AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #31-09 dated 25 August 2009

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Canadian Intelligence Asks Foreign Spy Agencies to Share Files. Federal officials have written to a number of foreign spy agencies, asking them to release new information in the case of accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat.

The requests, highly unusual in intelligence circles, were issued at the behest of Harkat's special advocates, who are acting for the Ottawa man in secret Federal Court hearings.

The letters have not been made public and their exact nature remains under wraps.

But the public court file reveals that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service issued the letters last month. [CanWest/18August2009] 

CIA's 'Black' Helicopters Land in Court. More than seven years ago, a group of Americans traveled to Siberia to buy a pair of Russian Mi-17 helicopters for the CIA's post-9/11 clandestine operations in Afghanistan. As with many "black" programs, the contract had elements of craziness: Contracting officials paid the multimillion-dollar contract on a credit card at a local El Paso bar and then used the credit card rebate to redecorate their office; the team traveled under the guise of being private contractors; and the charter crew transporting the group abandoned the team in Russia in the middle of the night.

Ultimately, a five-year investigation into the mission led to the conviction of the Army official in charge and the contractor who bought the helicopters on charges of corruption. The two men, currently in federal prison, are appealing their convictions.

At first glance, it's a simple case: A few days after returning from Russia, the contractor paid off the second mortgage of the Army official in charge of the mission. Prosecutors argued that the contractor, Maverick Aviation, was unprepared for the mission, and the Army official helped cover up the problems in exchange for a payoff. The defendants at trial were barred from mentioning the CIA, Afghanistan or even 9/11.

In an article for The New York Post, this author looks at what really happened in Siberia based on over two dozen interviews with people involved in the mission and trial. It's a story, that in some respects, is very different than the portrait painted by the government at trial.

One interesting comparison not mentioned in the article is worth noting in light of recent purchases of Russian helicopters: In 2001, Maverick Aviation was paid $5 million for two freshly overhauled Mi-17s and spare parts, as well as travel and logistics for team of Army/CIA personnel, and got the helicopters out of Russia in under 30 days. In 2008, ARINC, a major U.S. defense contractor, was paid $322 million dollars to buy 22 Russian helicopters under a U.S. foreign military sales contract.

Guess how many helicopters ARINC has delivered to Iraq after 18 months? Zero. [Weinberg/Wired/18August2009] 

Russia Expels Two Czech Diplomats in Spy Row. Russia has ordered two Czech diplomats to leave the country in a tit-for-tat spying row with Prague.

The Czech Republic expelled one Russian diplomat and told another not to come back from holiday due to suspicions they were spying, website www.idnes.cz said late on Monday. [Solovyov/Reuters/18August2009] 

Hackers Stole IDs For Attacks. Russian hackers hijacked American identities and U.S. software tools and used them in an attack on Georgian government Web sites during the war between Russia and Georgia last year, according to new research by a nonprofit U.S. group.

In addition to refashioning common Microsoft Corp. software into a cyber-weapon, hackers collaborated on popular U.S.-based social-networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook Inc., to coordinate attacks on Georgian sites, the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit found. While the cyberattacks on Georgia were examined shortly after the events last year, these U.S. connections weren't previously known.

The research shows how cyber-warfare has outpaced military and international agreements, which don't take into account the possibility of American resources and civilian technology being turned into weapons.

Identity theft, social networking, and modifying commercial software are all common means of attack, but combining them elevates the attack method to a new level, said Amit Yoran, a former cybersecurity chief at the Department of Homeland Security. "Each one of these things by itself is not all that new, but this combines them in ways we just haven't seen before," said Mr. Yoran, now CEO of computer-security company NetWitness Corp.

The five-day Russian-Georgian conflict in August 2008 left hundreds of people dead, crushed Georgia's army, and left two parts of its territory on the border with Russia - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - under Russian occupation.

The cyberattacks in August 2008 significantly disrupted Georgia's communications capabilities, disabling 20 Web sites for more than a week. Among the sites taken down last year were those of the Georgian president and defense minister, as well as the National Bank of Georgia and major news outlets.

Taking out communications systems at the onset of an attack is standard military practice, said John Bumgarner, chief technical officer at the USCCU and a former cyber-sleuth at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.

The USCCU assesses the economic and national-security implications of cybersecurity threats and briefs top U.S. officials, officials in key industries and international institutions.

The White House completed a review of cybersecurity policy in April. Among the issues Obama administration officials are now studying is how laws of war and international obligations need to be reworked to account for cyberattacks.

Homeland Security department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said she couldn't comment on a report that she hadn't seen and hadn't been released yet.

Last year was the first time such cyberattacks were known to have coincided with a military campaign.

The Georgian attacks, according to the group's findings, were perpetrated by Russian criminal groups and had no clear link to the Russian government. However, the timing of the attacks, just hours after the Russian military incursion began, suggests the Russian government may have at least indirectly coordinated with the cyberattackers, Mr. Bumgarner's report concluded.

The USCCU plans to release a nine-page report on the attacks to the public on Monday.

Mr. Bumgarner traced the attacks back to 10 Web sites registered in Russia and Turkey. Nine of the sites were registered using identification and credit-card information stolen from Americans; one site was registered with information stolen from a person in France.

The 10 sites were used to coordinate the "botnet" attacks, which harnessed the power of thousands of computers around the world to disable the Georgian government sites as well as those of large Georgian banks and media outlets. The botnet attack commandeered thousands of other computers and instructed them to try to access the target Web sites all at once, overwhelming them.

The Russian and Turkish computer servers used in the attacks had been previously used by cybercriminal organizations, according to the USCCU.

Early reports last year pinned the attacks on the cyber equivalent of the Russian mafia, known as the "Russian Business Network." Mr. Bumgarner said it wasn't possible to connect the attacks directly to that group. Security experts disagree on whether the group still exists.

Some of the software used to carry out the attacks was a modified version of Microsoft code commonly used by network administrators to test their computer systems, Mr. Bumgarner found. The code remains freely available on Microsoft's Web site, he said, declining to name it.

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on the finding because he hadn't seen the report.

Once the botnet attacks had launched, Mr. Bumgarner said, other would-be attackers noticed them and started to collaborate on various Web forums, including Twitter and Facebook.

Mr. Bumgarner used data-mining tools to review Facebook pages (which some people don't keep private) and Twitter for certain Russian words that indicated they were likely involved in the attack. He saw users on those sites and others swapping attack code and target lists, and encouraging others to join.

"It's a difficult problem to handle," said Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt, because it is impossible to detect such collaboration without monitoring conversations. Facebook has mechanisms to verify user identities and users can report inappropriate activities on the site, he said, but it doesn't monitor communications of its users.

Twitter didn't respond to requests to comment. [Gorman/WallStreetJournal/17August2009] 

U.S. Military Unit to Stay in Philippines. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has decided to keep an elite 600-troop counterinsurgency operation deployed in the Philippines despite pressure to reassign its members to fulfill urgent needs elsewhere such as Afghanistan or Iraq.

The high-level attention given to the future of the force, known as the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines, illustrates the Pentagon's difficulty in finding enough of these highly trained units for assignments to two wars - as well as for the wider effort to combat insurgencies and militancy in other parts of the world deemed to be threats to American interests.

Senior officials said the decision also acknowledged a cautionary lesson from Afghanistan: that battlefield success should be rewarded with sustained commitment, while prematurely turning the military's attention elsewhere - as when the Bush administration shifted focus to Iraq - provides insurgents and terrorists the opportunity to rush back in.

In the seven years that the Philippines-based American force has been operating, its members have trained local security units and provided logistical and intelligence support to Filipino forces fighting insurgents.

Senior officials say the American force and partners in the Central Intelligence Agency were instrumental in successes by the Filipino armed forces in killing and capturing leaders of the militant group Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, antigovernment organizations operating in the southern Philippines.

In a simultaneous counterinsurgency effort in the Philippines, members of the American force have completed hundreds of infrastructure projects, including roads, schools, health clinics and firehouses, conducted medical examinations and administered vaccines.

Before making his decision, Mr. Gates visited the Philippines in June. Then, Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, followed with an unannounced visit in July - underscoring the tight link between the military and intelligence efforts.

Even independent, nongovernmental organizations that normally cast a skeptical eye toward American military efforts have commended the Philippines operation.

The American ambassador to the Philippines, Kristie A. Kenney, said that measuring the impact of the military mission there was difficult, but she emphasized that the task force's efforts were multiplied by being closely coordinated with the Filipino government and American development assistance. [Shanker/NYTimes/21August2009]

Police Release Photos From Espionage Probe of Ex-Norwegian Diplomat. The Norwegian security police Thursday released previously classified photos taken in connection with an espionage probe against a former Norwegian top diplomat. The photos were also published on Facebook, the social networking site where the security police PST maintains a page.

Arne Treholt in 1985 was given a 20-year sentence for espionage but was released in 1992.

He has since sought to clear his name, but last year the Norwegian Criminal Cases Review Commission rejected what was likely to be his last legal possibility.

The review panel's decision was cited Thursday by the security police in their decision to release the 30 black-and-white photos. The images included photos of alleged agents Treholt had contact with, wads of cash and a briefcase used in the handover.

Treholt was arrested in 1984 and was convicted the following year for handing over classified information to the Soviet Union and the Iraqi intelligence service.

He has always denied the charges, but conceded that he met with a KGB officer and violated his civil servant's code of silence.

At the time of his arrest he was a spokesman for the foreign ministry.

After his release, he has lived in Russia and also in Cyprus. Treholt a few years ago published the autobiographical book Grasoner (Grey Zones). [earthtimes/18August2009�

CIA's Use Of Contractors Draws Fresh Scrutiny. News that the CIA worked with a private contractor on a secret assassination program is the latest evidence of how much the agency has outsourced a range of its activities, including covert missions.

According to The New York Times, the CIA in 2004 worked briefly with Blackwater, the controversial private security firm, on a program designed to target and kill al-Qaida operatives.

The program was scrapped before any missions were launched. But it reflects a practice that became widespread under the Bush administration of using large numbers of outside contractors for activities ranging from specialized translation work to conducting interrogations of terrorism suspects. Soon after taking office, CIA Director Leon Panetta imposed new restrictions on work by contractors, banning them from conducting interrogations.

More than half of the agency workforce has been hired since 9/11. It might suggest why we have a pretty open mind about hiring retirees as contractors to come back and try to level that imbalance.

Still, by 2008, contractors made up 27 percent of the personnel in a U.S. intelligence community numbering well over 100,000 workers. This heavy reliance on the private sector has prompted criticism of the high financial cost as well as the potential lack of accountability of private firms.

The roots of the contracting explosion lie in the end of the Cold War, when the intelligence community downsized dramatically, shedding a quarter of its workforce as the apparent threat level diminished. At that point, it was very rare for contractors to be performing spying operations or analyzing intelligence.

But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when there was a sudden drive to staff up, officials turned to people they knew and could hire quickly as contractors.

Early on, the aim was usually to hire experienced operatives, often retired CIA personnel, with specialized skill sets, such as language expertise. "It doesn't necessarily make sense to bring people in for permanent career positions where their skills may be needed for a very specific period of time at a certain level," said Michael Chertoff, a Bush-era homeland security chief.

The CIA also began its own hiring binge, bringing in a new generation of young, less experienced officers.

"More than half of the agency workforce has been hired since 9/11," former CIA Director Michael Hayden said during a panel discussion Thursday on the topic of intelligence privatization. "It might suggest why we have a pretty open mind about hiring retirees as contractors to come back and try to level that imbalance."

But all this comes at a price. Contractors are significantly more expensive to the government than permanent employees. Contractors make up about a quarter of the total number of workers in the intelligence community, but they account for nearly half of the total personnel budget, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Ronald Sanders, who is in charge of human resources at the office of the Director of National Intelligence, has said that the average contractor costs the government $207,000 - about $80,000 more than the average federal employee.

But Hayden insisted that CIA officials did not turn reflexively to contractors when it came to such missions as counterterrorism. "Please don't get the idea that when the agency has a really tough problem that we go to the yellow pages and look up 'Solutions R Us,' " Hayden said. "We use contractors as an integral part of the workforce."

As the contracting binge continued, an increasing number of contractors were serving as long-term employees working on key intelligence matters. "It created a circumstance where we probably had too many contractors," Hayden said, meaning that CIA managers were effectively competing against each other to hire the best talent.

It also got more expensive. At first, many contractors were hired on an individual basis, but the costs jumped as more and more former intelligence officials joined large companies that sold their services to their former employers at a higher premium.

Critics also worried about the difficulty of holding these outside contractors accountable for their actions when the contracts themselves were highly classified. "The intelligence agencies at least in principle are answerable to Congress," says Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American Scientists. "But contractors are at least one step removed from congressional oversight."

During his tenure at the CIA from 2006 to 2009, Hayden slashed the number of contractors at the agency by 15 percent and worked to replace contractors employed in the CIA's most central missions with government employees.

Hayden also banned employees from resigning and then returning to work at the CIA as higher-paid contractors within 12 months. "Some of his best people were going out the door because there was a program that was set up that allowed them to return the next day," said Jack Devine, a former associate director of operations at the CIA.

Panetta, the current CIA director, has vowed to continue Hayden's efforts to reduce the role of contracting at the CIA. "I really believe that we have a responsibility to bring a lot of those duties in-house and to develop the expertise and the skills within the CIA to perform those responsibilities," he said during a congressional hearing earlier this year. "I get very nervous relying on outside contractors to do that job."

At other intelligence agencies, however, contracting continues to play a larger role. At the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, for example, contractors made up 63 percent of the workforce as of 2008.

Chertoff said that the high figure was a result of having to create a new agency from scratch. "You can hire contractors relatively quickly," he said. "To process, hire and train government employees is very slow." [Whitelaw/NPR/21August2009] 

High-Tech Balloon To Help Forces Keep Watch. A state-of-the-art observation balloon with round-the-clock video and sound surveillance capability has been installed several thousand feet above Kabul to monitor Thursday's elections in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and Afghan military officials.

The "aerostat," which looks like blimps that fly over American sporting events, has a full-motion video camera that can pan 360 degrees and provide nonstop, instant surveillance. "With that camera, we can go anywhere in the city to allow us to look for any threats or any intentions from the insurgency," according to Col. Marilyn H. Jenkins, an Army intelligence officer. In an interview with Armed Forces Network Afghanistan, Jenkins said intelligence officers refer to the balloon as "marshmallow man" because of its appearance.

The high-definition imagery and audio from the balloon, which went into operation this month, is linked to other surveillance data to provide security forces on the ground the ability to recognize threats early. "The system is capable of immediate reaction to emerging incidents to capture video of unanticipated events," according to a U.S. military statement.

Anchored at Bala Hissar, a 5th-century fortress that overlooks Kabul, the balloon flies at an altitude that puts it out of range of most Taliban weapons, officials said. The fortress serves as a headquarters for an Afghan National Army division.

The U.S. Army recently hired a private security company to protect the balloon and the team that operates it. "If the Aerostat and/or its crew were harmed, the Afghan elections, which are critical to the development of a stable government in Afghanistan, could be disrupted," according to the Joint Contracting Command, which awarded the security contract.

"We are pleased to have this system because it will contribute to making Kabul safer and will assist us in denying insurgents the ability to carry out threats," Gen. Zahir Azimi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

Aerostats have been used since 2004 at forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most have crews of five working in 12-hour shifts. Their ability to have a continuous view of a vast area has made them extremely useful in eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border, officials said.

More than a dozen aerostats were used in Iraq to provide permanent surveillance over towns and cities, including Baghdad, and there are plans to install additional units in Afghanistan for better coverage of its cities and towns. [Pincus/WashingtonPost/19August2009]

Federal Agencies Pursue Cybersecurity Common Ground. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's recently released recommendations for cybersecurity are the first step in a plan to create a common security framework for civilian, military, and intelligence agencies.

The 237-page final version of NIST's Special Publication 800-53, "Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations," was released earlier this month. In parallel with that, NIST has been working with defense and intelligence agencies on certification and accreditation, enterprise-wide risk management, procedures to assess cybersecurity controls, and risk assessment. Documents addressing those areas are due over the next few months.

NIST only has a mandate to create security standards for civilian federal agencies, but the intelligence and defense communities have been working with civilian agencies in recent years. In doing so, they're collaborating to create a common set of cybersecurity controls that, among other things, would provide a more consistent market for the industry.

"This way we can work off a single playbook," says NIST senior computer scientist and information security researcher Ron Ross, who drives cybersecurity standards as the lead of NIST's Federal Information Security Management Act implementation project.

Coordination among NIST and the intelligence and defense communities began three years ago when former Department of Defense CIO John Grimes and former Office of the Director of National Intelligence CIO Dale Meyerrose worked together on transforming the certification and accreditation processes for technology products.

NIST got involved and suggested that the three constituencies broaden the scope of their work to include higher-level security controls. Prior to that, the Department of Defense, the federal intelligence community, and NIST were accustomed to developing their own security control recommendations.

In pursuing common standards, Ross says, the government can create standard ways to share information and partner on IT projects, including cybersecurity. He sees standardization as a potential catalyst for developing new cybersecurity products and services for the government market, as vendors would be working from one set of requirements.

The next document NIST will release with help from the intelligence and defense communities will be a revision of Special Publication 800-37, certification and accreditation guidelines published in 2004. A draft of that revision was published 12 months ago. The new document makes certification and accreditation of IT systems more of a continuous process than a one-time activity. Ross expects a final draft of 800-37 in September.

After that, NIST will release what Ross calls a "capstone document" that defines and requires enterprise risk management at various levels within government agencies, including information systems. The document will require that agencies have an individual or board that carries out risk management. A draft of that document will likely be out by the end of the year.

Despite the collaboration, there remains good reason for cybersecurity divergence among military, intelligence, and civilian agencies in some areas. The Department of Defense systems integral to military operations and national security might require a different level of physical security than civilian systems, while real-time intelligence traveling long distances over networks might require different encryption standards than Bureau of Land Management e-mail. In such areas, NIST will allow for differences in approach. [Hoover/InformationWeek/24August2009] 

U.S. Shifts Spy Planes to Afghan War. The U.S. military has sent more spy planes to Afghanistan and moved others there from Iraq, reflecting President Obama's emphasis on Afghanistan and the difficult fight there.

In July 2008, 75% of spy planes, including drones such as Predators and Reapers, were devoted to Iraq and 25% to Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures. As of this month, 66% are in Afghanistan compared with 33% in Iraq.

Spy planes provide video of insurgent movements and intercept their communications. They also can show how soil has been disturbed, an indication that makeshift bombs have been buried. Besides drones, several other aircraft perform reconnaissance missions, including high-flying U-2 planes and new, twin-engine propeller-driven aircraft called Project Liberty planes.

"It's very clear from these reconnaissance numbers that the war effort has shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan," said Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute, a think tank.

Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said the shift reflects decisions made by Army Gen. David Petraeus, who leads U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The overall number of spy planes has increased in Iraq and Afghanistan, allowing for a slight decrease in the number of Iraq flights and an expansion in Afghanistan, Army Col. Erik Gunhus, a spokesman for Petraeus, said Sunday. The Air Force conducts 36 patrols daily with armed Predator and Reaper drones in Afghanistan and Iraq - up from 27 last year.

Gunhus said the increase in violence in Afghanistan, where roadside bomb attacks are at record levels, requires more spy planes. Meanwhile, attacks in Iraq have dropped to their lowest levels since 2003.

The change comes after complaints from Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and others that the war in Iraq had devoured resources, such as spy planes, that are needed to fight Taliban militants in Afghanistan. [VandenBrook/USAToday/24August2009] 

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Soviet-Nazi Pact Revisited 70 Years Later. Seventy years ago, the Soviet Union signed a pact with Nazi Germany that gave dictator Josef Stalin a free hand to take over part of Poland and the Baltic states on the eve of World War II.

Most of the world now condemns the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Russia has mounted a new defense of the 1939 treaty as it seeks to restore some of its now-lost sphere of influence.

"This is all being rehabilitated because this is now a very lively issue for Russia," said military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer. "This is not about history at all."

The pact, formally a treaty of nonaggression, was signed Aug. 23, 1939, in Moscow by Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign ministers of the two countries.

In addition to the pledge of nonaggression, the treaty included secret protocols that divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence.

On Sept. 1, Germany invaded Poland - thus igniting World War II - and within weeks the Red Army had marched in from the east. After claiming its part of Poland, the Soviet Union then annexed part of Finland, the Baltic states and the Romanian region that is now Moldova.

Molotov's grandson and namesake, Vyacheslav Nikonov, said his grandfather saw a deal with Nazi Germany as the only alternative after a failure to reach a military agreement with Britain and France.

The Soviet government was convinced that a Nazi attack on Poland was imminent and "we needed to know where the Germans were going to stop," Nikonov said. The pact also bought needed time for the country to prepare for war, he said.

He said his grandfather later criticized aspects of Stalin's leadership, including the purges, but he stood by the pact for the rest of his life.

"He said there were many, many mistakes done by the Soviet leadership, he regrets many lives," said Nikonov, who was 30 when his grandfather died in 1986 and knew him well. "Molotov never considered Molotov-Ribbentrop as something he would regret."

The Soviet Union officially denied the existence of the secret protocols for decades. They were only formally acknowledged and denounced in 1989.

But as the 70th anniversary of the treaty has approached, some Russian historians have stepped up to vociferously defend the Soviet Union's decision to expand its territory at the expense of its neighbors.

The Foreign Intelligence Service, once part of the KGB, published a book of declassified intelligence reports in an effort to make the case that the nonaggression treaty and its secret protocols were justified and essential to the victory over the Nazis.

Retired Maj. Gen. Lev Sotskov, who compiled the book, said the pact allowed the Soviet Union to "move its borders with Germany" to the West. This prevented the Baltic states of Lithuanian, Latvia and Estonia of becoming a staging ground for an attack, he told journalists.

Even so, when Nazi Germany did attack in June 1941, all the territory the Soviet Union had gained was lost in a matter of weeks.

At the end of the war, however, U.S. and British leaders accepted the borders of the Soviet Union as defined by the treaty with Germany. This in effect restored the borders of the Russian Empire.

The Allied leaders also allowed Stalin to extend the Soviet Union's sphere of influence throughout much of eastern and central Europe.

The current attempt to justify the carving up of Europe during World War II comes as Russia once again is trying to establish its sphere of influence.

After last year's conflict with Georgia, a U.S. ally, President Dmitry Medvedev asserted Russia's right to intervene militarily in what it regards as its zone of "privileged interests" along its borders.

The war stripped Georgia of pieces of its territory, which are now under the control of Russian-backed separatists.

"In his understanding of Realpolitik, Vladimir Putin does not diverge from the line set by Josef Stalin," military analyst Alexander Golts wrote in the online Yezhednevny Zhurnal. "Military force decides everything and if there is an opportunity to grab a piece of someone else's territory then it should be taken."

Moscow has insisted it should have a dominating influence over countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. But Washington has continued to encourage the NATO ambitions of Georgia and Ukraine, and has made clear that it will accept no claims of a Russian sphere of influence over former Soviet republics that are now sovereign states.

Russians' defense of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact also is being used to bolster the Kremlin's push for the creation of a new collective security system to replace NATO, embracing all of Europe, the United States and Canada.

Sotskov said the Soviet Union had to sign the 1939 treaty with Germany because efforts to create "a system of collective security" with Britain, France, Poland and the Baltic states had failed. The Soviet leadership believed the West was hoping to turn Adolf Hitler's armies east against Russia. [AP/22August2009] 

A $2m Witness Payment, Bogus Forensic Evidence and a Pentagon Memo Blaming Iran: How the Lockerbie Bomber Threatened Scottish Justice. As the political furor over the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi engulfs three countries in bitter recriminations, The Mail on Sunday can now reveal the new and compelling evidence which he says would have proved his innocence.

In a submission to the Court of Appeal running to thousands of words, Megrahi's lawyers list 20 grounds of appeal which include:

* Details of a catalogue of deliberately undisclosed evidence at the original trial.

* Allegations of 'tampering' with evidence.

* A summary of how American intelligence agencies were convinced that Iran, not Libya, was involved but that their reports were not open to the 2001 trial.

The closely guarded submission was obtained by Ian Ferguson, an investigative journalist and co-author of the book Cover-up of Convenience - The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie.

But the evidence will never be tested in open court after the dying Libyan abandoned it last week to spend his final days with his family.

Mr. Ferguson, who has had 100 hours of unprecedented access to the 57-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent during his eight years in jail, claimed last night: 'From the start there was a determination to try to prevent this appeal being heard.

'It opened but never got off the ground, with stall after stall as each month Megrahi weakened with the cancer that was killing him.

'There was rejoicing in the Crown Office in Edinburgh when he was released and the appeal abandoned.

'There may well be political maneuvers behind his release but at the heart was a decision to save the face of the Scottish judiciary - in particular the Crown Prosecution, who would have been shown to have been involved in an abuse of process by non-disclosure of witness statements.'

It took the use of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to unlock the full intelligence documents which are now highlighted in the appeal submission.

They show memos from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) which suggested the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people in 1988, was in response to the shooting down of an Iranian Airbus by the American warship USS Vincennes five months earlier.

In a memo dated September 24, 1989, and reproduced in the appeal submission, the DIA states: 'The bombing of the Pan Am flight was conceived, authorized and financed by Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur, Iran's former interior minister.

'The execution of the operation was contracted to Ahmad [Jibril], Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command [PFLP-GC] leader, for a sum of $1million [�600,000].

'$100,000 of this money was given to Jibril up front in Damascus by the Iranian ambassador to Sy [Syria], Muhammed Hussan [Akhari] for initial expenses.

'The remainder of the money was to be paid after successful completion of the mission.'

Another DIA briefing - Pan Am 103, Deadly Co-operation - in December 1989 named Iran as the country most likely to be behind the outrage.

Discounting Libya's involvement on the basis that there was 'no current credible intelligence', it added: 'Following a brief increase in anti-U.S. terrorist attacks after the U.S. airstrike on Libya, Gaddafi has made an effort to distance Libya from terrorist attacks.'

The memos and reports, denied in full to the original trial, were available to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission which, two years ago, cast doubt on the safety of Megrahi's conviction based on six separate counts of the legal argument.

Their view opened the way for a second appeal. That report has never been made public.

Mr. Ferguson said: 'Megrahi was made the scapegoat for whatever reason and from that point everything went in reverse to try to make the crime fit.'

Central to Megrahi's conviction was the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, who claimed that Megrahi had bought clothes allegedly found in the suitcase bomb.

Lawyers were due to claim that Gauci was paid a $2million reward for his evidence, which followed more than 20 police interviews, and that many of the often wildly conflicting statements taken on each occasion were withheld from the defense.

Mr. Ferguson says that, although too late for the submission, lawyers were planning to spring a witness called David Wright, an English builder who was on holiday in Malta and who is said to have information about the clothes shop.

He would have produced evidence as to the date and buyer of the clothes, seriously undermining Gauci's reliability and credibility.

It is now believed that Gauci has moved to Australia.

Other new evidence listed in the grounds for appeal would have called in new witnesses to prove that the fragment of circuit board from a timing device found near the crash and pointing to Libyan involvement simply could not have survived such an explosion.

Subsequent analysis carried out by an independent forensic scientist found no trace of explosive on the tiny piece.

A Swiss businessman would have given evidence that his company - which supplied the alleged timer - did not just do business with the Libyan intelligence service, as was claimed, but also with the Stasi, the East German secret police.

Also due to be called was a witness who would allegedly discredit the accepted account that the suitcase in which the bomb was placed had somehow travelled unchecked and unaccompanied from Malta to Frankfurt and on to the Pan Am flight.

Questions would have been asked as to how a fragment of cloth - believed to be from the clothing wrapped around the bomb - subsequently came to be packed with material linking it direct to the bomb.

Mr. Ferguson added: 'Had this appeal gone ahead and witnesses recalled and cross-examined, I believe it would be shown that some had most definitely perjured themselves or deliberately misled the court.

'It is no wonder that some people were hoping Megrahi would die before certain witnesses were called.

'The release on compassionate grounds is a blessed release for them, as much as it was for him.'

Mr. Ferguson, who now lives in France but continues to pursue 'leads' in the case, first met Megrahi in 2002 and says he was a constant visitor over the years as they went over every aspect of the evidence against him.

'From the start I was struck by his total, unchanging, quiet protestation of his innocence.

'He readily admitted that his job was sanction-busting for the Libyan government but never anything more sinister.

'He frequently said he knew his government were involved in many things but always looked me straight in the eye and said: "I am not a killer".

Despite seeing the by then frail and faltering Megrahi only four weeks ago as he waited to hear if he could be sent home, Mr. Ferguson insists he did not press him on any political dealings which may have been going on behind the scenes.

He added: 'Politics may have got him into prison but I believed it was only evidence that could get him out.

'I never believed, though, that he would give up the appeal after so many years of fighting for it. That was all we focused on in our meetings - his refusal to give up.

'At the end, though, I agreed with his decision because, otherwise, he would not have been able to get what he most wanted - to live out his last days with his family.'

Megrahi was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September last year.

Mr. Ferguson, who saw him two months later, said: 'He already looked very different. His complexion was drawn and he'd lost a lot of weight.

'He cried as he told me how he had been called into the prison governor's office and learnt his cancer was inoperable and ultimately untreatable.

'He called his wife and they were both crying for 15 minutes. He wasn't embarrassed to cry in front of me.

'I'd had cancer myself in 2002, so I knew what he was going through.

'I contacted a psychologist specialising in this disease who I hoped would help him deal with it.'

Since Megrahi's diagnosis, Mr. Ferguson has seen him four times.

He added: 'Our visits were shortened because he couldn't sit down for too long before being in pain.

'Because he is so religious he wasn't scared of death but he was desperate to have his name cleared before he died.

'I felt he was being blackmailed but he never admitted it.

'The Crown wouldn't agree to transfer him unless he gave up his appeal and the longer they stalled the more fragile he became physically. In the end he just couldn't continue.'

He first met Megrahi and his lawyer in Glasgow's Barlinnie prison - and quickly became convinced that he was innocent.

He said: �The first thing I asked him was if he had had anything to do with the bombing.

'He insisted he hadn't and was convinced from the start his conviction would be overturned. He seemed smart and intelligent without being arrogant and very angry.

'The evidence was purely circumstantial and came at a time when the West wanted to implicate Libya at a time when it was politically inconvenient to accuse the real culprits.'

Over the months the pair reached a tacit understanding: �It was never spoken outright but Megrahi knew I would never jeopardize his trust by writing about our meetings.'

Surprisingly, despite the hours spent together, neither considered the other a friend.

Mr. Ferguson said: 'No, I could never say that.'

Meanwhile, despite what Mr. Ferguson claims to be compelling evidence, the director of the FBI Robert Mueller last night launched a scathing attack on Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill for allowing Megrahi to return to Libya.

Mr. Mueller is said to have written him a letter, which is published on the FBI website, stating: 'Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world who now believe that, regardless of the quality of the investigation, the conviction by jury after the defendant is given all due process, and sentence appropriate to the crime, the terrorist will be freed by one man's exercise of "compassion".

'Your action makes a mockery of the emotions, passions and pathos of all those affected by the Lockerbie tragedy.

'But most importantly, your action makes a mockery of the grief of the families.' [Hoyle&Cook/DailyMail/23August2009] 

Feds Arrest Civil War Spy. On Aug. 23, in 1861, Allan Pinkerton, head of the new secret service agency of the federal government, placed Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow under arrest in Washington, D.C.

Born in Montgomery County, Greenhow became a leader in political circles and one of the most renowned spies of the Civil War, using her connections to extract key information. Jefferson Davis credited her with winning the battle of Manassas.

Pinkerton imprisoned her in her home and then sent her to the Old Capitol Prison. Still, Greenhow continued to pass information on by hiding messages with her 8-year-old daughter or in a woman's hair bun. She won her release but was exiled, and she traveled to Europe to lobby on behalf of the South and promote her book about her imprisonment.

On her return, her vessel ran aground near North Carolina. Rose took a rowboat to avoid capture, but the boat capsized and she was dragged to her death by the weight of the gold she received for her book. [McCabe/WashingtonExaminer/23August2009] 

French Spy Escapes from Dubai. On a quiet spring morning, when the Arab villagers were at Friday prayers, Herve Jaubert dragged his rubber dinghy down an empty beach, started the engine, and chugged away to freedom.

As befits a former French naval officer and spy, he had made immaculate preparations for his escape from the United Arab Emirates.

The night before, he claims he had donned wetsuit and scuba diving gear, which had smuggled to him from France in pieces. He dressed himself in women's clothes, and covered himself with a black abaya, the all-enveloping burka-like robe worn to preserve modesty in the Gulf.

Not a small man, he shuffled awkwardly out of the hotel where he was staying under an assumed name, made his way to the seafront and slipped in.

From there, he swam underwater to the nearby coastguard station, on a remote outpost of the emirate of Fujairah, where he cut the fuel lines on a police patrol boat. He knew it was the only one in the area, and the coast would now be clear.

On his dinghy the next day, it took six hours to reach his destination: a sailing boat, crewed by a fellow former French spy, that was waiting just outside UAE territorial waters.

He clambered aboard, turned the prow towards India, and for the first time since he alleges the Dubai secret police had threatened to insert needles up his nose a year before, felt the fear in his stomach dissipate. He was free.

This, at least, is the remarkable escape story that Mr. Jaubert has begun to tell from the safety of his new home in Florida. It will form the centrepiece of a book he is publishing this autumn.

To the Emirati authorities, on the other hand, he is a liar and convicted fraudster.

The publication of his book, Escape from Dubai, is set to be another of the battlegrounds on which the emirate is trying to restore its reputation as a place to do business in the face of the financial crisis.

Although many other foreign businessmen have fallen foul of the Dubai authorities since the first cracks began to appear in its property-led investment boom, none was involved in anything quite as eccentric as the construction of miniature luxury submarines.

That was Mr. Jaubert's business, and his involvement with Dubai began when a man called Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem visited the company he had set up in Florida to serve a specialty tourist market three years after leaving the French secret service, DGSE, in 1993.

Mr. bin Sulayem suggested Mr. Jaubert might move his work to the Gulf. In the balmy waters off Dubai, filling as it was with luxurious hotels and offshore villa developments in the shape of palm trees or the countries of the world, mini-submarines would be yet another attraction.

It was too good an opportunity to miss. Even when Mr. Jaubert arrived, along with his Lamborghini, and found he would not be running his own firm, he was not overly alarmed. He was put in charge of a newly formed subsidiary of the company Mr. bin Sulayem chaired, Dubai World, which was also responsible for the emirate's signature palm-shaped developments.

For a while, life was good. Everything was laid on to the highest quality, he says. The factory built by Dubai World was excellent, finished to the highest standards.

"You could have built an F16 fighter jet there," Mr. Jaubert said.

He lived with his American wife and two children in a villa with private swimming pool.

At weekends, he would speed up the desert highways in his Lamborghini, or take to the sand dunes in one of his two Hummers.

After a couple of years, the boats started coming off the production lines.

Four mini-submarines, a submersible yacht, and, finally, his pride and joy, a larger vessel he called the Nautilus, after the submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which could carry nine people.

It is from here that accounts begin to differ.

According to a case brought against Mr. Jaubert after he fled the country, and which led to his being convicted in his absence and given a jail term of five years this summer, at least two of his submarines did not work.

Auditors investigating the company accounts found gaps, the court was told.

Equipment that Mr. Jaubert had ordered from his own company in Florida failed to arrive, or parts were faulty.

All told, he is alleged to have short-changed Dubai World by 14 million dirhams - just over �2 million.

Mr. Jaubert claims Dubai World had run into cash flow difficulties, and had come across a central problem with its submarine business plan.

Running was expensive, and it was not clear who the customers were likely to be. He claims Dubai World wanted to pull out of the venture but first wanted someone to blame.

From 2007, Mr. Jaubert underwent lengthy questioning at the hands of both the authorities - the state security or secret police, he says - and Dubai World's auditors.

It was the police, he said, who threatened to "insert needles into your nose again and again".

Mr. Jaubert has a recording that he said he made on his mobile phone.

"Do you know how painful it is to have needles put inside your nose repeatedly and then twisted around?" the interrogator said. "Do you think you can resist this kind of pain?"

Mr. Jaubert made a promise to the auditors to pay back the 14 million dirham, a fact which was to form a central plank of the prosecution case against him. He said he did so only to win himself time.

He was forced to hand in his passport to prevent him leaving the country. After doing so, he made the decision to send his family back to America.

Once they had safely left, Mr. Jaubert reverted to his training as a spy to go "underground", living under assumed identities in a series of Dubai hotels until he was able to escape.

Dubai World is dismissive of Mr. Jaubert's allegations, saying that he is now a convicted fraudster whose stories should not be taken seriously.

A spokesman said: "As with any large enterprise anywhere, from time to time financial wrongdoing is uncovered.

"We take the necessary legal steps when that happens and hand the matter to the police.

"After due and proper legal process, the court found Herve Jaubert guilty of embezzlement and he has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to repay 14 million dirham. This is entirely appropriate." But the organization is also fighting for its own reputation. Of all Dubai's numerous government-linked companies, Dubai World is the most closely associated with its rise to glitzy pre-eminence in recent years, and the most closely associated with the debts that have followed.

The property subsidiary that built the Palm islands and the World has to repay a $3.5 billion (�2.1 billion) bond by December, and has not yet said how it is going to do so.

With work on many of its high-profile developments, including the World, slowed or stopped, it is not clear where, other than a government bail-out, the money is going to come from.

A company statement on the Nasdaq Dubai stock exchange website gives Dubai World's total debts as $59 billion (�35.7 billion).

But it also says that the company's assets are greater than its liabilities.

As for Mr. Jaubert, he is now back in Florida. Although some may see his own greed and ambition as the authors of his misfortune, he denies that he put common sense aside in order to live the good life.

"I am a down-to-earth entrepreneur, and I didn't do the Dubai glitz and glamour," he said. "I had my Lamborghini, but I didn't use it to show off like other people in Dubai. It is 15 years old anyway."

He says that, of course, knowing he will now never go back. Eight days after leaving the beach in May last year, his small boat finally dropped anchor in Mumbai, more than 1,000 miles to the south-east.

"For a year in Dubai, when I had the authorities after me, when I was going to the police and prosecutors, I lived with fear," he said.

"I may be a sky diver, a former navy officer, but I had fear in my stomach every day.

"You don't know how relieved I felt when I reached international waters."  [Telegraph/23August2009] 

Section III - COMMENTARY

Time For The CIA To Move Ahead, Not Back, by Michael V. Hayden. Early next week, the Obama administration is expected to release another collection of documents on the U.S. government's detention and interrogation of al Qaeda terrorists.

The documents will likely include a lightly redacted version of the CIA inspector general's 2004 report on the program, more Department of Justice legal opinions (including the 2007 opinion on which I relied while director of CIA), as well as some reporting on the overall effectiveness of the program.

Many intelligence professionals are simply asking: "Why?"

Indeed, in his own recent op-ed, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta noted that one of his Western allies had recently asked him why Washington seemed to be so consumed with what CIA had done in the past given all the challenges of the present.

There is no simple (or good) answer to that question, but most professionals at Langley knew that more of these kinds of releases were inevitable once the president decided in April to release DOJ memos that revealed substantial details of the interrogation program. If those once highly classified facts would no longer be protected, what would be? Where was the line?

So - while noting and applauding the president's reversing himself on releasing DoD photos, some showing criminal abuse of prisoners - America's intelligence community is resigned to these releases and is preparing to deal with the consequences.

The first task once again is to attempt to explain to partners that their secrets - the ones that they share with us - are actually safe with us; that the things that we say will remain between us and will not be made public by the American political process. It's a tough sell. When the government chooses, as it did in April, to make public that which the current CIA director and his four immediate predecessors say is still appropriately classified ... well, it's a tough sell to allies and an even tougher sell to potential sources whose willingness to risk their lives is directly related to their confidence in us to keep secrets.

The second task is to explain to the intelligence work force that the government still has its back. This too is a tough sell, especially when the work force reads in a Newsweek cover story that, in supporting the release of the first set of DOJ memos, the leadership of the Department of Justice calculated that "if the public knew the details, ... there would be a groundswell of support for an independent probe," and that when the decision to release those memos had been made, the DOJ leadership "celebrated quietly, and waited for the national outrage to begin."

Those words, of course, are less comforting to a work force that is always asked to work on the edge than the president's own commitment - made publicly and privately - that there would be no witch hunts and that he is more interested in looking forward than looking backward.

Uncertain how this will play out, many intelligence officers are hiring lawyers, and even junior officers are asking about professional liability insurance - not exactly the formula for nurturing a vigorous and creative intelligence service.

A third task is to deal with and contribute to the public discourse that the release of these documents will create. Here intelligence professionals will have to act as fact witnesses.

And the facts are important: like the fact that the agency cooperated extensively in the prosecution of an agency contractor convicted of manslaughter following the death of a detainee; like the fact that any other findings of inappropriate behavior in the IG report were reviewed thoroughly by career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia and that they declined further prosecution; that, following the prosecutors' decision, the agency took its own disciplinary action, where appropriate; and that the entire IG report has been available to the leadership of the intelligence committees since 2004 and to all members of the committees and an extensive number of staffers since the fall of 2006.

And then there is the fact that within these documents we will begin to get some glimpses about the successes of the interrogation program, some nuance beyond the oft-quoted "difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks," and more about how information gained from detainees helped CIA aggressively dismantle much of the al Qaeda infrastructure and leadership before attacks were imminent - a much more valuable and effective way to combat terrorism.

A final fact: The agency is pretty much at capacity in responding to current inquiries like the Senate intelligence committee's exhaustive look at renditions, detentions and interrogations, and federal prosecutor John Durham's look at the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes. Another probe from Justice or an independent commission will only add to the burden, and it will pull even more counterterrorism experts off a crucial mission. That is the mission of keeping America safe by building on the base line of information gained from the interrogation program, aggressively taking the fight to the nation's enemies and taking those enemies off the global battlefield. [Hayden/WashingtonTimes/20August2009] 

Law Firm Offers Pro Bono Representation to AFIO Members Targeted by DOJ Prosecution: The Law Offices of Mark J. Werksman notified AFIO's office of General Counsel that they are willing to provide volunteer services to any AFIO members who become targets of the U.S. Department of Justice Special Prosecutor's Investigation. The fax received today from Mr. Werksman says: I am writing to volunteer the services of my criminal defense firm in Los Angeles to represent any members of AFIO who are targets or subjects of the U.S. DOJ's Special Prosecutor's investigation into the interrogation tactics used by intelligence agents during their interrogations of high value targets in our country's war on terror.
As a veteran criminal lawyer and former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Loas Angeles, and as a proud American, I am shocked and offended by the current Administration's decision to seek to criminalize the efforts of our country's brave intelligence officers who fought to protect out country from further harm after September 11.
I have over almost 20 years of experience in criminal defense, and have represented many law enforcement officers and federal agents against charges of criminal conduct that arose in the cours of their duties. I would be proud to represent any of your members who feel they need criminal counsel to protect them against a witch hunt that some are determined to wage against our intelligence community.
My 6-lawyer criminal law firm is AV-rated, which is the highest rating given to firms by the Martindale-Hubbell legal directory, and we are highly-respected and well-established firm that specializes in federal criminal defense work and complex criminal litigation of all kinds. Please feel free to circulate my name and contact information, and invite any of your members who seek representation to call me for a free consultation and representation should they need it. All the best, /s Mark Werksman. Mr. Werksman can be reached at 801 South Figueroa St 11th Flr, Los Angeles, CA 90017; 213-689-0460. AFIO thanks this patriotic American who understands the inappropriate targeting of this DOJ inquiry.

Political Islam and Pakistan's Intelligence Service, by Andre Gerolymatos. The crisis in the Middle East has inadvertently overshadowed the greater crisis in South Asia where the conflict between Pakistan and India can easily accelerate into a nuclear confrontation. Underlying the tensions that have plagued the relations of these two countries is religious zealotry and the ongoing territorial dispute over Kashmir.

In the case of Pakistan, religious militancy (as manifested by political Islam) will certainly aggravate the precarious truce between Pakistan and India. Currently, Pakistan is a thinly veiled democracy and for most of its existence it has been ruled by the military. However, unlike Turkey in which the military has been the bulwark of secularism, in Pakistan the army is the medium by which political Islam is rapidly taking over the country. The roots of this state of affairs reach back into the British Raj and are the byproduct of divide and rule policies of colonialism.

It was British policy beginning in the late 19th century to enlist Indian soldiers from the so-called "martial races" of the Northwestern Frontier. The British believed that the northern regions of India were populated by "warlike and hardy races", while the south was composed of "effeminate peoples." The British colonial authorities in India deliberately kept the northern areas un-industrialized and under-educated to protect their recruiting base and keep the "martial races" from engaging in other pursuits and occupations.

As a result of the 'martial races' recruitment policy, a disproportionate number of South Asian soldiers and officers were recruited from Muslim and Sikh tribes. After Pakistan's creation in 1947, successive Pakistani governments continued to recruit from the same geographical regions, following the British policy of cultivating the "martial races". During the 1980s three quarters of the Pakistan Army was recruited from three districts in the Punjab and two from the Northwest Frontier Province; areas that collectively represent only nine percent of the population.

These recruits also served in Pakistan's intelligence service (the ISI) and the fact that they have family and tribal ties in the troubled North-West region of Pakistan has created a unique relationship for Pakistan's intelligence establishment with the Northwest Frontier. 

In the early 1980s, for example, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, the director of ISI was, like many Pakistani officers, a Pashtun from Peshawar on the Afghan frontier. In 1987, General Hamid Gul, a devout Muslim from the Punjab with close ties to the Saudis, replaced him as head of the ISI. Both men owed their appointments to Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan's dictator after 1977, who also came from the Punjab.

Zia's regime was given legitimacy by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The ensuing jihad against the Soviets created the ideal environment for Pakistan to intervene directly in Afghanistan - with the connivance of the United States. The ISI promoted the Afghan War as a battle against heathen communists and recruited fighters from across the Arab states, South Asia and the Middle East.

When the Americans decided to take on the Soviets in the region they also opted to work through Pakistan's intelligence community. Under this arrangement, funding was channeled through the ISI to the mujahedeen. The ISI, in turn, used Pakistani Islamic organizations and parties to build up militant Islamists movements in Afghanistan. The Afghan-Soviet war, effectively, greatly enhanced the power of the ISI, while solidifying its links with Islamic militants both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The power and influence of the ISI within Pakistan has continued to grow after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as its contacts with radical Islamic organizations. The triangular link between the Pakistan government, the ISI, and fundamentalist mujahedeen continued under Benazir Bhutto (who came to power in December 1988). General Hamid Gul, who was director-general of the ISI under Benazir Bhutto, spoke openly of Benazir Bhutto's ties to, and support of, "jihadis" in a 2008 interview with Tehelka Magazine.

Bhutto's government was directly involved in infiltrating Taliban recruits into Afghanistan in the 1990's, while Bhutto claimed that Pakistan was merely returning Afghan refugees to their homeland. Indeed, without ISI support, the Taliban could not have made the gains they did in Afghanistan during the early 1990's.

The direct links between Pakistan's government and the ISI continued after Bhutto. Several key members of Musharraf's military regime, which came to power in 1999, including Musharraf himself, were also officers in the ISI. Due to their support of radical Islamic factions, the ISI has been linked to wide-ranging terrorist activities in recent years, including the Daniel Pearl murder, scores of assassinations within Pakistan, the bombing of a church in Islamabad, and more recently to the terrorist the attacks in Mumbai.

The ISI has been directly involved with the formation and ongoing support of the Taliban. After 1992, the ISI developed a strategy that not only undermined the secular Afghan government, but also nourished the Afghan Islamist movement. The ISI contributed to the formation of the Taliban and helped to recruit Pakistanis as well as Afghans. By 1993 the Taliban had become a formidable force with direct ties to the ISI and through it access to recruits from Pakistan's religious schools.

The ISI's deliberate entanglement with the Taliban and other extreme groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba has made political Islam a major factor in Pakistan. The ISI - created by the British, nurtured by the Americans and the Saudis - has become a serious impediment to Pakistan's social and political evolution. The events in Mumbai in 2008 have demonstrated that parts of the ISI are now almost interchangeable with extreme Islamic organizations. Although it is difficult to determine to what degree militant Muslim groups have penetrated the ISI, it is clear that Pakistan's intelligence establishment has become a fellow traveler of political Islam. Ultimately, this outcome will further contribute to the mutual paranoia that characterizes the Pakistan-India relationship.

[The author is a Professor at Simon Fraser University and Chair of Hellenic Studies.] [Gerolymatos/Vancouversun/18August2009] 

Section IV - OBITUARIES, BOOKS AND COMING EVENTS

Obituaries

Mildred C. Bailey, 90: Head of WAC Was Third Woman to Become General in U.S. Military. Mildred C. Bailey, 90, a retired brigadier general who directed the Women's Army Corps in the 1970s and who was the third woman in the U.S. military to reach the rank of general, died July 18 at the Knollwood military retirement facility in Washington. She had Alzheimer's disease.

Gen. Bailey was director of the Woman's Army Corps (WAC) from 1971 to 1975 during a turbulent period marked by the Vietnam War, social change, and demands for greater equality and opportunity for women.

She was promoted to brigadier general at the time but was not eager to accept the job, maintaining that other women were more qualified to lead the corps. She recalled in a 2000 interview with the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record that when the Army chief of staff, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, summoned her to his office, "He didn't ask me if I wanted to be director. He said, 'Col. Bailey, you are the next director.' I said, 'Yes, sir,' and saluted."

Westmoreland gave her a formidable task: "I want you to change the image of women in the Army."

At the time, Army women were concentrated in nursing and clerical roles and were prohibited from applying for hundreds of jobs open to men. With the elimination of the military draft and the creation of the all-volunteer Army in 1973, women could work in practically any military specialty, excluding combat. Many other traditional barriers to women in the military vanished under Gen. Bailey's leadership.

During Gen. Bailey's four years as WAC director, the number of women in the Army grew from 13,000 to 39,000 - the highest number since World War II. For the first time, women were allowed to command men. All-female units were abolished, women became eligible for campus ROTC programs, and dress codes were relaxed.

The integration of women into the regular Army may have been too successful as far as Gen. Bailey was concerned, because while she was director, the Defense Department decided that her beloved Women's Army Corps would be shut down.

She tried to fight the decision, arguing that WAC traditions were worth preserving and that women would face greater obstacles to advancement in the regular Army, but to no avail. She also vehemently opposed relaxing the Army's rules on pregnancy and motherhood, believing that pregnancy should remain grounds for immediate discharge.

Shortly before Gen. Bailey retired as WAC director in 1975, the pregnancy restriction on married and single women was lifted. In 1978, the Women's Army Corps was abolished as a separate unit, and women were integrated into the rest of the Army.

Gen. Bailey, who spent much of her career in the intelligence service, long maintained that women were as fit for combat duty as men. She looked forward to the day "when gender, race and religion will have nothing to do with whether you have equal opportunity in life," she said in 2000.

Mildred Inez Caroon was born April 18, 1919, in Fort Barnwell, N.C. Her friends knew her as Inez.

She graduated from the Women's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and was a high school French teacher when World War II broke out. In 1942, she joined the old Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, which was renamed the Women's Army Corps a year later.

She taught English to French pilots during the war and later served as an intelligence officer in Germany and Washington. From 1963 to 1968, Gen. Bailey - whose hair turned a striking white in her 20s - traveled the country as a WAC emissary, explaining the role of women in the military and recruiting new members.

During her 33 years in uniform, she faced continual sexual harassment, she said, but added: "You figured out a way to live with it, or you quit."

In 1943, when she married Marine Sgt. Maj. Roy C. Bailey, they had to get special permission, because military rules forbade fraternization between officers and enlisted men. When Gen. Bailey was assigned to Germany, her husband, now a civilian, was not allowed to join her as a dependent family member. He went to Germany at his own expense, and they had to find housing off base.

More than 20 years later, when Gen. Bailey was WAC commander, women finally received the same privileges concerning family dependents that men had long enjoyed.

"I don't feel cheated," Gen. Bailey told the Greensboro newspaper in 2000. "I hate to say it, but World War II coming along changed my life. I would have never known anything else if it hadn't."

Her decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal and Army Commendation Medal. Her husband died in a traffic accident in 1966. She had no immediate survivors.

In later years, she helped raise money for the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, which opened at Arlington Cemetery in 1997.

In the words of McNair, who knew Gen. Bailey for more than 35 years, "She was a lady, and she was a soldier." [Schudel/WashingtonPost/23August2009] 

John Philby. John was a 19-year old art student when his father was exposed as a traitor; his alcoholic mother had never hinted at her husband's treachery, and although John himself had never suspected his father of spying, when the news broke he did (as he admitted later) feel a sense of something approaching quiet approval.

Kim Philby was the senior officer of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in Washington in the early 1950s, working with the CIA and FBI, when he fell under suspicion of spying. He had been ordered to investigate Donald Maclean, another double agent who had been passing British secrets to the Soviets. In fact Philby and Maclean's fellow spy, Guy Burgess, were intimate friends, and once tipped off by Philby, who organised their defection, Maclean and Burgess fled to Moscow.

The stammering, debonair Philby was suspected of being the so-called Third Man but although he was investigated, he swore that he did not know Maclean. Although forced to step down from his MI6 post, he maintained links to the Secret Intelligence Service while working as a Middle East correspondent for The Observer newspaper.

In 1955 he was formally cleared of spying for Russia, but shortly before being reinterviewed by British Intelligence in 1963, Kim Philby defected to Moscow. His son was shocked to learn the news from a newspaper placard as he stepped off a ferry from the Isle of Wight.

An effortless and effective spy, Kim Philby's information about British and American strategy during the Second World War and its aftermath was, as one historian put it, "beyond price". For years Philby had sabotaged Allied missions behind the Iron Curtain and had calculatedly sent dozens of agents to their deaths.

His friend Malcolm Muggeridge regarded Philby as "a real-life James Bond. His boozy amours, his tough postures, his intelligence expertise, are directly related to the same characteristics in [Ian] Fleming's hero."

Finding himself the son of the most reviled man in Britain, John Philby was none the less surprised to discover how like his father he was. Of Philby's five children, John was the closest to him, and visited him in the former Soviet Union on at least 12 occasions.

On one such visit, father and son were pushed into a cupboard at Moscow airport with a bottle of vodka to keep them quiet when officials realised that John Philby and his family had been booked on the same return flight to London as the British ambassador. The blunder was not repeated: at the end of the next visit, the family was whisked to the airport in an unmarked limousine with pleated grey curtains at the windows and a flashing blue light, using the exclusive "Kremlin lane" reserved for senior Soviet officials and visiting dignitaries.

Like his father, John Philby enjoyed the company of women, and drank and smoked heavily. In 1964 when he was 20, the young Philby was fined �15 and placed on probation for two years for stealing, with two friends, a radio and bottles of whisky, brandy, wines, liqueurs, cigarettes and cash valued in all at �75 from a sports pavilion at Greenwich, south-east London. But unlike his notorious father, who was hailed a hero in the Soviet Union and buried with full honours, John Philby led a low-profile life, and ran his own successful joinery business in north London.

John David Philby was born in November 7 1943 under a kitchen table during an air raid on London. His father Harold "Kim" Philby had been a product of the British ruling class but, like his own eccentric parent, the explorer and Arabist St John Philby, contemptuous of it. Nicknamed after the hero of Kipling's novel, Kim Philby had attended Westminster School and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where, in the early 1930s, with Burgess, Maclean and others he espoused communism. John's mother was his father's mistress, Aileen Furse, to whom he had been introduced in 1940, and whom he married in 1946 after his divorce from his first wife.

Young John's earliest memories were of the idyllic time the family spent in Istanbul where, in 1947, Kim Philby had been posted as station chief for the British Secret Intelligence Service. The Philbys lived in a sprawling villa on the Bosporus. John recalled carefree days playing with local Turkish children on the beach.

In 1948, when John was five, Guy Burgess came to stay for a holiday. John's mother resented Burgess and his close relationship with her husband, and began staging accidents to claim attention; she once reported being mugged in her car, and on another occasion set fire to the living room, suffering serious burns. She was later sent to a Swiss clinic for treatment. Philby was posted to the United States the following year.

Guy Burgess was second secretary at the British Embassy and lodged with the Philbys at their ramshackle house in Washington. John recalled "his dark, nicotine-stained fingers. He bit his nails, and always smelled of garlic." Years later, Kim Philby told his son that Burgess had kept his standard-issue KGB revolver and camera hidden under John's bed. In 1951 Burgess's defection to Moscow with Donald Maclean cast suspicion on Philby.

On the Philbys' return to London, John attended Beaumont House, a prep school in Hertfordshire. While he was there, in 1955, the Labour MP Marcus Lipton accused Philby in Parliament of "dubious Third Man activities".

John Philby's classmates were enthralled to think his father might be a spy, and John himself basked in the reflected glow of notoriety. But when the then Foreign Secretary, Harold Macmillan, announced that he had "no reason to conclude that Mr. Philby has at any time betrayed the interests of this country", John was summoned to the headmaster's study. "Good news, Philby" the head told him, "your father's been exonerated."

When John Philby's mother died in 1957, none of her children was invited to the funeral, and he never knew where she was buried. They went to live with an aunt and uncle. John completed his education at Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire, and thereafter saw little of his father. When he was 17 he enrolled at the Hornsey School of Art to study painting and sculpture. It was there that he embraced Left wing politics and joined the Young Socialists.

Realizing that he lacked the talent to be a professional painter, John Philby worked briefly as a freelance newspaper photographer before taking up joinery. He spent the rest of his professional life as a self-employed joiner, operating from a small workshop near King's Cross where he made stands for exhibitions.

He valued his anonymity - although he never changed his name from Philby, which was frequently recognized when signing checks or a hotel register. To the question: "No relation, I hope?", he would reply: "Oh yes, I'm his son." Indeed, to the journalist Monica Porter, who persuaded him to give his only interview in 1998, John Philby seemed like a son who regarded his father as an almost heroic figure.

In return, Kim Philby appeared to admire his eldest son for making his own, very different, way in life, working with his hands as well as his brain. However, the master spy never explained his treachery to his son. When, four years after his defection, he found John standing unannounced on his doorstep in Moscow, Philby's first words were "What are you doing here?"

"He offered no explanations for his career as a spy," John Philby recalled, "and I never asked for any."

Rather than discuss politics, father and son preferred to speak of England. Although Kim Philby said he loved living in Moscow, he was embarrassed by his VIP treatment and missed such concomitants of English life as Colman's mustard, Marmite and Worcester sauce (John brought replacement supplies on subsequent visits). The two became good friends, traveled extensively in the Soviet Union, accompanied by KGB minders, and drank heavily along the way.

After his death in Russia in 1988, aged 76, Kim Philby, in accordance with his wishes, was buried in the Soviet Union with full military honors. John Philby and his sister Josephine were flown to Moscow by the Russians. He refused to have his picture taken while kissing his father in his open coffin, and was relieved when (as he told Monica Porter) "a man in green wellies appeared, closed the coffin lid, banged in four nails, and lowered it into the ground. Then the guard of honor fired a volley of shots into the air and it was all over."

John Philby, who died on August 14, was thrice-married. His first marriage, to a fellow art student in the 1960s, ended in divorce, as did his second, to an Israeli au pair. His third marriage broke up in the late 1990s. He is survived by a daughter, the journalist Charlotte Philby. [Telegraph/22August2009] 

Books on the Horizon

William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster, by John Prados. William E. Colby was one of the most enigmatic figures of the Cold War and a central player in the operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. While publicly appearing as a calm bureaucrat, behind the scenes Colby helped orchestrate some of CIA's most controversial operations. His mysterious death even added to the aura. In the wake of new questions relating to CIA activities since 9/11- which John Prados discusses in his new preface - Colby's story provides crucial lessons for a nation that still struggles to reconcile intelligence methods with democratic principles.

Prados tracks Colby's life and career from early years in the OSS to his tumultuous tenure as Director of Central Intelligence in the 1970s. Reviled by many outside the CIA for his role in Vietnam - and inside it for his cooperation with probes of the agency - Colby was cast as a scapegoat by the Ford White House during the Church and Pike congressional investigations. In addition, Prados offers fresh insights and new perspectives on Colby's involvement in the notorious Phoenix program in Vietnam and in the bloody Indonesian coup of 1965 that overthrew President Sukarno and brought General Suharto to power, as well as on the CIA's role in the 1963 assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam and on the actions of high-level CIA officials during the final demise of South Vietnam in 1975.

A masterful study of a master spy, William Colby and the CIA also offers a vital and timely history of the inner workings of "the Company" for which he worked. Originally published in a cloth edition under the title Lost Crusader and retitled for this first paperback edition, William Colby and the CIA explores dilemmas of intelligence that are of renewed importance today. 
[UniversityPressofKansas/October2009]

Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA, by Charles S. Faddis. Once upon a time, the CIA took the risks necessary to protect America. "If you fall," went its mantra, "fall forward." In Beyond Repair, one of the agency's most respected former operatives mounts a scathing critique of the preparedness of today's CIA - and, specifically, the Directorate of Operations at its core - to defend America against the dizzying dangers of the twenty-first century. In a compelling blend of analysis and fascinating true-life stories, Charles S. Faddis argues that the CIA has devolved into a low-risk or, often, no-risk bureaucracy of careerists whose mantra might be summed up thus: "Don't fall."

"Every senior officer I know in the CIA carries personal liability insurance," writes Faddis, "because of the fear of being sued for actions taken in the line of duty." And, he notes, no operatives who commanded CIA teams in Afghanistan have been promoted to key positions. Why? Because they operate within a system that is no longer built to encourage and reward the risk-taking and creativity they excelled at.

Faddis discusses the birth of the CIA, how the agency works from the inside out, why things have gone awry - and how to go about building a new entity that will maintain the midnight watch, so Americans can sleep well at night.  [LyonsPress/September2009]

Covert Action in The Cold War - US Policy, Intelligence and CIA Operations, by James Callanan. Born out of the ashes of World War II, the covert action arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created to counter the challenge posed by the Soviet Union and its allies and bolster American interests worldwide. It evolved rapidly into an eclectic, well-resourced organization whose activities provided a substitute for overt military action and afforded essential backup when the Cold War turned hot in Korea and Vietnam. This comprehensive examination of a still controversial subject sheds valuable new light on the undercover operations mounted by the CIA during the Cold War. Using a wide range of unpublished government records and documents, James Callanan traces the growth of the agency chronologically as it forged a covert action mission that sought to advance US foreign and defense policy in all corners of the globe. Offering a powerful perspective on a pivotal period in American history, "Covert Action in the Cold War" makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of global politics during the Cold War. [IBTauris/October2009]

COMING EVENTS

EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

29 August 2009 10:30 a.m. - Seattle, WA - AFIO Pacific Northwest hosts meeting at The Museum of Flight with presentation on "China, 21st Century Challenge" by Ltc Roger Dong, USAF. Roger S. Dong, Lt Col USAF Ret) will be making presentation on economic political and military developments in China and will discuss the ramifications of the growing power of China and what the U.S. might do to respond to this 21st century challenge. Co. Dong was a China specialist for the Air Force and DoD for 32 years and served as a Defense attach� in Taiwan and an Asst Air attach� (Air Liaison Officer) in Hong Kong. He has lectured at the World Affairs Council, Economic Round Table and many community service organizations on the subject: China, our 21st Century Challenge.
To Register: $25 pp, payable in advance, by check to AFIO, and sent to AFIO PNW, 4616 25th Ave NE Ste 495, Seattle WA 98105.
Questions: RSVP to Fran Dyer at FD@CromwellGroup.us

1 September 2009 - New York, NY - MEETING CANCELED - The AFIO New York Metropolitan Chapter 9/01/09 meeting with Air Force Lt. General David Deptula has been canceled as a result of military considerations.

Wednesday, 2 September 2009, 6:00 p.m. - Las Vegas, NV - The AFIO Las Vegas Chapter meets to hear John B. Alexander, Ph.D. on "Africa: Irregular Warfare on the Dark Continent"
The event takes place at the Nellis Air Force Base Officers' Club. Join them at 5 p.m. in the "Check Six" bar area for Liaison, beverages and snacks/dinner.
Dr. Alexander's presentation is based on a Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) monograph of that title and on a Harvard-JSOU symposium conducted last fall in Washington. He will discuss critical issues prevalent in Africa today: tribes and tribalism, poverty, the impact of population growth, disease, public tolerance (both globally and continentally) for extraordinary levels of casualties, epidemic corruption (and kleptocracies) as well as the unique, widely-diverse geography of the continent. Alexander has been a leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons.
To register or for further information call Christine Eppley at 702-295-0073 or email her at eppley@nv.doe.gov

17 September 2009 – San Francisco, CA – The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts R. James Woolsey, former Director of Central Intelligence and member of AFIO's Honorary Board. R. James Woolsey speaks on: Spies, Energy and the New World of the 21st Century: The relatively comfortable world of having a stolid bureaucratic energy and a secure national infrastructure has been replaced by something far more difficult to deal with. As we make decisions about what direction our society should take regarding energy, keeping in mind that we need for it to be increasingly clean, secure, and affordable, what threats and problems should be at the center of our concerns, and what are some of the approaches that can help us deal with all three needs? United Irish Cultural Center 2700 45th Avenue, SF. 11:30 AM no host cocktails; noon - luncheon. $25 member rate with advance reservation and payment; $35 non-member rate. RSVP/pre-payment is required. E-m ail RSVP to Mariko Kawaguchi (please indicate meat or fish) afiosf@aol.com and mail check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, P.O. Box 117578 Burlingame, CA 94011.

17 September 2009, 11:30 am - Colorado Springs, CO - AFIO Rocky Mountain Chapter hears Bryan Cunningham on "National At Risk." Talk to occur at the Air Force Academy, Falcon Club. Markle Foundation's Bryan Cunningham speaks on "Nation at Risk." Cunningham is with the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. RSVP to Tom Van Wormer at robsmom@pcisys.net

Thursday, 17 September 2009, 2 - 3:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - " Afghan Police Reform and the Future of Afghanistan" the subject of presentation at the Reserve Officers Assn. Event is cosponsored by Royal US Institute (London), the Reserve Officers Association in Washington, and the Foreign Policy Research Institute of Philadelphia. It features MICHAEL CLARKE of the RUSI and ANDREW GARFIELD, senior fellow, FPRI, and U.S. Director, RUSI.
The authors will present a new study on how best to reform the Afghan National Police and will present their findings in a report to be released at this briefing and on both organizations' websites.
Michael Clarke is the Director of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. Andrew Garfield is a Senior Fellow at FPRI and US Director of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.
Event is being held at One Constitution Ave., NE, Washington, DC. It is free and open to the public, but reservations required.
For additional information and to RSVP contact: Alan Luxenberg, Tel: (215) 732-3774 x105 or by Email: lux@fpri.org
Updates for this briefing will be posted at:http://www.fpri.org/research/nationalsecurity/afghanpolice
This event will be webcast To register for the free webcast visit:http://register.webcastgroup.com/l3/?wid=0650917094812
For a preliminary report by Andrew Legon on the project findings, visit:http://www.fpri.org/enotes/200906.legon.afghannationalpolice.html

Tuesday, 22 September 2009; 6:30 pm – Washington, DC - Terror Media: Free Speech or Dangerous Weapon? at the Spy Museum
With the communications explosion, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the PKK, and others have used their own media outlets to glorify suicide bombings, incite violence, recruit terrorists, and fund-raise online. Should governments shut down these media outlets to protect their citizens from harm? Should terror media be shielded as “protected free speech”? To what extent does one keep defending free speech....up to the point it kills you or your loved ones? Or ignore it if it kills others who you care little about? Where does one draw the line, if any? And how can new media be used against violent extremists? The panel exploring these issues includes: Juan Zarate, former deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism and former assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes; Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who has helped shut down Hezbollah and other terrorist owned-media around the world; Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who has spoken out in support of free speech regardless of viewpoint or consequences including deaths; and Todd Stein, legislative director for Senator Lieberman, and formerly a lawyer on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, who wrote the seminal document for the U.S. Congress exposing how terrorist organizations use online media to disseminate their message. Tickets: $15 per person. Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Thursday, 24 September 2009; 12 noon – 1 pm – Washington, DC - Author talk by Jennet Conant on: The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington - at Spy Museum. In 1940, with the threat of German invasion, the British government mounted a massive, secret campaign of propaganda and political subversion to weaken isolationist sentiment in America and manipulate Washington into entering the war against Germany. For this purpose, Winston Churchill created the British Security Coordination (BSC) under William Stephenson, “Intrepid,” whose agents called themselves the “Baker Street Irregulars.” Jennet Conant, author of The Irregulars, will discuss the exploits of one of Stephenson’s key agents: Roald Dahl. Beloved now for his books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, in WWII Dahl used his dazzling imagination for espionage purposes. His dashing good looks and easy charm won him access to the ballrooms and bedrooms of America’s rich and powerful, and to the most important prize of all—intelligence. Free! No registration required! 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

Wednesday, 30 September 2009; 6:30 pm – Washington, DC - Rediscovering U.S. Counterintelligence: The Inside View - at the Spy Museum. “Significant strategic victories often turn on intelligence coups, and with almost every intelligence success, counterintelligence rides shotgun.”—Jennifer E. Sims, former deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence coordination
Research, analysis, agile collection, and the timely use of guile and theft are the handmaidens of intelligence. The practice of defeating these tactics —counterintelligence—is an art unto itself. Burton Gerber, a veteran CIA case officer who served 39 years as an operations officer, was chief of station in three Communist countries, and now teaches at Georgetown University, and Jennifer E. Sims, professor in residence, director of intelligence studies, Georgetown University, and former deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence coordination, have recently co-edited Vaults, Mirrors, & Masks: Rediscovering U.S. Counterintelligence. In this fresh look at counterintelligence, the co-editors will explain its importance and explore the causes of—and practical solutions for—U.S. counterintelligence weaknesses. Audience participation in this probing conversation—from the protection of civil liberties to challenges posted by technological change—will be strongly encouraged. Tickets: $15 per person Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Wednesday, 7 October 2009 - Saturday, 10 October 2009 – Washington, DC - ThrillSpy International Film Festival. ThrillSpy International Film Festival, sponsored by the National Museum of Crime and Punishment and the International Spy Museum, provides a showcase and celebration of the exciting thriller and spy genre of films and novels, will hold its inaugural event in Washington this October. ThrillSpy brings together new independent filmmakers with fans and content distributors who appreciate their creativity. The festival is a four-day event which includes film screenings in Washington’s Penn Quarter, educational lectures, socials, book signings, a tour of the International Spy Museum, and concludes with a ThrillSpy Awards Masquerade Gala. Films this year include special selections from the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. The opening night film is the D.C. premier of The Champagne Spy by Nadav Schirman, an international award-winning documentary about a true “Bond-like” Cold War spy. The festival will also showcase Maryland director Brian Davis’ Academy Award–winning documentary If A Body Meet A Body, which highlights the lives of three employees at the world’s busiest coroner’s office. Street Boss will also make its U.S. debut at ThrillSpy. This crime thriller explores how the FBI brought down one of Detroit’s most infamous mobsters.
For more information please contact info@thrillspy.com or visit www.thrillspy.org.

13-16 October 2009 - Las Vegas, NV - AFIO National Symposium - Co-Sponsored with the U.S. Department of Energy, Nellis AFB, Creech AFB.

Register Here while space remains

Agenda

AFIO 2009 Fall Symposium/Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada
13 October to 16 October, 2009
Co-Sponsored with the

and the

Co-hosted with the AFIO Las Vegas Chapter

Cold Warriors in the Desert: From Atomic Blasts to Sonic Booms

Symposium will feature 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).

Secure Online Registration is here while space remains

To download 1-page PDF registration form, complete, and mail or fax to us,
it is HERE

Updated agenda for planning your hotel and travel arrangements

Please note: buses will be departing very early on Wednesday morning from hotel, so attendees are encouraged to reserve sleeping rooms at hotel starting Tuesday evening, 13 October.

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://tinyurl.com/hotel4afio
Special AFIO October Symposium Las Vegas rates are available up to Wednesday, September 30, 2009

14 October 2009 - Laurel, Maryland - The National Cryptologic Museum Foundation Hosts General Membership Meeting on"Cyber Challenges Facing the U.S. in the 21st Century." The NCMF hosts their general membership meeting and have invited SecDef Robert Gates and CIA Dir Leon Panetta to be the speakers. The theme is "Cyber Challenges Facing the U.S. in the 21st Century." Sen. Barbara Mikulski will give a few words to the membership. A continental breakfast and buffet lunch will be provided. On October 15-16 NSA's Center for Cryptologic History sponsors their Symposium on Cryptologic History. The them: "Global Perspectives on Cryptologic History." For further program information and fees visit www.cryptfoundation.org

15 - 16 October 2009 - Laurel, Maryland - NSA’s Center for Cryptologic History sponsors the Symposium on Cryptologic History on "Global Perspectives on Cryptologic History."  This special symposium is held every two years. Historians from the Center, other parts of the Intelligence Community, and the Department of Defense will join distinguished scholars from American and foreign academic institutions, along with veterans of the profession and others interested in cryptology, for two days of reflection and debate on the cryptologic past.  Under this year’s theme, "Global Perspectives on Cryptologic History," participants will consider the impact of cryptology within the context of transnational history. The panels include a range of technological, operational, foreign relations, organizational, counterintelligence, policy, and even literary themes. Past symposia have featured scholarship setting out new ways of considering cryptologic history. The mix of practitioners and scholars on occasion can be volatile, but the result is a significantly enhanced appreciation for the context of past events. This year’s symposium promises to tackle controversial subjects head-on. Breaks and luncheons, presenting rare opportunities for lively discussion and interaction with leading scholars and distinguished experts, will be included in the registration fees. The symposium will be held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s Kossiakoff Center in Laurel, Maryland. Make plans to join us for either one or both days of this intellectually stimulating conference. For more information, contact Dr. Kent Sieg, Symposium coordinator, at 301-688-2336 or kgsieg@nsa.gov

Tuesday, 20 October 2009; 6:30 pm – Washington, DC - CIA Magic: The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception at the Spy Museum. In the early days of the Cold War, the CIA initiated a top-secret program, code-named MKULTRA, to counter Soviet mind-control and interrogation techniques. Realizing that its officers and agents might need to clandestinely deploy newly developed pills, potions, and powders against the adversary, the CIA hired America’s most famous magician, John Mulholland, to write two secret manuals on sleight-of-hand and covert communication techniques. Twenty years later, virtually all documents related to MKULTRA—including Mulholland’s manuals—were thought destroyed. Only recently, a surviving copy of each manual, complete with photographs and illustrations, was discovered. In their new book, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, H. Keith Melton, internationally renowned espionage historian, and Bob Wallace, former director of the CIA’s Office of Technical Services (OTS), reveal for the first time Mulholland’s complete illustrated instructions for CIA officers on the magician’s approach to manipulation and communication. This eye-opening evening will explore the rich overlap between stage magic and espionage and reveal the “never before seen” secrets of how the magicians’ art also enhanced the spy’s craft.
Tickets: $20 per person Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F St NW, Washington, DC, Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station To register: https://web.spymuseum.org/e-commerce/ItemList.aspx

Thursday, 22 October 2009; 12 noon – 1 pm – Washington, DC - Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 at the Spy Museum. As MI5, Britain’s legendary security service, marks its 100th anniversary, the agency has given an independent scholar unrestricted access to its records for the very first time. Join Cambridge University professor and International Spy Museum emeritus advisory board member Christopher Andrew, the author of Defend the Realm, as he reveals the precise role of MI5 in twentieth-century British history: from its foundation in 1909, through two world wars, and its present roles in counterespionage and counterterrorism. Andrew describes how MI5 has been managed, what its relationship has been with government, where it has triumphed, and where it has failed. Defend the Realm also reveals the identities of previously unknown enemies of the United Kingdom whose activities have been uncovered by MI5. It adds significantly to our knowledge of many celebrated events and notorious individuals, and definitively lays to rest a number of persistent myths. Free! No registration required! 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

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

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