AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #23-09 dated 23 June 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

John Sawers Named Head of Britain's MI6 Intelligence Service. The British government has announced that John Sawers will become head of the U.K.'s foreign intelligence service MI6 later this year.

Sawers, who is currently the U.K.'s permanent representative at the United Nations, will replace John Scarlett when he retires in November, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said.

Sawers will be rejoining MI6, Ellam said, without saying when he had left the service. Sawers has worked as political director at the Foreign Office and held a number of posts in the Middle East, including ambassador to Egypt and special representative in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

He was foreign affairs adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair during the Kosovo conflict and in his early career had postings in Yemen, Syria and South Africa, according to his biography on the Foreign Office Web site.

Scarlett, who has led the service for five years, was in charge of writing the September 2002 dossier on Iraq's banned weapons program, which was released to help justify the Iraq war. He was cleared of any improper behavior in relation to the dossier by an inquiry led by Judge Brian Hutton in January 2004 and was appointed to the top job four months later. [Penny/Bloomberg/11June2009]

Khmer Rouge Jail Chief Tells of Experiments, Blood Draining. The former Khmer Rouge prison chief told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court that some inmates had blood completely drained from their bodies or were used for medical experiments.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his nom de guerre Duch, was answering judges' questions about conditions at Tuol Sleng prison, where he supervised the torture and extermination of up to 15,000 people.

"First, live prisoners were used for surgical study and training, second blood drawing was also done," Duch told the court.

The testimony represented a new admission of guilt for Duch, who previously stated he knew nothing of prisoners being drained of blood.

In the morning of one of the most dramatic days so far in his crimes against humanity trial, Duch at one point became visibly distraught while talking about which prisoners were tortured and judges gave him some time to compose himself.

Duch also told the court that Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot knew prisoners' confessions, usually extracted through torture, were false.

Duch added he also did not believe most confessions and told the court how he was summoned by his superior, defense minister Son Sen, and asked why his staff had not found any information about the CIA's agenda.

"It was required for us to seek out CIA agents... As a result, there were many CIA agents in the confessions," Duch said. "All the prisoners, from what I could conclude... who claimed they were CIA agents, no they were not," he said, adding that he ran into further problems with his superiors when one man confessed to being a Soviet agent.

Thereafter, he said, his staff also obtained confessions from many prisoners saying they were working for the KGB, the Soviet Union's spy agency.

However, Duch also sought to demonstrate he showed compassion for some of the doomed inmates at Tuol Sleng. He told the court he had not approved torture through electrocution of genitals and became "very angry" when he learned a male interrogator had sexually abused a female inmate.

He also said he disobeyed an order by "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea to poison several inmates, filling capsules with headache medicine instead.

Earlier in his trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Duch accepted responsibility for his role in the 1975 to 1979 communist regime and begged forgiveness from its victims.

He has, however, consistently denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule and maintains he tortured only two people himself and never personally executed anyone.

The 66-year-old former math teacher was arrested by Cambodian authorities in 1999 and judges on Monday ruled he was "entitled to a remedy" because it was "unlawful" he had spent so long in detention before the case came to court.

The ruling appeared to be a small victory for Duch, whose lawyers in April argued he had been held illegally and urged the judges to compensate by subtracting time from his final sentence and softening their eventual verdict.

Pol Pot died in 1998, and many believe the tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.

The court was formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and the Cambodian government, and is expected next year to begin the trial of four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders also in detention. [Falby/AP/17June2009]

Army Interpreter Loses Spy Appeal. An Army corporal who was the personal interpreter to Britain's top general in Afghanistan has lost an appeal against his 10-year sentence for spying.

Iranian-born Daniel James, 45, was found guilty last November of spying for Iran.

He had sent coded messages to an Iranian military attach� in Kabul.

Rejecting James's case, the Lord Chief Justice said the Court of Appeal had reached "a clear conclusion" and the reasons for it would be given later.

The Territorial Army soldier was working for the head of multi-national forces in Afghanistan, General David Richards, when he was arrested in 2006.

He was caught just two months after making contact with Colonel Mohammad Hossein Heydari, an Iranian military assistant based at Tehran's embassy in Kabul.

At the time of his arrest, James had level one security clearance and intimate knowledge of Gen Richards' daily schedule.

James denied being a spy, but senior intelligence officers believed that if he had not been arrested his actions could ultimately have cost the lives of UK soldiers and even endangered the security of Britain itself.

In one of his coded e-mails, he told the colonel: "I am at your service."

James was found guilty of one count of breaching the Official Secrets Act by communicating information to an enemy.

He was described in court as a flamboyant fantasist who had invited his boss to salsa dance. [BBC/12June2009] 

Marine Admits Giving CIA Files to LA Deputy. A Camp Pendleton Marine has pleaded guilty in military court to giving classified information to a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy.

Gunnery Sgt. Eric Froboese (FROH-bish) pleaded guilty Thursday to disobeying a lawful order, dereliction of duty and conspiracy.

The hearing at Camp Pendleton did not reveal the contents of the files, which were deemed classified by CIA and shared with the sheriff's deputy between 2003 and 2004.

The maximum sentence is 10 years in the brig, pay forfeiture, a reduction in rank and dishonorable discharge. A sentencing date has not been set.

Two other Marines are charged in the same case. One has pleaded guilty.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that the men were accused of sharing the files with an anti-terrorism group of law-enforcement agencies. [AP/12June2009] 

Air France Crash "Terrorist Suspects" on Flight. Flight 447 crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on May 31. While it is certain the aeroplane suffered computer malfunctions, officials have not ruled out terrorism.

The French secret service has established that two passengers had names that appear on classified French documents listing people suspected to be security threats.

Agents are trying to confirm the dates of birth and family connections of the two passengers. A source in the security service said it was possible the name similarities were a "macabre coincidence".

Brazilian and French search crews have recovered another 13 bodies from a spot in the Atlantic Ocean where the Air France jet came down.

A total of 41 bodies have so far been recovered from the zone 700 miles off Brazil's northeast coast, Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Cardoso, the head of Brazilian air traffic control, said.

Sixteen of the bodies have been taken to the nearest point on land, Brazil's archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, and the other 25 were on their way there, Lt Col Cardoso said.

After being inspected, photographed and catalogued on those islands, they were to be flown to the mainland coastal city of Recife for identification by forensic teams.

Brazilian and French officials are using DNA samples from relatives and dental records to identify the remains.

Brazilian navy ships and a French frigate were to continue to scour the crash zone for more bodies and debris. [Allen/Telegraph/12June2009]

Military Intelligence - GAO: Military Items Easily Exported Illegally. Since late last year, Government Accountability Office investigators have been covertly testing how hard it is to buy and export military gear.

It turns out to be pretty easy.

Investigators used a dummy domestic company to purchase encrypted radios, body armor and even the engine-monitoring computer for a F-16 fighter jet, without arousing the sellers' suspicion.

In each case, the items were legal for domestic purchase, but not for export.

The sellers, however, generally did little or no due diligence on the dummy company, and in some cases, didn't follow their own internal controls for verifying they were selling to a legitimate buyer.

In further tests, GAO investigators successfully shipped dummy items overseas to countries used as shipment points for terrorist organizations and foreign countries.

Officials with the departments of State and Commerce, among other agencies, said there is no practical way to identify and search otherwise apparently innocuous people or packages that are leaving the country with items barred from export.

The GAO's testimony offered no suggestions on tightening security on these exports, other than noting that it must be done at the point of sale.

Once someone intent on exporting military equipment has it, the odds of stopping it from being shipped are low. [Pollack/FrederickNews/11June2009] 

House Dems Want to Expand Secret Briefings. House Democrats are pushing for a big increase in the number of lawmakers who hear briefings on the nation's most sensitive intelligence operations, from the current "Gang of Eight" to about 40.

The proposal to strip the president's authority to severely limit congressional access to the top-secret briefings is a response to years of White House secrecy.

The plan before the House Intelligence Committee would open the briefings to all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, a total of about 40 lawmakers, depending on shifting membership rosters.

The move is an effort to wrest back oversight power ceded to former President George W. Bush during eight contentious years that saw U.S. intelligence agencies gain the use of wider surveillance authority and harsh interrogation tactics that many critics now call torture.

It is not yet clear whether the Obama White House would oppose such redrawn limits on presidential authority, even by a Democratic Congress. White House officials would not comment on the plan, but other officials have expressed concerns about its impact.

The legislation drafted by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, would end the president's authority to limit briefings on covert activities to a select group of congressional leaders known as "the Gang of Eight."

Under Reyes' proposal, all members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees would be briefed on those matters, said a congressional aide familiar with the proposal. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the proposed legislation.

To better maintain secrecy, Congress in 1991 granted the president the authority to limit briefings on covert activities to the eight lawmakers - the top members from both parties in both houses, plus the top two members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

The more lawmakers are briefed on secret intelligence, the more possibilities that the information will leak out.

But members of the intelligence committees from both parties say recent presidents have used Gang of Eight notification powers to avoid briefing the full intelligence committees about things they should have been told. The restricted briefings were used by the Bush administration to limit disclosure of warrantless wiretapping and harsh interrogation methods.

The Bush administration classified those programs as covert activities despite the doubts of some lawmakers that they fit that definition. Covert activities are considered to be actions taken by the U.S. government to affect foreign affairs that are so secret the United States would deny any role in them if discovered.

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told the Senate Intelligence Committee last month he would be against altering the law.

"I do not think it is prudent to alter the fundamental compact between Congress and the president regarding reporting of sensitive intelligence matters," he said in his written testimony.

The CIA declined to comment on the draft legislation, but CIA Director Leon Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee in February that he believes the Bush administration abused the Gang of Eight notification process.

It was not clear whether the proposal has the backing of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic congressional leaders. Pelosi would not comment specifically on the draft legislation but she supports the intent, her spokesman said.

One former member of the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of California, said the notification process has been abused and called Reyes' draft legislation "a needed course correction."

Harman was briefed about the CIA's use of waterboarding in February 2003 and objected, but because of secrecy rules, she was unable to discuss the matter with colleagues and could only send the CIA a letter expressing her concerns.

Congress created the Senate and House Intelligence Committees 30 years ago in response to concerns about the CIA's conduct, particularly during the Vietnam war era.

But its ability to oversee intelligence activities is uneven at best. The secrecy and sensitivity of intelligence activities makes monitoring them - and limiting or changing them - difficult.

Last year, the top Republican on the committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, inserted a proposal similar to Reyes' that would have expanded classified briefings to committee members into the FY-2009 intelligence authorization bill. That bill was never signed into law. [Hess/AP/18June2009] 

Cuban Spies' Shortwave Radios Go Undetected. A retired State Department officer and his wife who are accused of spying for Cuba appear to have avoided capture for 30 years because their communications with the Caribbean island were too low-tech to be detected by sophisticated U.S. monitors.

Longtime State Department intelligence researcher Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn, 71, were arrested this month after a weeks-long sting operation in which they told an FBI agent posing as a Cuban intelligence officer that they received orders from Cuba's intelligence services over shortwave radio, according to a Justice Department affidavit.

U.S. intelligence spends little time combing the shortwave bands for secret, nefarious transmissions, said James Lewis, director and senior fellow for the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"I'm not surprised [the U.S. intelligence community] missed this," Mr. Lewis said. "We don't put an emphasis on monitoring this kind of activity."

Shortwave radio is a remnant of an era that existed before the Internet and satellite communications, including the sophisticated eavesdropping equipment of the National Security Agency.

But Chris Simmons, a former Cuba analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said Cuban intelligence still likes to use shortwave to communicate with its agents in the United States.

Former DIA senior analyst Ana Montes, arrested in September 2001 and convicted of spying on behalf of the Cuban government, also received her orders in shortwave communiqu�s. So did Jennifer Miles, who in the 1960s was the last State Department official before Mr. Myers to be arrested on charges of spying for Cuba.

"While some countries have moved to computer-based communications [for clandestine operations], Havana still largely relies on shortwave broadcasts," Mr. Simmons said.

The International Amateur Radio Union said there are more than 700,000 amateur radio operators in the United States.

Though shortwave operators are required to have licenses to transmit in the United States, many do not, said one shortwave user, adding that used equipment is readily sold online.

The Justice Department affidavit said Cuban intelligence appears to have sent the Myerses an unknown number of messages since the late 1970s, using simple number-to-letter codes.

"If you broadcast short messages and are disciplined, you are going to get away with it," Mr. Lewis said.

Even if U.S. authorities detect a transmission and determine that it is a coded message from a foreign intelligence unit, they do not know for whom the message is intended, Mr. Simmons said.

"When an intelligence agent broadcasts from Havana, the footprint it puts down on the earth is hundreds of miles across," he said. "And so from an investigative standpoint, it's impossible to find out who it went to."

Just 50 to 100 watts, about the power needed to illuminate a light bulb, can broadcast a shortwave message halfway around the world, said Moe Thomas, a broadcast television engineering technician in Washington and a shortwave radio enthusiast.

Shortwave radio is considered a "robust backbone system" that works when "all other means of communication are down," Mr. Thomas said, noting that shortwave transmissions have been useful for disseminating information after natural disasters.

Many foreign embassies and U.S. agencies in Washington have shortwave antennas on their roofs, and the news broadcasts of the federally funded Voice of America reach some of the most remote corners of the world via shortwave radio.

A short numerical cipher broadcast from Cuba can easily go unnoticed among the many shortwave transmissions filling the airwaves.

Mr. Simmons said Cuban intelligence uses its U.S. agents to monitor military movements and gather other information and then puts it up for sale.

"The view from Havana is that U.S. intelligence is a commodity that is to be bought, sold and traded to anyone that can come up with the right offer," he said, claiming that Havana told Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein about the type of equipment and forces the United States was using ahead of the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq war.

"Havana has a very keen understanding of where our weak spots are ... and they exploit them," Mr. Simmons said.

Efforts to contact officials at the Cuban mission in Washington for comment were unsuccessful. [Gentile/WashingtonTimes/18June2009] 

Dutch Spy Agency Workers Arrested for Leaks. Dutch prosecutors say two intelligence agency staff have been arrested for leaking state secrets to a journalist.

The arrests of a serving and a former employee of the General Intelligence and Security Service follow publication of two articles in the newspaper De Telegraaf this year.

One criticized the spy agency's role in the lead-up to the Iraq war and another revealed details of security measures during a visit to the Netherlands by the Dalai Lama.

Prosecutors say in a statement investigators searched the home of a Telegraaf journalist Thursday morning. They released no further details. Editor Sjuul Paradijs condemned the search on the Telegraaf's Web site, calling it the latest attack on press freedom.  
[PrInside/18June2009] 

NSA Secret Database Ensnared President Clinton's Private E-mail. A secret NSA surveillance database containing millions of intercepted foreign and domestic e-mails includes the personal correspondence of former President Bill Clinton, according to the New York Times.

An NSA intelligence analyst was apparently investigated after accessing Clinton's personal correspondence in the database, the paper reports, though it didn't say how many of Clinton's e-mails were captured or when the interception occurred.

The database, codenamed Pinwale, allows NSA analysts to search through and read large volumes of e-mail messages, including correspondence to and from Americans. Pinwale is likely the end point for data sucked from internet backbones into NSA-run surveillance rooms at AT&T facilities around the country.

Those rooms were set up by the Bush administration following 9/11, and were finally legalized last year when Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act. The law gives the telecoms immunity for cooperating with the administration; it also opens the way for the NSA to lawfully spy on large groups of phone numbers and e-mail addresses in bulk, instead of having to obtain a warrant for each target.

The NSA can collect the correspondence of Americans with a court order, or without one if the interception occurs incidentally while the agency is targeting people "reasonably believed" to be overseas. But in 2005, the agency "routinely examined large volumes of Americans' e-mail messages without court warrants," according to the Times, through this loophole. The paper reports today that the NSA is continuing to over-collect e-mail because of difficulties in filtering and distinguishing between foreign and domestic correspondence.

If an American's correspondence pops up in search results when analysts sift through the database, the analyst is allowed to read it, provided such messages account for no more than 30 percent of a search result, the paper reported.

The NSA has claimed that the over-collection was inadvertent and corrected it each time the problem was discovered. But Rep. Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, disputed this. "Some actions are so flagrant that they can't be accidental," he told the Times.

Holt and other congressional reps have been holding closed-door meetings on the issue. Holt's office said there are no current plans to hold a hearing on the matter, but the investigation is on-going. [Wired/17June2009] 

Notorious Bomb Maker From 80s To Be Put on FBI's Terrorist List. An FBI official says a notorious terrorist suspected of aiding the insurgency in Iraq will be added to the agency's list of its most wanted terrorists.

The official said Monday that an FBI committee recommended this month that 73-year-old Palestinian Abu Ibrahim be placed on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision wasn't official.

An investigation by The Associated Press had revealed the terrorist was still alive and had fled to Syria.

Ibrahim has been indicted in the 1982 bombing of Pam Am Flight 830. The explosion killed a 16-year-old boy and wounded more than a dozen passengers as the plane headed to Honolulu from Tokyo.

The FBI official says it could take months for Ibrahim to appear on the list.

The AP story also raised questions about whether Ibrahim had been involved in the insurgency.

Efforts are being made, meanwhile, to dramatically increase the $200,000 bounty through the Rewards for Justice program run by the U.S State Department.

More than two decades after he was indicted in Washington, D.C., the FBI is hoping it can finally nab Ibrahim. The bureau has recently ratcheted up efforts to find the suspect, whose real name is Husayn al-Umari. It has released an age-enhanced sketch, the only known picture of Ibrahim ever made public.

When Ibrahim finally ascends to the list, he'll join some notorious company that includes Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ibrahim would be the 25th person on the list.

While foreign intelligence agencies have pursued Ibrahim for decades, he has mostly remained out of reach, hiding in Baghdad since about 1979. He once ran a terrorist organization in Baghdad named "15 May" - named after the date for which Israel was founded.

Ibrahim, a devout Sunni who was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, is suspected of carrying out more than two dozen attacks on mainly American, Israeli and Jewish targets in a career that spans decades.

After the 2003 Iraq invasion, Ibrahim, a skilled operative, managed to elude coalition forces and moved from Baquobah to Mosul, which attracted insurgents and later became an Al-Qaida stronghold. Intelligence experts believe he slipped into Syria recently, perhaps with his family and his second wife, Selma.

Selma, a former school teacher, also hails from Tripoli.

A former senior CIA official who was stationed in Baghdad after the invasion said Ibrahim was possibly living in Al Qamishli in northern Syria, where his family either owned or rented a house. The official said family members of his spouse were providing sanctuary and support.

The former CIA official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he still works in the Middle East.

There have also been questions about whether Ibrahim supported the Sunni insurgency. In 2004, coalition forces raided a bomb-making factory and found possible signs that Ibrahim hadn't retired, as many former intelligence experts have suggested.

A former Pentagon official said the Defense Intelligence Agency put together "a fairly elaborate" report that was prepared in Baghdad.

"What was striking to me was that it seemed his expertise was still very much in use and he himself was still involved," said the former Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the sensitive report.

"He was definitely part of the current supply of bombing-making expertise to the insurgency and that factory was a dramatic example of it if the military intelligence guys were right," the former Pentagon official said. "I spoke with the young officers who had done the report and they were quite convinced of what they had found."

A DIA spokesman declined to comment in an e-mail, saying any information about Ibrahim was classified.

Ibrahim was known to have worked closely with the Iraqi Intelligence Service. It's not clear if Ibrahim had any links with the Sunni-dominated Al-Qaida.

Ibrahim, along with two other people, were indicted in 1987 in Washington, D.C. in the Pan Am attack that rattled aviation security experts because the sophisticated bomb passed undetected through airport security.

Mohammed Rashed, who placed the bomb under the seat that killed the teenager, was arrested in 1998 and was sentenced in 2006. Rashed, a former top 15 May operative, is scheduled to be released from a maximum-security prison in Colorado in 2013.

In a letter to the AP, Rashed said Ibrahim was very close to the Iraqi Intelligence Service along with members of the Baath Party. Rashed said Selma was a strong supporter of Saddam Hussein.

His Austrian-born wife, Christine Pinter, is still a fugitive. Authorities say she helped out carry out the attack that left a gaping hole in the 747's cabin floor but failed to bring down the plane. She was last known to be living in Sudan.

Dan Bent, the former U.S. Attorney in Hawaii who helped handle the 1987 indictment of Ibrahim, Pinter and Rashed, said Ibrahim deserves to be on the list after all these years.

"I think it's a good thing," Bent said. "The passage of time shouldn't give anyone a pass."   [Goldman&Herschaft/WashingtonExaminer/20June2009]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Finally, Spy Who Triggered Cold War Identified. Secret files have at last revealed the identity of the top spy who transferred Britain's atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union and paved the way for the nuclear standoff with the west, triggering the Cold War for nearly five decades.

Though the MI5 suspected him, trailed him and monitored his every move, they were never able to get the man, codenamed "Eric" by the KGB, whose espionage campaign to steal the Allies' nuclear bomb plans was codenamed "Enormous".

Declassified MI5 files have confirmed that the master spy, described as the "main source", was a Soviet mole at the Cavendish Laboratories at the University of Cambridge, the heart of the wartime nuclear research program.

Today, 70 years later, with the opening of MI5 and KGB files, "Eric" can finally be identified as Engelbert (Bertie) Broda, whose story is a tale of espionage and counter-espionage, elaborate spycraft, love and deception.

Broda was the KGB's prize spy, who fed Britain's nuclear secrets to Moscow for a decade, including the blueprint for the early nuclear reactor used in the US Manhattan Project, Times online reported today.

"Eric's" secrets enabled the communist state to catch up in the race to build the nuclear bomb and set the stage for nearly five decades of nuclear standoff with the West."

Though the KGB archives of the period are now sealed, a brief window in the mid-1990s provided a KGB officer named Alexander Vassiliev access to the files.

Vassiliev's notes form the basis of a new book, published in the US this month, revealing Broda's pivotal role in Soviet atomic espionage.

"Soviet sources in England were the first to provide Moscow with atomic intelligence," wrote Pavel Fitin, Moscow's head of Foreign Intelligence (1939 to 1946), in a memo quoted in Spies by Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev.

According to Fitin, intelligence from Broda and others laid the groundwork for Soviet nuclear scientists, paving the way for the nuclear confrontation of the Cold War.

"The material included valuable and top-secret documents [that] served as a starting point for laying down the groundwork and organising work on the problem of atomic energy in our country," the memo stated.

Among Broda's information included the blueprint for one of the American Manhattan Project's early nuclear reactors.

Broda, who was being heavily trailed by the security service (MI5), went back to Austria to teach at the University of Vienna in 1948.

Broda's son Paul, who remained with his mother in Britain, is writing a book about his father and stepfather, the British report said.

The most remarkable thing about the scientist-spy was his ability to evade detection.

In 1983, at the age of 73, the celebrated professor was buried in a "grave of honour". Alongside that epitaph might stand another: "Eric", the spy who got away." [ZeeNews/11June2009] 

CIA Declassifies 1960 Report on Israel's Nukes. "We do not believe that Israel will embark on the development of nuclear weapons with the aim of actually starting a nuclear war," reads the declassified 48-year-old CIA Special National Intelligence Estimate.

The estimate, publicly released June 5 by George Washington University's National Security Archives, continues, "Possession of a nuclear weapon capability, or even the prospect of achieving it, would clearly give Israel a greater sense of security, self-confidence and assertiveness."

"In any public announcement concerning their nuclear reactor program, the Israelis would almost certainly stress the peaceful nature of their efforts, but they would also, as time goes on, make plain that henceforth Israel is a power to be accorded more respect than either its friends or its enemies have hitherto given it," reads the estimate.

The December 1960 intelligence analysis, which still has elements redacted, is interesting in today's context as the Obama administration confronts the nuclear weapon ambitions of North Korea and Iran.

Does the understanding of why a friendly country seeks a nuclear weapon apply when the analysis involves two countries that are potential U.S. enemies? No, is the safe bet when public reaction is considered.

But shouldn't intelligence analysts recognize that friends - and potential foes - may have similar reasoning for nuclear ambitions: to deter potential invaders and to promote their standing among allies and enemies alike? Wouldn't that be worth understanding even in unpredictable and potentially unstable governments? It might when trying to talk them out of it - though it has to be noted that it didn't help with Israel, a stable ally.

The authors of the 1960 estimate suggest the possession of a nuclear weapon - in this case, Israel's - would be used to deter others from attacking it. "It probably would make it increasingly clear that an Arab attack on Israel would be met with nuclear retaliation," reads the estimate.

On the diplomatic side, however, the analysts saw that a nuclear weapon could also make a country more of a challenge. The estimate noted: "Israel would be less inclined than ever to make concessions and would press its interests in the area more vigorously."

That certainly rings true today for North Korea and Iran.

In another ironic twist, the estimate said Israel's enemy, the UAR (United Arab Republic, the then-combination of Egypt and Syria) "as a last desperate resort - might try to destroy the Israeli program through preventive military action."

U.S. military experts today have argued that any Israeli attempt to knock out Iran's nuclear program would fail and create havoc. Back in 1960, American intelligence analysts believed that the main Arab leader attempting such an effort against Israel also would have been counterproductive. "Given present relative military capabilities," the estimate said, Gen. Gamal Abdel Nasser, UAR president, "would almost certainly realize that such military action would precipitate a war which he is likely to lose."

According to recent estimates, Israel has approximately 200 nuclear bombs and warheads. [Pincus/CSMonitor/16June2009] 

Check Out These Hot Tours for a Cold War Adventure. Forget ballerinas, St. Petersburg's frothy architecture and the herbal aromas of bathhouses. There's another, harder edge to tourism in the former Soviet Union.

For the Tom Clancy lovers, survivalists and others who like to play at war, a crop of tour companies offers Russian vacations with a dash of gun-toting machismo.

You can fire small arms, Kalashnikov assault rifles or rocket-propelled grenades. You can ride aboard a variety of tanks: World War II-era, or those used in the Afghan invasion or the Chechen war. You can fly a MiG fighter jet.

Sure, suburbanites pay for military-flavored wilderness jaunts in other countries, notably the U.S. But the Russian tours offer a dash of intrigue and play out against a backdrop of neo-Cold War stirrings.

''It's the history. For a lot of our customers, they grew up when you were supposed to hate the Russians,'' said Jane Reifert, president of Incredible Adventures, a Florida-based tour company that has designed packages for tourists interested in hand-to-hand combat training or flying Russian MiG fighter jets (www.incredible-adventures.com).

''They want to go to the KGB museum. They want to go to the air museum,'' she said.

Moscow is crammed with museums celebrating nearly every imaginable security organization and equipment, including the air force, border guards, armored vehicles and Russia's FSB intelligence service. All Russia Tours, www.allrussiatours.com/military-tour/program.html, is among the companies that take you to them.

Russia's neighbors offer their own military-themed vacations.

The KGB Military School in Ukraine (www.kgb-militaryschool.com) offers lessons as diverse as lie detection, explosives and knife fighting. Also in Ukraine, Alaris (www.alaris.com.ua) offers the opportunity to play soldier, complete with grenade launchers, sniper rifles and tanks.

Tour prices appear to be negotiable, depending on the scope of military ambitions. [MiamiHerald/20June2009� 

Section III - COMMENTARY

Why Spy for Cuba?, by Kirk Nielsen. While watching The News Hour on PBS the other night, I was struck by how perplexed journalists are about the possible motives of Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers, the septuagenarian Washington, D.C., couple arrested June 5 on charges they had worked as spies for Cuba for the past 30 years. "Is there anything in the indictment that tells us why this couple, this upper-middle-class - you know, he's a great-grandson of Alexander Graham Bell - why would they have done this?" The News Hour's Gwen Ifill asked Washington Post reporter Mary Beth Sheridan.

Sheridan replied: "I think this is a huge mystery to their colleagues, to their neighbors, to their friends. They see him, in particular, as this, you know, a son of privilege from one of Washington's most elite families - prep school, elite universities, State Department. Apparently lovely people, rarely if ever gave any hint of anything amiss. You know, the only thing I have heard is that some people have described him as a rather idealistic guy, but others say, 'Well, how could he have fallen for this rather rosy-eyed view of Cuba when he was such a kind of a hard-nosed analyst in so much of his work?'"

Later that evening I was on the phone with my 80-year-old mom and she brought up the news about the Myerses. "Friends of yours?" mom joshed - an inside joke playing on my objective coverage of violent Cuban exile groups over the past decade. I had to confess I didn't know the Myerses.

They're not the first American couple enraptured by the Cuban Revolution, despite its violence and repression over the decades. (Kendall and Gwendolyn were 20-somethings in the 1960s, after all.) Fidel Castro has many American fans who would jump at the chance to hang out with him for an evening, as the indictment alleges the Myerses did during a 1995 trip to Havana.

But while rummaging through some of my old spy articles, I stumbled over some explanations of why someone might spy for Cuba. The articles had covered a six-month federal trial in Miami in 2001 resulting in the conviction of five Cuban men for spying, or attempting to spy, on anti-Castro exile groups and U.S. military bases in Florida. (On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on the case.)

Lawyers for those five Cuban spies had crafted a paradoxical and unprecedented defense strategy that would be a stretch any place but Miami. Yes, their clients were spying, they conceded in opening arguments, but for good reasons: to protect Cuba from incursions, bombings and assassination plots by violent members of Miami's Cuban exile community.

"God almighty," Axel Kleiboemer exclaimed to me over the phone from his law office in Washington, D.C., back in March 2001, after I outlined the strategy. Kleiboemer co-wrote the textbook used by the University of Virginia's Center for National Security Law in Charlottesville. "I'm racking my memory to see if anything of this nature has ever been asserted before as a defense. I can't think of a parallel case."

After a few seconds of reflection, he said the closest parallel to the protect-the-homeland defense would be a "keeping the peace" claim. "Many of the people who did espionage on behalf of the former Soviet Union maintained at one point or another that they wanted to preserve the balance of power so as to prevent war, to make sure that the Soviets had access to the type of information that the United States had."

For example Aldrich Ames, a former CIA agent now serving a life sentence for passing classified information to the Soviet Union, told a Washington Post reporter in 1994 that his motivation was money, but that he wanted to "level the playing field" for Moscow in the hopes of accelerating the end of the Cold War.

Most spies who are caught in the United States never stand trial; they tend to bargain for a reduced sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. (If they are U.S. citizens, this likely means avoiding the death penalty.) The U.S. intelligence establishment likes this arrangement because it assures that classified information won't be divulged during an accused spy's trial. Robert Philip Hanssen, an FBI agent arrested in Virginia in February 2001 for selling U.S. intelligence to the former Soviet Union and Russia, followed the lifesaving guilty plea tradition.

While the eyes of the nation were transfixed on the Hanssen case that year, they largely overlooked the protect-the-homeland defense that was developing in the Miami spy case, U.S. v. Hernandez et al.

It was the first time Cuban nationals accused of trying to obtain defense information for Havana had ever stood trial in a U.S. courtroom. The trial touched on the shooting down of two of three small aircraft flying toward Cuban airspace despite repeated warnings by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Havana's foreign ministry that they risked just that fate. Pilots belonging to the anti-Castro Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue were flying the two Cessnas destroyed by Cuban MiGs on Feb. 24, 1996. The two pilots and two other BTTR members were killed. BTTR founder Jos� Basulto and three others escaped in the third plane.

At the trial five years later, one line of attack used by Paul McKenna, the lawyer defending the Cuban spy ring's leader, Gerardo Hernandez, was to elevate Brothers to the Rescue's role in the shootdown. That wasn't very hard since Basulto had often publicly boasted about violating Cuban airspace, including a flight over Havana in July 1995 in which he dropped leaflets urging anti-government protests. McKenna also drew from a flurry of FAA and State Department records showing that U.S. officials had warned Basulto at least seven times that Cuba was threatening to use deadly force if BTTR persisted in violating Cuban airspace.

Especially illuminating was an e-mail written by Cecelia Capestany, an FAA liaison to the State Department, and sent to the FAA office in Miami. She wrote it soon after learning of another unauthorized BTTR flight on Jan. 20, 1996. "This latest overflight can only be seen as further taunting of the Cuban Government. State is increasingly concerned about Cuban reaction to these flagrant violations," she wrote, adding that State Department officials wanted to know what steps the FAA was taking against Basulto. "Worst-case scenario is that one of these days the Cubans will shoot down one of these planes, and the FAA better have all its ducks in a row," she warned about a month before the shootdown.

Throughout this debacle, Kendall Myers was employed as an analyst at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. One can see why Fidel and Raul Castro might have wanted a sympathetic figure like Myers keeping them posted in early 1996.

Beyond BTTR's activities, one could fill an encyclopedia with all the assassination plots, armed incursions and bombing sprees that Cuban exiles have devised over the decades to avenge the Castro dictatorship. And Hernandez et al.'s lawyers did a thorough job of informing the jury of this, especially latter-day actions, from Alpha 66 machine-gun attacks on Cuban resort hotels on the coast of Cayo Coco in the early 1990s to Luis Posada Carriles' 1997 bombing campaign on hotels and restaurants in Havana.

Like Ames, the Myerses could probably make a reasonable claim they were in some way trying to keep the peace. Or, like Hernandez et al., trying to protect the national security of friends and loved ones in Cuba. Even minimally compassionate people could probably get their heads around that. But, as the five Cuban spies still doing time in U.S. prisons learned eight years ago, motives like those don't necessarily capture the hearts and minds of an American jury, or the judges on the U.S Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. In the end, they broke U.S. laws that prohibit espionage, whatever the justification.

Another Cuba-related spy trial would certainly be entertaining political theater and educational for journalists and others in the United States. But if the Myerses are smart, they'll avoid one and plead guilty, and spend their golden years in prison writing a book about why they spied. [Nielson/Miller-Mccune/17June2009] 

Section IV - CAREERS, BOOK REVIEWS, RESEARCH REQUESTS, OBITUARIES AND COMING EVENTS

Careers

Director of Aerospace Business Development for Orbital Technologies Corporation,(ORBITEC) headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin The Director of Aerospace Business Development is a senior position reporting directly to the President.This is an exceptional opportunity for the right candidate.The new Director of Aerospace Business will be working in two distinct areas:
• Human Support Systems and Instrumentation [Main Focus] and,
• Propulsion, Space Resources,and Energy Collaborative and strategic leadership in addition to a good blend of technical and relationship management capabilities, high ethics, and honesty are sought for this position.

This is a new position that will lead Business Development for all aerospace business units and activities, and will work intimately at all levels inside and outside the company on creative opportunity development, product strategies, engineering solutions, sales activities, and customer fulfillment. The overall roles and responsibilities of these positions are to identify, create, and nurture high-probability opportunities into projects that align with the strategic and tactical objectives of the company/division, including managing customer and partner relationships.

Education and Experience
• Qualified candidates must have at least 10 years of demonstrated business development success in the Aerospace Industry.
• Candidate must have a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree
Travel: Travel time estimated for the new Director will be around 40-50%.
Full full metrics of the program or to apply, contact Alexandra Hamlet, Partner Aerospace, Defense & Intelligence Lead Washington D.C. Office 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20006 ahamlet@allenaustinsearch.com Office:(202) 461-2259 Direct: (202) 580-8602

Using LinkedIn to Advance Your Career in Strategic Security - an offer by Henley Putnam University. Henley-Putnam University is offering a free webinar “Using LinkedIn to Advance Your Career in Strategic Security” on Tuesday, June 30, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. PDT. The webinar will address how to use LinkedIn to build networks, identify career opportunities, prepare for job interviews, and gather up-to-date information about Strategic Security.

Henley-Putnam also offers a mentoring program where students are assigned a military, security, or intelligence career expert to support them in making career decisions, as well as an online career portal (www.Henley-Putnam.edu/715-286-d714.htm), where students can research jobs, develop a resume and cover letter, and gain basic knowledge of the Strategic Security field.

Henley-Putnam is an accredited, online university offering degree programs and certificates in Intelligence Management, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies, and the Management of Personal Protection.

Book Reviews

New Book Examines Israeli Attack. A new book that takes a long, hard look at an Israeli attack on the U.S. spy ship USS Liberty in June 1967 draws in part on reporting and commentary that linked the international tensions and the Shreveport-Bossier City area.

The book published Tuesday is "Attack on the Liberty," penned by investigative reporter James Scott, whose father, ship damage control engineer Ensign John Scott, survived the brutal assault that killed 34 sailors and wounded more than 170 others.

The June 8, 1967 attack took place in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea just off Sinai coast. The Liberty, which was clearly marked as a U.S. Navy vessel and also had an oversized flag displayed, was observed for several hours by Israeli jets, then strafed and finally attacked by torpedo boats.

One of the dead sailors was James Lupton, 25, from a large Keithville family with members in the military and local police. He died when a torpedo slammed into the secret compartment he and other communications technicians shared.

His father, Clyde Lupton, suffered a heart attack when he heard his son had been killed, and was dead within three years.

Among the wounded was Gary Wayne Brummett, of Kickapoo, who bears the mental and physical scars to this day and remains mistrustful of Israel and its forces.

A quote from Brummett opens the book:

"I know what a slaughterhouse looks like," said Brummett, a 3rd Class petty officer at the time of the attack. "That's what this was."

Brummett was "was incredibly helpful to me on the research end," says Scott, a former investigative reporter for The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., a recipient of the McClatchy Co. President's Award and the South Carolina Press Association's 2003 Journalist of the Year. "Gary was instrumental in helping me understand how the engine room worked and what it was like there during the attack. I interviewed him a number of times."

The tally of killed and wounded comprised 70 percent of the crew, a proportion of casualties rarely reached unless a vessel is sunk. And only heroic efforts by the officers and crew saved the ship from sinking, Scott asserts in the book, which relates how the incident impacted the lives of the crew members and their families.

He also delves into the inner workings of politicians and military leaders in Washington and Tel Aviv, and shares new research in which reveals that at least one key Israeli pilot knew the ship was American. He also looks into how the mindset of Washington gelled once it became apparent that initial outrage over the attack paled in comparison to the daily body count rising in the Vietnam War, and that many Americans, including but not limited to the Jewish community, were proud of how Israel had trounced national enemies in the brief but strategic war. 

Those who know of the attack on the Liberty today tend to fall into two camps, with no real middle ground. There are those who condemn Israel for an attack on an ally, and those who swear it must have been an accident and the Israelis were not sure who they were attacking.

Few today remember though, that in 1967 the Israelis could not be sure that the United States was, or would remain, a steadfast ally. The last major military-political action in which the two nations had been involved, the Suez Crisis of 1956, witnessed the United States forcing Israel, France and the United Kingdom to abandon efforts to wrest the Suez Canal from Egyptian control. With that as a last memory, the impartial observer might infer that Israel would view a U.S. spy ship as much a threat as an asset while it attacked Egyptian forces in a new conflict.

The USS Liberty became the most decorated ship and crew in Navy history. Its skipper, Cmdr. William McGonagle, received the Medal of Honor even though his lengthy citation describes his heroism and wounding without once mentioning that the attack was by Israelis.

The ship and its crew also received the Presidential Unit Citation. Sailors received two Navy Crosses, 11 Silver Stars, numerous lesser awards for valor and 204 Purple Hearts, for a total of 840 medals. The casualty rate was 70 percent.

The official U.S. Navy report on the attack largely relieved Israel of responsibility. A Navy attorney who was part of the investigation later publicly charged that it had been purposefully misdirected.

Though Israel apologized within hours of the attack, its claim that its forces had mistaken the Liberty for a much smaller Egyptian horse and troop transport that was hundreds of miles way drew derision from the U.S. media at the time.

The Times' editorial on the attack, quoted in the book, noted that "almost as shocking as the attack itself has been the manner in which Washington - especially the Defense department - has seemed to try to absolve Israel of any guilt right from the start. Some of these efforts would be laughable but for the terrible tragedy involved."

The Times described the Israeli account as "far-fetched" and continued "mere apology is not enough in a case of this kind. Israel should guarantee stiff punishment for those responsible for the attack."

The official Navy inquiry lasted just eight days, "less time than it took to bury some of the dead," Scott said. Investigators interviewed only a dozen crew members; never visited Israel, reviewed its war logs or signals transcripts; nor interviewed any of the attackers, he added.

Scott's father was awarded the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest award for heroism, for his role during and after the attack. In late 2007, the elder Scott traveled to Israel with his son for research and met with Brig. Gen. Yiftah Spector, one of the pilots who attacked the Liberty.

According to James Scott, Spector stuck out his hand and said, "I'm sorry."

"Those were the words my father and many of his shipmates had wanted to hear for decades, the words no one in the Navy, the White House, or Congress had ever publicly been willing to say," Scott wrote in the book. "My father reached out and took Spector's hand and said, 'Thank you.'"

In addition to the toll on the ship and crew, the incident has had far-reaching repercussions that last to this day.

Relations with Israel and North Korea continue to be among the most festering the United States has.

The Liberty tie to North Korea came with Pyongyang's belief that the Liberty incident demonstrated the United States would not show any backbone if its intelligence ships were attacked. Within months, North Korea seized the spy ship Pueblo in international waters, holding its crew hostage and causing the nation's intelligence community harm that took decades to repair.

"The specter of the Liberty has haunted the Navy and intelligence community for decades," Scott said. "The attack raised important questions over how politics and diplomacy impact battlefield decisions and how we handle these situations. Those questions still resonate today."  [Prime/ShreveportTimes/7June2009]

Research Requests

Seeking information on Louis A. O'Jibway CIA 1960s SE Asia.

Request for Information about Louis Austin O'Jibway
- OSS Special Operations and Operational Groups in the Far East in World War II
- US Army major in Korea in 1950s
- CIA in Southeast Asia in 1960s until his death in Laos in August 1965

For an updated, revised, and abridged version of my 2008 report for the National Park Service on "OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Overseas in World War II," I am requesting information from anyone in the OSS or CIA or other agencies who knew an American Indian from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan named Louis Austin O'Jibway.

"Jib" O'Jibway served in the OSS Special Operations raiding the Burma coast in 1944 and then served with the OSS 10th Chinese Commando in China in 1945, taking part in the "Blackberry" mission to recapture an airfield from the Japanese in Tanchuk in Kwangsi Province.

I would appreciate any information about Louis Austin O'Jibway's postwar career as a major in the U.S. Army in Korea in the mid-1950s and with the CIA in Southeast Asia in the early 1960s, up to his work in Laos and his death in an Air America helicopter crash in the Mekong River in August 1965.

Terry Burke was reportedly one of O'Jibway's good friends in Southeast Asia, and I would appreciate hearing from him or anyone else who knew Louis Austin O'Jibway either in Ceylon, Burma or China in World War II or in Korea or Southeast Asia after World War II.

Sincerely,
John Whiteclay Chambers II
Professor of History
Rutgers University
16 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1108
email: chamber@rci.rutgers.edu or chambers@comcast.net
Rutgers History Department phone 732-932-7905
Rutgers History Department FAX 732-932-6763

OBITUARIES

Christopher Henry Ballou. Christopher Ballou, 82, passed away from complications of pneumonia Friday, April 24, 2009 at Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Va.

Chris was born on the 2nd of Nov., 1926 in Tientsin, China of Congregational missionary parents, Earle H. and Thelma H. Ballou. The family moved from Tientsin to Beijing (Peking as it was known) when Chris was young. He attended the Peking American School through the freshman year of High School when he and his mother and grandmother needed to leave China due to the deteriorating relations with the Japanese prior to the U.S. entry into World War II. They returned to Vermont leaving his father (who was later interned by the Japanese in the Philippines) in China.

Christopher entered Chester High School for his second year in high school where he met Priscilla Davis. His junior year was spent at Hotchkiss and he finished up his senior year during a special session that the school offered during the summer of 1944.

Upon graduating from Hotchkiss, he promptly joined the Marine Corps having been much impressed by their presence in China. After basic training, he was assigned to Japanese language training supposedly because he already spoke Chinese. During the intensive six month training Chris recognized a good friend, John Allen, from his time at Hotchkiss. The war with Japan was coming to an end and the language classes were truncated as the graduates headed off to question Japanese POWs and take over Japanese-held positions. Chris and John Allen were assigned to Tientsin, China and shortly after arriving Chris was transferred to Beijing. Back in his hometown he was fortunate to reacquaint himself with old friends and find his way around the familiar city. He was assigned to the G-2 Staff of the Fifth Marines, 1st Division, where he put his languages to use in facilitating Marine control of the communications systems by aiding in the transition of the Peking Telephone Exchange from Japanese control to Chinese management and operation.

After returning to the U.S., Christopher Ballou entered Yale and studied History and Chinese. On June 25, 1949, he married Priscilla Jane Davis. She had graduated from Middlebury College shortly before their wedding. They took up residence in a Quonset hut settlement at Yale that had been set up by the college for returning veterans, and they lived there for a year while Chris completed his senior year.

In the summer of 1950, Chris and Pris moved to Coconut Grove, Fla., where Christopher taught History and Mathematics at the Ransom School.

In 1952 he was approached by the CIA and in the summer of 1952 Chris accepted a position in the Central Intelligence Agency and they moved to Washington DC. After several months of training, they moved to Japan and after that to Okinawa. He became a China specialist and honed his language skills. His exciting career took him to postings in Singapore, Hong Kong, The Netherlands and once again back to Hong Kong and Beijing as well as several stateside postings in Washington D.C., New York and New Haven.

During these postings Chris and Pris raised a family of three children, Sylvia, Jonathan and Carolyn and many loving pets. They made lifelong friendships that have stood the test of time. He took full advantage of the opportunities that each posting had to offer, coming to love and cherish each for its special culture and features. He actively sought opportunities for his family to also experience and appreciate international cultures. Often with his family, he sailed, skied, hiked, and explored whenever provided the chance. He enjoyed traveling, by ship either on a passenger liner or freighter, as well as by train or by car in driving across this country when possible.

In 1979 Christopher retired from the CIA and his position of Director of China Operations. He and Priscilla returned to Vermont in the summer of 1979 and bought a house in Brookline, where they lived the rest of their lives. He enjoyed planning and working in his vegetable garden and woodlot, and raising sheep and chickens on his land. Chris became active in local and town events and served on the select board from 1983 until 2003. He enjoyed being a part of the community and was active in the Red Cross, the Windham Regional Commission and the Windham Solid Waste Management District. Though his work took him to the corners of the world, he always treasured his time in Vermont. [YellowFootprints/17June2009] 

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

25 June 2009 - Los Angeles, CA - AFIO L.A. Area Meeting Notice to hear Sheriff Jeff Blatt. Jeffrey J. Blatt, deputy sheriff (res) with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, assigned to the Emergency Operations Bureau, will address the on-going militant Islamic insurgency in Southern Thailand. Deputy Blatt will review the historic causes of the insurgency, ideology, recruitment, tactics and attacks, Thai counterinsurgency operations, as well as the potential for regional escalation. Deputy Blatt is the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's liaison on the ground in South East and South Asia.
Meeting will take place 6/25/09 at 12:30 PM on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in the Hilton Business building with lunch provided for $15, payable at the door. Please RSVP via email, by 6/19/2009 for your attendance: AFIO_LA@yahoo.com

Saturday, 27 June 2009 - Northampton, MA - AFIO New England Meeting HAS BEEN POSTPONED. New date will be announced later

7 July 2009, 07:30 - 08:45 a.m. -- Arlington, VA -- The National Intelligence Education Foundation holds breakfast meeting featuring LTG, Chief of Intel Staff/ODNI

This is a Post-Graduate breakfast lecture. Details and registration at: http://www.niefoundation.org/events/event_details.asp?id=62233

16 July 2009 - Boston, MA - CIRA New England Chapter hosts luncheon meeting. The New England Chapter of the Central Intelligence Retirees Association [CIRA] will feature a Pinkerton CI Operations director. Event will be at Hampshire House. For more info contact Dick Gay, VP CIRA/NE, 207-374-2169

20 - 24 July 2009 - Alexandria, VA - Espionage Investigations and Interviewing Techniques - Course 518
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the complexities of and the decision making processes associated with investigating and prosecuting espionage cases in the United States in the 21st Century.
The course examines the psychology of espionage and the basis for opening espionage investigations. It explains the evolution of key legal and policy decisions associated with prosecuting espionage cases.
The course provides tools for conducting successful counterintelligence interviews.
These tools include a self assessment of the interviewer's behavioral skills; counterintelligence interviewing techniques; detecting deception during interviews; questioning techniques; and practical exercises in interviewing espionage suspects.
This course provides espionage investigators in the US national security community a deeper understanding of the status of counterespionage today, and their individual roles in the protection of our nation's most vital secrets, plans, and programs. (5 days)

TO REGISTER FOR OTHER SPECIAL COURSES: contact Adam Hahn at 703-642-7454.

Wednesday, 29 July 2009; 6:30 pm - More Sex(pionage) - Continued Tales of Spies, Lies, and Naked Thighs [at Spy Museum]“God gave me both a brain and a body, and I shall use them both…”—Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Confederate Spy
It’s one of the oldest tricks of the trade: sexpionage. From ancient intrigues to current schemes, spies, counterspies, and terrorists may conduct their undercover activities under the covers! International Spy Museum Board Member and author H. Keith Melton will reveal how seduction is used as a tool to attract and manipulate assets, to coerce and compromise targets, and to control spies in both reality and fiction. Featuring authentic KGB sexual entrapment videos and newly-released technical details of the infamous Russian “honey traps,” Melton will tell all about the spies who stop at nothing to get their man—or woman! For your further titillation, the country’s leading intelligence bibliographer, whose name we cannot disclose, will review the literature of “sex and espionage” with recommendations for further reading.
18 and older only.
Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Tickets: $20; Advance Registration required. Tickets are non-refundable and do not include admission to the International Spy Museum. To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Thursday 30 July 2009, Noon - 1 p.m. - Washington, DC - SPY MASTER: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West [at the Spy Museum] He was one of the youngest generals in the history of the KGB, and his intelligence career spanned the better part of the Cold War. As deputy resident at the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC, he oversaw Moscow’s spy network in the United States, and as head of KGB foreign counter-intelligence, he directed several Soviet covert actions against the West. In his memoirs, Spymaster, KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin (Ret.) provides an unparalleled look at the inner workings of Moscow’s famed spy agency. Join Kalugin to hear firsthand how he became disillusioned with the Soviet system, fell out with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and what he thinks of recent intelligence riddles from Moscow, including the death of Russian intelligence defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Join the author for an informal chat and book signing.
Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
TICKETS: FREE. No registration required.

1 August 2009 - Viera (Melbourne), FL - The AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter luncheon will feature Captain Richard P. Jeffrey USN Retired, Pearl Harbor survivor. Captain Jeffrey’s account of the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was video-taped by the U.S. National Park Service and is now an Oral History in the archives of the USS Arizona Memorial in the harbor at Pearl where it may be viewed by visitors. Captain Jeffery is a U.S. Navy Academy Class of 1939 graduate. He is a survivor of the 7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor attack, having been an Ensign aboard the Battleship USS Maryland. Later he served on General Eisenhower’s Headquarters Supreme Commander Allied Forces staff in Europe.
The luncheon takes place at the Indian River Colony Club. For further information or reservations contact George Stephenson, Chapter President gstephenson@cfl.rr.com (321 267-6292) or Donna Czarnecki DonnaCZ12@AOL.com Chapter Treasurer.

NEW DAY - Monday, 10 August 2009, 6:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - How To Break A Terrorist [at the Spy Museum]. “Respect, rapport, hope, cunning, and deception are our tools."—Matthew Alexander
Interrogation is the ultimate battle of wills. The most expert interrogators have an arsenal of tactics at-the-ready. Gauging their target, they must quickly assess which psychological strategies will work to gain the most reliable results. Air Force officer Matthew Alexander is part of a small group of military interrogators who went to Iraq in 2006 trained to get information without using harsh methods. He sat face-to-face with hardened members of Al Qaeda and convinced them to talk. Alexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq, will describe the true story of the critical interrogation he conducted that led to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Alexander will share his riveting experiences and reveal what it takes to be a great interrogator.
Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
TICKETS: $12.50; Advance Registration required. Tickets are non-refundable and do not include admission to the International Spy Museum.
To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Thursday, 20 August 2009, Noon - 1 p.m. - Washington, DC - The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America [at the Spy Museum] In 1993, former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev was permitted unique access to Stalin-era records of Soviet intelligence operations against the United States. The notes Vassiliev took and subsequently made available to Library of Congress historian John Earl Haynes and professor Harvey Klehr, offer unprecedented insight into Soviet espionage in America. Based on this unique historical source, Harvey and Klehr have constructed a shocking, new account of Moscow’s espionage in America. The authors will expose Soviet spy tactics and techniques and shed new light on a number of controversial issues, including Alger Hiss’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence, journalist I.F. Stone’s recruitment and work for the KGB, and Ernest Hemingway’s meeting with KGB agents. Join the author for an informal chat and book signing.
Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
TICKETS: FREE. No registration required.

13-16 October 2009 - Las Vegas, NV - AFIO National Symposium - Nellis AFB, Creech AFB. Details and registration forthcoming.

Artist's enhancement of a photo of the Atomic Cannon - "Shot Grable" (May 25, 1953) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site.  It was a 15 kiloton nuclear warhead detonation fired from a 280 mm gun

AFIO 2009 Fall Symposium
in Las Vegas, Nevada
13 October to 16 October, 2009
Cold Warriors in the Desert: From Atomic Blasts to Sonic Booms

Presentations on the testing of atomic weapons, airborne reconnaissance platforms, and more. Onsite visits to Nellis Air Force Base - Home of the Fighter Pilot, the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site - the former on-continent nuclear weapons proving ground, and Creech Air Force Base - the home of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (currently deployed for combat missions in the Middle East, yet piloted from Creech).

Details and registration forthcoming.
Harrah's Hotel Registration is available now at: Telephone reservations may be made at 800-901-5188. Refer to Group Code SHAIO9 to get the special AFIO rate. To make hotel reservations online, go to: http://www.harrahs.com/CheckGroupAvailability.do?propCode=LAS&groupCode=SHAIO9
Special AFIO October Symposium Las Vegas rates are available up to Friday, September 11, 2009.

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

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