AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #15-09 dated 28 April 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Netherlands Security Service Says Beware of Spies. The Dutch security service, AIVD, warned companies, local government and other institutions to be aware of espionage, arguing that there are many foreign spies active in the Netherlands.

'The Netherlands is an interesting target for many countries because of its high-value technological industry and the presence of large groups of migrants,' the AIVD said at the presentation of its 2008 report.

Morocco had attempted to build up a network of informers and Russia is also active in the Netherlands, the AIVD said. And China has not only tried to influence political decisions but has also attempted to access government and company computer networks, the organization claims.

The Netherlands is particularly interesting to countries that want to develop weapons of mass destruction, the AIVD says. 'Much of the high-value Dutch technology can be used. That is why it is important that companies and academic institutes are aware of the risks.'

The AIVD carried out 1303 investigations last year, compared with 819 in 2007. A number of the reports led to arrests and deportations, the AIVD said, without giving concrete figures.

The Netherlands is still considered a 'preference target' by internationally-operating networks, according to AIVD head Gerard Bouman. [DutchNews/23April2009] 

Terrorists Terrified By Malware. Two years ago, it was revealed that the U.S. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) was using a hacker tool to legally monitor computer activities of suspects. This came as little surprise to criminals, and especially terrorists. It's long been known that law enforcement agencies have used computers to catch criminals and terrorists. This was largely thought to be done with taps into Internet traffic through various chokepoints (local, via ISPs, and nationally via major fiber optic cable systems). But it was also suspected that that the intelligence agencies and police were using hacker tools. Many terrorists have reported, on pro-terrorist message boards, finding secret hacker software planted on their computers. But no one had much definitive proof that it was from, say, the CIA, MI6, Mossad or the FBI. Most of it appeared to be the usual criminal stuff.

For nearly a decade, cyberwar and criminal hackers have planted programs ("malware") in computer networks belonging to corporations or government agencies. These programs, called "Trojan horses" or "zombies", are under the control of the people who plant them, and can later be used to steal, modify or destroy, data or shut down the computer systems the zombies are on.

Terrorists believe that the intel agencies are seeking to infect their PCs with zombie type software. Most terrorist computer users are low tech guys, and there are not enough tech gurus in the ranks to insure that everyone's PCs are kept "clean." While the more serious terrorists insist that everyone keep "business" off cell phones and computers, especially those hooked up to the Internet, not everyone is that dedicated. So the intelligence agencies still obtain lots of useful information via hacker attacks. [StrategyPage/23April2009] 

Canadian Intelligence Backtracks on Using Intelligence Obtained Through Torture. Canada's top spy says under no circumstances would the Canadian Security Intelligence Service use information gleaned from torture, and he has ordered one of his senior employees to retract contradictory testimony given earlier this week.

"I know of no instance where such use of information has been made by our service," CSIS director Jim Judd told the House of Commons national security committee Thursday.

"Our policy is that such information is not to be relied upon and that we, under no circumstances, condone the use of torture for any reason."

Despite publicly admonishing his employee, Judd would not comment directly on whether the agency would ignore tips about major terrorist acts - such as the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, or the June 23, 1985, bombing of an Air India flight that killed 329 people, many of them, Canadians - if the information was obtained through torture, dismissing the question as "hypothetical."

Judd said Geoffrey O'Brian, a 25-year veteran of the agency, was "confused" and "venturing into the hypothetical" when he told the committee Tuesday that the spy agency would use torture-tainted intelligence "if lives are at stake," and if it can be "of value to the national security of the country."

O'Brian, a CSIS adviser on operations and legislation, sent a letter to the national security committee Thursday "clarifying" CSIS policy, but he did not address actual practice. "It is the policy of CSIS to not knowingly rely upon information that may have been obtained through torture," he wrote.

The contradictions in Judd's and O'Brian's testimony left several committee members scratching their heads.

"We have Mr. O'Brian, who has been with the agency since its inception, saying very clearly that they would use information obtained by torture, and a couple of days later, they say he was mistaken," said Liberal national security critic Mark Holland.

"If he doesn't know what he was talking about, who else doesn't know? Who else is under confusion about whether torture is or is not appropriate? These aren't hypotheticals."

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan told the committee he would be willing to issue a ministerial directive to CSIS, stressing that use of information gleaned from torture is unacceptable in all circumstances. Judd said the agency may have relied on torture intelligence in the past, but it changed its policies after the 2006 report on the Arar inquiry, which recommended that such information never be used because it's unreliable and a violation of human rights.

Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was picked up at a New York airport in September 2002 and sent to Syria, where he was detained. He gave false confessions under torture before being released a year later.  [Tibbetts/VanCouverSun/3April2009] 

Russia's Medvedev Sacks Military Spy Chief. President Dmitry Medvedev sacked Russia's most powerful spymaster in a move that underscores strained ties with some of the military top brass over a Kremlin-backed reform of the armed forces.

The Kremlin said Medvedev had signed a decree to dismiss General Valentin Korabelnikov, who has directed Russia's military intelligence service since 1997.

The dismissal of such a respected 63-year-old spymaster is one of Medvedev's biggest sackings since he replaced former KGB spy Vladimir Putin as president in May 2008.

The Kremlin, which gave no reason for sacking, said Alexander Shlyakhturov, a first deputy in the military intelligence service, was appointed as his replacement.

Korabelnikov had criticized reforms which the Kremlin says aim to turn Russia's outdated army into a mobile fighting force. The number of generals will be slashed and the headcount of the armed forces will be cut to 1 million from more than 1.1 million.

The service, created in 1918 under revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky, is controlled by the military general staff.

From the beginning, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other Soviet security services and since then the top-secret body has been widely seen as a staunch rival of other spy agencies.

It has no website or spokespeople unlike Russia's smaller Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and the FSB domestic spy agency, both of which emerged from the KGB after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Russian media, quoting Defense Ministry sources, said Korabelnikov had clashed with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, appointed by former President Putin, over plans to disband or reorder special forces units under GRU command. [Faulconbridge/Reuters/24April2009]

Department of Homeland Security Picks New Chief for Intelligence Office. The head of the Homeland Security agency responsible for a controversial report that suggested veterans were being recruited to commit terrorist acts in the U.S. is being replaced by a former FBI and CIA official.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that the White House intends to nominate Phillip Mudd as undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis. Mr. Mudd is a 24-year career FBI official, who currently serves as the associate executive assistant director of the Bureau's national security branch.

He replaces Roger Mackin, who was appointed to the post in September by then-Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Ms. Napolitano also says she will appoint Bart R. Johnson as the principal deputy undersecretary. Mr. Johnson currently serves as director of homeland security and law enforcement in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said the personnel moves were categorically not related to the intelligence analysis reported by The Washington Times last week.

She also said Mr. Mackin will move outside DHS, to the cybersecurity section at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The new detail for Mr. Mackin has been planned for several weeks and predates the April 7 report, Ms. Kudwa said.

The announcement came on the eve of a scheduled meeting between Ms. Napolitano and the head of the American Legion, who expressed outrage last week at the report, titled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

Under the heading "Disgruntled Military Veterans," the assessment said that "right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat."

The report also suggested that state's rights activists, pro-lifers, gun enthusiasts and border-control activists could be lured into attacking the U.S.

Before joining the FBI, Mr. Mudd also worked at the CIA in 1985 and in various positions since, including a tour as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South Asian issues at the National Intelligence Council.

Mr. Johnson spent 25 years in the New York State Police, where he rose from trooper to colonel, serving in narcotics-enforcement and counterterrorism leadership positions. [WashingtonTimes/24April2009] 

British Spy Loses Top Secret Information in a Handbag. A British agent left top secret information about covert operations on a bus in South America when she lost her handbag while on assignment.

The drugs liaison officer lost a computer memory stick said to contain a list of undercover agents' names and details with more than five years of intelligence work.

It happened when the MI6-trained agent left her handbag on a transit coach at El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia. Intelligence chiefs were forced to wind up operations and relocate dozens of agents and informants amid fears the device could fall into the hands of drugs barons.

The agent's employer, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Saturday confirmed the data loss but said it had happened soon after the agency had been set up in 2006, "while staff were still working to the data-handling policies of precursor agencies." [FoxNews/26April2009] 

Absconding Pakistani Spy Re-Arrested. A Pakistani spy, Adil Manjul, who managed to escape from the custody of Gujarat police from Dausa while on way to Lucknow, was re-arrested by Karauli police. The police returned him to custody of the Manpur police, from where he escaped custody with another spy the day before.

Majul reportedly traveled over 35 km wearing handcuffs. He eventually broke the handcuffs by smashing them against stones, and was trying to shave off his foot-long beard when he was caught.

Dausa police said that the Pakistani spies, who were arrested from Bhuj and Lucknow, were booked under the Official Secrets Act and Passport Act and were lodged in a Gujarat jail since 2006. They were being taken to Lucknow to be presented before the court, when they managed to escape near Mehndipur Balaji Hanuman Temple on Wednesday. However, one of the spies, Abdul Shakur, was arrested within seven hours from Pipalkheda village under Mahuwa police station. [Singh/TimesofIndia/23April2009]

DOJ May Dismiss Spy Case Against AIPAC Lobbyists. The Justice Department may drop charges against two pro-Israel lobbyists suspected of spying for Israel and transmitting national security information to Israeli diplomats and journalists. This news comes after allegations surfaced earlier in the week that Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) promised to intervene in the case on behalf of the lobbyists, according to published reports in Congressional Quarterly and elsewhere.

The main issue surrounds disclosing potential classified information at trial or the "graymail" defense, which involves the assumption that in order for an adequate defense to be made classified, information must be disclosed at trial. Late last February, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in the case favorable to the lobbyists' possible defense by allowing some information to be presented at trial the Justice Department deems classified.

The legal wrangling in the case involves the Classified Information Procedures Act known as CIPA. In their Feb. 24 opinion, the 4th circuit noted, "The court, after conducting such a CIPA hearing, determined that a substantial volume of the classified information was indeed relevant and admissible."

In the proceedings which have been ongoing since 2005, when Rosen and Weissman were charged, the government indicated that at trial they intended to introduce a summary of an FBI report which would show that Weismann had passed along information from the report to Israeli officials. The AIPAC defense attorneys also have said they wish to show the same FBI report and show that information in it could have been derived from other sources.

The recent disclosures about Rep. Harman being picked up on court-approved wiretaps may have been produced in discovery materials as the government and defense get ready for trial.

A status conference in the case is set for May 6.

Concerns about sensitive information also involve an Israeli Defense briefing document which the government did not intend to use at trial but which the defense wished to use. The government sought to redact portions of these memos claiming they included classified information, but the defense contends that none of the information may be currently classified.

Rosen and Weisman were charged with transmitting national defense information. The trial has been set for June. A former Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin pleaded guilty to providing Rosen and Weissman with some of the classified materials. Franklin was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2006. [Ryan/ABCNews/23April2009] 

Italian Judge to Rule in May on CIA Trial. A judge will decide next month whether to continue with the politically sensitive trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians accused in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect after the high court threw out key evidence deemed classified.

Defense lawyers for the Americans - mostly CIA agents - and Italians argued Wednesday the exclusion of the evidence made it impossible to continue with the trial. The prosecution argued the indictments were still valid and the trial should go on.

Judge Oscar Magi said he would announce his decision May 20.

The viability of the two-year-old trial has been hanging on the Italian Constitutional Court's ruling, issued in full earlier this month, on which evidence pertaining to the alleged CIA-run kidnapping as part of its renditions program is considered classified, and therefore inadmissible.

The high court's ruling threw out key testimony from Luciano Peroni, an intelligence agent who acknowledged being present on Feb. 17, 2003 when Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was taken from a Milan street in broad daylight.

Prosecutors say he was then transported in a van to the Aviano Air Force base, from where he was flown to the Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany, then onward to Egypt, where he was held and allegedly tortured. He has since been released.

The Constitutional Court also threw out any evidence that would reveal the workings between the CIA and Italian intelligence agents, who are among the defendants.

Defense lawyers for both the American and Italian defendants requested their clients be cleared - something not technically possible at this stage.

In one case, the defense for Nicolo Pollari, the former head of the military intelligence, said he needed access to classified information to prove his client had no involvement in the kidnapping.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro argued the indictments "maintained their integrity," even without the excluded evidence. He noted that the case against the Americans began at least a year before the Italians were investigated, meaning that any evidence pertaining to the Italian secret services that is seen as classified was not used to build the case against the Americans. Prosecutors have also said that state secrets cannot apply to illegal operations, such as kidnapping.

Magi could decide to continue the case, throw out the indictments - which would send the case back to the preliminary hearing stage - or rule the trial can't go on if he views the remaining evidence as insufficient.

Defense lawyer Alessia Sorgato, who is defending three American clients, said he could also decide to continue the trial for the American defendants while stopping it for the Italians, on the basis that classified information applied only to the Italian secret services.

Sorgato said a decision to simply end the trial "would be the worst decision possible. It would mean not guilty and not innocent. Simply, 'I don't have enough evidence.' "

The CIA has refused to comment on the trial, and the Americans are being tried in absentia. The defense lawyers for the Americans have acted without any contact with their clients.

Italy's government has denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

The trial has proved an embarrassment to both conservative and left-leaning Italian governments, with both Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his predecessor Romano Prodi having warned that testimony in the case could compromise operations between Italian spy services and the CIA. [Barry/WashingtonPost/22April2009]

Warning Over Suicide Terror Attack in UK. Another suicide terrorist attack in Britain is "more likely than not", according to a senior security adviser to Gordon Brown.

Bruce Mann, head of the civil contingencies secretariat in the Cabinet Office, told a Leeds audience last night that someone could slip through the net, and said security was "too important to be left to the politicians". He called for a single person to take control of anti-terrorism strategy.

Mr. Mann, who was secretary to the Butler Inquiry into intelligence used to justify the Iraq war, also warned that Britain was at risk of electronic espionage from foreign states.

When asked if he agreed with former Prime Minister Tony Blair's view, expressed after the July 2005 bombings, that another attack was inevitable, he said: "Suicide terrorism is the most probable risk. In any one year it is more likely than not that we will get a terrorist atrocity. One day somebody will slip through the net and we will have an atrocity."

Mr. Mann was speaking at the Business of Security, a Marketing Leeds debate. He said he chose to come to Yorkshire because Leeds and Sheffield were two of the cities which had done most to deal with the threat of chemical or biological attacks, and confirmed he was in continuing talks with utilities and large businesses on how they would keep functioning in the event of an atrocity.

Mr. Mann ruled out setting up a Whitehall department purely to deal with terrorism, but said one person should co-ordinate British security.

The home security service MI5 has been accused of intelligence failings in the run-up to the July 7 bombings, which were led by three men from Leeds.

Mr. Mann, who was seconded to Nato during the Kosovo crisis, has served as director of defence policy at the Ministry of Defense and reports to Robert Hannigan, security adviser to the Prime Minister,

Mr. Mann said other nation states posed a risk of electronic attack to Britain. He did not name them but the Yorkshire Post understands he was referring to Russia, which was accused of launching cyber attacks on Estonia in 2007, and China.

However, he insisted Britain was well-equipped to cope with terrorist attacks, whether internal or from abroad. [YorkshirePost/25April2009]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Islamic Militancy And Pakistan's Rogue Generals. On a sunny spring day in 2000, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The threat of an Al-Qaeda-sponsored attack had led to unprecedented security measures, leading to the deployment of 10,000 soldiers and police officers to protect the few kilometers between the airport and the city.

During his five-hour stay, the American president spoke directly to the Pakistani people in a speech broadcast live on national television and radio.

"We have both suffered enough to know that no grievance, no cause, no system of beliefs can ever justify the deliberate killing of innocents," he told them. "Those who bomb bus stations, target embassies or kill those who uphold the law are not heroes."

What the U.S. president then said about the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir surely didn't please many in the Pakistani military establishment who had assumed power under the leadership of General Pervez Musharraf in October 1999.

"There is no military solution to Kashmir," Bill Clinton asserted. "International sympathy, support, and intervention cannot be won by provoking a bigger, bloodier conflict."

Nine years later, addressing the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington on April 23, former first lady and current U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Pakistan as "a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world."

She warned of "continuing advances...by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state, which is, as we all know, a nuclear-armed state."

Secretary Clinton's comments followed news that Taliban militants had expanded their control from Pakistan's western border regions by taking the Buner district, placing them within 110 kilometers of Islamabad and positioning them to threaten Mardan, the second largest city in the Northwest Frontier Province.

After years of bloodshed and calls for nonviolent means to end Pakistan's internal conflicts, the country is clearly struggling for its survival, with Islamic militants now eying Pakistan's heartland: the rich plains of the eastern Punjab province.

In an effort to identify the roots of the dilemma, some Pakistan watchers point to theories suggesting that the Pakistani military and its intelligence services grew adept over the past three decades at exploiting Islamic militancy by using militants as proxies, first in neighboring Afghanistan and then in Kashmir.

That approach continues today, experts argue, with some in the Pakistani military establishment viewing Islamic militants as strategic assets while perceiving the United States as a global superpower whose engagements in the region will ultimately result in a docile Pakistan living in the shadow of archenemy India.

Hawkish former Pakistani generals, including Hamid Gul and Mirza Aslam Baig, have publicly and forcefully expressed such views. They have alleged that the ultimate U.S. aim is to take control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Both generals described Osama Bin Laden as a "great Muslim warrior." Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari once described Gul as a "political ideologue of terror."

Some Pakistan observers stress the importance of acknowledging the nuances of the situation, rather than seeking easy answers in hastily applied labels.

"I don't personally see a grand strategy," says Marvin Weinbaum, a veteran regional expert who has followed Pakistan for the past four decades and is currently a specialist at the Middle East Institute. "[Pakistan] still needs the United States, and the idea that somehow it's going to allow the Pakistani Taliban to 'Talibanize' large parts of Pakistan as a way of somehow leveraging the United States is far-fetched to me and speaks of conspiracy theory."

Weinbaum concedes that "this is a [Pakistani] military which is, honestly, in difficulty." He warns that "it cannot really pursue the kind of policy against the Pakistani Taliban because it's not now even sure of its own ranks and the support of its own troops and junior officers."

Relations between Islamabad and Washington soured recently, after senior U.S. military officers publicly accused Pakistan's premier military intelligence agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of maintaining close ties to the Taliban.

Although the issue only recently came into media focus, Washington has been urging reforms to the ISI since 2001. Experts suggest that, despite purges, some militant groups - in particular, including the leaders of the Afghan Taliban - receive direct support from the ISI.

In her remarks on April 22, Clinton expressed concern over recent concessions that the Pakistani government has made to the Taliban, including Zardari's recent signing of law allowing Shari'a law in the country's western Swat Valley.

"I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists," Clinton told the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

However, regional expert Weinbaum argues that the Pakistani military's perceived threats differ from those of the United States. That might explain suspicions that its intelligence agency continues to play both sides - helping the United States while supporting some Taliban groups it considers vital to Islamabad's national-security interests.

"At this stage, at least, the ISI is pretty much...immune from any kind of serious change," Weinbaum says, adding that such a situation does not exclude the kind of ISI cooperation with the United States that has been happening since 2001.

"So what we have here is an ISI which has two faces to it," Weinbaum says. "One face has been cooperative, up to a point at least; and the other face has pursued what it considered to be the military's interest and also what it considered to be Pakistan's interest. And, ordinarily speaking, those have frequently not been coincidental with what American interests are."

In addition to Taliban successes in Buner, reports suggest the Taliban is strengthening its influence and stepping up attacks in Pakistan's most populous and politically important province, Punjab.

Weinbaum says that should represent the "nightmare scenario" for the Pakistani military, most of whose officers and soldiers hail from Punjab.

"If the law and order breaks down in the Punjab, the corps commanders [and] General [Ashfaq Pervez] Kayani know that they cannot order their troops into the streets in a fashion that would kill Punjabis," Weinbaum says. "This has always been a rule of thumb here: that the military cannot be used against the Punjabi, the people of the Punjab."

He calls such a scenario reminiscent of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's last days in Iran, when "the military was placed in the position where it could not act against the crowds that were gathering."

He warns that "we may see a replay of that. There are just too many parallels with the late 1970s in Iran."

If U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Zardari in early May, as some expect, preventing such a scenario might well be a key topic of conversation. [Rferl/23April2009] 

Five Facts About Russian Military Intelligence.

* Russian military intelligence service is known by its Russian acronym GRU, which stands for Main Intelligence Directorate. Moscow's other, better-known Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is the successor to the KGB's First Chief Directorate.

Unlike the KGB, GRU was not split up when the Soviet Union collapsed. It has a special status and answers directly to the chief of the general staff, one of the three people who control Russia's portable nuclear control. GRU chiefs are picked by the president.

* Russian military intelligence has a spy network abroad that is believed by espionage experts to be several times bigger than that of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

Its experts decipher and analyze espionage information gathered by dozens of Russian military space satellites.

GRU also has several elite special forces units that fought in many post-World War Two conflicts including Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Sulim Yamadayev, who was shot dead last month in Dubai, was commander of GRU's Vostok battalion which fought in Chechnya and Georgia.

* GRU, whose official emblem features a bat hovering above the globe, was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution. Revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services, and ever since GRU has been seen as a rival by other Soviet secret services.

* GRU has confirmed or tacitly accepted it was behind some major spy operations abroad. But it has also suffered several humiliating blows to its reputation when some of its top agents defected to the West.

One such defector was Oleg Penkovsky, a friend of the then GRU chief. He informed Washington of a Moscow operation to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The scandal led to the Cuban crisis and the world balanced on the brink of a full-blown nuclear war for several days. Penkovsky was arrested in 1962 and executed in 1963 after being found guilty of high treason and espionage.

* Vladimir Rezun, a GRU officer who defected to the West in the 1970s, published a partly autobiographical book about the spy service under an assumed name of Viktor Suvorov. He called the then GRU headquarters the "aquarium," the nickname given to the Moscow compound by those working in it.  (Reuters/24April2009] 

Legendary Spy Charlie Allen Knows the CIA's Secrets. For a young CIA analyst in the fall of 1962, it was a heady assignment. With President John F. Kennedy contemplating an invasion of Cuba to neutralize the threat of Soviet nuclear weapons on the island, the CIA began planning. At age 27, Charles Allen was a junior intelligence analyst tracking the names of Soviet missile technicians. "I was put on a team assigned to plan a new Cuban government, which would be put in power after the U.S. invasion," says Allen. He quickly began sorting through dossiers to determine which Cubans would be suitable to place in power.

Those plans remained on the shelf, but for Allen, it was the first of many times that he would find himself at the center of historic national security crises. From the height of the Cold War and the Yom Kippur War to Iran-contra and the aftermath of 9/11, Allen has had an extraordinary 51-year career in intelligence. Now 74 and privy to perhaps a broader array of the CIA's secrets than anybody else in history, the tireless Allen officially retired on Tuesday. For those on the inside, it's hard to believe that the man famous for holding 6:30 a.m. meetings, working 80-hour weeks, and rarely taking vacations is leaving the spy world.

In his final weeks of government service, he's been compiling a r�sum� for the first time. Unsurprisingly, there are some pretty large gaps, like the period from 1980 to November 1982, when he was the "program manager of a major classified project." That was a top-secret effort to ensure the continuity of the U.S. government in an emergency, colleagues say, but he can't talk about it. Intelligence, he says, "is not given a lot of credit in public, and many people talk about the intelligence community without really understanding it. There are many successes that I know about that are highly clandestine, but they will never be public. That's the way it should be."

The chapters of his career that he can talk about span from the secret CIA tunnel under East Berlin to using Twitter to monitor last year's Mumbai terrorist attacks. His name first made the newspapers during the Iran-contra affair as the CIA analyst who blew the whistle on the Reagan administration's illegal efforts to fund antileftist rebels in Nicaragua. Allen had been working on the Iran portion of the operation - the clandestine sale of missiles to Tehran in exchange for the release of American hostages - when he learned that something wasn't right in the accounting. Allen was praised for blowing the whistle, but the CIA reprimanded him for not having disclosed more information sooner. He later fought successfully to have the sanction removed from his record.

Allen joined the CIA in 1958 fresh out of college. "I was about to graduate and realized I needed a job," says Allen, who wears a gold class ring from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "I went to the university employment office, and someone said, 'You should consider working for the Central Intelligence Agency.' And I said, 'That sounds like an interesting profession.' " The Cold War was in full swing. Less than a week into his job, Allen was poring over intelligence from the Berlin tunnel, a clandestine operation in which the CIA dug under East Berlin and tapped into Soviet communications cables. Neither he nor the CIA knew at the time that the Soviets were aware analysts like Allen were monitoring their every word.

These days, Allen is known throughout the intelligence community for his clarity of purpose as much as his epic work habits. His friends describe him as one of the most driven men they have ever met, neither particularly religious nor partisan but intensely patriotic and committed to "the mission." After the 9/11 attacks, Allen stayed at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., for days, sleeping on an inflatable mattress in his office. In the past three years, he took only two weeks of vacation to be with his wife, four children, and a clutch of grandchildren. The rest of that time, he worked from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, with a half-day on Saturday and six more hours on Sunday. So how does his family feel about that? "They do understand," Allen insists.

Other than a three-year overseas liaison posting, Allen never really worked in the field. "I do wish that I had done more of that type of thing," he says. By the early 1970s, he was the head of production in the CIA's Office of Strategic Research. But even with access to the nation's most prized secrets, it was hard to make all the right calls. In the fall of 1973, the Egyptian and Syrian armies were massing along their borders with Israel. On the night of October 5, Allen put the finishing touches on the CIA's President's Daily Brief for Richard Nixon the next morning. "I left the office at CIA and saw some reports that [Arab] forces were going on high alert," he recalls. "I should have picked up the phone and called my superiors, and I didn't." Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel the next day. Nixon would later fault the CIA, saying the conflict "took us completely by surprise." As Allen puts it, "I missed the [Yom Kippur] War, and that still sticks in my craw today."

Nearly 20 years later, when Saddam Hussein deployed the Iraqi Army near Kuwait's border, Allen wouldn't made the same mistake again. He was the national intelligence officer for warning, akin to the CIA's chief sentry. For several weeks that summer, he sent out a series of alerts about a pending invasion, culminating in an official "warning of war" message. But he was largely ignored. When Allen's last warning reached the State Department, analysts there dismissed it as typical CIA exaggeration. A few hours later, Iraq invaded Kuwait. "People either dislike Charlie or they admire him, and for the same reason - he's usually right," says Richard Clarke, a longtime colleague and a former presidential counterterrorism adviser.

This incident was a prelude to one of the most difficult moments in Allen's career. In 1991, six weeks into the air campaign against Iraq, he was working with Air Force planners to select targets. Allen and his CIA colleagues were suspicious of a building called Public Shelter No. 25, in the Amiriyah neighbor-hood of Baghdad. According to CIA maps, it was a secret operations center used by the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service. At Allen's urging, the Air Force dropped a pair of laser-guided bombs on the bunker.

Hundreds of civilians who had taken cover inside were killed. "It was a very difficult moment. We thought it was Mukhabarat, and there were some there," Allen says, casting his eyes to the ceiling. "But we did kill innocent people, a lot of them," he adds after a short pause. "I carry those lessons around every day, but I never lost heart or a sense of mission."

By 1998, Allen was spending more and more time on terrorism issues. Then CIA Director George Tenet tasked him to coordinate the intelligence community's efforts against Osama bin Laden, whose organization bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa that August. Allen and Clarke set up a meeting of the nation's top al Qaeda experts and came to the conclusion that bin Laden's most likely hiding place was an Afghan valley where U.S. spy satellites could not peek into the caves. The area was called Tora Bora, which later became famous when al Qaeda leaders took refuge there after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Two years later, frustrated by the lack of intelligence about bin Laden, Allen walked into Clarke's White House office holding a picture of a small unmanned aircraft. "Ever heard of something called a Predator?" he asked. Allen said that getting the Predator deployed over Afghanistan was "a bloody struggle," but in the fall of 2000, one of the drones captured hours of video footage of a tall, bearded man who analysts believe was bin Laden. For the next year, Allen fought to arm the Predator with missiles. "We need to hit him," Allen told colleagues in the summer of 2001, "before he hits us." Weeks after the 9/11 attacks, armed drones were finally deployed, and today they are one of the chief weapons against al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

By this time, Allen was coordinating collection efforts for the entire intelligence community. First for the director of central intelligence and later for the new director of national intelligence, his job was to determine how to deploy a network of spy satellites, eavesdropping sensors, and human spies to go after targets from terrorists to nuclear-armed dictators. He called it being "the night watch for central intelligence." The post came with limited authority, but the man dubbed "Charging Charlie" by colleagues wielded his formidable reputation to get things done. "When Charlie Allen comes to you demanding answers, you got them," says retired CIA veteran Robert Grenier. "He is unique in the agency because he commanded so much respect."

Though Allen speaks excitedly about his final government job - running the nascent intelligence office at the Department of Homeland Security - others say it was a thankless assignment. "I never felt that I was just part of the bureaucracy," he says. "You can't assume all the world's burdens, but if you have a sense of mission for keeping the country safe, one person can make a difference." DHS was in chaos when Allen arrived in 2005. He brought along some CIA colleagues to help manage intelligence analysis and began coordinating the efforts of countless other agencies, from local police departments to the Coast Guard. Even though he never figured out how to stop getting pulled aside for additional screening at airport checkpoints, Allen says that DHS and the nation have become more sophisticated at dealing with the threat of terrorism since 9/11. Of course, the work remains unfinished. "We have learned," he says, "to take nothing for granted."

His departure from government means that he is losing his encrypted telephone, a device that has been in Allen's Northern Virginia home for decades. "He is one of the few people I felt comfortable calling at home with a tough job at 10 p.m., because we all knew Charlie never really stopped working," says John McLaughlin, a former acting CIA director.

Allen can't list many hobbies, though years ago he enjoyed fishing. "I've still got a memory and a strong mind," he says, an hour after the CIA physician gave him a clean bill of health. He plans to continue working, this time for himself. "I'm going to do some consulting work," he says, "but no more 80-hour weeks." [Kingsbury/USNews&WorldReport/23April2009] 

Section III - COMMENTARY

The Intelligence Wars, by Marc Ambinder. Step into the wilderness of mirrors here, for a moment. Let's try to put three headline stories together.

Item 1: the New York Times reports on an NSA gone wild - and on an unsanctioned NSA surveillance of a member of Congress on an overseas congressional delegation in 2005 or 2006. NSA looks bad...

Item 2: a week later, CQ's Jeff Stein breaks the story that the NSA, listening on an Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court-approved wire, heard Rep. Jane Harman promise "an Israeli agent" that she would "waddle in" to the case of two AIPAC officials accused of passing classified info on to the government. The NSA comes out as the hero here - it was doing its job, it caught a member of Congress doing something bad... but the Justice Department quashed top officials' request for further investigation, allegedly because the Department found Harman's political support to be useful. The NSA comes out of this story looking good, and the political appointees at the Justice Department come out looking bad.

Item 3: Melissa Hathaway, acting senior director of the National Security Council for cyberspace, completes her review of cyperspace security and is prepared to recommend an overhaul of how government regulates, oversees and secures the battlefield of the future. Major bureaucratic changes are afoot. 

The potential winner: the Department of Homeland Security, which has long argued that the National Security Agency is (a) too politically tainted to take a command role here and (b) that the NSA, by its very nature, cannot properly oversee cybersecurity and spy at the same time. The NSA, by contrast, has argued that DHS has shown no capability to supervise much of anything; that NSA, since it will be doing the bulk of the work, deserves the lead agency role; and that NSA has safeguards in place to protect the privacy of Americans.

Hathaway will probably recommend some sort of cybersecurity czar, although the government has had many of them before. Institutionally, the biggest decision the White House will make is which agency gets to take control of the bureaucratic space, and who gets the money - and yes, Congress will argue about this as well.

Last March, a senior DHS cyberofficial, Rod Beckstrom, resigned, citing his worry that the NSA could well be given the tacit authority to intercept and look at every e-mail, fax, IM or electronic communication produced in the country. Beckstrom clearly has some idea of NSA's domestic collection capability. Already, that agency appears to collect "metadata" - though official sources are sketchy. In any event, Hathaway is certainly in a position to know about what the NSA is doing now; she's a former top official at Booz Allen Hamilton, NSA's top outside contractor and the builder of many of its databases.

The upshot: the Harman leak may have nothing to do with the Hathaway review. But the NSA won't get the cybersecurity contract, as it were, unless it can demonstrate to Congress and to the administration (through the public) that it follows the truth wherever it may lead, that it is impervious to political influence, and that its programs work to the benefit of Americans. [Ambinder/TheAtlantic/23April2009] 

Brazilians Have Been Hacking U.S. Navy Satellites with Homemade Gear for Years. With all of the news surrounding the breach of the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter program dominating the airwaves these days, there is a smaller and just as interesting story that popped up on Wired about a crackdown of Brazilian hackers who have continuously overtaken a U.S. Navy communications satellite.

Once the satellite channel was opened five years ago, many Brazilians have been using the channel to communicate anything that you could imagine - especially since cell phone coverage is very spotty in remote sections of the country. According to the article, "truck drivers love the birds because they provide better range and sound than ham radios. Rogue loggers in the Amazon use the satellites to transmit coded warnings when authorities threaten to close in. Drug dealers and organized criminal factions use them to coordinate operations."

What is most interesting, and almost laughable about this story, is that most of the hacking was done with homemade equipment. According to the article, "pirates typically take an ordinary ham radio transmitter, which operates in the 144- to 148-MHZ range, and add a frequency doubler cobbled from coils and a varactor diode. That lets the radio stretch into the lower end of FLTSATCOM�s 292- to 317-MHz uplink range. All the gear can be bought near any truck stop for less than $500. Ads on specialized websites offer to perform the conversion for less than $100. Taught the ropes, even rough electricians can make Bolinha-ware."

We can certainly file this story in the "who knew??" category. Big thanks to Wired for running this story. [gotgeoint.com/23April2009] 

Section IV - RESEARCH REQUEST, READING AND COMING EVENTS

Research Request

Contact with Intelligence Officers. 

Dear Sir/Madam

I am a British television producer based in Washington. I am current researching a European History Channel documentary on western intelligence operations in Europe from the late 1940s to the 1970s and am hopeful you might be able to pass my details on to anyone with experience of this theater within this wide timeframe.

I am looking at a history which evolved through various stages, the effort to rollback Soviet influence and force, the arming and training of local paramilitaries, so-called "secret armies" in various countries, then the "stay behind" plans - all designed to initially push back, then deter, then counter in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. In an ideal world I would be talking with William Colby, Ray Clines, Thomas Karamassines, Frank Wisner but since none of them are with us anymore, I wondered if you might know of others - mostly younger operatives perhaps, who worked with them either in the field or in Washington. I am particularly interested in Germany, Greece, Italy and the Benelux countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) but not exclusively.

This is my no means just CIA. The DIA and its precursor before 1961 and even special forces and their intelligence officers were very involved in this, once reason I have come to yourselves.

This is purely for research at this stage. I am nowhere near doing any filming. So any conversations would be completely off the record.

Many thanks for your help and attention.

If you, or any potential sources, have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes

Phillip Wearne
Tel: 202-232-2875

Reading

KGB Notebooks Online Reveal the Thoughts of Science Spies. If you like retro-futuristic spy tales, you will be intrigued by this collection of KGB spy notebooks, translated online, created during the height of the Cold War. They're all about stealing science secrets.

Posted by the Cold War International History Project, there are several notebooks that have been translated in their entirety, and it gives you a weird and intriguing glimpse of the spy mentality at the time. Here is one entry, from the so-called Yellow Notebook, kept by a spy in the early 1940s. He was trying to cozy up to nuclear scientists:

"Report on a c/t dated 7.12.42. Charon reports that a certain Al. Marshak from Bransten's circle of acquaintance might be of interest: 37 years old, Jewish, works in the Genetics Dept. at the U. of California. He is described as being devoted to us and honest. M. believes he is related to the writer Marshak and is proud of this. M's parents lived in the south of Russia. He has professional ties to Lawrence's laboratory and to the physicist Oppenheimer. M. is supposedly in the know with regard to work on the cyclotron.

p.54 25.1.43 we replied to Charon that we are interested in Marshak, but that his family connection to the writer was not borne out. The neighbors have been cultivating Robert Oppenheimer since June 1942 � his recruitment does not seem possible."

So basically KGB spies were trying to recruit Oppehnheimer back in the early 40s. Wonder if he knew?

Check out more of the notebooks at the Cold War International History Project. [Newitz/io9.com/25April2009]

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

30 April - 1 May 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.

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

Saturday, 9 May 2009, 11 .m. - 3 p.m. - Gainesville, FL - The North Florida Chapter speaker will be Gary Loeffert, Supervising Special Agent for Counter Terrorism, FBI Jacksonville. His emphasis will be on port security – an update, as it were, to a presentation in September 2004 by Steven Roberts of Jacksonville Homeland Security – since Jacksonville’s growth in port activity has raised our global footprint. Compatriot and previous speaker Ken Nimmich is our source for this important subject, and Ken might be prevailed upon to comment on his important contracting experience in Kuala Lumpur.
Again, very timely and important subjects, well worth the time, a nice lunch and great fellowship, so hope everyone can find a warm spot on their calendar for this meeting.
Chapter meeting will be held at the Orange Park Country Club on Loch Rane Boulevard, west of Blanding Boulevard.
Social hour runs from 11:00 am to noon, lunch from noon until about 12:45 pm, followed by a brief break. Guest speaker presentation will begin at about 1:00 pm, and Chapter business and discussions at 2:00 pm. Adjournment will be by 3:00 pm. A reminder that all compatriots and their spouses, guests and potential members are cordially invited...indeed, encouraged!
Please RSVP right away for the 9 May meeting to Ken Meyer at kmeyer12@bellsouth.net or 904-777-2050. The cost will be $16 each, pay the Country Club at the event.

Wednesday, 13 May 2009; 7 pm - Coral Gables, FL - The Ted Shackley Miami AFIO Chapter hosts a Dinner at the 94th Aero Squadron. The special guest speaker at this event will be Luis Rueda. Rueda is currently serving as the Officer in Residence at the University of Miami. He joined the CIA as an Operations Officer in 1981 and served multiple tours in Latin America before returning to Washington. He has served as head of the CIA’s operations training course, chief of East European operations, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, chief of Iraq Operations, and chief of operations and Counterintelligence for the Middle East.
WHERE: 94th Aero Squadron, Miami International Airport Perimeter Rd, The 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant is located near the intersection of Highway 836 and North Red Road. 1395 NW 57th Avenue.
PARKING: Free, but DUCK YOUR HEAD !
EVENT: DINNER, with SPECIAL GUEST. Do not miss this Event !
COST: $35.00 prepaid. Send check payable to AFIO to Thomas Spencer at 999 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 510, Coral Gables, Florida 33134. TRSMiami@aol.com
305 648 0940.
HOSTS: The Board of Directors of the Miami Chapter.
RSVP: Please RSVP to Tom Spencer. Space is limited. Guests must be cleared in advance.

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 - on Risks of Cyber Security Breaches. Full details at top.

Shawn Henry
Assistant Director, FBI, Cyber Security Division
Afternoon Speaker

Shawn Henry was named to his post in September 2008. He began his career as a special agent with the FBI in 1989. In 1999, he was designated chief of the computer investigations unit within the National Infrastructure Protection Center at FBIHQ, with management responsibility for all criminal computer intrusion matters under investigation by the FBI. In 2006 he was selected as a member of the Senior Executive Service to serve as Chief of the Executive Staff to the Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch, and in 2007, was named Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division, with program management responsibility for all FBI computer investigations worldwide.

Gen. Oleg Kalugin, retired Major General in the Soviet KGB
Author of SPYMASTER: My Thirty-two Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West
Morning Speaker

Oleg Kalugin oversaw the work of American spies, matched wits with the CIA, and became one of the youngest generals in KGB history. Even so, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system. In 1990, he went public, exposing the intelligence agency’s shadowy methods. Kalugin’s impressively illuminating memoir of the final years of the Soviet Union -- Spymaster: My Thirty-two Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West -- has just been released in this updated form. New portions include new material in light of the KGB's enduring presence in Russian politics.

15 May 2009, 2 p.m. - Fort Meade, MD - Professor John Ferris presents the 2009 Schorreck Memorial Lecture: “Pearl Harbor Revisited: A Case of Anglo-American Intelligence Failure and Japanese Deception”
The Center for Cryptologic History's (CCH) 2009 Henry F. Schorreck Memorial Lecture starts at 2:00 PM at the National Cryptologic Museum. Dr. John Ferris will speak on “Pearl Harbor Revisited: A Case of Anglo-American Intelligence Failure and Japanese Deception.”
Dr. Ferris, a professor at the University of Calgary, is the author of numerous books and articles about military and cryptologic history, and has presented papers several times at the biennial symposiums on cryptologic history sponsored by CCH. Dr. Ferris is also the 2009 Historian Scholar in Residence at the National Security Agency (NSA).
Previous Schorreck Memorial Lectures, named in honor of NSA’s longest-serving Historian, have been given by Dr. David Kahn and Professor Christopher Andrew.
Location and Cost: The event takes place at the National Cryptologic Museum and is open to the public at no cost. Seating, however, is limited, so advance registration is required. To register, send an e-mail to rkenos@nsa.gov. If you need additional information, please call the Center for Cryptologic History at 301-688-2336.
Directions to the Museum are at http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/map/index.shtml.

17 May 2009, 6:00 to 10:00 pm - Tysons Corner, VA - The National Military Intelligence Association holds the annual awards banquet.
The banquet supports and acknowledges the contributions of the U.S. Military Intelligence community and the individual accomplishments of its professionals.
Location: Hilton McLean Tysons Corner. Further details are here:
For further information about the event visit https://www.123signup.com/Member?PG=1522955182400&P=1522955132314133158594700&Info

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

21 May 2009 - Arlington, VA - The Defense Intelligence Forum meets to hear Provost, Defense Intelligence College -- Dr. Susan Studds The speaker will be Dr. Susan M. Studds, National Defense Intelligence College Provost, speaking on the Defense Intelligence College.  Dr. Studds joined the college from the National Defense University where she was a professor in the Information Resources Management. She was Deputy Director of Assessment, Accreditation, and Faculty Development at NDU and later became NDU Assistant Vice President and Acting Provost. She was on the executive committee of the Program for Accreditation of Joint Education and the Substantive Change Committee of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. She taught strategic leadership and decision making, education as a national security factor, and American Studies for International Fellows, a course that she established.  Dr. Studds has been Director of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' National Retention Project and Director of its Center for Educational Opportunity and Achievement. She served as Special Assistant to the Provost at George Mason University.
Event occurs at the Alpine Restaurant, 4770 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22207. Pay at the door with a check for $29 per person payable to DIAA, Inc.  Social hour starts at 1130, lunch at 1200.  Make reservations for you and your guests by 14 May 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 telephone numbers and email addresses for you and your guests.  Pay with a check.  WE DO NOT TAKE CASH!

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

Tuesday 2 June 2009, 6 p.m. - Nellis AFB, NV - The AFIO Las Vegas Chapter event features: The Development, Testing, and Operation of the U-2 and A-12 High Altitude Reconnaissance Programs at Nevada’s Groom Lake

Members of the Roadrunners Internationale will speak about the recently declassified CIA U-2 program at Taiwan; U-2 Project Aquatone at Groom Lake; the CIA A-12 Project Oxcart (which was the recently declassified CIA plane preceding the more commonly known Air Force SR-71) at Groom Lake and its operational phase; and Operation Black Shield at Kadena, Okinawa.
Their presentation will include a short video of the first flights of the U-2 and A-12 at Groom Lake, a PowerPoint presentation about the aircraft, and a large photo display of the aircraft test, evaluation, and operations. They will also recount their CIA recruitment, cover stories, living and working at Groom Lake, and the excitement of foreign missions. Their story was declassified a little over a year ago at the CIA’s 60th Anniversary. Location: Nellis Air Force Base Officers’ Club. (If no military ID, contact 702.295.0073 by May 25th for base entry information)

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.

Wednesday, 8 July 2009, 6 p.m. - New York, NY - The AFIO Metro NY Chapter hosts Lt. General Deptula, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance HQ USAF. The topic being the Predator program and its future. Further information available from Jerry Goodwin, President, AFIO - New York Metropolitan Chapter,
347-334-1503

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

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