the Israeli daily Ma�ariv said on 22 July that the annual intelligence assessment put the year as 2008, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. (RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 139, Part III, 23 July 2004).
According to Reuters, security sources said the report was delivered to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in private and leaked in part to the media. Iran vehemently denies pursuing nuclear weapons, arguing its atomic ambitions are limited to generating electricity, an assertion that is given little credence in Western circles.
"Iranian leaders got together after the Iraq war and decided that the reason North Korea was not attacked was because it has the bomb. Iraq was attacked because it did not," a Western diplomat told Reuters, citing intelligence reports.
According to the Israeli assessment, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons represents the greatest threat to Israel, RFE/RL reported. (DKR)
Letters / Queries
[IMPORTANT: AFIO does not "vet" or endorse these inquiries or offers. Reasonable-sounding inquiries and career offerings are published as a service to our members, and for researchers, educators, and subscribers. You are urged to exercise your usual caution and good judgment when responding or supplying any information.]
SECURITY AT LOS ALAMOS - An AFIO member writes about "Missing Discs Close Down Los Alamos Lab," WIN #25-04 dtd 19 July 2004:
As a former Dept. of Energy security inspector, in 1990 my colleagues and I found Los Alamos to be terribly inefficient in its security measures. It and its companion site, Lawrence Livermore, were run by the University of California, and both sites attempted to solve their security problems by attacking the character of their inspectors. They had high Congressional help as well. I remember their trying to have me arrested and fired for giving them a bad report. Their arrogance was unbelievable; it still is, apparently. Will they never learn? Not so long as the University of California keeps its contract. -- Joe S.
Careers
US INVESTIGATIONS SERVICES, LLC. SEEKS INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS - USIS Professional Services Division's National Security Programs has opportunities for intelligence community professionals to work with the USG in the Northern Virginia area, with possible opportunities for temporary duty travel inside and outside the United States against the priority terrorist target. Pay and benefits are first class and second to none. Candidates must be U.S. citizens, have an active security clearance at the TS level, including a current polygraph examination, and have 5 to 30 plus years of experience supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community in one or more of the following areas:
* Case Officers with specialized knowledge and experience applicable to counterterrorist operations, possibly including technical collection activities.
* Staff officers, desk officers, reports officers and intelligence assistants supporting a full range of field operational activities.
* Administrative officers to provide operational support in the areas of finance, logistics, training, and personnel or data systems management.
* Desk officers experienced in tasking intelligence collectors and processing, evaluating, classifying, and disseminating incoming intelligence information.
* Information technology specialists and managers with knowledge and experience in computer hardware/software and data storage and retrieval.
Interested persons should send personal resumes to ctsupport@usis.com or fax to 703-442-0519.
Coming Events
10 August - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum - Driving the Soviets Up the Wall: Behind-the-Scenes of the Berlin Crisis -- "For 28 years the Berlin Wall stood as the symbol of the Cold War with Checkpoint Charlie representing the tensions between East and West. Dr. Hope Harrison, author of Driving the Soviets Up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations, 1953-1961, will reveal information from declassified top secret documents to tell the surprising history behind the communist decision to build it. Don't miss this rare opportunity to view video clips of the Berlin Crisis and hear little-known stories-including how the East German regime almost closed the border unilaterally." For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
10 - 12 August 2004 -- The Texas Association of Crime & Intelligence Analysts and the University of Texas at El Paso 4th Annual TACIA Training Conference -- Integrating Law Enforcement, Security & Intelligence Challenges - Sharing Resources - Combating Crime, at the Undergraduate Learning Center, UT El Paso. TACIA offers an unprecedented training opportunity with three in-depth tracks: Crime Analysis, Intelligence, and Homeland Security/Terrorism. The conference is ideally suited for local, county, state, and federal law enforcement officers, crime analysts, security specialists, intelligence analysts, DoD, homeland security professionals, and criminal justice/political science students and faculty. They anticipate more than 350 attendees, who will be addressed by more than 18 speakers from throughout the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Corporate exhibitors will be on hand with services and technology displays. Registration details at www.tacia.org and www.utep.edu will be online soon. Cost: $165.00/person, and includes daily lunch and conference material for all three days. The Holiday Inn Sunland Park, offers spectacular views of the Franklin Mountains, Mexico, and New Mexico, extends to conference participants the daily government rate of $78.00, free airport shuttle, and other amenities. Rooms are limited (Reservations: Toll Free 1-800-250-1625). For further information, please contact AFIO member David Jimenez, 915.834.8628 at david.Jimenez@dhs.gov
19 August - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum - Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War -- �What did the President know and when? National security analyst John Prados has gathered the actual intelligence available to the Bush administration as they made a case for war with Iraq. Don't miss this unique opportunity to compare White House, CIA, and State Department documents with the administration's speeches and statements to Congress, to the UN, and to the nation at large. Prados will encourage you to draw your own conclusions.� For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
23 - 24 August - Alexandria, VA - CT-CI Academy - An Operational and Tactical Overview of the Terrorist Threat -- Taught by global security expert Daniel J. Mulvenna and former senior FBI intelligence analyst Dr. Paul D. Moore, this two-day course will cover such topics as Personal Security and Safety Overseas, Terror Tactics Around the Globe, & Suicide Bombers and the Terrorist's Use of Improvised Explosive Devices and Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices. For more information, please visit http://www.cicentre.com/
25 August - Alexandria, VA - CT-CI Academy - Interviewing & Interrogating in the New Millennium -- Taught by retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Susan Adams, a former member of the FBI's intelligence division and former instructor at the FBI training academy, this one-day course is an "interactive workshop on interviewing strategies and interrogation techniques. You will learn tips and try out different methods for building trust and rapport to gain information and/or confessions using a variety of cases. You will also learn how to smoothly transition from an interview to an interrogation. The course will examine cross-cultural challenges to communications and uses a dynamic practical exercise where you will gain a better understanding and insight into interviewing someone with an Arab cultural background." For more information, please visit http://www.cicentre.com/
7 September - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum -- Man vs. Machine: How Poland Cracked the Enigma -- World cryptology expert and International Spy Museum Board Member David Kahn along with Jerzy Straszak, co-author of the newly published Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code, recount how Polish intelligence cracked Enigma with the help of a �disgruntled German Army cipher bureau employee [and] a trio of young Polish mathematicians.� As the danger of a Nazi invasion grew imminent, the Poles revealed their discovery to the French and British, ultimately contributing to the Allied victory. For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
7 September - Warren County, VA - Naval Intelligence Foundation Golf Tournament -- The Naval Intelligence Foundation Golf Tournament will be held Tuesday, 7 Sept, 2004 at Shenandoah Valley Golf Club in Warren County, Virginia. Net proceeds from the event will go to the Donald D. Engen Scholarship Fund, established to honor the memory of the former head of the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum, and the Naval Intelligence Foundation Awards Program. The golf tournament's format is scramble/captain's choice. Check-in is 8 A.M. with a shotgun start at 9 A.M. Entry fee is $300 for a foursome. Corporate sponsorship is $400 with four entries for golf. Breakfast, lunch, lucky draw prizes, and raffles will be available. Registration forms and corporate sponsorships are available. For more information, please contact Peter Buchan through E-mail: pibuchan@adelphia.net or Phone: 1-540-671-4435.
9 - 11 September - Barcelona, Spain - Barcelona Security Forum 2004 -- The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), in conjunction with the Government of Catalonia, is hosting a unique international forum dedicated to studying local security and safety issues. The conference will consider security in the context of diversity and the information society and will bring together local authorities, policy makers, and security and law enforcement professionals from around the world to tackle the most pressing issues facing cities and communities. The focus of the conference will be the discussion and analysis of specific case studies presented by city, industry, and academic representatives which will provide specific tools and recommendations essential to forming and implementing security policy at the city, community, and organizational level. To get more information visit www.barcelona2004.org, or to register, Contact: James Perkins james.perkins@unitar.org
12 - 13 September - Washington, DC - 13th Annual Arab-US Policymakers Conference -- Focus of discussion will be: �Restoring Arab-US Mutual Trust and Confidence: What is Necessary? What is Feasible?� For further information contact: The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations 1730 M Street NW Suite 503 Washington, DC 20036 Jennifer Sewell Tel: (202) 293-6466 Email: jennifer@ncusar.org
21 September - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum � Secrets and Survival: World War II Switzerland, Intelligence Center -- �Was neutral Switzerland a hush-hush hub for spies from both sides? Hear the truth about Switzerland�s Intelligence Service and its connection to Nazi Germany, Allied Intelligence operations in wartime Switzerland, and the activities of OSS agent and later CIA director Allen Dulles from three experts on the subject. Swiss historian, former diplomat, and military intelligence officer Dr. Pierre Th. Braunschweig, author of Secret Channel to Berlin, joins Dr. Joseph Hayes, the former Richard C. Helms Chair at the CIA, and James Srodes, author of Allen Dulles: Master of Spies, to disclose what really happened in �neutral� Switzerland. H.E. Christian Blickenstorfer, Switzerland�s Ambassador to the United States, will offer introductory comments for this illuminating evening.� For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
23 September - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum -- You�re Stepping On My Cloak and Dagger -- �A sharp eye and a keen wit share equal space in Roger Hall�s classic memoir of his adventures as an American Army officer assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Published in 1957 to critical and popular acclaim, the book has become a cult favorite in intelligence circles. Hall�s irreverence only heightens the sobering reality of military life in time of war. From his intensive training in the parachute infantry to his last assignment in the war zone, Hall will share some of his favorite anecdotes to celebrate his book�s recent reissue.� For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
26 - 29 September 04 - Reno, NV - All bets are on you will not want to miss the joint meeting of the U. S. Marine Corps Tri-Association Intelligence Committee comprised of members of the Marine Corps Counterintelligence, the Marine Corps Intelligence and the Marine Corps Cryptologic Associations at Harrah�s Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. The reunion will be held in conjunction with the Marine Intelligence Community�s fall conference which will involve active duty Marines attending from the �corners of the world,� current contingencies permitting. Friends of Marine Corps Intelligence are invited to attend. For additional details, contact Tom MacKinney (916) 983-6119 or at thosmack@comcast.net.
8 - 9 October 04 -- East Lyme, Ct - The New England Chapter, Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association hosts a special reunion. For more information, contact: Phil Sirmons, 492 Boston Post Rd, East Lyme, CT 06333, 860-739-6006, asir@peoplepc.com, or visit their website at www.ncva-ne.org
18 October - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum - Operation Overflight: A Son�s Perspective -- �Warming Cold War relations turned to ice on May 1, 1960, when the Soviets shot down American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. Hear the gripping story of how the U-2 secret was exposed as told by the pilot�s son, Francis Gary Powers, Jr., founder of the Cold War Museum. He will share the behind-the-scenes details of his father�s U-2 training, his spyplane missions, and the wrenching story of his captivity, interrogation, and dramatic exchange for a Soviet Spy. Powers will also share how his family deals with this remarkable legacy. This program celebrates the recent re-release of Francis Gary Powers� powerful memoir, Operation Overflight.� For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
24 October - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum - Spy School Workshop: Disguise 101 � �Skip the plastic surgeon. Hang up the Halloween costume. Never mind the witness protection program � you�ll learn how to transform your appearance and, yes, change your identity at this amazing session. Former CIA �Masters of Disguise,� Tony and Jonna Mendez, will share their expertise gained from years in the field, by demonstrating their tricks of the trade, and how seemingly subtle changes in dress, gesture, posture, speech, and facial expressions can create dramatic results. Old will become young and male morph into female before your very eyes! Will you detect who is concealing their real identity in your midst? Better yet, turn the table and see if you can fool the experts with your own disguise!� For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
24 October - Washington, DC - International Spy Museum - KidSpy Operation Undercover: Secrets of Disguise -- �Join Tony and Jonna Mendez, who served as chiefs of disguise at the Central Intelligence Agency, as they share secrets used by real spies and transform the appearance of participating agents. With the assistance of professional make up artists, recruits will go under cover and create a new identity complete with walk, talk, facial expressions, and cover story. Recruits face the ultimate challenge in a mission to retrieve top secret information. Will your cover be blown? Will your disguise stand up to the test? Ages: 9-15. No Grown-Ups Allowed! For more information, please visit http://www.spymuseum.org/do/programs.asp
26 - 27 October - McLean, VA -- NMIA will hold its next classified Symposium at the MITRE facility in McLean VA on 26 & 27 October. For more information, visit www.nmia.org
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