AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #13-09 dated 14 April 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Defense Companies Seek Czar for Cyber Security Overhaul. General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and other defense companies want the Obama Administration to name a czar to lead a cyber security overhaul.

The recommendations from the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA) come as the administration conducts a 60-day review of all government cyber plans, due this month.

The group recommends creation of one leadership position at the White House to draw up a cyber security plan and align cyber security priorities across government agencies.

INSA calls itself a professional association. Contributors to the report include officers at General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, among others.

The private sector owns about 85 percent of critical infrastructure in the United States, according to industry groups.

Concern about protecting computer data from attacks is fueling the cyber security business at a time when analysts expect overall U.S. defense spending to flatten or decline.

The report will go to the Obama administration's point person on cyber security, Melissa Hathaway, a top adviser to the former director of national intelligence.

The report said the government should work with private sector groups to form a consensus on industry standards for cyber defense, addressing what level of security is necessary for different applications, such as electrical and financial.

A recent report by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch forecast that the cyber security market would total $14.6 billion in fiscal 2009, including classified and unclassified spending, and rise to $25.5 billion by fiscal 2013.

The U.S. software industry is also pushing for a greater role as government officials develop a policy to ward off attacks on the nation's communications infrastructure.

The Business Software Alliance, which represents companies including Microsoft Corp and Dell Inc., told White House officials last month the government should share more threat and attack information with the industry. [Dixon&Orr/Reuters/6April2009] 

US Sailor Conducted Espionage on Behalf of Al-Qaeda. Hassan Abu-Jihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, 33, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark R. Kravitz in New Haven to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for disclosing previously classified information relating to the national defense.

According to the evidence provided at trial, in 2001, four or five months after the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole, Abu-Jihaad provided classified information regarding the movements of a United States Navy battle group to Azzam Publications. Azzam is a London-based organization that is alleged to have provided material support and resources to persons engaged in acts of terrorism through the creation and use of various Internet web sites, e-mail communications, and other means.

At the time the classified information was disclosed to Azzam Publications, Abu-Jihaad was a sailor in the United States Navy on active duty in the Middle East and was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Benfold, one of the ships in the battle group whose movements were disclosed.

Evidence presented at trial indicated that, in December 2003, British law enforcement officers recovered a computer floppy disk in a residence of one of the operators of Azzam Publications. Forensic analysis of the disk revealed a password-protected Microsoft Word document describing previously classified information regarding the upcoming movements of a U.S. Naval battle group as it was to transit from San Diego to its deployment in the Persian Gulf in 2001. The document went on to discuss the battle group's perceived vulnerability to terrorist attack.

According to the evidence at trial, subsequent investigation uncovered several email exchanges from late 2000 to late 2001 between members of Azzam Publications and Abu-Jihaad, including discussions regarding videos Abu-Jihaad ordered from Azzam Publications that promoted violent jihad and extolled the virtues of martyrdom; a small donation of money Abu-Jihaad made to Azzam Publications; and whether it was "safe" to send materials to Abu-Jihaad at his military address onboard the U.S.S. Benfold.

In another email exchange with Azzam Publications, Abu-Jihaad described a recent force protection briefing given aboard his ship, voiced enmity toward America, praised Osama bin Laden and the mujahideen, praised the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole - which Abu-Jihaad described as a "martyrdom operation," - and advised the members of Azzam Publications that such tactics were working and taking their toll. The email response from Azzam Publications encouraged Abu-Jihaad to :keep up... the psychological warfare." 

The evidence at trial also indicated that Abu-Jihaad's contact information - namely, his Navy email account - was among the few saved in an Azzam Publications online address book.

The evidence at trial also included court-authorized wiretap recordings, during which Abu-Jihaad used coded conversation to refer to jihad; admonished others not to speak openly about jihad over the phone or on the Internet because it was "tapped"; and discussed having conversations with associates using a shredder and after frisking them for electronic components.

On March 5, 2008, a federal jury in New Haven found Abu-Jihaad guilty of one count of providing material support of terrorism, and one count disclosing previously classified information relating to the national defense. On March 4, 2009, Judge Kravitz partially granted a defense motion for a judgment of acquittal on the material support of terrorism charge. The charge of disclosing previously classified information relating to the national defense carries a statutory maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

This case is being pursued by a Task Force out of Connecticut consisting of law enforcement officers from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Internal Revenue Service's Electronic Crimes Program; the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. [Kouri/AmericanDaily/6April2009] 

Russian TV Accuses US of Spying on Russia, China. A documentary on Russian state television has accused the U.S. of using an air base in Kyrgyzstan to spy on Russia and China - an allegation a spokesman for the base flatly denied on Monday.

The film, aired Sunday on the Rossiya TV channel, showed a building it said was used for electronic surveillance and identified a woman it said worked in the U.S. Embassy as a CIA agent.

Kyrgyzstan has ordered the United States to leave the facility by August, dashing plans to use it as thousands more troops prepare to pour into Afghanistan. The announcement of the closure came shortly after Russia pledged to give Kyrgyzstan more than $2 billion in aid and loans. Russia also has an air base in the former Soviet republic.

The documentary showed a complex of windowless buildings at the base that its said required special passes to enter. The program said one building on the base housed an elaborate system of "radio-electronic reconnaissance."

The program also shows a woman identified as Vicki Lynn Rundquist, whom it says is first secretary of the political division at the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan and an undercover CIA agent. It says she and a local contact scrawled chalk marks on lampposts to agree on meeting times for covert encounters.

The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the report, saying it was not at liberty to reveal details about its personnel.

The film was made by Russian journalist Arkady Mamontov, who came to prominence in 2006 after producing footage purporting to show British diplomats exchanging classified information with local agents through a device disguised as a rock on a street in Moscow.

A year later, Mamontov claimed in another documentary that the CIA was funding Russian opposition groups with the aim of replicating the popular uprisings in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. [Sarayeva/AP/5April2009] 

Next-Generation Spy Satellite Network to be Established. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed a classified memo March 30 that would establish a program to build a multi-billion dollar, next-generation spy satellite network.

The program would add a further layer of complexity to the administration's current budget crunch dilemma, in which a number of large programs for new weapons systems are forcing government officials to pick and choose which will continue as part of the 2010 budget and which will be sharply cut back or canceled.

The debate between the intelligence community and the military over the configuration of the system has been heated. Specific details of the program are scant because of its classified nature.

DNI spokeswoman Vanee Vines confirmed April 2 that the two organizations have approved the electro-optical satellite network. She told the online journal that the decision was based on multiple panels and studies conducted over the last several years that showed a need for a new satellite network. Vines declined to discuss the costs or schedule of the proposed satellite system.

The system might cost $3.5 billion to get started, and potentially would cost up to $10 billion over the next five years, depending on which technical approach is approved and on how many satellites will be built. [FCW/6April2009] 

Spy Satellite Agency Boss Resigns. The head of the U.S. spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, has announced his resignation.

Scott Large sent a memo to NRO employees announcing his decision, which will be effective on April 18.

His announcement came just a day after the U.S. government said it would buy expensive new spy satellites and order more imagery from two commercial providers in a plan which analysts estimate will cost around $10 billion.

Large reportedly gave no specific reason for his departure, saying he had made a personal decision.

The Obama administration approved the new spy satellite plan despite strong criticism from Congress.

Large was appointed NRO director in October 2007. The director is chosen by the defense secretary with the agreement of the director of national intelligence. [Shalal-Esa/Reuters/9April2009] 

Iran Charges Imprisoned Journalist with Spying. An Iranian American journalist has been charged with espionage by the country's security court.

Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old freelance journalist living in Tehran, was arrested more than two months ago by authorities and is being held inside the capital's Evin Prison. Sohrab Heydarifard, the judge overseeing her case, told state television that she is being charged with working for U.S. intelligence.

"The charge against her is one of espionage," he said. "This accused has been coming and going to certain government circles under the cover of reporter and without a permit. And, through the contacts that she has made with certain employees of these government organizations, she has perpetrated actions to compile and gather information and documents and transferred them to American intelligence services."

Iranian authorities said Saberi had been investigated by the counter-espionage section of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, had confessed to the allegations and had been informed of the serious charges against her.

"The documents are there in her case and she has admitted to all of the charges," Hassan Haddad, deputy chief prosecutor at Tehran's Revolutionary Court, told the Iranian Students News Agency, or ISNA.

A trial will begin next week, Heydarifard said.

U.S. officials said they are closely monitoring Saberi's situation through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which serves as Washington's representative in the Islamic Republic.

Saberi, the daughter of an Iranian American father and Japanese American mother, worked as a journalist for various Western news outlets, including the British Broadcasting Corp. and National Public Radio. Authorities revoked her credentials in 2006, but she continued to report for broadcast outlets and work on a book.

Saberi's parents, Reza and Akiko, arrived in Tehran early Sunday morning and visited their daughter in prison Monday. She had been moved from Evin's solitary confinement ward to a general population segment.

Saberi, born in New Jersey, holds dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship and has been living in Tehran for six years, but Haddad said the Islamic Republic does not acknowledge her American nationality.

"She holds Iranian nationality, passport and birth certificate and has entered the country with her Iranian documents," he said. "We are not aware if she holds any other nationality and the issue will not influence how Iranian judicial sources handle the charges against her."

Saberi was arrested in late January. She told her parents in an early February phone conversation that she was detained after purchasing a bottle of wine, a criminal offense in Iran. Judiciary and Foreign Ministry officials later alleged that her reporting activities were illegal, though media law experts have disputed that interpretation of Iranian law.

Human-rights monitors have been alarmed by what they describe as a deterioration of civil liberties in Iran since the ascent of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005. Iranian officials allege that the U.S. and its allies are using journalists and human rights activists to stir up an uprising against the country's Islamic system, just as the West contributed to the downfall of former Communist governments and their successors in the 1990s and 2000s.

The gravity of the charges stunned Saberi's friends and colleagues, who hoped that she would be released with a vague charge of acting against national security after a few weeks in detention.

Journalists who knew Saberi said they doubted she gathered information for U.S. intelligence. Instead she busied herself interviewing politicians and officials of all political stripes for her book, which was to be about contemporary Iran. [Daragahi/LATimes/9April2009] 

Cuban Militant Posada Indicted on New Charges. An anti-Castro Cuban militant was accused last week in a federal indictment of lying about his involvement in a series of 1997 bombings that targeted tourist spots in Cuba.

Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative and U.S. Army soldier, was indicted on 11 counts, including perjury and obstruction of a federal proceeding. The 81-year-old militant had previously been indicted on six counts, including immigration fraud and lying to federal authorities in a bid to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.

The indictment is the first time he has been accused in the U.S. of being involved in the bombings. Cuban authorities have long accused Posada of orchestrating the bombings as well as a deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner.

A trial date has not been set.

Felipe Millan, Posada's El Paso lawyer, said Posada maintains his innocence.

Posada was originally indicted in January 2007. At the time, prosecutors alleged that he lied to investigators about having used an alias and how he entered the U.S. in the spring of 2005. Posada claims he sneaked across the border from Mexico near Brownsville, Texas. But prosecutors have alleged that he actually arrived in Miami on a boat from Mexico.

The new indictment charges that Posada, who is wanted in Venezuela and Cuba in the airline bombing, lied about being involved in "soliciting other individuals to carry out ... bombings in Cuba."

Prosecutors charged that he also lied about asking a man named Raul Cruz Leon to take explosives into Cuba that were used in a 1997 bombing. Cruz was sentenced to death for terrorism in the bombings, which killed an Italian tourist.

Though Posada has denied any involvement in the 1976 jetliner bombing or the Havana bombings in recent years, he has previously acknowledged involvement in the Havana hotel bombings - he told The New York Times that "we didn't want to hurt anybody."

In another published interview, Posada said the bombs were small and intended to only "break windows and cause minor damage." He called the death of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo "bad luck."

Cuban officials have alleged that Posada hired Cruz and another man to carry out the bombings as part of a plot to hurt tourism on the communist island.

Posada, a Cuban native and naturalized Venezuelan citizen, denied knowing Cruz or having anything to do with the 1997 bombings in Cuba during a hearing in El Paso in 2005. Posada has also recanted previous published statements that he was involved.

Posada was arrested on immigration charges in Miami in 2005. He was held at an immigration jail in El Paso until being indicted in the fraud case.

He initially sought asylum in the U.S., before withdrawing that application and asking to become a naturalized citizen.

An immigration judge in El Paso ordered that Posada should be deported in 2005, but said the ailing militant could not be sent to his native Cuba or Venezuela because of fears he could be tortured.

Posada has been free on bond, living with his family in Florida, since 2007.

The fraud case against Posada was initially thrown out by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, who said the government manipulated Posada's naturalization interview. In a lengthy ruling, Cardone said the government's Spanish-to-English translation of the April 2006 interview was "so inaccurate as to render it unreliable as evidence of defendant's actual statement."

The judge also agreed with Posada's lawyers that the naturalization interview had been a pretext for a criminal investigation of Posada.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed Cardone's ruling last year and earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Posada's request to have the case dismissed based on government trickery. [Caldwell/Chron/9April2009] 

Anti-Terror Swoops Follow Months of Surveillance. The scale and speed of the anti-terror operation mounted by hundreds of officers across north-west England last night points to extensive prior surveillance of a suspected plot aimed at domestic targets.

The home secretary's decision to congratulate police even as the raids were going on reinforced the theory that senior Whitehall officials were confident a major security threat had been countered.

Describing it as a "successful anti-terrorism operation", Jacqui Smith said: "The decision to take such action was an operational matter for the police and the Security Service but the prime minister and I were kept fully appraised of developments. We face a severe terrorist threat in this country."

Intelligence sources said the information gathered indicated "a potentially serious plot against UK targets", adding: "The focus of this is in the UK." It is believed officers did not know the specific targets.

Other sources speculated that attacks may have been planned on nightclubs in Manchester's city center or the nearby Trafford shopping center complex.

The 12 men were arrested at seven separate locations across the north-west and at least another eight addresses were searched. Scores of students witnessed one arrest at Liverpool John Moores University.

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation which works with young Muslims, said: "I would urge caution ... There have been many anti-terror raids in the past where people have been proven innocent." [Guardian/9April2009] 

UK Terror Chief Quits After Security Blunder. Britain's top counter-terrorism officer resigned Thursday, a day after he accidentally exposed a sensitive document about a terrorism investigation.

Police rushed to make a series of raids in northwest England after two news photographers at the prime minister's residence captured Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick carrying a document containing the names of those to be arrested.

Quick later apologized for his blunder. "I have today offered my resignation in the knowledge that my action could have compromised a major counter-terrorism operation," Quick said in a statement.

Steve Back, one of the photographers who snapped the image, said he was at 10 Downing Street to cover a breakfast meeting of more than 30 chief constables. He photographed Quick as he arrived towards the end of the meeting, he said.

"I didn't know what I had until I put it in my computer," Back told CNN. He zoomed in and was able to read parts of the document, with "SECRET" printed atop the page.

"This is a Security service led investigation into suspected AQ (al Qaeda) driven attack planning within the UK," the document read.

It described the "planned detention" of 11 people in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.

Ironically, the bottom of the document read, "Media strategy has been ratified."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said he continued to hold Quick in the highest regard despite his error.

London Mayor Boris Johnson also praised Quick's "long and distinguished career" and said he accepted the resignation from the police force with regret.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates will take over as head of specialist operations. [CNN/9April2009] 

Obama to Request $83.4 Billion for Wars, Foreign Aid. President Barack Obama is seeking $83.4 billion more for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other military and foreign aid programs.

The request for the remainder of the 2009 fiscal year includes $75.8 billion for the combat operations. Since the start of the two wars, lawmakers have appropriated a total of $830 billion for them - $657 billion in Iraq and $173 billion in Afghanistan, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The new, so-called supplemental funding request includes $3.6 billion to accelerate growth of the Afghanistan Security Force, according to data provided Congress. Beefing up that force was part of the revised strategy to thwart Islamic militants in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan that Obama announced last month.

Also part of the funding request is the first $400 million of what could be a $3 billion fund to improve Pakistan counter- insurgency capability, the data shows.

Obama's proposal seeks $11.6 billion to buy ammunition, ground equipment and aircraft to replace expended missiles, rockets, bullets and damaged aircraft, according to the data. That money includes $600 million to buy the last four Lockheed Martin Corp. F-22 fighters the Pentagon wants and $400 million for 12 Boeing Co. AH-64 Apache helicopters.

The request would fund a variety of other military expenditures, including $1.2 billion to accelerate "Wounded Warrior" initiatives for troops injured and disabled in the wars, $1.5 billion to continue efforts to counter roadside bombs and $3.8 billion for classified military intelligence programs.

Another $2.2 billion would speed up the growth of the Army to 547,000 personnel and Marine Corps to 202,000 members.

The administration is also asking for $30 million to begin shutting down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, and $800 million in reconstruction and humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank.

Congress already has approved $65.9 billion in emergency wartime spending for fiscal 2009, which ends Sept. 30. And the additional 2009 request by Obama is on top a request for $130 billion for the wars in the administration's budget proposal for fiscal 2010.  
[Capaccio&Faler/Bloomberg/10April2009] 

Intelligence Community Defends Pay for Performance Expansion. The intelligence community is urging the Obama administration to allow the continued expansion of its pay-for-performance system after a group of Democratic lawmakers last week asked the Office of Management and Budget to suspend the implementation of such programs.

"We've tried to make the case to the Hill and also to OMB that with particular respect to the intelligence community...we are fundamentally different than the workforce covered by the National Security Personnel System [now suspended pending a review]," said Ronald Sanders, chief human capital officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, during a Thursday conference call with reporters. "Our system is based on the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's system, 10 years of experience and in my view, one of the most successful and least known pay-for-performance systems."

Sanders said that discussions with OMB were still under way, and he was unsure when a decision about the future expansion of federal pay-for-performance systems would be reached. Eight Democratic lawmakers wrote to OMB Director Peter R. Orszag on April 3 to argue that a government-wide review of pay-for-performance systems was necessary because some systems had resulted in discrimination and low employee morale.

But Sanders pointed to data from the Intelligence Community's 2008 Employee Climate Survey to make the case for expanding pay for performance across the 16 intelligence agencies. Twenty-nine percent of respondents to the 2008 survey said pay raises at their agency were linked to performance, up 1 percent from 2007. The number of respondents and results from individual agencies is classified, but Sanders said the majority of employees who participated in the survey do not work under pay-for-performance systems. At NGIA, where pay for performance is well-established, positive responses to the pay raise question were "double-digit better," said Sanders.

On other performance management-related questions, Sanders said the results were "not nearly good enough." Forty percent of survey respondents said performance differences in their work unit were recognized in a meaningful way, and 42 percent said promotions were merit-based.

In a more promising sign for performance management, 75 percent of intelligence community employees said that their front-line supervisors were doing a good job, a measurement Sanders said he was proud of because, "traditionally, [immediate supervisors are] often thought of as a weak link."

Respondents showed less faith in higher-ranking officials, with 48 percent reporting they were satisfied with the policies and practices of their agency leaders. Sanders said he thought that the implementation of 360-degree evaluations, in which supervisors and leaders get feedback from the employees they oversee, their colleagues and their own supervisors, would make managers and leaders more responsive.

Sanders said he had briefed agency leaders on Tuesday on the survey results, and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair was considering the results as he reviewed the improvement plans from intelligence agency heads. [Rosenberg/GovExec/10April2009] 

Medical Personnel Accused of Helping CIA Torture Prisoners. Some medical personnel allegedly took part in the torture of "high-level detainees" at CIA detention centers as part of the war on terrorism, according to a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The "strictly confidential" report, written in 2007 and published recently on the Web site of the New York Review of Books, detailed interviews the agency conducted with 14 prisoners - including the alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - after they were transferred to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

The prisoners described a wide array of psychological and physical abuse while in CIA custody lasting up to four-and-a-half years. The tactics amounted to "torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," according to the report.

Specific acts included near-suffocation by water (water boarding), forcing prisoners to stand with their arms chained above their heads, beatings, confinement within a box, prolonged nudity, sleep deprivation, exposure to cold temperatures, prolonged shackling, exposure to constant loud music, threats to the detainee and his family, forced shaving of the head and facial hair, and food restrictions.

The prisoners said that, in addition to routine medical checks before and after transfers and the provision of healthcare for routine ailments - which was described as "appropriate and satisfactory" - medical personnel actively monitored or directly engaged in torture in some cases.

Mohammed claimed that during one water-boarding session a doctor placed a clip on his finger, which, from the description, "appeared to be a pulse oximeter," according to the report.

Another detainee "alleged that a health person threatened that medical care would be conditional upon cooperation with the interrogators," the report said.

The ICRC said the consistency of the detainees' accounts gave credibility to their allegations.

If the accounts are true, the agency said, the medical personnel acted unethically.

"The alleged participation of health personnel in the interrogation process and, either directly or indirectly, in the infliction of ill-treatment constituted a gross breach of medical ethics and, in some cases, amounted to participation in torture and/or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," the report said.

"The role of the physician and any other health professional involved in the care of detainees is explicitly to protect them from such ill-treatment and there can be no exceptional circumstances invoked to excuse this obligation."

Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association have policies prohibiting physicians from participating in government interrogations. The American Psychological Association instituted a similar policy last year.

President Barack Obama has renounced the use of torture in dealing with prisoners but has opposed efforts to punish interrogators who might have been guilty of abuses during the Bush administration. [Neale/MedPage/9April2009] 

'Hezbollah Agents' Face Spy Charges in Egypt. Egypt's attorney general has charged 49 alleged Hezbollah agents with espionage and plotting to destabilize the country. 

Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud told Egypt's state-run news agency MENA that the alleged agents, including Lebanese, Palestinian, Egyptian and Sudanese nationals, have been spying for a foreign group intending to carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt.

Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has rejected the accusations but confirmed over the weekend that it had sent a member to Egypt - a rare acknowledgment that the Lebanese militant group was operating in another Arab country. [UKPress/9April2009] 

Syria Intelligence Failure. Former United Nations Ambassador John R. Bolton is faulting U.S. intelligence agencies for missing early signs of a covert Syrian nuclear program when he first raised the issue in 2003.

The secret Syrian nuclear plant was confirmed by a defecting Iranian scientist and led to a daring Israeli air strike on the al Kibar plant in September 2007.

Mr. Bolton said that in mid-2003 he waged a "a bitter struggle" with members of several intelligence agencies over the Syrian nuclear program.

U.S. intelligence had argued - incorrectly, in retrospect - that Syria could not develop nuclear weapons because its military lacked the scientific capabilities and resources to fund the program, said Mr. Bolton, now with the American Enterprise Institute.

"The intelligence that did exist - which I thought warranted close observation of Syria, at a minimum - the [intelligence community] discounted as inconsistent with its fixed opinions," he wrote. "In short, theirs was not an intelligence conclusion, but a policy view presented under the guise of intelligence. How wrong they were."

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano rejected Mr. Bolton's claim that the Syrian nuclear program was an intelligence failure. "The discovery and identification of the reactor was, as others have noted, a true intelligence success," he said. "With patience and rigor, information from multiple sources was tested and pieced together, forming a convincing picture. The Intelligence Community went where the information led, just as the mission requires." [Gertz/WashingtonTimes/9April2009] 

Libya Names New Chief of Key Intelligence Body. Libya has picked a successor to Moussa Koussa as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, six weeks after Koussa took over as foreign minister.

Libya experts had wondered whether Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi would let Koussa keep his position as spymaster alongside his job as foreign minister, or would trim his influence by distancing him from the intelligence agencies.

The new spy chief is Abu Zaid Omar Dourdaa, a former deputy prime minister and a staunch Gaddafi supporter, officials said.

The Foreign Intelligence Service has been one of Gaddafi's main tools for spreading his influence in Africa and beyond. It was prominent in combating dissidents based abroad and in a confrontation with the West that lasted almost three decades.

But it was also instrumental in helping Libya out of isolation and back into mainstream international politics. It worked on British and U.S. intelligence to convince London and Washington that Tripoli wanted normal relations.

Dourdaa, 65, is widely known in Tripoli as an intellectual and is credited with good management skills.

He was successively a provincial governor, a culture minister, deputy foreign minister, economy and farming minister, a deputy speaker of parliament and deputy prime minister.

He was also Libya's envoy to the United Nations in New York before becoming the country's railway company head and then managing director of the government's largest housing projects.

Libya's Foreign Intelligence Service cooperates closely with U.S. and other Western spying bodies to fight al Qaeda in North and Sub Sahara Africa, where Libya enjoys some influence. [Ghanmi/Alertnet/12April2009] 

U.K. Police Seek Evidence to Back Arrests of Terror Suspects. U.K. police searched more northwest England locations for evidence tied to the arrest of Pakistani terrorism suspects earlier this week, as U.K. and Pakistan government officials traded barbs over how to close the net on terrorists.

The U.K. government now is bracing for the possibility that it may not have enough evidence to prosecute most of the 12 people arrested, according to two people familiar with the matter. That could result in the case becoming an immigration matter focusing on whether the suspects properly entered the U.K. from Pakistan.

Police have been granted time to detain those arrested, and evidence could still result in a major terrorist case. Greater Manchester police said that of the 12 arrested, 11 men, between the ages of 22 and 41, will be detained for an additional seven days. That detention could extend beyond a week. One man, 18 years old, was released to the U.K. Border Agency.

U.K. police Wednesday arrested a dozen people, including people born in Pakistan who are in the U.K. on student visas.

The case was built with the help of the U.K.'s domestic-intelligence agency, MI5, and included the use of intercepted communications, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Officials were fearful an attack was imminent and that one might occur during the four-day Easter holiday period.

The carefully built case was accelerated when the Metropolitan Police Service's counter-terrorism chief was photographed Wednesday morning carrying papers that revealed details on the pending raids, called "Operation Pathway." Police then scrambled to arrest the suspects before word of their plans leaked to the public. The police official who inadvertently disclosed the operation, Bob Quick, resigned Thursday.

Failing to bring major charges against the men would compound the embarrassment. Government and police officials, however, continue to believe the evidence was very strong and that it pointed toward a serious attack.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday called it a "major terrorist plot." One positive sign for police: A magistrate has extended the time the suspects could be held as the police searched for evidence.

That at least 10 of the suspects were in the U.K. on student visas has raised questions about whether the Pakistan suspects had entered legally and were attending accredited schools.

The British have said Pakistan should do more to stop fraudulent visa applications.

On Friday, Pakistan's high commissioner to the U.K., Wajid Shamsul Hasan, told the BBC that the British government needs to do more to tighten its borders.

A person familiar with the situation said the suspects in this week's raids had signed up at accredited schools. A Home Office spokesman said those seeking student visas are fingerprinted and given biometric tests.

That information is cross-indexed with terrorism and crime watchlists.

The spokesman said the Home Office has worked to shut gaps in the visa-approval process.   [Mollenkamp/WalllStreetJournal/13April2009] 

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Why Did New CIA Chief Choose India? The decision by the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon Panetta who chose India for his first overseas trip - unprecedented in the annals of the spy agency's history - was deliberate and intended to sustain the momentum and institutionalize the unprecedented intelligence cooperation between Washington and New Delhi that began in the aftermath of the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, say intelligence officials.

Panetta visited India from March 18 to 20 even before he went over to Pakistan and met with Home Minister P Chidambaram, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and the new heads of the Research & Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau K C Verma and Rajiv Mathur respectively.

Intelligence officials said that the Mumbai terror attacks, although there had been some cooperation and sharing of intelligence between the US and India, "on an operational level, the level of cooperation of the intelligence services on both sides were far from satisfactory."

"Neither side, for whatever reasons, were prepared to take the kinds of steps that you see for instance routinely between the United States and Britain or the United States and Japan, or even between the US and Jordan," these officials acknowledged. "And, of course there were all these mutual suspicions."

But, the officials explained how "all this changed after Mumbai and things went to a different level. There was a level of operational confidence and cooperation that occurred after Mumbai that anything that had taken place previously."

Thus, according to the officials, "The DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) by going to India first wanted to clearly convey a message (that the US was looking towards operational cooperation with India) and to reaffirm his support for that improvement in cooperation."

In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, it was reported in The Washington Post that the CIA had "orchestrated back-channel intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan," allowing both countries to "quietly share highly sensitive evidence while the Americans served as neutral arbiters."

The report said that the exchanges, "gradually helped the two sides overcome mutual suspicions and paved the way for Islamabad's announcement," in early February that the conspiracy and planning of the attack had been launched in Pakistan.

But the intelligence officials told rediff.com that it was not so much the sharing of information by Pakistani intelligence, as it was the FBI and CIA confronting Pakistani with irrefutable communication intercepts and physical evidence that these agencies had collected on its own as well as in concert with Indian intelligence that forced Islamabad to acknowledge that some of the planning had occurred on Pakistani soil because it was faced with a fait accompli.

Former CIA analyst Lisa Curtis, currently a senior fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation, who heads up the think tank's South Asia Program, who has consistently urged for closer intelligence cooperation between the US and India, said she was extremely pleased that Panetta had made India his first stop and argued that it signaled something that went beyond mere symbolism and clear indication a desire by the US to institutionalize and operationalize this intelligence relationship.

Just two days after the Mumbai terror attacks, Curtis lamented in a report titled "India Terror Attacks Point to Need for Stronger US-India Counterterrorism Cooperation," that "despite their agreement on the need to aggressively contain terrorist threats, Washington and New Delhi have failed in the past to work as closely as they could to minimize terrorist threats." She wrote that "this failure is largely the result of divergent geo-strategic perceptions, Indian reticence to deepen the intelligence relationship, and US bureaucratic resistance toward elevating counterterrorism cooperation beyond a certain level." But Curtis argued in her paper that "the gravity of the threat posed to both countries from terrorists in the region require New Delhi and Washington to overcome past suspicions and recognize that they both stand to gain considerably from stepping up their cooperation."

Curtis said that in the past several years, despite the progress on the US-India civilian nuclear deal, "which was a major breakthrough in establishing trust on the nuclear issue specifically, what I saw was that we hadn't really made the counterterrorism relationship all that it could be."

"We really had failed to establish the kind of trust in tactical and strategic cooperation in this area, despite the fact that we have the same concerns and the urgency of our concerns, at the same level," she said. "We had failed to exploit the opportunities that are available and to deal with the issue and commensurate to the level of urgency both countries have in seeing the terrorist threat dealt with."

She acknowledged that much of it was also fueled by Indian paranoia over the CIA's ties with the ISI that had been formed in the wake of the erstwhile Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and New Delhi perhaps felt that intelligence sharing or even close cooperation with the CIA could lead to leaks to the ISI.

Even events over the past few years like India being convinced that it was the CIA who ferreted out a senior RAW official, who had been a US agent and transplanted him in the US as well as other such incidents with lower ranked Indian intelligence operatives had further compounded New Delhi's concerns over close links let along cooperation with the CIA.

"Certainly that contributed to the distrust between our two governments," Curtis agreed. "But events over the summer, particularly following the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul and the fact that the US shared information with Indian intelligence even before the attack warning that they had picked up information that something was coming up, even though unfortunately there wasn't enough information to prevent it," had led to the developing of trust between the CIA and Indian intelligence.

What catalyzed this even more, she said, was the US acknowledgement that "there was an ISI connection to this bombing - although it was not clear at what level also contributed to India's recognizing that the US was now much more aware and recognized that there is still a problem within the ISI and its connection to extremism."

More so, that Washington was now "more willing to call a spade a spade and recognize that even publicly. So, all this helped to inspire some confidence within India that the US was looking more realistically at the challenge in Pakistan."

Other intelligence officials said that there was also a vested interest behind the CIA's efforts to both solidify and operationalize its intelligence cooperation with India in that its links and trust of the ISI "has eroded to an extent," in the wake of some high value al Qaeda targets escaping just before US attacks that had led to US intelligence being convinced that they had been tipped off by some elements within the ISI.

These officials said that Panetta, who had visited Pakistan after his visit to India to meet with senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials, was intent on restoring this trust and confidence "and ultimately the best case scenario is for US, Pakistani and Indian intelligence to work cooperatively together to combat the common threat of terrorism in the region." [Haniffa/Zimbio/8April2009]

The Road to Area 51. Area 51. It's the most famous military institution in the world that doesn't officially exist. If it did, it would be found about 100 miles outside Las Vegas in Nevada's high desert, tucked between an Air Force base and an abandoned nuclear testing ground. Then again, maybe not - the U.S. government refuses to say. You can't drive anywhere close to it, and until recently, the airspace overhead was restricted - all the way to outer space. Any mention of Area 51 gets redacted from official documents, even those that have been declassified for decades.

It has become the holy grail for conspiracy theorists, with UFOlogists positing that the Pentagon reverse engineers flying saucers and keeps extraterrestrial beings stored in freezers. Urban legend has it that Area 51 is connected by underground tunnels and trains to other secret facilities around the country. In 2001, Katie Couric told Today Show audiences that 7 percent of Americans doubt the moon landing happened - that it was staged in the Nevada desert. Millions of X-Files fans believe the truth may be "out there," but more likely it's concealed inside Area 51's Strangelove-esque hangars - buildings that, though confirmed by Google Earth, the government refuses to acknowledge.

The problem is the myths of Area 51 are hard to dispute if no one can speak on the record about what actually happened there. Well, now, for the first time, someone is ready to talk - in fact, five men are, and their stories rival the most outrageous of rumors. Colonel Hugh "Slip" Slater, 87, was commander of the Area 51 base in the 1960s. Edward Lovick, 90, featured in "What Plane?" in LA's March issue, spent three decades radar testing some of the world's most famous aircraft (including the U-2, the A-12 OXCART and the F-117). Kenneth Collins, 80, a CIA experimental test pilot, was given the silver star. Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72, was an Area 51 special-projects engineer. And Harry Martin, 77, was one of the men in charge of the base's half-million-gallon monthly supply of spy-plane fuels. Here are a few of their best stories - for the record:

On May 24, 1963, Collins flew out of Area 51's restricted airspace in a top-secret spy plane code-named OXCART, built by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. He was flying over Utah when the aircraft pitched, flipped and headed toward a crash. He ejected into a field of weeds.

Almost 46 years later, in late fall of 2008, sitting in a coffee shop in the San Fernando Valley, Collins remembers that day with the kind of clarity the threat of a national security breach evokes: "Three guys came driving toward me in a pickup. I saw they had the aircraft canopy in the back. They offered to take me to my plane." Until that moment, no civilian without a top-secret security clearance had ever laid eyes on the airplane Collins was flying. "I told them not to go near the aircraft. I said it had a nuclear weapon on-board." The story fit right into the Cold War backdrop of the day, as many atomic tests took place in Nevada. Spooked, the men drove Collins to the local highway patrol. The CIA disguised the accident as involving a generic Air Force plane, the F-105, which is how the event is still listed in official records.

As for the guys who picked him up, they were tracked down and told to sign national security nondisclosures. As part of Collins' own debriefing, the CIA asked the decorated pilot to take truth serum. "They wanted to see if there was anything I'd for-gotten about the events leading up to the crash." The Sodium Pento-thal experience went without a hitch - except for the reaction of his wife, Jane.

"Late Sunday, three CIA agents brought me home. One drove my car; the other two carried me inside and laid me down on the couch. I was loopy from the drugs. They handed Jane the car keys and left without saying a word." The only conclusion she could draw was that her husband had gone out and gotten drunk. "Boy, was she mad," says Collins with a chuckle.

At the time of Collins' accident, CIA pilots had been flying spy planes in and out of Area 51 for eight years, with the express mission of providing the intelligence to prevent nuclear war. Aerial reconnaissance was a major part of the CIA's preemptive efforts, while the rest of America built bomb shelters and hoped for the best.

"It wasn't always called Area 51," says Lovick, the physicist who developed stealth technology. His boss, legendary aircraft designer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson, called the place Paradise Ranch to entice men to leave their families and "rough it" out in the Nevada desert in the name of science and the fight against the evil empire. "Test pilot Tony LeVier found the place by flying over it," says Lovick. "It was a lake bed called Groom Lake, selected for testing because it was flat and far from anything. It was kept secret because the CIA tested U-2s there."

When Frances Gary Powers was shot down over Sverdlovsk, Russia, in 1960, the U-2 program lost its cover. But the CIA already had Lovick and some 200 scientists, engineers and pilots working at Area 51 on the A-12 OXCART, which would outfox Soviet radar using height, stealth and speed.

Col. Slater was in the outfit of six pilots who flew OXCART missions during the Vietnam War. Over a Cuban meat and cheese sandwich at the Bahama Breeze restaurant off the Las Vegas Strip, he says, "I was recruited for the Area after working with the CIA's classified Black Cat Squadron, which flew U-2 missions over denied territory in Mainland China. After that, I was told, 'You should come out to Nevada and work on something interesting we're doing out there.' "

Even though Slater considers himself a fighter pilot at heart - he flew 84 missions in World War II - the opportunity to work at Area 51 was impossible to pass up. "When I learned about this Mach-3 aircraft called OXCART, it was completely intriguing to me - this idea of flying three times the speed of sound! No one knew a thing about the program. I asked my wife, Barbara, if she wanted to move to Las Vegas, and she said yes. And I said, 'You won't see me but on the weekends,' and she said, 'That's fine!' " At this recollection, Slater laughs heartily. Barbara, dining with us, laughs as well. The two, married for 63 years, are rarely apart today.

"We couldn't have told you any of this a year ago," Slater says. "Now we can't tell it to you fast enough." That is because in 2007, the CIA began declassifying the 50-year-old OXCART program. Today, there's a scramble for eyewitnesses to fill in the information gaps. Only a few of the original players are left. Two more of them join me and the Slaters for lunch: Barnes, formerly an Area 51 special-projects engineer, with his wife, Doris; and Martin, one of those overseeing the OXCART's specially mixed jet fuel (regular fuel explodes at extreme height, temperature and speed), with his wife, Mary. Because the men were sworn to secrecy for so many decades, their wives still get a kick out of hearing the secret tales.

Barnes was married at 17 (Doris was 16). To support his wife, he became an electronics wizard, buying broken television sets, fixing them up and reselling them for five times the original price. He went from living in bitter poverty on a Texas Panhandle ranch with no electricity to buying his new bride a dream home before he was old enough to vote. As a soldier in the Korean War, Barnes demonstrated an uncanny aptitude for radar and Nike missile systems, which made him a prime target for recruitment by the CIA - which indeed happened when he was 22. By 30, he was handling nuclear secrets.

"The agency located each guy at the top of a certain field and put us together for the programs at Area 51," says Barnes. As a security precaution, he couldn't reveal his birth name - he went by the moniker Thunder. Coworkers traveled in separate cars, helicopters and airplanes. Barnes and his group kept to themselves, even in the mess hall. "Our special-projects group was the most classified team since the Manhattan Project," he says.

Harry Martin's specialty was fuel. Handpicked by the CIA from the Air Force, he underwent rigorous psychological and physical tests to see if he was up for the job. When he passed, the CIA moved his family to Nevada. Because OXCART had to refuel frequently, the CIA kept supplies at secret facilities around the globe. Martin often traveled to these bases for quality-control checks. He tells of preparing for a top-secret mission from Area 51 to Thule, Greenland. "My wife took one look at me in these arctic boots and this big hooded coat, and she knew not to ask where I was going."

So, what of those urban legends - the UFOs studied in secret, the underground tunnels connecting clandestine facilities? For decades, the men at Area 51 thought they'd take their secrets to the grave. At the height of the Cold War, they cultivated anonymity while pursuing some of the country's most covert projects. Conspiracy theories were left to popular imagination. But in talking with Collins, Lovick, Slater, Barnes and Martin, it is clear that much of the folklore was spun from threads of fact.

As for the myths of reverse engineering of flying saucers, Barnes offers some insight: "We did reverse engineer a lot of foreign technology, including the Soviet MiG fighter jet out at the Area" - even though the MiG wasn't shaped like a flying saucer. As for the underground-tunnel talk, that, too, was born of truth. Barnes worked on a nuclear-rocket program called Project NERVA, inside underground chambers at Jackass Flats, in Area 51's backyard. "Three test-cell facilities were connected by railroad, but everything else was underground," he says.

And the quintessential Area 51 conspiracy - that the Pentagon keeps captured alien spacecraft there, which they fly around in restricted airspace? Turns out that one's pretty easy to debunk. The shape of OXCART was unprecedented, with its wide, disk-like fuselage designed to carry vast quantities of fuel. Commercial pilots cruising over Nevada at dusk would look up and see the bottom of OXCART whiz by at 2,000-plus mph. The aircraft's titanium body, moving as fast as a bullet, would reflect the sun's rays in a way that could make anyone think, UFO.

In all, 2,850 OXCART test flights were flown out of Area 51 while Slater was in charge. "That's a lot of UFO sightings!" Slater adds. Commercial pilots would report them to the FAA, and "when they'd land in California, they'd be met by FBI agents who'd make them sign nondisclosure forms." But not everyone kept quiet, hence the birth of Area 51's UFO lore. The sightings incited uproar in Nevada and the surrounding areas and forced the Air Force to open Project BLUE BOOK to log each claim.

Since only a few Air Force officials were cleared for OXCART (even though it was a joint CIA/USAF project), many UFO sightings raised internal military alarms. Some generals believed the Russians might be sending stealth craft over American skies to incite paranoia and create widespread panic of alien invasion. Today, BLUE BOOK findings are housed in 37 cubic feet of case files at the National Archives - 74,000 pages of reports. A keyword search brings up no mention of the top-secret OXCART or Area 51.

Project BLUE BOOK was shut down in 1969 - more than a year after OXCART was retired. But what continues at America's most clandestine military facility could take another 40 years to disclose. [Jacobsen/LATimes/13April2009] 

Section III - COMMENTARY

Apology From the Editors.  The WINs editors would like to apologize for the technical glitch that resulted in an article appearing erroneously in the last WIN. In an effort to improve the WIN, we embarked on a major overhaul and migration to new technology, and in making the adjustment inadvertently attached a portion of an article which should not have been included, which is why there was no link or title in the Table of Contents.  As former intelligence officers ourselves, we never would have included anything so disparaging toward the profession, at least not without some context. For those of you who were upset and offended by the article, we offer our most sincere apologies and assure you it will not happen again. We are also grateful to those of you who used humor to point out the error. We particularly appreciated the suggestion that perhaps aliens hacked in and placed the article in the issue, or that it was an April Fool's joke. It's nice to know that even when we make mistakes, there are readers who understand and recognize our efforts. We are glad to know you are all reading the WINs carefully!  Again, we are taking measures to ensure this kind of thing never happens again, and apologize for including an obviously slanted, poorly written, and poorly thought out article. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we upgrade our technology and hope you accept our apologies.

Section IV - READING AND COMING EVENTS

Reading

Unique Publications Available from NSA. In the press and elsewhere, the story about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 - the close brush with nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union - has been told and retold.

Now from behind the scenes comes the rest of the story.

A publication, "NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis," written by historians at the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Md., gives readers an inside look.

That and other publications about the cryptologic history of the United States are available to the general public. And it won't cost you a dime. NSA even pays shipping costs.

According to Barry Carleen, NSA chief of publications, Center for Cryptologic History, titles of some of the books and pamphlets are:

- Essential Matters: A History of the Cryptographic Branch of the People's Army of Viet Nam, 1945-1975.

- Origins of NSA.

- Radio Intelligence on the Mexican border; World War I; a Personal View.

- Sharing the Burden: Women in Cryptology during World War II.

- Masked Dispatches: Cryptograms and Cryptology in American History, 1775-1900.

- Pearl Harbor Revisited: U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence, 1924-1941.

- A Priceless Advantage: U.S. Navy Communications Intelligence and the Battles of Coral Sea, Midway, and the Aleutians.

- Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945.

- German Cipher Machines of World War II.

- Listening to the Rum Runners. (This one is about clandestine activities during Prohibition.)

- The Korean War: The SIGINT Background.

Of so rich a field of subject matter in the documents offered by NSA, which is the most popular?

"A couple of years ago, our historians wrote about signal intelligence (SIGINT) reflections and the holocaust," Carleen said. "That one went like hot cakes. It was our best one so far. We have others that are almost as popular. We get steady requests for them from the public. We have a large audience in the academic community. There's been a great deal of interest generated. We have produced 35 or 40 unclassified histories. We are very proud to do this."

The second most popular is "The Invisible Cryptologists: African-Americans WW II-1956."

And the most unusual publication is one whose entire text was written by North Vietnamese officials in Hanoi. Its title is "Essential Matters: A History of the Cryptographic Branch of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1945-1975." PAVN and its Viet Minh military branch were the communist army that defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, thus ending French colonialism in Indo-China.

Through the text, North Vietnam's president, the late Ho Chi Minh, is referred to not as "President Ho Chi Minh," but as "Uncle Ho."

The Center of Cryptologic History is located in a small facility at Fort Meade. It has a staff of 12. "We are a fairly small operation," Carleen said. "Our parent organization within NSA is the Directorate of Education and Training."

Besides writing, publishing and distributing books and pamphlets, the Center also has a cryptologic museum where ancient code systems and machines are displayed.

Those interested may call the Center (301-688-2338) or access the NSA Web site (www.nsa.gov) and browse through the various publications. Hard copies can be acquired by posting a request via e-mail (history@nsa.gov) or use the following mail address: Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, Suite 6886, 9800 Savage Road, Ft. George G. Meade, MD 20755-6886.

As you might imagine, much of the subject matter in the NSA publications was highly classified at one time. But with the passage of time and other factors, much has been declassified. "Declassification has been going on several years. As time passes, our people review material to see if things don't need to be classified any longer," Carleen said. [Brannon/TheMessenger/9April2009] 

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

Thursday, 16 April 2009, 11:30AM - Scottsdale, AZ - The AFIO Arizona Chapter meetings to hear "A Strategy to Defeat Radical Islam"
The Chapter meets at the McCORMICK RANCH GOLF COURSE, 7505 E. McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale AZ 85258 ~ Phone 480.948.0260, to hear Dr. Zuhdi Jasser (www.aifdemocracy.org) discuss "A Strategy to Defeat Radical Islam: A Muslim Perspective on the Only Way to Eradicate the Threat of Terrorism." Dr. Jasser will discuss how terrorism is just a tactic of Islamists. Their real fuel is their goals. Without defeating the state dreams of Islamists (political Islam) radical Islamists will continue to virally regenerate.
The best antidote to political Islam is a pluralistic Islam which separates religion and state and brings Muslims through an enlightenment similar to that which founded the United States.
Only devotional Muslims can lead this effort and do the reform work necessary to separate spiritual, moral teachings of Islam from the global transnational political agenda of Islamists.
Dr. Jasser will also be discussing the need to develop a domestic and foreign policy strategy based in the critical engagement of Muslim organizations, governments and political entities over the threat of political Islam.
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

18 April 2009 - Kennebunk, ME. "Economic Espionage" will be the subject of the April 18 meeting of the AFIO Maine Chapter, with special guest Brian Mackenzie. Mackenzie, a U. S. citizen ,has resided in Shanghai, China for 20 years where he has a company producing leather goods for companies such as Coach. During that time he has seen Shanghai become China's largest city with a population of 20 million and the world's busiest cargo port following the 1990 economic reforms under Chinese "capitalism." Mackenzie will also discuss the China-Taiwan relationship which he indicates has not been accurately covered in the media. This speaker will bring a rare first-hand look at China, U.S.-Chinese competition, and special aspects of U.S.- China relations. The meeting, which will be held at 2:00 p.m. at the Kennebunk Free Library, 112 Main St., Kennebunk, is open to the public. For further information call 207-364-8964

Saturday, 18 April 2009 - Richardson, Texas - CIA - University of Texas at Dallas hosts special conference on "Air America." AFIO Members are invited to the CIA- UTD Conference on AIR AMERICA No charge for you to attend. Saturday, 18 April 2009: Air America:  Upholding the Airmen’s BondA symposium acknowledging and commemorating Air America’s rescue efforts during the Vietnam War April 18, 2009, 1 pm – 5:30 pm, The University of Texas at Dallas Conference Center Auditorium, Reception and viewing of CIA and UT Dallas exhibits to follow. This event is free and unclassified.  Event check-in is from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m.  Seating is limited so RSVPs are strongly encouraged.  If you do RSVP, a seat will be held for you until 12:50. To RSVP, go to http://www.utdallas.edu/airamerica/

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

Tuesday, 21 April 2009, noon - Newport News, VA - The new AFIO Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter meets in Room 207 of the Trible Library on CNU campus, Newport News with representatives of CNU's Center for American Studies and Civic Leadership (CASCL). Drs. Nathan E. Busch, co-director of the Center; Tatiana Rizova from the Department of Government and Andrew Falk from the History Department. The first hour of the meeting with be discussion about a possible partnership between AFIO Hampton Roads and CASCL; some proposed activities of the partnership include an annual regional workshop on a national security/ intelligence topic, speakers' forums, etc. The last 30 minutes of the meeting will be discussion of AFIO chapter matters -- next meetings, update on bylaws, etc. Questions to Melissa at MWSaunders@cox.net.or call her at 757-897-6268

21 - 24 April 2009 - Chicago, IL - the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals host their annual conference in Chicago.
The SCIP Annual Conference and Exhibition provides unique opportunities for education and networking, as well as showcasing the newest in products and services. See everything that SCIP09 has to offer and join us in Chicago!
Visit http://www.scip.org/content.cfm?itemnumber=5782 for more information and easy registration. $100 discount on main conference on registrations received by March 31, 2009. Special room rates and travel discounts are offered. http://www.scip.org/content.cfm?itemnumber=5782
Learn - SCIP09 has more than 60 CI sessions in five key tracks of critical and pertinent education topics, and provides access to pre-conference workshops with themes crucial to your professional development, delivered by thought leaders in the field.
Network - SCIP09 is the premiere venue for expanding your professional and personal network of CI peers from around the globe.
Shop Around - Gather information about CI vendors and consultants. SCIP09 provides the world’s most comprehensive gathering of experienced CI vendors and consultants.
Keynote speaker Michael Treacy is a world-renowned author and expert in the field, on tap to excite the audience with his CI-focused address.
Stock Up - Access to the largest collection of CI publications available, at greatly reduced prices - including the “Topics of CI” series published by the CI Foundation.
For information on the event and/or to register visit: http://www.scip.org/content.cfm?itemnumber=5782
Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, 1700 Diagonal Rd Ste 600, Alexandria, VA 22314 www.scip.org

Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 7 pm - Miami, FL - The Ted Shackley AFIO Miami Chapter invites members to hear Victor D. Comras, Esq., on "Monitoring Terrorism Abroad." He speaks at their dinner meeting at the 94th Aero Squadron , 1395 NW 57th Avenue , Miami. (305) 261 4220 ( near the Miami International Airport off Perimeter Road)
PARKING: Free/ be careful of low flying aircraft landing at Miami International Airport. Dinner is choice of Salmon or Steak, $30.00 prepaid by mail. Mail check to Tom Spencer, 999 Ponce de Leon Blvd. Suite 510, Coral Gables Florida 33134. HOSTS: The Board of Directors of the Miami Chapter.; Robert Heber; and Tom Spencer at TRSMiami@aol.com; Carlos Melendez. RSVP: to Tom Spencer
Victor D. Comras, a retired career diplomat of the United States, is special counsel to The Eren Law Firm. Mr. Comras joined the firm from the United Nations, where he served, under appointment by Secretary General Kofi Annan, as one of five international monitors to oversee the implementation of Security Council measures against terrorism (al-Qaeda) and terrorism financing.

Wednesday, 22 April 2009 - Arlington, VA - The Defense Intelligence Forum Meets on "Cuba Wars: Castro, the U.S., and the Next Revolution." The group will meet at the Alpine Restaurant, 4770 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22207. The speaker will be Daniel P Erikson, who will speak on his recent book, The Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution. Mr. Erikson is a senior associate for U.S. Policy and director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American Dialogue, where his work focuses on U.S. foreign policy in the region. His articles have appeared in Current History, the Miami Herald, SAIS Review, the Washington Post, and World Policy Journal. He frequently speaks on radio and television and is often cited by the U.S. and international press. His past positions include research associate at Harvard Business School and Fulbright scholar in U.S.-Mexican business relations. Pay at the door with a check for $29 made payable to DIAA, Inc. Copies of his latest book will be for sale at this event. Social hour starts at 1130, lunch at 1200. Make reservations for you and your guests by 13 April by email to diforum@verizon.net. Give names, telephone numbers, email addresses, and choices of chicken, veal, or salmon. Pay at with a check. WE DON’T TAKE CASH!

23-26 April 2009 - Great Lakes, IL - The Midwest Chapter of AFIO will host its annual conference at the Great Lakes Naval Station. Registration is $10 per person. Hotel reservations ($65 per night) can be made through April 10th by calling the Navy Lodge at 1-847-689-1485. Mention that you are with the Midwest AFIO Chapter. For more information and to confirm your attendance, please contact Angelo Di Liberti ASAP at 847-931-4184.

24 - 26 April 2009 - Nashua, NH - The Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association New England Chapter (NCVA-NE) will hold its Spring Mini-Reunion at the Radisson Hotel Nashua.
The hotel is located at 11 Tara Boulevard, Nashua, New Hampshire 03062. For information, please call (518) 664-8032 or visit their website at http://ncva-ne.org. Local individuals who served with the U.S. Naval Security Group or with its counterpart in NETWARCOM are eligible and welcome to attend the mini-reunion. New members are welcome.
Point of Contact: Vic Knorowski, NCVA-NE Publicity Chair. 8 Eagle Lane, Mechanicville, New York 12118 (518) 664-8032

Saturday, 25 April 2009, 1100 - 1430 - North Andover, MA - AFIO New England Chapter meets to hear: Problems and Prospects on U.S. Intelligence. Guest speaker: Joseph Wippl, a retired CIA Senior Officer who served as Chief of the European Division in the National Clandestine Service and as Chief of Station in key posts throughout Europe. He is now teaching at Boston University. Mr. Wippl will address the Problems and Prospects for US Espionage. Where: In the Murry Lounge located in the Sakowich Campus Center on the campus of Merrimac College, 315 Turnpike St, North Andover, MA 01845. A map of the campus can be found here http://kahuna.merrimack.edu/map/map_new.html and on a separate page, directions here http://www.merrimack.edu/maps_directions/Pages/default.aspx or on the map page.
Local hotels can be found here http://www.merrimack.edu/about/visiting/Pages/Hotels.aspx
Schedule: Registration & gathering, 11:00 - 1200, Luncheon at 1200 followed by our speaker, with adjournment at 2:30PM.
Note, as this meeting is a one day event we have not made any hotel arrangements.
For additional information contact us at afionechapter@gmail.com
Advance reservations are $20.00, $25.00 at the door - per person.
Luncheon reservations must be made by 15 April 2009.
Mail your check and the reservation form to:
Mr. Arthur Hulnick 216 Summit Avenue # E102 Brookline, MA 02446 617-739-7074 or hlnk@aol.com

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

14 May 2009 – San Francisco, CA – The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Dr. Amir Hamidi, Resident Agent in Charge, DEA SF field office. Dr. Hamidi has provided training to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and State and local agencies in the area of International Terrorism and Middle Eastern Affairs. The topic will be Executive Survival & International Narco Terrorism in Your Community.
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 chicken pomodoro or filet of fish) no later than 5PM 4/7/09: mariko@cataphora.com and mail your check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, P.O. Box 117578 Burlingame, CA 94011. (650) 622-9840 X608.

14 May 2009, 11:30 a.m. - Scottsdale, AZ - The AFIO Arizona Chapter hosts Dr. Guntram Werther on Improving U.S. Intelligence Collections in the 21st Century. Dr. Guntram F. A. Werther will speak Thursday, May 16. He earned his doctorate (defended with “distinction”) from Washington University in St. Louis (1990): having it also twice nominated as the best work in comparative politics nationally (APSA Gabriel Almond Prize nominations for both 1991 & 1992).
The official title of talk:“A presentation on those factors that might move intelligence assessment forward in ways that improve our collective ability to navigate the 21st century”
Dr. Werther’s current specialization is in developing holistically integrative training and assessment techniques for better forecasting emerging international trends and patterns of international change; perhaps currently the most serious defect within our business and government intelligence analysis capability.
Currently, he is Executive in Residence at Thunderbird—The School of Global Management, is Associate Faculty (graduate level strategy) at Arizona State University’s W. B. Carey School of Management, and is a Professor at Western International University, as well as a contractor to Fortune 100 firms and U.S. government projects addressing senior level operational decision-makers.
New Location: McCormick Ranch Golf Course, 7505 McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale AZ 85258 ~ Phone 480.948.0260)
RSVP: email Simone sl@4smartphone.net or simone@afioaz.org or call and leave a message on 602.570.6016

15 May 2009 - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO Spring Luncheon featuring Shawn Henry, FBI.

20-21 May 2009 - Washington, DC - Alexander Vassiliev’s Notebooks and the Documentation of KGB Operations in the United States, 1930-1950 - a special program by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Cold War International History Project

Tentative program:
20 May 2009, 3 p.m.  - Welcome by Christian F. Ostermann, director, History & Public Policy Program, Woodrow
Wilson Center; 3:30 - 5 - Speaker TBA; 5:30 p.m. Panel 1 Provenance of the Notebooks and their use in Spies: the Rise and Fall of the KGB in America - Chair: James G. Hershberg
Alexander Vassiliev: “How I came to Write the Notebooks”; John Earl Haynes: “Digesting the Notebooks: Transcription, Translation, and Concordance Preparation”; Harvey Klehr: “Highlights and Findings (Expected and Unexpected) in Spies”. Comments by Mark Kramer (Harvard U), Katherine Sibley (St. Josephs) and James G. Hershberg (George Washington)
Discussion
5:30 p.m. Reception in Moynihan Board Room

21 May 2009, 10 a.m. - Speaker TBA; 12:00 p.m. Panel 2: Hiss, Stone, and Counterintelligence Chair: G. Edward White; Eduard Mark: “In Re Alger Hiss: A Final Verdict from the Archive of the KGB.”; Max Holland: “Three Tales of I.F. Stone and the KGB: Kalugin, Venona, and the Notebooks”; John Fox: “What the Spiders Did: U.S. and Soviet Counterintelligence before the Cold War”; Comments by G. Edward White (U. VA Law), Bruce Craig (independent scholar)
Discussion
2:00 p.m. Panel 3: “Atomic and Technical Espionage”; Chair: Ronald Radosh; Steve Usdin: “The Rosenberg Ring: Industrial-Scale Technical and Atomic Espionage”; Greg Herken: “Target Enormoz: Soviet Atomic Espionage on the West Coast, 1942-1950”; Robert S. Norris: “George Koval, A New and Unusual Manhattan Project Spy”; Comments by Ronald Radosh (CUNY, emeritus), Barton Bernstein (Stanford U)
Discussion
4:00 – Speaker TBA
4:30 p.m. Concluding Panel
Chair: Mark Kramer - Panelists and Audience Discussion

TO ATTEND or FOR MORE INFORMATION: visit Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson Center, One Woodrow Wilson Plaza, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20004-3027; Email: coldwar@wilsoncenter.org, Tel: 202/691-4110.
Reservations are not required. All meetings take place at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Please see the map and directions here. Allow time for routine security procedures. A photo ID is required for entry. To confirm time and place, contact Maria-Stella Gatzoulis on the day of the event: tel. (202) 691-4188. Check this page for the latest updates and notices.

21 May 2009 at 12:30 pm - Los Angeles, CA - The AFIO Los Angeles Chapter luncheon features Dr. Jeffrey Richelson, on U.S. surveillance satellites. Richelson, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive, will talk on the topic of domestic applications of U.S. reconnaissance and surveillance satellites. Dr. Richelson's recent work examined the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, U.S. intelligence efforts against foreign nuclear weapons programs, and various elements of satellite reconnaissance activities.
Where: on the campus of Loyola Marymount University. Cost: Lunch will be provided for $15, payment accepted at the door. For attendance reservations please forward email confirmation by no later than 5/15/09: AFIO_LA@yahoo.com

26 - 28 May 2009 - Adelphi, MD - International Association for Intelligence Education hosts annual meeting and Conference at University of Maryland. Conference features series of concurrent workshops on "Teaching Intelligence” from teaching intelligence culture, law enforcement analysis, to competitive intelligence. An impressive program of proposed speakers and topics. Confirmed speakers to be announced. The conference features presentations by the winners of the Outstanding Teacher of the Year and winning intelligence essays by a variety of students.
LOCATION: University of Maryland University College Inn and Conference Center
FEES:  $20,000 for conference sponsorship to serve as conference co-host. $10,000 for dinner sponsorship for a May 27 dinner; $5,000 Sponsor for Luncheon either Wednesday, May 27 —or— Thursday, May 28 OR Tuesday, May 26 Opening Reception; $1,000 for For-Profit members of IAFIE: $1,000 EXHIBIT Booth/Display fees. Other prices available. For individuals: $400 for both days of conference; $200 for one day only. To register, call (814) 824-2131 or email iafieconfreg@gmail.com

9 June 2009 - Newport News, VA - The AFIO Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter is planning a meeting and address by member Dr. Larry Wortzel on U.S.-China relations.... details TBA. Questions to Melissa at MWSaunders@cox.net or call her at 757-897-6268

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 Symphony Hall for a special Boston Pops Concert celebrating our nation’s 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 America’s 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. Join other AFIO members and friends in the Hatch Room lounge located behind the orchestra level for a social hour before the performance begins. For tickets, call Symphony Hall Charge at 888-266-1200 or online at www.bso.org. Tickets sell from $18.00 to $85.00 and are now on sale.  After purchasing your tickets, please contact Gary at wassinmaryland@aol.com  so I can add your name to the list to look for at the 1 hour social prior to the concert. Ticket prices for attending this concert does not include a gift to AFIO however the Association of Former Intelligence Officers relies greatly upon the generosity of members, corporations, foundations, and the general public who understand and wish to encourage sound intelligence policy and education in the United States.  These gifts allow AFIO and its chapters to carry out important activities in the areas of education, advocacy, seminars, publications, and conferences. Please help by making a financial donation to AFIO. Tax receipts will be issued for donations of $100 or more (does not include Pops ticket cost).  All gifts to AFIO are tax deductible.  AFIO is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) charity. We request this be done separately if you are able to contribute to AFIO. Gifts may be made here.

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

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