AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #16-09 dated 5 May 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

House Intelligence Chief Enters Controversy. In a rare gesture, House intelligence committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes sent a letter this week to all CIA employees suggesting that Congress shared some blame for the CIA interrogation controversy and should play a more robust role in the intelligence policymaking process.

The letter, which was sent, appeared to undercut remarks by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that there was little Congress could do about harsh interrogations, including waterboarding.

"One important lesson to me from the CIA's interrogation operations involves congressional oversight," wrote Mr. Reyes, Texas Democrat. "I'm going to examine closely ways in which we can change the law to make our own oversight of CIA more meaningful; I want to move from mere notification to real discussion. Good oversight can lead to a partnership, and that's what I am looking to bring about."

The letter both seeks to excuse Democrats who were briefed after Sept. 11, 2001, about interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and at the same time suggests that members of Congress cleared to receive highly classified material have a responsibility in the future to let their criticisms be known.

The budgeting process for the intelligence community gives members of the oversight committees authority to withhold funding for activities without disclosing classified programs. Nonetheless, last week, Mrs. Pelosi said of the briefings she received between 2002 and 2006, "They don't come in to consult. They come in to notify."

In the letter, Mr. Reyes expressed support for rank-and-file CIA employees.

"In recent days, as the public debate regarding the CIA's interrogation practices has raged, you have been very much in my thoughts," he said. "I write to let you know, without sound-bites or political calculus, my view on this debate and to remind you of my deep gratitude for the work you do each day."

A former chairman of the House intelligence panel and its current ranking member, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, called the Reyes letter "unprecedented."

"I've got to believe the feedback they are getting from the community prompted this," Mr. Hoekstra told The Times. "Here members of Congress knew all about these programs, and here fellow CIA employees are getting thrown under the bus. From my standpoint, I think it is unprecedented for the CIA to receive a letter like this from a chairman."

Mr. Reyes has in the past sent out holiday greetings to the CIA work force.

CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf, when asked whether the letter had been sent to members of the agency work force, said, "the chairman addressed his letter to the men and women of the CIA, and it will be made known to them."

Mike Delaney, staff director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Mr. Reyes had not received complaints from the CIA about President Obama's decision last month to release Justice Department memos authorizing so-called enhanced interrogation and describing methods that Mr. Obama has banned.

"No, we've not received complaints from CIA work force," Mr. Delaney said. "CIA employees, in the chairman's experience, typically don't complain. The chairman, in light of the public discussion, wanted to remind CIA employees of his gratitude for their work."

Mr. Hoekstra, who has taken to the media to blast Mr. Obama for releasing the Justice Department memos, said members of the agency have complained to him.

Mr. Obama has urged the nation to look forward with regard to the interrogation practices. But last month he also contradicted his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, leaving open the possibility that political appointees and government lawyers under the previous administration may be prosecuted by the Justice Department for approving techniques that violate anti-torture statutes.

Mr. Reyes wrote, "I wholeheartedly support the President's decision that no CIA officer or contractor will be prosecuted for authorized actions they took in the context of interrogations. I may disagree with some of what the Agency was asked to do, but I understand that my disagreement lies with the policies, not with the officers executing those policies far from Washington." [Lake&Gertz/WashingtonTimes/1May2009] 

Al Qaeda No. 2 Calls the Shots. Al Qaeda's No. 2 thug has "emerged" as its operational leader after seven years on the run with the same $25 million bounty on his head as Osama Bin Laden.

Despite years of Bush administration claims that Ayman al-Zawahiri - an Egyptian doctor turned Bin Laden deputy - was on the lam with his boss and unable to exert control, the opposite is now true, a State Department report said Thursday.

"Al Qaeda has reconstituted some of its pre-9/11 operational capabilities" in Pakistan's tribal safe haven on the Afghan border, replaced lost lieutenants and achieved "the restoration of some central control by its top leadership, in particular Ayman al-Zawahiri," the annual Country Reports on Terrorism said.

"Although Bin Laden remains the group's ideological figurehead, Zawahiri has emerged as Al Qaeda's strategic and operational planner," the report added.

The new assessment wasn't a surprise to terror experts, since Zawahiri put out 12 audio and video messages last year and four this year, including one last week.

"As important as it is to neutralize Al Qaeda's top leaders, you also have to maintain an unblinking focus on disrupting its operations," said Kenneth Wainstein, a top George W. Bush homeland security adviser now with the O'Melveny and Myers law firm.  [Meek/DailyNews/30April2009]

Russians Expelled in NATO Spy Storm.  Nato ordered the expulsion of two Russian diplomats in retaliation for a spy scandal in which a senior Estonian official was jailed for passing top-level secrets about the western alliance to Moscow.

One of the expelled Russians was the son of Vladimir Chizhov, Moscow's ambassador to the European Union. He and the other envoy were attached to Russia's mission to NATO and are said to have worked undercover as intelligence agents, alliance sources said.

Russia did not immediately react to NATO's move. But the expulsions come at a sensitive time as the west tries to rebuild ties with Moscow following last summer's Russia-Georgia war.

The two expelled Russian diplomats were not directly involved in the Estonian spy affair. But NATO sources said the scandal had caused such damage to the alliance's security that it had to deliver a hard response.

The Estonian official, Herman Simm, was convicted of treason in February by an Estonian court and jailed for 12 years for passing NATO and other defense and diplomatic secrets to Russia.

Investigators had dubbed the case "the biggest spy scandal in NATO history".

Mr. Simm, 61, handed over more than 2,000 pages of information to his handlers in Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, according to documents linked to the investigation.

EU diplomats said the Estonian spy had also seriously compromised the EU's internal security procedures. [Berber/FinanicalTimes/30April2009] 

Clandestine Defense Hub Prepares to Open at University of Maryland. The projects to be launched at a top-secret University of Maryland research center would make "Q" - James Bond's owlish gadget-meister - blink with tears of envy.

In the coming months, teams of the nation's top theoretical mathematicians, behavioral scientists, software engineers and futurists will assemble to figure out how to make U.S. intelligence better, faster and more efficient.

Aston Martins with twin machine guns and ejector seats? Flamethrower bagpipes? Jet packs? The missile-firing leg cast?

The idea of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, under construction at the university's M-Square research park near the main campus, is to investigate new ideas for intelligence agencies that are too preposterous for government bureaucrats or private contractors to consider.

Can a machine learn a new language quickly - say, a dialect of Somali being spoken by pirates - so it could instantaneously translate intercepted communications?

How could hackers attack a U.S. national health database and how can it be protected?

Could a software program use cultural and linguistic clues from interrogations to predict a terrorist attack?

"The whole idea is to go beyond the threats of today, to anticipate the national security needs of tomorrow," said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who fought to have IARPA's new headquarters in Maryland.

"We're not going to be inventing gadgets here," Mikulski, a Democrat, sniffed in an interview after the dedication Monday of the incomplete, $40 million building that will house IARPA.

"We're talking technology breakthroughs," she said. "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are stampeding across the planet as we speak, and there are those who have a predatory intent against the United States of America.

"We have to stand sentry to make sure that never, ever again is there an attack on the United States and its interests abroad."

IARPA, a collaboration among intelligence officials and experts from academia and business, was formed in 2007 and patterned after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

DARPA investigates futuristic military projects such as armed unmanned aerial vehicles, common in the skies over Afghanistan and Pakistan, which its engineers dreamed of in the 1980s.

The initiative until now has had no permanent home. When its nondescript, highly secure building opens this fall, it will nestle in the M-Square campus along with new offices for the University's Center for the Advanced Study of Language, the National Foreign Language Center, the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction, and the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

IARPA will have easy access to the nearby National Security Agency, the Office of Naval Intelligence in Suitland and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda.

Funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the civilian secretariat that oversees all U.S. intelligence agencies, IARPA awards competitive grants for research into "high-risk, high-payoff projects," officials said.

Most of the research is highly technical, and highly classified.

One key area of research will experiment with modeling and other techniques to reduce the amount of raw data, which officials acknowledge is overwhelming analysts.

Another will look for new techniques, perhaps including virtual worlds, that could help analysts sift more efficiently through the mountains of data pouring in from classified and open-source collections.

One current research program involves developing software that could scan eavesdropped conversations in foreign languages to understand a terrorist group's internal dynamics, determining the power of various leaders and their true intentions, according to IARPA's Web site.

Intelligence officials swamped with war, terrorism, piracy, competition from Russia and China, swine flu and other problems are looking to the researchers for relief. [Wood/BaltimoreSun/29April2009] 

Suit By Five Ex-Captives of CIA Can Proceed, Appeals Panel Rules. The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives who allege they were tortured by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled.

Both former President George W. Bush and President Obama's Justice Department lawyers had argued before federal courts that a lawsuit brought by former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and four others should be dismissed in the interests of national security.

The lawyers argued that "the very subject matter" of the allegations that U.S. agents kidnapped and tortured terrorism suspects was entitled to the protections of the president's state secrets privilege. In a move that surprised many human rights groups, the Obama administration declined to revise the Bush lawyers' claims that the case needed to be dismissed to protect national security.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the executive privilege claim was excessive and the case could go to trial. The lawsuit by the five alleged torture victims is against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. subcontractor accused of complicity in the men's mistreatment for having flown them to secret CIA interrogation sites after they were nabbed abroad by federal agents.

Previous lawsuits alleging abuse were brought against the U.S. government and dismissed by the courts presented with presidential claims of state secrets privilege.

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan now goes back to U.S. District Court in San Francisco for trial, with the U.S. government, which is backing Jeppesen, free to argue that specific documents or pieces of evidence can be protected from disclosure if they pose a genuine national security risk, but not the entire case, said the opinion.

Mohamed, the lead plaintiff, was released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in late February after having spent more than six years in U.S. custody, the first two years in the hands of Moroccan interrogators under CIA guidance and later at the intelligence agency's "black site" in Bagram, Afghanistan. [Woods/LATimes/29April2009] 

Wanted: A Doctor to Counsel Britain's Stressed, Tired Spies. Britain's secret service, Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), is looking for an occupational health adviser to counsel spies, who are feeling worse for wear after taking on enemies such as Al-Qaeda and Chinese cyber-spies.

MI6 is advertising for the 40,000-pound job on the Secret Intelligent Service (SIS) website, which reads: "Here at SIS (or MI6 as you may know us), we operate across the globe. The variety of challenges extends to every corner of our organization and occupational health is no exception.

"We are looking for a qualified occupational health adviser to cover an interesting mix of work, from specialized health surveillance and pre-travel briefings and clearances to sickness absence management."

The new recruit will be given guidance on foreign travel - which might include checking for enemy tarantulas before settling down to sleep, reports The Times.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The SIS may be involved in some unique situations but they have a duty to protect their staff."

An intelligence source said: "This is a very stressful job, especially as one cannot confide in your family. Many people turn to alcohol or even recreational drugs to cope."  [ThaiIndianNews/3May2009]

U.S. Drops Case Against Ex-Lobbyists. Federal prosecutors have abandoned an espionage-law case against two former lobbyists for a pro-Israel advocacy group, a case that had transfixed much of official Washington because of its potential to criminalize the exchange of sensitive information among journalists, lobbyists and policy analysts.

In asking a judge to dismiss charges against Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, formerly of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, officials said recent court rulings had changed the legal landscape and made it unlikely that they would win.

Prosecutors and investigators had used FBI wiretaps to pursue Rosen and Weissman for at least five years, building a complex case that involved secret court hearings and dozens of legal filings and rulings. The two men were charged in 2005 with conspiring to obtain classified information - about topics including al-Qaeda and U.S. forces in Iraq - and pass it to the Israeli government and journalists from The Washington Post and other news organizations.

Rosen and Weissman were the first civilians not employed by the government charged under the 1917 espionage statute.

The case was not a total loss for the government. A former Pentagon analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, pleaded guilty in 2005 to passing government secrets to Rosen and Weissman. He was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.

Lawyers for Rosen and Weissman attributed the withdrawal of the case in part to the Obama administration. "We are extremely grateful that this new Administration... has taken seriously their obligation to evaluate cases on the merits," the lawyers, Abbe D. Lowell, John Nassikas and Baruch Weiss, said in a statement.

But David Szady, who was the FBI's assistant director for counterintelligence when the case was brought, said politics was not a factor in the decisions to file charges or to withdraw them. "If you commit espionage against the United States, the FBI has an obligation to investigate that, regardless of the political fires around it, and we're blind to whatever country may be involved," Szady said.

Recent pretrial rulings made the case difficult for the government, including an appeals court ruling that allowed the defense to use "national defense information" at trial. A lower-court judge also said prosecutors must show that the two men knew that the information they allegedly disclosed would harm the United States or help a foreign government - a high burden for prosecutors.

Dana J. Boente, the acting U.S. attorney in Alexandria, where the trial was set to begin June 2, said prosecutors reversed course because of "the diminished likelihood the government will prevail at trial... and the inevitable disclosure of classified information that would occur." Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. was aware of the discussions, law enforcement sources said, adding that the ultimate decision was made by prosecutors.

Officials said FBI agents opposed the decision, believing they had a strong case. Joseph Persichini Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office, said yesterday that the case's end was "disappointing," but he commended the work of the agents.

The decision to drop the case was welcomed by AIPAC, long an influential presence in Washington because of its close ties to policymakers, think tanks and lawmakers. The group had distanced itself from Rosen and Weissman, formally firing them in 2005, but spokesman Patrick Dorton yesterday called the decision "a great day" for the defendants and their families.

AIPAC's critics had seized on the allegations against the two lobbyists as fresh evidence that the group had aligned itself so closely with the Israeli government that it was acting on that country's behalf. Supporters of the group said they were mystified by the case, noting that collecting information from government officials and sharing it with others, including governments with embassies in Washington, is a highly profitable local business. [Markon/WashingtonPost/2May2008] 

Two Psychologists Responsible for Devising CIA Interrogation Methods. Two psychologists are responsible for designing the CIA's program of waterboarding suspected terrorists and for assuring the government the program was safe, according to an ABC News report.

Former military officers Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell had an "important role in developing what became the CIA's torture program," Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU, told ABC News.

Jessen and Mitchell were previously involved in the U.S. military program to train pilots how to resist brutal tactics if captured - but Col. Steven Kleinman, an Air Force interrogator, told ABC News that the two never had experience conducting actual interrogations before the CIA hired them.

Associates say Jessen and Mitchell were paid up to $1,000 a day by the CIA to oversee the techniques used against high-profile detainees to extract information in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.

The revelation comes as Congressional Democrats turn up the pressure on the Obama administration to appoint a special counsel to start a criminal investigation into harsh interrogations of terror suspects and who authorized them. The debate was sparked by the Obama administration this month releasing four Bush-era memos outlining legal guidelines for the CIA's interrogation methods.

Obama has said it would be up to Attorney General Eric Holder to determine whether "those who formulated those legal decisions" should be prosecuted. The methods, described in the Bush-era memos, included slamming detainees against walls and subjecting them to simulated drowning, known as waterboarding.

The president said he would not seek to punish CIA officers and others who carried out interrogations. [FoxNews/30April2009] 

Republicans See Threat in FBI Contract to French Firm. Republican lawmakers asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to examine the national-security implications of awarding a contract for a fingerprint-search system to Safran SA, a defense and aerospace company partly owned by the French government.

Members of Senate and House committees that oversee spy agencies, including Representative John Kline of Minnesota and Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, warned that the FBI contract, which may be worth more than $100 million, could give an overseas-based company access to law-enforcement and intelligence data.

Lawmakers have previously raised national-security objections to contracts and acquisitions involving non-U.S. firms. In 2006, the Bush administration's approval of state- owned DP World of Dubai's bid to operate six of the nation's largest seaports sparked an uproar that caused the company to back out. The fingerprint contract, however, isn't an acquisition and isn't subject to review by the government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

The fingerprint work, to be done under a subcontract that would be awarded by Lockheed Martin Corp., probably is worth "hundreds of millions" of dollars, said Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst with Morgan Keegan & Co. in Nashville. Two U.S. companies - Cogent Inc. of Pasadena, California, and Stamford, Connecticut-based L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. - also are competing for the contract, he said.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed hasn't selected a subcontractor, said Kimberly Jaindl Brannigan, a company spokeswoman.

Lockheed, the world's largest defense company, last year won a contract valued at as much as $1 billion to create a system to identify criminals and terrorists. Lockheed is examining which companies could develop part of the system that matches fingerprints with those in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's database, Brannigan said.

Lockheed is developing the FBI's "Next Generation Identification" program, which is "bigger, faster and better" and is supposed to include fingerprints, palm prints, iris scans, facial imaging and tattoos, according to the FBI.

The FBI will respond to the letters from lawmakers, though it won't comment publicly on the national-security questions they raised, said Richard Kolko, a bureau spokesman in Washington.

Kline's letter urged the FBI to "weigh carefully the risks versus the benefits of granting a foreign government access to this sensitive data."

Because there's no foreign-investment review, Kline also requested that the FBI consult with the Central Intelligence Agency.

A separate letter raising similar concerns was signed by Burr and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said David Ward, a Burr spokesman. Ward and a spokeswoman for Chambliss, Bronwyn Lance Chester, declined to release the letter.

Ward, Chester and Troy Young, a spokesman for Kline, declined to comment on the national-security matters raised in the letters.

Richard Smith, an FBI agent from 1970 to 1996 who worked on counterintelligence, said the contract could allow the French government or people who infiltrate the government to obtain data that could be used to benefit French companies.

Lawmakers' questions are "totally justified," Smith, president of Cannon Street Inc. in San Francisco, a company that does investigations for companies and law firms, said in an interview.

The subcontractor won't have access to the FBI's fingerprint data, and only is supposed to design the system, said Stephen G. Fischer Jr., an FBI spokesman, in an e-mail.

Emmanuel Lenain, a spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington, said his government's 30 percent stake in Safran doesn't pose a risk.  [Blum/Bloomberg/3May2009] 

UK Agency Denies Internet Spy Plans. The UK's electronic intelligence agency has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement to deny it will track all UK Internet and online phone use.

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) said it was developing tracking technology but "only acts when it is necessary" and "does not spy at will".

The denial follows the home secretary scrapping plans for a single government database for all communications.

Jacqui Smith said instead firms should record all people's Internet contacts.

In the statement, GCHQ said one of its "greatest challenges is maintaining our capability in the face of the growth in internet-based communications.

"We must reinvest continuously to keep up with the methods that are used by those who threaten the UK and its interests."

But the agency added: "GCHQ is not developing technology to enable the monitoring of all internet use and phone calls in Britain, or to target everyone in the UK.

"Similarly, GCHQ has no ambitions, expectations or plans for a database or databases to store centrally all communications data in Britain.

"The new technology that GCHQ is developing is designed to work under the existing legal framework."

The denial comes days after Ms Smith ditched plans for a giant centralized database to store all Internet and phone conversations.

Instead she announced that communications firms will be asked to record all contacts between people.

The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use including visits to social network sites, but not their content.

On Sunday, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that GCHQ was in fact forging ahead with plans to monitor all communications in Britain.

According to the newspaper, �1bn is being spent on a "Mastering the Internet (MTI)" programme that would involve "thousands of 'black box' probes being covertly inserted across online infrastructure". [BBC/4May2009]

Iran to Review Jail Sentence of US-Born Reporter. Iran said on Saturday it would review the eight-year prison sentence handed down to Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi after she was convicted of spying for the United States.

Visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said his government was following the case of Saberi, whose mother is Japanese, with "concern."

Saberi, who according to her father is on hunger strike, was jailed on April 18 to eight years after she was found guilty of espionage. Her lawyer has appealed the verdict.

"There has been a review request for her and this review will be implemented based on justice and human and Islamic kindness," Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki said in a joint press conference with Nakasone.

Iranian judiciary officials have said Saberi is in good health and that she is not on hunger strike.

Her father Reza Saberi has described her condition as "frail and weak."

The case could complicate Washington's efforts toward reconciliation with the Islamic Republic after three decades of mutual mistrust.

Saberi, a freelance journalist and citizen of both the United States and Iran, was arrested in late January for working in the Islamic country after her press credentials had expired.

The United States says the espionage charges against Saberi, who has reported for the BBC and the U.S. National Public Radio, were baseless and has demanded her immediate release.

U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed concern for her safety.

Tehran, which does not recognize dual nationality, says Washington should respect the independence of Iran's judiciary.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on the prosecutor to ensure Saberi enjoys full legal rights to defend herself. The judiciary chief has said the appeal must be dealt with in a "quick and fair way." [Jaseb/WashingtonPost/2May2009] 

Al-Qaeda Used Hotmail, Phone Codes. In the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, alleged al-Qaeda operations mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed intended to use his free Hotmail account to direct a U.S.-based operative to carry out an attack, according to a guilty-plea agreement filed by Ali al-Marri in federal court.

The document shows how al-Qaeda, at least in 2001, embraced prosaic technologies like prepaid calling cards, public phones, computer search engines, and simplistic codes to communicate, plan, and carry out its operations.

Marri also surfed the Internet to research cyanide gas, using software to cover his tracks, according to the document filed Thursday in federal court in Peoria, Ill. He marked locations of dams, waterways, and tunnels in the United States in an almanac. The government says this reflects intelligence that al-Qaeda planned to use cyanide gas to attack those sites.

Marri could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

In a stipulation of facts filed as part of his plea agreement, he admitted he trained at al-Qaeda camps and stayed at terrorist safe houses in Pakistan between 1998 and 2001. There, he learned how to handle weapons and how to communicate by phone and e-mail using a code.

After arriving in the United States on Sept. 10, 2001 - a day before al-Qaeda's terror strikes in New York and on the Pentagon - Marri stored phone numbers of al-Qaeda associates in a personal electronic device.

He used a "10-code" to protect the phone numbers - subtracting the actual digits in the numbers from 10 to arrive at a coded number, said a person close to the investigation. In a 10-code, for example, eight becomes a two.

Marri sent e-mail messages to Mohammed's Hotmail account addressed to "Muk" and signed "Abdo." The details of that code were included in an address book found in an al-Qaeda safe house in Pakistan.

When Marri arrived in the United States, he created five new e-mail accounts to communicate with Mohammed, using the 10-code to send him his cell-phone number in Peoria. Marri, who entered the United States on a student visa, was arrested in December 2001. He was soon declared an enemy combatant and taken into military custody, and was held without charge for more than five years. The combatant designation was dropped when he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Illinois. [Hess/AP/2May2009] 

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: A Global Intelligence Imperative, by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen. As Mohamed ElBaradei's term as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) draws to a close, the organization is struggling to choose a new leader. After deadlocking on an initial vote in March, a new round of nominations closed on April 27, with the next vote scheduled in the coming months. While the IAEA sorts out changes at the top, the United States should try to expand the agency's mandate and responsibilities. One such change would be the establishment of a full-fledged intelligence office, which would dramatically improve the agency's ability to identify and deter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

After the September 11 attacks, the CIA faced the daunting prospect of al-Qaeda seeking a nuclear bomb and collaborating with Pakistani nuclear scientists in an effort to build one. A mood of grim determination gripped the U.S. intelligence establishment, a sentiment highlighted by CIA Director George Tenet when he stated that "We are behind the eight ball" in tracking al-Qaeda's efforts to obtain WMDs.

This threat galvanized an unprecedented response, which stimulated a degree of risk taking, experimentation, and creativity that would have been impossible under normal circumstances. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies abandoned traditional methods of conducting business and worked together in unprecedented ways to defuse the threat. Government agencies agreed to co-locate officers and work together as an integrated team, drawing from a well of capabilities that included everything at the U.S. government's disposal. The United States also shared raw leads and information with dozens of countries in the war on terrorism, most notably with our new Russian partners. Washington went to extreme lengths to ensure information was passed to anyone who might have answers, including Syria, Sudan, and Iran. Conventional rules limiting the sharing of information were suspended in favor of sharing everything with everyone. In all, the CIA passed WMD-related leads and analysis to over two dozen countries. In fact, in the process of averting a WMD-enabled al-Qaeda, the United States and its allies were able to thwart attacks in the formative stages in several countries.

Over time, the shared feeling of imminent threat began to dissipate, and as it did, U.S. interagency cooperation and international outreach reverted to more traditional, limited form. Cooperation once again became more formal, rigid, and slower. Unfortunately, the threat of an al-Qaeda-linked nuclear attack has not diminished, even as memories of its aborted attempts fade.

Nuclear threats are growing, and nuclear terrorism is among the greatest challenges facing the world in the age of globalization. Terrorist groups are attempting to procure WMDs in order to achieve global objectives. For terrorists, possessing even a single nuclear weapon would place them at the pinnacle of power, knowing that detonating a bomb in any city offers an opportunity to change history. Although it would not be easy for any state or terrorist group to pull off such an attack, even the minute chance that terrorists might have that ability changes the equation dramatically, given that the Cold War concept of mutually assured destruction is no longer applicable.

What makes the situation more dangerous is the availability of weapons-usable material on the black market - material that is often not reported as missing from or unaccounted for at the facility of origin. Seizures have typically been samples of larger quantities that remain missing. Furthermore, the record indicates that nuclear material seizures have been serendipitous, and not the result of proactive intelligence and law enforcement action. Past smuggling incidents have fostered deep suspicion and mistrust among states, including charges and countercharges over sting operations.

Intelligence and law enforcement organizations have not taken ownership of loose nuclear material. This should come as no surprise given the reluctance of nuclear states to acknowledge that material is missing or that they have secretly provided it to other governments or non-state actors. States are loath to claim missing material when it is seized and much less ready to accept the possibility that more may be missing and for sale to the highest bidder. To make matters worse, nothing is more sensitive to governments than sharing information about nuclear secrets, weapons, and materiel, and there is a natural aversion to working with rival countries. As such, national interests trump the collective security imperative of closing down the nuclear black market.

The overall U.S. effort to prevent a nuclear terrorist attack depends heavily on the ability of intelligence to perform its mission. Broadening the mandate and intelligence capability of the IAEA - a multilateral institution created specifically to respond to nuclear threats - would be one way to improve international intelligence capability in this area. IAEA intelligence would not require an army, only a small core of true professionals. To build such an effort, intelligence officers could be seconded to the IAEA. A small operational team, following carefully conceived ground rules, could penetrate and study the black market, and devise a plan to eliminate it. To demonstrate the gravity of the problem, the group could be tasked to obtain sufficient nuclear material for a bomb. The successful completion of such a task might help highlight the dangers and galvanize the international community to act.

Nothing is substantively complicated about arming the IAEA with intelligence capacity. Considering the nuclear mission of the agency and its status as an established international body, it is only logical to do so. The IAEA needs all three parts of the intelligence cycle - requirements, collection, and analysis - in order to effectively carry out its mission. Applying the discipline and rigor of intelligence collection and analytical tradecraft in tracking nuclear materials, analyzing smuggling networks, and identifying clandestine nuclear activity would only enhance the IAEA's capacity to serve the common interests of all member states.

Objections to creating an IAEA intelligence capability will center around international politics and the bureaucratic realities of multilateralism, rather than on the substance of the matter. Some may argue that based on its track record, the IAEA is not worthy of such trust and responsibility. Others will express reluctance to infuse intelligence into the agency's sensitive safeguard mission. Certain intelligence officials will express concern about protection of sources and methods in sharing more information with the IAEA. Under the current system, IAEA employees, for example, cannot be prosecuted for leaking sensitive intelligence information. While these reservations have some merit, they should not be barriers to multilateralism, but rather serve as a basis for formulating a realistic plan for cooperation. The truth is that states cannot succeed on their own; global intelligence is the only hope for confronting nuclear terrorism and other threats to collective security.

The biggest obstacle to multilateral intelligence cooperation is leadership and finding the courage to work together. Group think and risk aversion must be overcome in the name of urgency. The IAEA must garner the support of member states, their resources, methodologies, and most of all, their information. An aggressive international intelligence presence on the black market would help deter smugglers and terrorists. It would help prove that the international community, by working together, can eliminate the nuclear black market, deter nuclear smuggling, and expose clandestine nuclear activity before it reaches fruition. If the international community stays on the current course, however, it is only a matter of time before the world experiences the catastrophe of a nuclear terrorist attack. Rolf Mowatt-Larssen is the former director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy and former head of the Central Intelligence Agency's Weapons of Mass Destruction Department in the Counterterrorism Center. [Mowatt-Larssen/WashingtonInstitute/30April2009] 

Interrogations by Japanese-Americans Helped Win WWII. As we deal with intelligence and interrogation issues today, information about the World War II-era U.S. Army intelligence group known as the "Military Intelligence Service (MIS)" may provide useful perspectives.

The MIS was started in late 1941 as a unit to train Japanese-Americans (Nisei) to conduct translation and interrogation activities. MIS men came mostly from Hawaii and the West Coast.

MIS missions were highly classified and still are not widely known. Information on MIS activities was not made public until 30 years after WWII had ended.

The MIS organization included an administrative group, an intelligence group, a counterintelligence group and an operations group.

MIS personnel were attached to other U.S. military branches as well as the joint Australian-American "Allied Translator and Interpreter Service." MIS members served with "Merrill's Marauders," the famous Army Ranger unit that conducted operations in Burma against the Imperial Japanese Army.

MIS personnel were active in nearly all major campaigns and battles in the Pacific. According to some assessments, MIS missions may have shortened the Pacific war by up to two years.

The MIS performed intelligence and counterintelligence tasks such as intercepting radio messages, interrogating prisoners as well as translating captured maps and documents.

MIS interrogators reportedly used psychological and cultural understanding to obtain valuable intelligence.

Interestingly, in contrast to alleged interrogation and torture activities conducted in recent years, MIS men reportedly provided decent treatment for Japanese prisoners.

Whether "rough" interrogation practices were also used on some prisoners is unclear. Did the MIS conduct torture?

One of the most dangerous, challenging and sometimes tragic MIS duties was flushing caves - convincing Japanese troops to surrender and persuading civilians that U.S. forces would not harm them.

After the war, MIS members were instrumental in the occupation and rebuilding of Japan. During the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952, more than 5,000 MIS personnel were assigned to duties in the occupation. This work included intelligence, civil affairs, disarmament, finance, education, land reform and assisting in the development of the Japanese Constitution.

Many young men in the MIS experienced racial and social discrimination. After Pearl Harbor, many Japanese-American families on the West Coast had been stripped of property and businesses and forced into medium-security prison camps that were called "relocation camps."

Nisei living in Hawaii generally did not experience these extreme measures.

Young Japanese-American men joined the military for many reason including proving their loyalty to the United States and proving that they were good Americans. Many had been raised as somewhat typical American kids.

Those in the MIS knew that the Japanese military and Japanese society had a different social fabric in some ways, a different psychology and different spiritual traditions.

The MIS attempted to understand and use knowledge about these elements as they conducted their interrogation, intelligence, reconnaissance, psychological and information operations.

What do veterans of the MIS think about the discussion on interrogation now? Some U.S. WWII intelligence and interrogation veterans have stepped forward to contribute their views. Maybe MIS veterans will also shed light on this topic. [Hammond/AmericanChronicle/29April2009] 

Ex-Spy Sits Down With Islamists and the West. Talking to Islamists is the new order of the day in Washington and London. The Obama administration wants a dialogue with Iran, and the British Foreign Office has decided to reopen diplomatic contacts with Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group based here.

But for several years, small groups of Western diplomats have made quiet trips to Beirut for confidential sessions with members of Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist groups they did not want to be seen talking to. In hotel conference rooms, they would warily shake hands, then spend hours listening and hashing out accusations of terrorism on one side and imperial arrogance on the other.

The organizer of these back-door encounters is Alastair Crooke, a quiet, sandy-haired man of 59 who spent three decades working for MI6, the British secret intelligence service. He now runs an organization here called Conflicts Forum, with an unusual board of advisers that includes former spies, diplomats and peace activists.

Mr. Crooke has spent much of his career talking to Islamists. In the 1980s, as a young undercover agent in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he helped funnel weapons to jihadists fighting the Soviets. Later, he spent years working with Hamas and Fatah as a negotiator for the European Union, and helped broker a number of cease-fires with Israel between 2001 and 2003. He earned a reputation for courage and tenacity, but in person he is disarmingly polite and mild-mannered, a slight-figured man with a beaky, impish smile.

The mission of Conflicts Forum, which he founded in 2004, resembles a kind of blueprint for the Obama administration's current outreach efforts: to "open a new relationship between the West and Muslim world" through dialogue and better mutual understanding.

Yet Mr. Crooke, who is legendary for his deep network of contacts among Islamist groups across the Middle East, is not sanguine about the prospects for mere dialogue, especially with Iran.

"I think there is a real fear there will be a process of talking past each other," Mr. Crooke said. "The Iranians will say, 'we want to talk about justice and respect.' The U.S. will say, 'are you willing to give up enrichment or not?' "

To get past that impasse with Iran, and with Islamist groups generally, the West will need to change its diplomatic language of threats and rewards, Mr. Crooke said, and show more respect for their adversaries' point of view.

Mr. Crooke has spent the past few years trying to explain that to suspicious Westerners, in a stream of articles, speeches and conferences. Although not an Arabist by training, he has developed a deep knowledge of modern Islamist movements, and launches easily into analyses of Palestinian politics, or even of medieval Islamic philosophy.

Recently, he has taken his explanatory efforts a bit further. In a new book, "Resistance: the Essence of the Islamist Revolution," he deliberately avoids the most controversial subjects, like Israel and the status of women in the Islamic world. Instead, he focuses on what he calls the core of the Islamist revolution, which he defines as a metaphysical resistance to the West's market-based definition of the individual and society. He invokes European social critics like Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, endorsing their critiques of Western thinking and arguing that Islamism offers a more holistic model.

Not surprisingly, the book has received some stinging reviews, and renewed accusations that Mr. Crooke has gone native. Even some of his fellow board members at Conflicts Forum say they are a little baffled - not by his sympathy for Islamists, but by the book's broad philosophical themes.

Mr. Crooke says the book grew out of his own efforts to find common ground with Islamists, and to look beyond the usual stumbling blocks.

"It seemed to me there was a real need to understand what was happening inside Islamism better, and to valorize what they were saying in ways that could be understood in the West," he said.

That project seems inseparable from his broader argument about dialogue. To illustrate it, Mr. Crooke describes an episode from the conflict in Northern Ireland in which the British put two opposing factions into a room for talks, "na�vely imagining that talking would help." It did the opposite, reinforcing their anger. So the negotiators tried another approach: they asked both sides to write down their history and vision for the future on a piece of paper. After three more years of talks, the factions finally reached the point at which they acknowledged the legitimacy of the other side's piece of paper.

"George Mitchell once said to me, 'you don't even have a political process until you accept that the other side has a legitimate point of view,' " Mr. Crooke said, referring to Mr. Mitchell's landmark 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland and relating it to the many obstacles between the United States and Iran.

"Does America have the will and the patience for that?" he said. "I'm not sure we're there yet."

Patience, by all accounts, is something Mr. Crooke possesses. Mark Perry, the co-director of Conflicts Forum, describes an episode in Gaza in 2002 when the two men tried to establish a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian factions. After weeks of negotiations, Israel dropped a bomb on the Hamas leader whose signature they needed, shattering their efforts.

"We were exhausted," Mr. Perry recalled. "The next day in the hotel room, I looked at Alastair and said 'what do we do now?' He just said, 'We try again.' "

It is not entirely clear where that steadfastness comes from. He is a little evasive about his own life and career, perhaps by training. Born in Ireland, he grew up mostly in Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe, and was educated at a Swiss boarding school and at St. Andrew's in Scotland, obtaining a degree in economics. Before joining MI6, he worked in finance in London.

"It's a dangerous area to work in," he said of his years as a banker, without apparent irony, "because it's so easy to get caught up in enrichment."

He is barred by law from discussing his service with MI6, which included years of diplomatic work on the Israel-Palestine issue. As a negotiator in the Palestinian territories, he is said to have traveled alone, by taxi, eschewing the armed security convoys of many Western diplomats. Colleagues who worked with him say Yasir Arafat and the leaders of Hamas trusted Mr. Crooke completely, as did some high-level Israeli officials.

Some Israelis, however, apparently complained that he was too close to Hamas. In late 2003, he was recalled to London - he had reached retirement age - and quietly ushered out of government service, with a commendation. He says he has no regrets, but some of his colleagues in Conflicts Forum say he retains some bitterness about the way he was treated.

In 2005, he moved to Beirut, where he lives with his partner, Aisling Byrne, and their 1-year-old child, Amistis, in an elegant, old French mandate-era apartment, working out of a home office.

Mr. Crooke smiles at the suggestion that Conflicts Forum may offer him a back-door route back to diplomacy, but does not entirely deny it. "We're not implementers," he said. "What we're trying to do is catalyze and create ideas. The second part is, how do you multiply something done by a small number of people in one room into something larger?" [Worth/NewYorkTimes/2May2009] 

Section III - COMMENTARY

Security Before Politics, by Porter J. Goss. Since leaving my post as CIA director almost three years ago, I have remained largely silent on the public stage. I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national security and trying to gain partisan political advantage. We can't have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets. Americans have to decide now.

A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation's intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaida.

In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA's "High Value Terrorist Program," including the development of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and what those techniques were. This was not a onetime briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.

Today, I am slack jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as "waterboarding" were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.

Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high value terrorists.

We understood what the CIA was doing.

We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaida.

I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed "memorandums for the record" suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president's national security adviser and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have.

Circuses are not new in Washington, and I can see preparations being made for tents from the Capitol straight down Pennsylvania Avenue. The CIA has been pulled into the center ring before. The result this time will be the same: a hollowed out service of diminished capabilities. After Sept. 11, the general outcry was, "Why don't we have better overseas capabilities?" I fear that in the years to come this refrain will be heard again: once a threat or God forbid, another successful attack captures our attention and sends the pendulum swinging back. There is only one person who can shut down this dangerous show: President Obama.

Unfortunately, much of the damage to our capabilities has already been done. It is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day "I have your back" only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it. After the events of this week, morale at the CIA has been shaken to its foundation.

We must not forget: Our intelligence allies overseas view our inability to maintain secrecy as a reason to question our worthiness as a partner. These allies have been vital in almost every capture of a terrorist. The suggestion that we are safer now because information about interrogation techniques is in the public domain conjures up images of unicorns and fairy dust. We have given our enemy invaluable information about the rules by which we operate. The terrorists captured by the CIA perfected the act of beheading innocents using dull knives. Khalid Sheik Mohammed boasted of the tactic of placing explosives high enough in a building to ensure that innocents trapped above would die if they tried to escape through windows. There is simply no comparison between our professionalism and their brutality.

Our enemies do not subscribe to the rules of the Marquis of Queensbury. "Name, rank and serial number" does not apply to nonstate actors but is, regrettably, the only question this administration wants us to ask. Instead of taking risks, our intelligence officers will soon resort to wordsmithing cables to headquarters while opportunities to neutralize brutal radicals are lost. The days of fortress America are gone. We are the world's superpower. We can sit on our hands or we can become engaged to improve global human conditions. The bottom line is that we cannot succeed unless we have good intelligence. Trading security for partisan political popularity will ensure that our secrets are not secret and that our intelligence is destined to fail us. [Goss/WashingtonPost/24April2009] 

-----------------------------------------

Letter from Andrew C. McCarthy to Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Dear Attorney General Holder:

This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President's Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading.

The invitation email (of April 14) indicates that the meeting is part of an ongoing effort to identify lawful policies on the detention and disposition of alien enemy combatants - or what the Department now calls "individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations." I admire the lawyers of the Counterterrorism Division, and I do not question their good faith. Nevertheless, it is quite clear - most recently, from your provocative remarks on Wednesday in Germany - that the Obama administration has already settled on a policy of releasing trained jihadists (including releasing some of them into the United States). Whatever the good intentions of the organizers, the meeting will obviously be used by the administration to claim that its policy was arrived at in consultation with current and former government officials experienced in terrorism cases and national security issues. I deeply disagree with this policy, which I believe is a violation of federal law and a betrayal of the president's first obligation to protect the American people. Under the circumstances, I think the better course is to register my dissent, rather than be used as a prop.

Moreover, in light of public statements by both you and the President, it is dismayingly clear that, under your leadership, the Justice Department takes the position that a lawyer who in good faith offers legal advice to government policy makers - like the government lawyers who offered good faith advice on interrogation policy - may be subject to investigation and prosecution for the content of that advice, in addition to empty but professionally damaging accusations of ethical misconduct. Given that stance, any prudent lawyer would have to hesitate before offering advice to the government.

Beyond that, as elucidated in my writing (including my proposal for a new national security court, which I understand the Task Force has perused), I believe alien enemy combatants should be detained at Guantanamo Bay (or a facility like it) until the conclusion of hostilities. This national defense measure is deeply rooted in the venerable laws of war and was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the 2004 Hamdi case. Yet, as recently as Wednesday, you asserted that, in your considered judgment, such notions violate America's "commitment to the rule of law." Indeed, you elaborated, "Nothing symbolizes our [administration's] new course more than our decision to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. President Obama believes, and I strongly agree, that Guantanamo has come to represent a time and an approach that we want to put behind us: a disregard for our centuries-long respect for the rule of law[.]" (Emphasis added.)

Given your policy of conducting ruinous criminal and ethics investigations of lawyers over the advice they offer the government, and your specific position that the wartime detention I would endorse is tantamount to a violation of law, it makes little sense for me to attend the Task Force meeting. After all, my choice would be to remain silent or risk jeopardizing myself.

For what it may be worth, I will say this much. For eight years, we have had a robust debate in the United States about how to handle alien terrorists captured during a defensive war authorized by Congress after nearly 3000 of our fellow Americans were annihilated. Essentially, there have been two camps. One calls for prosecution in the civilian criminal justice system, the strategy used throughout the 1990s. The other calls for a military justice approach of combatant detention and war-crimes prosecutions by military commission. Because each theory has its downsides, many commentators, myself included, have proposed a third way: a hybrid system, designed for the realities of modern international terrorism - a new system that would address the needs to protect our classified defense secrets and to assure Americans, as well as our allies, that we are detaining the right people.

There are differences in these various proposals. But their proponents, and adherents to both the military and civilian justice approaches, have all agreed on at least one thing: Foreign terrorists trained to execute mass-murder attacks cannot simply be released while the war ensues and Americans are still being targeted. We have already released too many jihadists who, as night follows day, have resumed plotting to kill Americans. Indeed, according to recent reports, a released Guantanamo detainee is now leading Taliban combat operations in Afghanistan, where President Obama has just sent additional American forces.

The Obama campaign smeared Guantanamo Bay as a human rights blight. Consistent with that hyperbolic rhetoric, the President began his administration by promising to close the detention camp within a year. The President did this even though he and you (a) agree Gitmo is a top-flight prison facility, (b) acknowledge that our nation is still at war, and (c) concede that many Gitmo detainees are extremely dangerous terrorists who cannot be tried under civilian court rules. Patently, the commitment to close Guantanamo Bay within a year was made without a plan for what to do with these detainees who cannot be tried. Consequently, the Detention Policy Task Force is not an effort to arrive at the best policy. It is an effort to justify a bad policy that has already been adopted: to wit, the Obama administration policy to release trained terrorists outright if that's what it takes to close Gitmo by January.

Obviously, I am powerless to stop the administration from releasing top al Qaeda operatives who planned mass-murder attacks against American cities - like Binyam Mohammed (the accomplice of "Dirty Bomber" Jose Padilla) whom the administration recently transferred to Britain, where he is now at liberty and living on public assistance. I am similarly powerless to stop the administration from admitting into the United States such alien jihadists as the 17 remaining Uighur detainees. According to National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, the Uighurs will apparently live freely, on American taxpayer assistance, despite the facts that they are affiliated with a terrorist organization and have received terrorist paramilitary training. Under federal immigration law (the 2005 REAL ID Act), those facts render them excludable from the United States. The Uighurs' impending release is thus a remarkable development given the Obama administration's propensity to deride its predecessor's purported insensitivity to the rule of law.

I am, in addition, powerless to stop the President, as he takes these reckless steps, from touting his Detention Policy Task Force as a demonstration of his national security seriousness. But I can decline to participate in the charade.

Finally, let me repeat that I respect and admire the dedication of Justice Department lawyers, whom I have tirelessly defended since I retired in 2003 as a chief assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. It was a unique honor to serve for nearly twenty years as a federal prosecutor, under administrations of both parties. It was as proud a day as I have ever had when the trial team I led was awarded the Attorney General's Exceptional Service Award in 1996, after we secured the convictions of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and his underlings for waging a terrorist war against the United States. I particularly appreciated receiving the award from Attorney General Reno - as I recounted in Willful Blindness, my book about the case, without her steadfastness against opposition from short-sighted government officials who wanted to release him, the "blind sheikh" would never have been indicted, much less convicted and so deservedly sentenced to life-imprisonment. In any event, I've always believed defending our nation is a duty of citizenship, not ideology. Thus, my conservative political views aside, I've made myself available to liberal and conservative groups, to Democrats and Republicans, who've thought tapping my experience would be beneficial. It pains me to decline your invitation, but the attendant circumstances leave no other option.

Very truly yours,

Andrew C. McCarthy
[McCarthy/NRIInstitute/1May2009]

---------------------------------------------------

Overusing 'State Secrets Privilege.' [The following commentary is from the editorial pages of the Los Angeles Times.] The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals took a courageous stand this week when it ruled that five alleged victims of the government's "extraordinary rendition" program - each of whom says he was kidnapped and tortured at the behest of the U.S. government - were entitled to their day in court.

That may not sound like an extraordinary victory, but it is. The three-judge panel that made the ruling in Mohamed vs. Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. did so over the strenuous objections of the Bush and Obama administrations, both of which called for the case to be tossed out under what's known as the "state secrets privilege."

A Justice Department lawyer, for instance, argued in February that such vital secrets were at stake in the case that going forward would be "playing with fire." And former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden's warning was even more ominous: Information would be disclosed that could help America's enemies and cause "exceptionally grave" danger to U.S. national security.

To their credit, the judges did not roll over. They noted that the government's powers to protect secret information were "not the only weighty constitutional values at stake." They concluded, among other things, that it is possible to protect secrets on a document-by-document basis without dismissing entire cases.

We agree. In theory, the state secrets privilege makes sense. But the Bush administration became addicted to it and asserted it dozens of times - far more than any previous administration. After 9/11, courts were overwhelmingly accommodating; not once were officials required to turn over material they claimed was secret.

That's how Khaled El-Masri, allegedly tortured by the CIA in Afghanistan in a case of mistaken identity, had his lawsuit thrown out. So did Maher Arar, a Canadian seized in New York and sent to Syria, where he says he was tortured regularly for almost a year.

As a candidate, Barack Obama criticized the overuse of the state secrets privilege. But when the Mohamed case came before the 9th Circuit in February, his Justice Department lawyers argued (as their predecessors had) that it should be dismissed. That was a mistake. Although we do not believe in giving away vital secrets or aiding terrorists, we do think the privilege should be used sparingly and in a limited manner. The government has too often used it not to protect legitimate secrets but to cover up activities that might prove embarrassing.

The extraordinary rendition program, which is by now notorious around the world, falls more easily into the embarrassment category. [LATimes/2May2009]

Section IV - RESEARCH REQUEST, OBITUARIES, READING, ANNOUNCEMENTS, COMPLAINTS AND COMING EVENTS

Research Request

Seeking American Officials in Guatemala in 1981: This is a research request for information about how to contact two American officials who were in Guatemala in l981. A friend is involved in a project to write a biography of Father Stanley Rother, an American Catholic missionary priest who was murdered in the rectory of his parish at Santiago Atitlán. The cause for the canonization of Father Rother, aka Padre Aplás, is officially underway. A news report of his death is here: http://www.catharchdioceseokc.org/history/Murder.htm
In connection with this the biographer, John Rosengren, is seeking help in contacting two former officials of the American Embassy who may have useful information.
One is “Ray Gonzalez” (possibly a pseudonym) whose official capacity is unknown but the writer, John Rosengren, believes he met privately with Fr. Rother. Rosengren speculates he might have been in the CIA.
The other person was Raymond Bailey who was the official representative of the U. S. Embassy at Fr. Rother’s funeral. (an American Consular Officer arrived in Santiago Atitlán the day after the murder and joined thousands of Indians mourners at the parish. A news report quotes Raymond Bailey, a “staff member of the American Embassy” as saying that he would never forget the funeral for the rest of his life.) No additional identifying data is available.
Members having any information on the above, please contact Mr. R. Jean Gray at rjeangray@bhi.com

Obituaries

Richard Kissam Cooke.  Richard Kissam Cooke of Floyd, Va. Born at Ft. Sam Houston, TX on August 20, 1926. Died April 10, 2009 at Montgomery Regional Hospital. Son of Brig. Gen Elliot Duncan Cooke and Jackie Thompson Cooke. Richard served in World War II in the Merchant Marines, Army Air Corps, and Combat Engineers. He served two tours in the Korean War (with the 1st Cavalry and the 45th Infantry Div.), earning a bronze star and leaving the service as a Captain. He was most proud of earning the Combat Infantry Badge. Richard joined the CIA and was posted overseas several times, including Jordan during the Six-Day War of 1967, and Vietnam in 1974-5. Richard retired from the CIA after 25 years of dedicated service. Richard is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Barbara Sherman Cooke, his three daughters Cassandra Cooke, Circe Cooke, and Cybele Lane, sons-in-law David DeHoff and George A. Lane, grandchildren Ethan Thomas ("Tommy") DeHoff, Allison DeHoff, George William ("Will") Lane and Katriona ("Katie") Lane, sister-in-law Margaret Bryan, nephews Chris (and wife Linda) Bryan, and Mark (and wife Susan) Bryan, and their families.   [GardnerFuneralHome/9April2009]

Reading

Former CIA Officer Writes Action-Packed Novel About Real Life Intrigue, Espionage and Terrorism in South Asia. Reading Duane Evans' new adventure and action novel about espionage and terror in South Asia is uncannily like reading the pages of the international section of the N.Y. Times or Wall Street Journal about real life intrigues in India and Pakistan.

North From Calcutta is an action-packed, non-stop tale of espionage and intrigue told from the unique perspective of a westernized Pakistani intelligence officer. The story culminates in an attempt by terrorists to destroy a dam in India using a portable backpack nuclear device. The attack is to occur during a dedication ceremony attended by hundreds of important government officials and international VIP's.

Author Duane Evans is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer with operational tours on four continents, including duty as Chief of Station which is the CIA's most senior field position. Evans, now living in northern Virginia, is the recipient of the Intelligence Star for valor. Before joining the agency he was a U.S. Army Special Forces officer.

After assignments in Latin America, Europe, South Asia and in the Mideast, Evans retired from the CIA in 2007 and concentrated on completing North From Calcutta, the story that first began to form in his mind in the 1990s while on assignment in South Asia.

"Most Americans don't have a clue what South Asia is like but it absolutely fascinated me and I wanted to put a spotlight on the region, hoping in some small way I could educate Americans about the people, culture, and problems of the region," says Evans.

While North From Calcutta is set in India and Pakistan, the interwoven plot themes take readers to Washington, DC, London, Abu Dhabi, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The story line, enriched by fascinating characters, not only unveils the mindset and methodologies of an intelligence officer but also reveals the attitudes, thought processes, and activities of Islamic extremists who are caught up in the religious and geo-political struggle between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
"While this is an action-adventure genre," explains the author, "there is an important element of romance throughout the story. I started off intending that romance would play only a small role in the story but the character of the female heroine, an Indian Hindu, continued to grow as I wrote, and the romantic aspect grew to the point that it is a central element of the story."

North From Calcutta will be of great interest to fiction readers who enjoy espionage, thrillers, adventure, and foreign intrigue. But it will also appeal to readers who are interested in other countries, cultures and religions, international affairs, and politics.
[PRINside/2May2009] 

Announcements

Gen. David Petraeus Receives the William J. Donovan Award. General David H. Petraeus, Commander of the United States Central Command, received the William J. Donovan Award from The OSS Society on May 2, 2009 at an event attended by more than 600 people in Washington, DC at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

The William J. Donovan Award is named after the founder of World War II's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Major General William "Wild Bill" Donovan. OSS was the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Forces. General Donovan is the only American to have received our nation's four highest decorations, including the Medal of Honor.

The William J. Donovan Award is given to an individual who has rendered distinguished service in the interests of the democratic process, the cause of freedom and has exemplified General Donovan's tradition of public service.

Previous recipients of the William J. Donovan Award include Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, and Bush; Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sir William Stephenson, Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, William Casey, Ralph Bunche, and William Webster.

Charles Pinck, OSS Society President, said that "in much the same manner that General Donovan created a revolutionary new organization capable of waging unconventional warfare with OSS, General Petraeus has revolutionized the Army's view of counterinsurgency by challenging conventional wisdom, by recruiting supremely talented and diverse people to help him, and by overcoming formidable internal and external obstacles to turn the tide in Iraq and, we hope, in Afghanistan."

OSS Society Chairman Major General John K. Singlaub, USA (Ret.), in presenting the award to General Petraeus, said that "General Petraeus' leadership of our military has been nothing less than inspirational. It is fitting that we honor General David Petraeus, a man of courage, vision, and intellect, a leader who, like General Donovan, has led by example. Tonight, we honor General Petraeus for all that he has done and all that he will do on behalf of our nation."

The OSS Society celebrates the historical accomplishments of World War II's Office of Strategic Services - the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Forces - and educates the American public about the importance of strategic intelligence to our national security.  [PRNewsWire/4May2009]

Complaints

Re: Member Newsletter - AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #15-09 dtd 28 April 2009. To Whom It May Concern: This is discouraging! When an AFIO newsletter doesn't even mention the Administration's use of top secret documents and the visit of the President to CIA, or what he had to say, I'm not sure what the AFIO's objectives are anymore. It used to be that the AFIO took positions on different issues in the name of the AFIO community, and it still does through articles in the "Intelligencer", but the "Weekly Intelligence Notes" needs a complete editorial reorganization. And wasn't there something call the "Periscope"? What has happened? Sincerely, Groves3162

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

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

14 May 2009 - Culver, IN - CIA and NSA Conference on "Creating Intelligence: The Creation of the U.S. Intelligence Community" - AFIO Members Invited at no charge

15 May 2009 - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO Spring Luncheon featuring Shawn Henry, FBI - on Risks of Cyber Security Breaches. Full details at top and below.

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.

Crowne Plaza Hotel
10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Space Limited
Register Securely Here.

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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