AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #04-09 dated 3 February 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Feds: Ex-CIA Spy, Son Renewed Russian Contact. An imprisoned ex-CIA spy and his son have been charged with renewing contact with the father's former Russian handlers to get more money for espionage.

Harold Nicholson and his 24-year-old son, Nathaniel, have been indicted in Oregon, where the elder Nicholson is still serving time in a federal prison for past espionage charges.

The pair face charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and money laundering.

The indictment says Harold Nicholson, who pled guilty in 1997 after being paid $300,000 to pass secrets to the Russians, wanted to receive further payments for his work, and used his son as a go-between. [AP/28January2009[ 

Sudanese Spy Slapped With 17 Year Jail Term. A Sudanese criminal court has sentenced a man to 17 years in prison for allegedly spying for the International Criminal Court in a probe on Darfur war crimes.

Mohammed Al-Sirri, who was arrested in June 2008, was convicted of spying, criminal conspiracy and passing on confidential military documents about a Sudanese Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, to the Hague based court.

He was the first Sudanese to face charges at home of collaborating with the ICC court and its investigation into Darfur crimes. He is also reported to be the first such conviction anywhere in the world linked to helping the ICC.

Local news agency said Mr. Al-Sirri's conviction is related to Mr. Haroun's warrant of arrest issued by the ICC detailing 51 charges of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003 and 2004.

The ICC spokeswoman for the office of the ICC prosecutor denounced the verdict, saying it's only aimed at instilling fear among locals who may choose to assist the ICC with the investigations of an alleged genocide in Darfur region.

The ICC is deciding whether also to indict President Omar Al-Bashir on 10 counts of genocide and other charges in Darfur, after prosecutors asked for an arrest warrant in July 2008.

However, Sudan argues that such a move would only make things worse in the war torn Darfur region.

The UN estimates that up to 300, 000 people have been killed and close to 2.7 million have been forced from their homes in Darfur since the conflict began in 2003. [Afrol/28January2009] 

Massive Spy Scandal in Germany. In a scandal that has shocked Germany, the country's national railway company Deutsche Bahn has spied on 173,000 of its employees.

Several German companies recently were identified as having spied on their employees. The German Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, even snooped on journalists. The DB scandal tops all previous affairs by far.

German newsmagazine Stern reported last week that DB spied on some 1,000 of its employees - enough to stir some bad press. Yet it wasn't until Wednesday when the true scope of the spy scandal was revealed.

Wolfgang Schaupensteiner, DB's anti-corruption officer, told a German parliamentary committee probing the affair that his company had spied on a staggering 173,000 of its 240,000 employees.

DB hired a company to lead a massive internal investigation in 2002 and 2003 aimed at uncovering possible corruption cases.

Observers say DB's high-profile chief executive officer, Hartmut Mehdorn, may lose his job over the affair. [Metimes/29January2009] 

Medvedev Scuttles Putin's Espionage Law. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed his administration to re-work a controversial bill broadening the definition of treason and espionage to assure that it doesn't violate human rights.

The legislation, which human rights activists and legal experts say would effectively criminalize dissent, was originally drafted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.

Medvedev had earlier criticized Putin's government for not moving fast enough to enact measures to combat the economic crisis. [Whitmore/Rferl/29January2009] 

Al Qaeda Suspect, Held in US for 7 Years, Became Recruitment Tool for Terror Group. A group of intelligence experts argued that holding an Al Qaeda suspect for seven years on U.S. soil without charge has been a recruiting bonanza for Osama Bin Laden's thugs.

The 16 highly-respected intelligence and counterterror officials signed a brief filed with the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear the case of "enemy combatant" Ali Saleh al-Marri - a top priority of Team Obama.

Eyed as an Al Qaeda "sleeper" agent, Al-Marri was arrested at his home in Illinois three months after the 9/11 attacks and charged with terrorism. But in 2003, ex-President Bush turned him over to the U.S. military, which holds him without charge in a South Carolina Navy brig.

As a legal U.S. resident, Al-Marri's treatment is "far outside the traditions of this nation" and "undermines" U.S. credibility on the rule of law, the experts wrote.

The ex-officials include Iraq WMD hunter David Kay, Bush's terror adviser Frank Cilluffo, CIA counterterror chief Paul Pillar and CIA and FBI adviser John MacGaffin. 

Failing to charge al-Marri criminally "invigorates the false - but widely accepted - narrative that the United States is engaged in a war on Islam," they argued.

Last week, President Obama ordered a review of al-Marri's case when he announced plans to shut down the Guantanamo Bay terror prison within a year.

Obama called al-Marri a "dangerous individual," but he wants to "properly review the evidence against him and the various policies that have been presented."

The ex-officials' argument also goes to the heart of the debate over post-9/11 torture.

"Coercive interrogations don't work and fall outside the legal and moral obligations that this nation assumed in 1776," one of the signers, M.E. (Spike) Bowman, told the Daily News.

Bowman was a former top legal adviser for Naval Special Warfare, the Directorate of National Intelligence and the FBI - where he was widely credited for trying to stop detainee abuses at Gitmo reported by the bureau's agents. [Meek/NyDaileyNews/28January2009] 

Hamas' Chinese Arms. U.S. defense officials say intelligence reports from the Middle East indicate that Chinese-made weapons are being used by Hamas militants in Gaza.

An Israeli official confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces recently uncovered Chinese-made 122-millimeter rockets used by Hamas fighters.

The embassy official said the Chinese mortars appear to be capable of ranging 40 kilometers and that a number were fired into Israel during recent attacks by Hamas before to the latest cease-fire.

The rocket transfers do not appear to be a case of "China manufacturing them for Hamas," the official said. "It's Iran. Whether the Chinese are fully aware of [the arms transfers] we don't know. But we do know that the Iranians are [also] using them [with their armed forces]."

The official said it appears that the Chinese mortars were manufactured according to Iranian specifications and had markings indicating that they were made in China.

In addition to the mortars, which Israel thinks were smuggled into Gaza through Sinai tunnels in pieces, other foreign-supplied weapons being used by Hamas include enhanced-range Grad rockets, which were brought in from Iran and Syria - again in parts - and assembled at Hamas arms factories, the official said.

The longer-range Grads were a recent addition to the Hamas arsenal, and the Islamic group had been using a simpler rocket that was made in Gaza. [Gertz/WashingtonTimes/29January2009] 

Naval Reservist Tapped As VA Deputy Secretary. W. Scott Gould, a former naval reservist who served in the Iraq war as an intelligence officer, has been announced as President Obama's nominee to become deputy secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Gould, who most recently has been a vice president at IBM Global Business Services, will work under Secretary Eric K. Shinseki, a retired four-star general, to revamp the sprawling Veterans Affairs bureaucracy. In a statement, Shinseki said he and Gould are committed to "transforming the Department of Veterans Affairs" and that Gould brings expertise in information technology and managing large organizations.

During Obama's campaign, Gould co-chaired the National Veterans Policy Team. He is married to Mich�le A. Flournoy, whom Obama has nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy. [Rucker/WashingtonPost/31January2009] 

Lawyer Says Iraqi Spy Suspect Fled Saddam's Regime. A Canadian citizen accused of working for Saddam Hussein's intelligence service while living in Maryland was in fact persecuted by the late Iraqi leader, according to his attorney. 

Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, a 47-year-old Iraq native, is accused of providing Iraq information and lying about that work when he applied for permanent resident status in the United States.

He is charged with conspiracy to act as an agent for a foreign government and making false statements, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Documents seized by U.S. troops after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq showed Darwish was paid by Saddam's intelligence service for "assistance," according to court papers. Darwish is not charged with espionage because the information he is accused of handing over to Saddam was not classified, prosecutors said.

His public defender, Joseph L. Evans, did not address the specifics of the allegations Tuesday at a detention hearing. But Evans said Darwish and his relatives were mistreated by Saddam because of their Iranian ancestry.

Darwish and his family were deported to Iran after war erupted between Iraq and Iran in 1980, Evans said. Darwish was eventually repatriated and forced to join the Iraqi army to fight against Iran but fled the country and was granted political asylum in Canada, the attorney told the court.

Evans' comments did not sway U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, who ordered Darwish detained until trial, deeming him a flight risk.

His wife and children remain in Richmond Hill, Ontario, were Darwish was working at a hardware store.

Evans said he planned to file a motion asking Bennett to reconsider his decision to continue holding Darwish.

Darwish was arrested Dec. 24 while trying to enter the United States at Buffalo, N.Y. [AP/27January2009] 

German Wins Lawsuit Over CIA Rendition Flights. A German citizen of Lebanese descent has successfully sued the eastern European nation of Macedonia for 50,000 euros ($65,000) in damages after being abducted there by the CIA and flown to Afghanistan for interrogation on terrorism charges, his lawyer said Monday, Jan. 26.

According to his lawyer, Khaled el-Masri was arrested by the American intelligence agency in Skopje in December, 2003 and held in a hotel near the American embassy for three weeks before being flown on one of the CIA's infamous rendition flights to Afghanistan and tortured.

This is just the latest in a succession of lawsuits by el-Masri, who has tried suing both the United States and Spain. The US Supreme Court upheld a decision to reject his case on national security grounds in 2007.

Masri, who worked as a car salesman, was traveling to Macedonia in late December 2003 to celebrate the new year. He was held in a hotel near the US embassy in the capital Skopje and questioned. He was asked in English, a language he does not speak well, about ties to al Qaeda and Islamic extremists.

The lawsuit said Macedonia violated provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, including on torture, liberty and respect for human rights.

El-Masri's lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, told the AFP news agency that his client was beaten and bullied for five months without explanation in Afghanistan before being freed in Albania.

Gnjidic has argued that the detention and interrogation of his client by the CIA left him traumatized and his mental distress led to him setting fire to a supermarket in Germany in 2007.

The CIA rendition flights took suspected terrorists captured in one country to another or a US-run detention center for questioning and, as many allege, torture. The program began after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. [DW-World/28January2009] 

CIA Algeria Case May Hurt Obama Initiative. Allegations that the CIA station chief in Algiers drugged and raped Muslim women may hurt efforts by President Barack Obama to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world, Algerian dailies said.

The U.S. government has said the CIA chief in Algiers had returned to Washington and the Justice Department was probing the officer's alleged misconduct.

ABC news was the first to report that two Algerian women had complained they had been separately drugged and sexually abused by the CIA officer at his official residence in September 2007 and February 2008.

Algerian newspapers Saturday printed the officer's picture and gave details about his work in Algiers and his previous postings in Egypt and Afghanistan.

"(His) misconduct could have a disastrous impact on America's image at a time when the new U.S. president is trying to give a new start to America's relations with Muslim countries," said el Watan.

"Diplomacy of kidnapping, rape, terror, and spying," said Arabic language Eshorouk, Algeria's top selling daily.

"This is not the best way to reward the host country...but the scandal could be added to a series of misconduct in which 'foreign hands' have been involved in the past," it added in reference to statements by Algeria's officials that outside influence fanned violence in the country.

The newspapers said the CIA officer was a convert to Islam.

Al Qaeda's north Africa wing posted several statements on the Internet last year saying that it would not stop its attacks until Algeria was free from French and U.S. influence and what it called the "apostate" Algerian government was removed.

Since adopting the al Qaeda name early in 2007, the group, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, has claimed several attacks, including twin suicide bombings of U.N. offices and a court building in Algiers in December 2007 which killed more than 40 people. [Reuters/2February2009] 

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Blair: Intel Classification Policy Needs "Fundamental Work." "There is a great deal of over-classification," admitted Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the nominee to be the next Director of National Intelligence, at his confirmation hearing last week.

"Some of it, I think, is done for the wrong reasons, to try to hide things from the light of day. Some of it is because in our system, there is no incentive not to do that, and there are penalties to do the reverse, in case you get something wrong and don't classify it."

"So I think we need to do fundamental work on the system," he said in response to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden at the January 22 hearing.

"I'll be working to see if we can come up with a different approach that incentivizes it at the right level and that informs not only those of you who have security clearances on this committee but the wider interested public whose support we need," Adm. Blair said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse pursued the same question. "My experience," the Senator said, "is that, over and over and over again, we have seen official secrecy used not for national security purposes, but to mislead the public and to frame - or more particularly, mis-frame - an outside, political debate. Will you pledge to us that you will take this trust of secrecy that you are given as Director of National Intelligence and use it only to protect national security and not to manipulate public opinion or frame or mis-frame political debates?"

"Absolutely, Senator," Adm. Blair replied.

The DNI-nominee also told Sen. Kit Bond and Sen. Whitehouse that he favored prosecution of leakers of classified information. "If I could ever catch one of those it would be very good to prosecute them."

He suggested that there might be new technical steps that could be taken to identify leakers.

"If confirmed," he added, "I would like to come to talk to you about some ideas where we can build in some technical, some procedural safeguards into agencies so that it's not a case of going back afterwards and trying to get records and question people but we have some tools that will let everybody who works for the government know that if you are going to pass classified information to a reporter or to someone, there will be a trace of it which will make it relatively quick to identify you as the one who did it," Adm. Blair told Sen. Whitehouse.

Presumably this refers to improved tracking of classified intelligence "records," not of "information."

In answers to pre-hearing questions, Adm. Blair said that he favored continued publication of the annual intelligence budget total. "It has not, to my knowledge, caused harm to the national security, and provides important information to the American public," Blair said.

He also endorsed declassification review of 25 year old classified intelligence records.

"While much intelligence information remains sensitive even at 25 years, that which can be released to the public should be. Intelligence - especially the intelligence that informed key policy decisions - can and should ultimately become part of the country's historical record."

The profound confusion that prevails in intelligence classification policy was recognized last year in an internal report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Even the most basic concepts of classification policy, it said, are open to question and interpretation.

A new directive signed by outgoing DNI Mike McConnell on January 21 is intended to "foster an enduring culture of responsible sharing and collaboration within an integrated [intelligence community]" and to breakdown traditional "stove pipes" that inhibit communication within the government. [SecrecyNews/26January2009] 

N.S.A. Credited in Uncovering '73 Bomb Plot. In March 1973, the authorities uncovered a terrorist plot to set off bombs in rented cars next to three Israel institutions in New York City, two on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and one at Kennedy International Airport in Queens. The bombs were supposed to be detonated at noon on March 4, 1973, upon the arrival of Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel, but the explosive devices did not go off as intended because of "an error in the circuitry system," the F.B.I. said at the time.

Until now it has not been clear how the plot was discovered. The Associated Press, citing government documents and interviews, reported on Monday that it was the National Security Agency, the nation's super-secretive counterintelligence service, that uncovered the plot.

Declassified C.I.A. records indicate the F.B.I. and the Police Department began looking for the bombs on the evening of March 6, 1973, not long after the N.S.A. intercepted a message from Khalid Duhham al-Jawari, an organizer of the plot, revealing the locations of the vehicles.

Two of the three bomb-rigged cars - one at the First Israel Bank and Trust company, at Fifth Avenue and 47th Street, and the other at the Israel Discount Bank, at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street - were towed on March 5 and were later found at impound yards. The third bomb, at the cargo terminal for El-Al, the Israeli airline, was discovered early on March 7 and disabled by the Police Department's bomb squad.

Mr. Jawari, an Iraqi citizen, fled the United States after the plot failed and was the subject of an intense international manhunt. He was part of the Black September terrorist group, which claimed responsibility for the killings of 11 Israeli athletes during the Olympics in Munich in 1972. The group was believed to be under the control of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian Liberation Organization leader, who died in 2004.

Mr. Jawari was finally captured in 1991 after leaving Iraq to attend a funeral in Tunisia, and he was tried in 1993. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but is now scheduled to be released on Feb. 19, after serving about half of the sentence. 

Mr. Jawari, 63, is currently confined at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. [NYTimes/2February2009] 

CIA Director: Al Qaeda is Job 1 of Top 10 Security Challenges in 2009. Iran, North Korea and Al Qaeda are still in, but Iraq is out of the list of top 10 national security threats the United States is likely to face in the coming year.

As Leon Panetta faces a Senate confirmation hearing this week to be the next CIA director, outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden says several regions and disputes could create serious headaches for the intelligence community in 2009.

"This is an informal list that I kind of jotted down, what are the things I would fret about over the next 12 months," he told FOX News in the second of two interviews about the nation's greatest security challenges.

"I don't want to get in the business of suggesting ways to threaten the well-being of the planet, but frankly that is what we are in the business of thinking about every day here with our analytic workforce."

Hayden said top of the list is still Al Qaeda, which has been working on expanding its associations with other groups around the world. Hayden said this development is particularly troubling because groups like Lashkar-i-Tayyiba, which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai last November, start to think outside their region and focus on the United States and elsewhere.

"As Al Qaeda has become more franchised - whether it is in Yemen or Somalia or in North Africa - you've got other people working, and if these truly are franchises, these aren't people who accept fully... operational plans from Al Qaeda central. And therefore you might see a greater variety of approaches, a greater variety of threats, based upon the thinking of each of these local groups," Hayden warned.

Hayden said he didn't include Iraq in the top 10 because things are looking up in that country, which just held peaceful, provincial elections this weekend.

"Iraq is there. And if I did this two or three years ago, it would have been up there right under Al Qaeda. And I don't mean we don't have to worry about it. And I don't mean that we don't need to be careful as to how we draw down coalition forces. But when I look at what is going on there, there are a fair number of positive trend lines that have to continue to be nurtured. But they are positive trend lines," he said.

"I don't mean to ignore it. I don't mean to suggest that this is something in which you can turn off the lights. What I mean to suggest is, this is a success. This is something different than it was a year or two ago," Hayden continued.

Below is Hayden's top 10 list gathered from the two interviews, with warnings and explanations for his concerns.

1. Al Qaeda: "It is the organization that has the capacity to most threaten the physical safety of America and Americans. So it remains job No. 1. And we have talked about some successes and so on, but it is resilient, and therefore we have to continue to keep an eye on Al Qaeda," he said.

2. Violence in Mexico: "Our good friend and neighbor Mexico had this horrible surge in violence that may cause - in fact has caused - us to talk with our Mexican friends, in more meaningful and deeper ways, to discover ways that we can cooperate against what we now view to be, and has always been, a common problem.

"What you've got is President Calderon, very heroically, taking on drug cartels that I think everyone agrees threaten certainly the well-being of the Mexican people and the Mexican state, and taking them on in a very, very progressive way. Now, it is not quite the same thing as Colombia, where you had a politically motivated movement, the FARC, merging with narcotics organizations. Here it is largely in the business of crime but the effects could be just as dangerous, certainly to the well-being of the Mexican people."

3. Iran's nuclear program: "I included Iran, in terms of as they move forward in their own decision-making process, as they continue to churn out LEU, low enriched uranium, they do it at great cost, diplomatically and economically with regard to sanctions. They seem to be doing it with a purpose. As that quantity of that stockpile grows, you would think that at some point in that process, they are going to have to make a decision as to what it is they are going to do with it. So that is something we have to keep a close eye on as well."

4. Europe and the War on Terror: Hayden said he believes that real substantive issues separate the U.S. and Europe in executing the War on Terror. He said "growing daylight" separates the allies and it's not a question of "personalities."

5. Instability caused by the low price of oil: "The price of oil is another thing that is not quite a crisis, but it is destabilizing," he said. "As oil goes under about $40 a barrel, it probably doesn't have a big impact in Russia, which has a large (economy) and frankly invested pretty wisely. I'm not sure that it doesn't have more of an impact in Iran and in Venezuela. When (global) oil is about $40 a barrel, their heavy crude is about $30 a barrel. And that really creates stresses inside the (Hugo) Chavez regime. So again, these are not threats, but they will create torque, and may then suggest some instability."

6. Pakistan: "I don't want to get into the business of commenting on the internal politics of a good friend. But Pakistan is in a very difficult circumstance right now," Hayden said. "You do have the after-effects of Mumbai. You do have what is happening in the tribal region. You do have the instability along the Afghan-Pakistan border. You do have very serious economic problems with the Pakistani state. And you do have a new government, attempting to establish its legs and to build a democratic Pakistan for the future. That is a real devils brew of issues. And President Zardari and Prime Minister Galani have their hands full trying to deal with that. You mentioned nuclear weapons, and clearly, should they ever fall into the wrong hands, it would greatly concern us."

7. Afghanistan: "The closer you get to that Afghanistan-Pakistan border area - the factors of geography, of history, of culture - all become more and more important, larger factors, in any kind of calculus. If you ask me if there is a disappointment in my time here, it is that we have not killed or captured #1 or #2 (of Al Qaeda). But there have been measurable successes in the war on terrorism."

8. North Korea:"North Korea is always a wild card. It's almost a gimme that sooner or later, they are going to try to stir the pot, and try to destabilize things."

9. China: China is the emerging superpower, and as such is in more influential economically. China has always been seen through the prism of expanding markets, Hayden said, and it remains to be seen how this communist nation will weather an economic downturn and what conditions global recession will create internally.

10. The Middle East: As instability continues in the Middle East over a Palestinian-Israeli peace most recently complicated by an Israeli offensive in Gaza against terror group Hamas, Hayden said the region will continue to be a flash point that can't be ignored. [Herridge/FoxNews/2Febraury2009] 

Section III - Commentary

The CIA vs. The Mullahs, by Reuel Marc Gerecht. How good is American intelligence on Iran? With the clerical regime intimately involved in Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq, with the mullahs quite probably on the verge of enriching sufficient uranium to make a bomb, and President Obama promising to use more diplomacy and sanctions to stop them, it's a fairly pressing question.

Yet this query has rarely been raised seriously in Washington. I am not aware of one instance since 1978, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini started to preach revolution from France, that an American president requested a thorough assessment of the clandestine service's collection efforts against the mullahs. Congress has been only a little better. Even after the Iraq war made outsiders more attentive to the deficiencies in the Central Intelligence Agency's operations against "hard target" countries, congressional interest in knowing more about the efforts to collect intelligence against Tehran has been thin. Field officers who have seen gross incompetence in Iran operations over the years have wondered more often about Langley's abilities than have its civilian overseers.

CIA Director-designate Leon Panetta should consider a bipartisan review of intelligence collection concerning Tehran. Since the Obama administration is reviewing policy options toward the Islamic republic, it would seem sensible to know what Langley's actions have produced. Policy built on weak intelligence and analysis obviously isn't a good idea.

Iran operations have always consumed a lot of CIA manpower. Is there a correlation between the number of officers deployed and the quantity and quality of intelligence collected? Does the manner of their deployment - the balance between headquarters-based and field officers, and the nature of the cover that these officers operationally use - make much sense? How many operatives and analysts who work on the target could competently read, let alone digest, the sermons and books of dissident clerics or probe a laptop with nuclear plans buried in it? In the 1990s, I saw a case officer who barely spoke Farsi debrief a potentially high-value Iranian official who barely spoke English. The meeting produced "disseminable" intelligence. Sadly, this type of exchange was not uncommon. Agency analysts, who often have little real idea of agents and their case officers, can give weight to field intelligence that really should be dismissed.

Iran is perhaps the best and the most important barometer we have for judging how well the CIA can perform against a hostile Middle Eastern state with a terrorist track record that includes, according to the Sept. 11 commission report, abetting al-Qaida. It is also probably the "easiest" hard target that Langley has. Unlike in Iraq under Saddam Hussein or North Korea today, the CIA can reach inside the Islamic republic if it really tries. Iran is an authoritarian theocratic state that believes in its civilizing mission to the Muslim world. Its borders are hardly porous, but a range of people - Muslims, non-Muslims, business executives, academics, students, religious pilgrims and tourists - travel there regularly.

More important, Iranian VIPs travel abroad. Members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps frequently receive scholarships for foreign study, usually in the West. Iranian scientists and engineers also go abroad. Iranian mullahs are not uncommon in foreign lands, where prolonged contact with them is possible. Although Iran's progressive intellectuals - the people to whom Western journalists and scholars usually talk - rarely have much influence and insight into the clerical regime, sometimes they matter, and sometimes they can be reached. The key is whether Langley has developed patient but aggressive measures that make it more likely that its operatives cross paths with interesting Iranians.

Accessibility is never a guarantee of operational success. But the clerical regime is now 30 years old. Disaffection and anger are not uncommon among once-proud revolutionaries. We have not yet seen the defections from the ruling religious elite - the clergy and the lay hard core who see themselves as Allah's chosen soldiers - that we began to see among Russian communists after three decades of Soviet rule. The faithful's devotion to God appears to be more tenacious than man's commitment to Marx. But this could change. As we have seen with some of al-Qaida's most devoted supporters, religious inspiration can evolve or fade, turning comrades into enemies.

It is likely that Obama's diplomacy-and-sanctions effort to stop the clerical regime's quest for nuclear weapons will fail. If it does, the administration will inevitably default to some kind of containment strategy. Covert-action programs, which will oblige Langley to become more intimate with Iran's internal dynamics, will probably be a part of the administration's efforts to check the mullahs' designs in the Middle East. If we are serious about what we are doing (and Langley has a history of approaching covert action haphazardly), the White House and Congress ought to know whether the CIA has been able to perform its primary mission. Human-source intelligence and covert action use the same skill set.

Whatever Panetta does, he would be wise to trust, but verify, what the CIA's senior management tells him. Langley's "professionals" have a way of arrogating to themselves the details that allow outsiders to see whether the agency is actually doing its job. The writer is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and was a CIA case officer from 1985 to 1994. [Gerecht/ArizonaRepubic/27January2009] 

Resisting Intelligence 'Hysteria' by Michael H. Varhola. Regarding Richard Cohen's Jan. 27 column, "Torture? Prosecute Us, Too": I have 40 years of experience in military intelligence. I was in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, in my cubicle in the Intelligence Oversight Division of the U.S. Army Inspector General Agency. I was working in the Defense Department's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) in May 2004 when Paul Wolfowitz's memo came out establishing the Talon program for the collection of domestic threat information. I drafted the internal policy for implementing CIFA's responsibilities under that memo.

I remember very well the mind-sets that governed then, and I resent very much Mr. Cohen's insinuation that those of us who did not succumb to the hysteria were "time-stampers who take no chances." It took some courage to stand up to those who believed that pre-Sept. 11 restrictions governing the collection of information on U.S. citizens no longer applied. I remember very clearly being shouted down by a retired Marine major who assured that me my insistence to the contrary would result in soldiers dying.

It is easy to get caught up in the hysteria. It takes no particular courage to go along with the mob. I don't believe that those who tortured or those who engaged in unauthorized collection of information on Americans are the finest people. I am disappointed that Mr. Cohen seems to. [Varhola/WashingtonPost/1February2009] 

Section IV - TELEVISION, READING, OBITUARIES AND COMING EVENTS

Television

Public Television to Air a Nova Night of Spies and Secrets on Tuesday, February 3. In a time of increasing surveillance both at home and abroad, Public Television (CPTV) takes viewers inside the world of espionage past and present with two hours of Spy Night on Tuesday, February 3.

The evening begins with a look at the Cold War era of uncertainty in Nova: AstroSpies at 8 p.m.. While NASA astronauts were captivating the world with the Apollo lunar landings, the U.S. was engaged in a top-secret military manned space program. Now, investigative author Jim Bamford (acclaimed author of The Puzzle Palace) probes the untold story of the elite corps of clandestine astronauts who were never told of the true purpose of their training program. Bamford travels to Russia to reveal the secrets of the Soviet response - the prototypes of the "Almaz" military space stations that, if deployed, might have led to a Cold War showdown in outer space.

Then, fast-forward to the paranoia of the information age - and beyond. Nova: The Spy Factory premieres at 9 p.m, a hunt through the depths of the National Security Agency (NSA) to uncover the truth about high-tech surveillance. For the first time on television, Nova exposes the hidden world of the world's largest intelligence agency. Based on the latest best-seller by journalist James Bamford, The Spy Factory is a gripping investigation of the NSA, from its tragic failures leading up to the 9/11 attacks to its secret listening rooms currently installed in the nation's telecom facilities. The program presents groundbreaking new evidence about how the agency listened in to the phone calls of key 9/11 plotters, yet failed to realize they were located in the U.S. This is a suspenseful and eye-opening report on the threat to privacy and the effectiveness of high-tech surveillance in the age of terrorism. [RegisterCitizen/28January2009] http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2009/01/28/entertainment/doc497fb938da06a005379585.txt

Reading

Jihadists and Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Growing Threat, by Gary Ackerman and Jeremy Tamsett. A new book by Henley-Putnam University's Jeremy Tamsett, due out in February 2009, addresses the pressing issue of the threat posed by jihadist terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Written for professionals and policymakers working at the forefront of homeland security and anti-terrorist efforts, Jihadists and Weapons of Mass Destruction is an exceptionally authoritative and comprehensive work that covers weapons of mass destruction as jihadist terrorists have used them historically and are likely to use them in the future. Effectively providing greater understanding for one of the foremost security issues of the 21st century, this seminal resource includes the following:

* Explores the role of intelligence and law enforcement in anticipating and deterring WMD attacks
* Provides an overview of nonproliferation policies
* Conducts a groundbreaking quantitative empirical analysis of jihadist behavior
* Includes a chapter devoted to CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) material and WMD attack devices
* Documents key background on the current ideology, strategy, and tactics of fundamentalist terrorism activity 

Leading international experts clearly differentiate between Muslims and jihadists, explore how jihadists translate their ideology into strategy, and focus on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) target selection. Devoid of sensationalism, this multidimensional evaluation adds a heightened level of sophistication to our understanding of terrorism.

"It's great to see a book on this subject coming out now, not only because of potential shifts in national security policy with the incoming Obama Administration, but also because of the ongoing debate about what the greatest threat to this nation will be in the next 4 or 5 years," stated University President Dr. Michael Corcoran. "The simple truth is that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are not going to go away - more than ever, we need more people on the frontline that have the knowledge, education, and experience to deal with these types of complex issues."   [PRWeb/26January2009]

Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq, by Charles A. Duelfer. During his final days in U.S. captivity, Saddam Hussein wrote poetry, flirted with American nurses, expressed his desire to restart a nuclear weapons program and asked to be put to death by firing squad like a soldier, not hanged like a common criminal, according to a new book by Charles A. Duelfer, who was the CIA's top weapons investigator in Iraq.

"Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq" chronicles Duelfer's decade-long hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, first as a top U.N. weapons inspector in the 1990s and later as head of the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group, which concluded in fall 2004 that Iraq had essentially dismantled its deadliest weapons program years before the U.S. invasion.

The book - which was held up for more than nine months by CIA reviewers - includes fresh allegations about the Vladimir Putin government's corrupt oil dealings with Iraq and Putin's effort to persuade Hussein to step down to avert a U.S. invasion. It also describes a rudimentary program by Iraqi insurgents after the invasion to develop chemical agents, including ricin, a highly toxic poison derived from castor beans. The operation was shut down by coalition forces, Duelfer says.

Duelfer portrays the United States as a lumbering superpower whose top policymakers, particularly in the White House and the Defense Department, lacked any basic understanding of Iraq's history, motives and leaders. But he says Iraq also routinely misread American intentions and overestimated the capability of U.S. intelligence. He says that according to an Iraqi government account, Hussein once asked his top commanders if Iraq had any hidden weapons he didn't know about.

The book tracks Duelfer's political journey from his days as an obscure State Department official in the Reagan administration who organized arms shipments to Chad during its struggle against Libya.

His 1993 appointment as deputy chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq placed him at the center of a major international crisis. As a U.N. official, Duelfer gained access to Iraq's top officials and helped arrange a U.S.-backed spying operation that penetrated Hussein's inner circle. The revelations of U.S. spying led to the U.N. commission's ejection from Iraq in 1999.

Duelfer said that on the eve of the 2003 U.S. invasion, he had more direct knowledge of Iraq's weapons programs and leaders than virtually any other top American official. But he had also presided over a U.N. inspection operation that had wrongly assumed that Iraq still possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Duelfer describes numerous requests from senior Iraqi officials to start a dialogue with the United States to improve relations. "Each time I passed on such entreaties to Washington, there was never an answer," he said. "If nothing else, they were missed opportunities for Washington to gain more knowledge."

After he left the United Nations in 2000, Duelfer went to a Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he began working informally with a unit in the CIA's Near East division, the Iraq Operations Group, which was tasked with regime change.

Duelfer assembled a list of more than 40 high-level officials who could help run Iraq following an invasion. He cultivated old contacts in the oil industry and the Iraqi government, meeting secretly with a top Iraqi official at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. He traveled to Vienna for OPEC meetings that included key Iraqi oil officials. But the plan to put together a team that would form the basis of a future government was shelved.

"Once U.S. forces were in Iraq, they used the lists as targets," he writes. "Those named would find their homes raided, and they would be thrown in jail... We continued to make more enemies."

Duelfer was later selected by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet to head the Iraq Survey Group. Duelfer's hunt for weapons of mass destruction led him to Camp Cropper, a detention facility at Baghdad International Airport that held "high value" detainees, including Hussein and his top lieutenants.

Hussein spent his final months at the facility - nicknamed the "petting zoo" - in a solitary cell. His only visitor was a young Lebanese American FBI interrogator named George Piro, whom the former Iraqi leader came to regard as a son.

During sessions with Piro, Hussein said he would seek to reconstitute his nuclear weapons program as long as his regional enemies, Iran and Israel, possessed such arsenals. Hussein also acknowledged that he had sought to persuade the world that he still possessed such weapons in order to show his powerful neighbors that he had not been fatally weakened by a decade of U.N. sanctions.

Duelfer writes that he interrogated Hussein's personal secretary, Abid Hamid Mahmud Tikriti, who described Hussein's meeting in early 2003 with Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian foreign minister.

Primakov hand-delivered a letter from Putin "asking Saddam Hussein to step out of power and remain as the secretary general of the Baath Party. By this move, he would be able to convince the United States not to attack Iraq. Saddam Hussein walked out of the room."

Duelfer says then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sought to pressure him not to publicly divulge Russia's activities in his 2004 report, while other State Department officials warned it could harm diplomatic relations with Moscow.

Powell said yesterday that it was only appropriate for him, as secretary of state, to "measure the potential diplomatic fallout with foreign countries" from the report. "It is incorrect to say we tried in any way to stifle his reporting," he said. "To the best of my knowledge, the Duelfer report contained everything related to the behavior of the French, Russians and others."

A spokesman for the Russian mission to the United Nations, Ruslan Bakhtin, declined to comment.

John E. McLaughlin, then the CIA's acting director, said he did not believe that Powell applied "undue pressure" to suppress evidence of foreign corruption. He said Powell rightly wanted to spare the United States embarrassment if the information turned out to be wrong. [Lynch/WashingtonPost/31January2009]

Obituaries

Montgomery Council Member Donald Praisner Dies. Donald Praisner, who was elected last year to the Montgomery County Council seat left vacant by the death of his wife, has died. He was 76.

Praisner's chief of staff, Joy Nurmi, said the council member died today at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda from complications following cancer surgery Monday.

Praisner was elected in May to replace his wife, Marilyn Praisner, who served for 17 years on the council. She died in February after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery.

Donald Praisner, a retired CIA analyst, had lived in Montgomery County for more than 60 years. His district includes parts of Silver Spring, Wheaton, Aspen Hill and Olney.  [BaltimoreSun/30January2009] 

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

7 February 2009, 11:30 am - Melbourne Beach, FL - AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter meeting features Capt Giles R. Norrington. Norrington, USN (Ret) was a former POW at the Hanoi Hilton. He was a Navy Pilot, shot down over North Vietnam in his RA-5C Aircraft on his 22nd mission, on 5 May 1968. He was a POW until 14 March 1973 and spent time in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. His topic - highly appropriate for these times as well, is "Getting Through the Tough Times." To attend this important event, Donnacz12@aol.com or call her at 321-722-3010.

Wednesday, 11 February 2009 - Albuquerque, NM - The Tom Smith New Mexico Chapter meets at 1130 hours in the “back room” at the Calico Café / Vernon’s Steak House, right next to the historic old El Camino Motel, about ½ mile north of Osuna on the west side of 4th Street. Speaker TBA. Inquiries and registration to JOE YARDUMIAN at jjyard@q.com

Thursday, 12 February 2009, 11:30 a.m. - Scottsdale, AZ - AFIO Arizona Chapter features David Low, NIO, on Counter-Terrorism. DAVID LOW, recently retired as the National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Transitional Threats with the National Intelligence Council (NIC). The National Intelligence Council is a unique body of the most senior experts charged with providing strategic intelligence assessments. In this position Mr. Low was the senior advisor to the Director of National Intelligence on global terrorism issues. NEW LOCATION: McCORMICK RANCH GOLF COURSE 7505 McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale AZ 85258 ~ Phone 480.948.0260)
Mr. Low shaped the post 9/11 analytical framework, provided leadership to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) on terrorism analysis, and produced National Intelligence Estimates and other strategic assessments on terrorism which he coordinated with all sixteen agencies within the IC. He is now a consultant with the NIC and Oxford Analytica. (http://www.oxan.com)
RSVP: WE WILL NEED FOR EVERY MEETING an RSVP no later than 72 hours ahead of time; in the past, not reserving or cancelling without prior notice (72 hours prior to the meeting) created much grief for those of us organizing the meeting and dealing with the personnel! At this new location, we can also be charged for the no-shows and please remember, we are a small organization with a humble coffer! We would therefore APPRECIATE that you all respond to this email to confirm your presence (or not).
Our meeting fees will be as follows: • $20.00 for AFIO members, • $22.00 for guests
For reservations or questions, please email Simone sl@4smartphone.net or simone@afioaz.org or call and leave a message on 602.570.6016
Art Kerns, President of the AZ Chapter, mailto: nyu1972@aol.com or sl@4smartphone.net

Wednesday, 18 February 2009, 6:00 p.m. - Nellis AFB, NV - The AFIO Las Vegas Chapter Meeting features "The Real History of the Civil Air Transport / Air America" The featured speaker for the evening will be Mr. L. Michael Kandt, General Secretary Air America Association. Mr. Kandt will speak on the "The Real History and Accomplishments of the Civil Air Transport/Air America" Mr. Kandt will have on display two prints of original oil paintings that represent events during operations in Laos.
Place: The Officers' Club at Nellis Air Force Base.
Dinner: The Officers' Club has an excellent, informal dinner venue along with a selection of snacks. You are welcome to arrive early and join us in the "Check Six" bar area. Water will be provided during the meeting, but you may also purchase beverages and food at the bar and bring them to the meeting. Once again, please feel free to bring your spouse and/or guest(s) to dinner as well as our meeting.
For further information or to register email Eppley, Christine J. [eppley@nv.doe.gov] or call her at 702-295-0073

19 February 2009 – San Francisco, CA – The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Dave Townsend, of Computer Forensics. Mr. Townsend is a recognized authority on computer forensics and cyber crime investigations, with more than 20 years of police & detective experience, including many high profile assignments with the Silicon Valley High Tech Crimes Task Force and the FBI REACT Task Force. His presentation will cover the growing threat of cyber-terrorism, including procedures used by persons attacking computer systems, data or infrastructure, criminal use of internet and digital communications and protection techniques used by law enforcement. RSVP required. The meeting will be held at United Irish Cultural Center, 2700 45th Avenue, San Francisco (between Sloat and Wawona). 11:30 AM no host cocktails; noon - luncheon. $25 member rate with advance reservation and payment; $35 non-member. E-mail RSVP to Mariko Kawaguchi (please indicate meat or fish) no later than 5PM 2/10/09: mariko@cataphora.com or mail check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, P.O. Box 117578 Burlingame, CA 94011. (650) 622-9840 X608

20 -21 February 2009 - Baltimore, MD - Ethics in the Intelligence Community 2009 - The 4th Annual Conference of the International Intelligence Ethics Association
List of topics: • The Foundations of Ethics in Intelligence; • The Ethics of Intelligence Assassinations: The Israeli Experience; • The Application of Stakeholder Analysis to Covert Action; • Legitimizing Intelligence Ethics: A Comparison to Ethics in Business; • Surreptitious Physical Searches: An Ethics of Privacy; • Many Spheres of Harm: What's Wrong with Intelligence Collection; • The Ethical Implications of the Downing Street Memos; • The Role of Ethics Reform in Turkey's Bid to Join the EU; • Evolution of British Intelligence & Counter-Terrorism: Northern Ireland, 1969 - 1998.; Location: The Johns Hopkins University at Mt. Washington Conference Center Baltimore, Maryland.
Register now and save $50.00. This year, on-line registration is available and encouraged by all attendees. You can reserve your space at the conference and get a hotel room at the same time!
Registration Fees: Individual - Institution - $450; Individual - $375; Student - $250
For more information about registration fees, including fees for early and late registration, go to http://intelligence-ethics.org/conference/09/index.html.
Registration fees include continental breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Friday, and continental breakfast and lunch on Saturday.
Lodging: The Mt. Washington Conference Center has 48 guestrooms for conference attendees. Single rooms with a queen-size bed and double rooms with two double beds are available.
The room rate is $150 per night. If you have any questions, please feel free to contract them at conference2009@intelligence-ethics.org.

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 - Arlington, VA - The Defense Intelligence Forum meets at the Alpine Restaurant, 4770 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22207. Speaker will be Ms. Sharon A. Houy on the way ahead for the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Defense Intelligence Enterprise. Ms. Houy is the DIA Associate Deputy Director. She leads agency and combatant command efforts to create a more agile, professional Defense intelligence enterprise. She chairs the DIA-Command Executive Board, which addresses combatant command transition issues and develops enterprise goals and objectives. She has served as DIA representative to the National Security Agency, Chief of the Counterproliferation and Technology Office, Vice Deputy Director for Production, and Research Director for Military Assessments. Pay at the door with a check for $29 made payable to DIAA, Inc Social hour starts at 1130, lunch at 1200 RSVP by 18 February by email to diforum@verizon.net
In your response, give your name and the names of your guests. For each, choose chicken, veal, or salmon. Include also your telephone number and email address.
Pay at the door with a check for $29 per person. Make checks payable to DIAA, Inc. WE DON’T TAKE CASH! If you don’t have a check, you’ll have to have the restaurant charge your credit or debit card $29 and present the restaurant’s copy when you check in for lunch. (Don’t let the waiter keep the restaurant’s copy.)

26 February 2009, Noon to 1 pm - Washington, DC - The Spy Within: Larry Chin and China’s Penetration of the CIA
In October 1982, the FBI received chilling information from the CIA—the Agency had learned China was running a spy inside US intelligence, but the spy’s identity, where he worked and for how long, and what information he was passing was unknown. Over the next three years, investigators worked frantically to identify the mole, to discover the secrets he’d betrayed and the agents he’d endangered, and to collect the evidence to prosecute him for his betrayal. The investigation ultimately revealed that for more than thirty years, Larry Chin, the CIA’s leading Chinese linguist, had been a top Chinese penetration of the Agency. In the first book to explore Chin’s betrayal, Tod Hoffman uses exclusive interviews, previously unreleased documents, and his own practical expertise as a former spy-catcher for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to spin a captivating cat-and-mouse tale. Join Hoffman as he discusses the untold story of one of America’s biggest spy cases.
International Spy Museum, 800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
TICKETS: No registration required. Free.

4 March 2009, 6:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - Josephine Baker: Singer, Dancer, Spy - A discussion at Spy Museum
“I am ready to give the Parisians my life.”—Josephine Baker
From Broadway to the Rue Fontaine, the extraordinary Josephine Baker was the toast of the international nightclub circuit. Born in the United States, the talented African American singer-dancer moved to France to escape racism in America and became an enormous star. She triumphed at the Folies Berg�re and enjoyed the acclaim of European society. Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Her caf� society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She heroically stayed in France after the invasion working closely with the French Resistance to undermine the Nazi occupation. Her espionage exploits are just one chapter in Baker’s extraordinary life. Join Jonna Mendez, former CIA chief of disguise, as she reveals Baker’s intelligence work and places it in the context of her exciting and celebrated life.
International Spy Museum, 800 F Street, NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
TICKETS: $15; Advance Registration required. Tickets are non-refundable and do not include admission to the International Spy Museum. To register, call 202.393.7798; order online at www.spymuseum.org; or purchase tickets in person at the International Spy Museum.

5 - 6 March 2009 - Houston, TX - "Terrorism, Crime & Business" Symposium - Understanding the Fundamental Legal and Security Liability Issues for American Business. A conference sponsored by St. Mary's University., School of Law, Center for Terrorism Law. Four Main Symposium Themes: • An overview of the aims and objectives of the global terror threat posed by al-Qa’eda-styled terror groups, sub-State terror groups, and “lone-wolf” terrorists.
• An analysis of the specific threats to American business sectors that are deemed part of the nation’s “critical infrastructure,” i.e., energy, petrochemical, electric utilities, communication, transportation, health, banking and finance, agriculture, water and shipping. • An understanding of the varied legal issues associated with terrorism and criminal negligence claims against businesses that have suffered a terror attack or serious criminal act in cyberspace or the physical world. • A comprehensive review of how to develop appropriate physical security methods.
SPEAKERS and LOCATION: The symposium will be held at the Federal Reserve Bank, 1801 Allen Parkway, Houston, Texas. The registration fee is $300.00, which includes breakout refreshments, a hosted lunch,
and extensive printed materials, e.g., Terrorism Law: Materials, Cases, Comments (5th Ed. 2009). Participants may qualify for Continuing Legal Education Credits (CLE). For registration information and details, contact Ms. Faithe Campbell at (210) 431-2219; fcampbell@stmarytx.edu. Additional information is also available at the Center for Terrorism Law website: www.stmarytx.edu/ctl.

Wednesday, 11 March 2009 - Albuquerque, NM - The New Mexico Chapter of AFIO meets at the FBI Crest Academy. Inquiries and registration to JOE YARDUMIAN at jjyard@q.com

25 - 27 March 2009 - Raleigh, NC - "Sexspionage" The 6th annual Raleigh Spy Conference salutes lady spies - and their counterparts on the other side - with expert speakers delivering riveting tales of Sexspionage, the new term characterizing the current emphasis on gender in the murky world of international intrigue. Sexspionage Subject for Sixth Raleigh Spy Conference
Lady spies have played a crucial role in espionage for centuries, from ancient civilizations through the Biblical era, world wars, the Cold War and today's sophisticated environment of modern espionage. As the flood of newly declassified documents over the past 15 years attests, female operatives were responsible for many of the most daring intelligent operations of the modern era - while others played a notorious role working against the US. And the role of sex in spy adventures has taken center stage though the ages.
Brian Kelley, popular former conference speaker and retired CIA operations officer, returns to Raleigh with a special presentation highlighted by videotaped, jailhouse interviews of convicted spies and their wives (the spouses of former FBI agents Earl Pitts and Richard Miller along with the former wife of CIA officer, Jim Nicholson); wives who were complicit in their husband's espionage (Barbara Walker, Anne Henderson Pollard and Rosario Ames) along with an interview of the former Soviet citizen who seduced FBI agent Richard Miller on behalf of the KGB.
Ron Olive, retired special agent from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and author of the definitive book "Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History was Brought to Justice", that uncovered the complicit role of Pollard's wife Anne. He will present a power point presentation on the role of the Pollards and the incredible damage they did to our national security.
I.C. Smith, former FBI Special Agent in charge, will return to Raleigh to present the inside story of Katrina Leung, known inside the FBI as "Parlor Maid", who managed to seduce her two FBI case agents and thus compromising them during the course of this twenty year operation. She was first used by the FBI as a double agent, then "doubled back" or "tripled" by Chinese intelligence against the FBI and later becoming the only known "quadruple" (re-doubled back against the Chinese by the FBI) agent yet exposed. The intelligence which the FBI derived from the Parlor Maid case went to four US presidents.
Terry Crowdy, British espionage writer and researcher will offer the role of female spies and tales of seduction from antiquity, the Christian era to modern lady spies at work today. Crowdy's book "The Enemy Within" is considered one of the top surveys of espionage.
Jerrold L. Schecter is a historian and journalist with extensive first-hand experience in Russia, Ukraine, Japan, China and Southeast Asia. He began his career with the Wall Street Journal and then spent 18 years with Time Magazine. He was a foreign correspondent covering Indo-China based in the Hong Kong bureau (1960-1963); a Nieman Fellow at Harvard (1963-1964); bureau chief in Tokyo (1964-1968) and Moscow (1968-1970); White House correspondent (1971-1973) and diplomatic editor (1973-1977). While based in Moscow he was instrumental in the acquisition of Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs and their preparation for publication.
Nigel West, the keynote speaker is an old friend of the Raleigh Spy Conference. The former Member of Parliament - and a leading expert on modern espionage - is the author of the forthcoming "Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage," will be released at this special conference. West is a popular and engaging speaker sure to offer telling insights and entertaining stories on this intriguing subject.
Click here to view the Raleigh schedule of events.
Event Locations and Accommodations inRaleigh, North Carolina USA
Information about Raleigh, North Carolina USA can be found at www.visitRaleigh.com.
For map of downtown Raleigh area: click here
For an interactive map of Raleigh area: click here .
Conference Venue: The 6th Raleigh Spy Conference will be held at the NC Museum of History. 5 East Edenton Street (between Salisbury and Wilmington Steets) in downtown Raleigh, NC 27601 ph: 919-807-7900
Costs - Full registration for all sessions and one ticket to the Spy Gala: $250
Veterans, members of the military and the intelligence community: $175
Seniors over 62, teachers and students: $145.
Special discount for ladies! Only $125 for the entire conference package.
Registration: You can register online or call 919-831-0999.
Download Raleigh Spy Conference registration form, complete, and mail, fax or email while space remains: Registration Form Spy 09.pdf.

20 - 24 April 2009 - Las Vegas, NV - The International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts Annual Conference. The International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts and the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, host their Annual Conference at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. The theme will be “Criminal Intelligence: Improving the Odds”. Internationally recognized speakers who are at the forefront of the war on crime and terrorism and those who are leaders in the intelligence community will be on hand to provide up-to-date information. Private security personnel are invited to attend non-law enforcement sensitive training at the nonmember rate. Speakers and workshops will involve training related to: criminal intelligence; international and domestic terrorism; legal issues in criminal intelligence; organized crime and gangs; and information sharing among law enforcement. See the LEIU website for updated confirmed speaker information. Seminar-related Activities: • Hosted Banquet – April 23, 2009; • Additional Activities TBA. For more information, please visit the LEIU website at http://leiu-homepage.org/events/index.php

2 May 2009 - Washington, DC - The OSS Society William J. Donovan Award Dinner Honors General David H. Petraeus, USA, Commander, United States Central Command at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 1330 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, DC. Black Tie/Dress Mess. Cocktails, $150 pp. 6:30 p.m., Dinner 7:30 p.m. For further information or to register call 703-356-6667 or visit oss@osssociety.org

13 June 2009 - Boston, MA - AFIO Boston Pops Committee commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. Join AFIO Boston-based members at the Boston Pops in celebrating our nations triumphant achievement. Historic footage of the lunar landing provided by NASA will accompany a program of stirring patriotic music including Holst’s The Planets. Honor one of Americas proudest moments in space exploration with a spectacular Pops concert.  The AFIO Pops Committee has relocated the event back to Boston for our seventh annual Pops social event. Conductor Keith Lockhart will lead the Pops at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115. Further details will be announce soon.
.

For Additional Events two+ months or greater....view our online Calendar of Events

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