Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

CIA Terror Deportee Released from Cairo Jail. Ahmed Agiza, one of the two Egyptians whose 2001 deportation from Sweden to Egypt caused a political scandal and who has been jailed since then, has now been released from a Cairo prison, according to media reports.

"I was released last Tuesday. I have been free a week now. I am feeling fine," Agiza said to the Dagens Nyheter daily.

Agiza and compatriot Mohammed Alzery were brutally forced out of Sweden by the CIA in 2001 and flown to Egypt where they were interrogated under torture.

Karlstad-resident Ahmed Agiza has spent almost ten years in a cell in the Tora prison in Cairo, convicted by a military court of having been a member of a terror-linked organisation.

The decision to release Agiza was made by the social democratic government at the behest of the United States and has been welcomed by international human rights organizations.

Ahmed Agiza is currently staying with his mother in southern Cairo and the family are working on bringing him back to Sweden to be reunited with his wife and two children. [Simpson/TheLocal/11August2011] 

Retired Taiwanese Spy Arrested While Traveling in China. China held a retired Taiwanese intelligence agent for four months earlier this year after he arrived in China as a tourist, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The retired agent, in his 60s and identified only by his surname Wu (吳), was apprehended by Chinese officials while traveling in northeast China in February, the Chinese-language United Daily News said.

"He was not allowed proper sleep and given no chance to rest well," the paper said, citing one of Wu's friends, who added that he was not physically tortured.

"Few people can take such pressure. He lost a lot of weight," his friend said.

At one point, Wu was taken to Yunnan Province for a confrontation with two colonels from Taiwan's Military Intelligence Bureau incarcerated since 2006, apparently on suspicion of spying, the paper said. [TaipeiTimes/9August2011] 

Terrorism Fight Improved, Not Perfect. The former head of Denver's FBI office says nearly 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government's terrorism fighting efforts have improved, but he says the government's intelligence sources have failed on occasion.

Jim Davis says Faisal Shahzad's attempted bombing of Times Square on May 1, 2010 and the 2009 Christmas Day attempted bombing of a Delta Airlines plane near Detroit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab are situations where the U.S. intelligence community didn't identify an attacker early enough.

"Both of those guys were successful in deploying their device. Where they failed was the actual mechanics of pulling it off," he said. "It is frankly a failure of the intelligence community that we were unable to prevent those," he said. [Larson/9News/8August2011] 

Air Force Tackles New Intel Mission. The Pentagon's top intelligence official has ordered the Air Force to set up a new intelligence unit to analyze the behavior of foreign-based commercial aircraft and integrate intelligence from the combatant commanders as the planes move through American airspace.

Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers has tasked Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to hand pick a chief for the new intelligence cell.

While USD(I) will be the "focal point in DoD for intelligence on foreign civil aviation-related entities associated with illicit activities or posing a threat to the United States, its allies or its interests," the Air Force will handle day-to-day operations through the Civil Aviation Intelligence Analysis Center, according to a July 29 memo from Vickers.

According to the memo, the CAIAC will be supported primarily by elements of the air service's 29th Intelligence Squadron, which specializes in signals intelligence and is headquartered at Ft. Meade, Md.

The Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency, as well as intel shops within the regional combatant commands, will provide the raw intelligence to the center for analysis. [Read more: Munoz/AOLDefense/9August2011]

Berlin Exhibit Uncovers Once Classified Stasi Photos. Spies from former communist East Germany demonstrate the art of disguise by donning fur wigs, fake mustaches and dark glasses in a Berlin exhibition of recently uncovered and once highly classified photographs.

German artist Simon Menner, who put together the exhibition "Pictures from the Secret Stasi Archives," said it should show how something that seems harmless, such as these images that could be shots from a spy film spoof, can harbor danger.

"These were used during courses on how to dress up and blend into society," the 33 year-old artist said. "They seem pretty absurd now, but it was meant seriously - this is evil stuff."

Menner says he aims to fuel a debate about the problems inherent to the concept of surveillance, using evidence of the way the Stasi secret police functioned in the Cold War.

"These are once highly classified images taken by a secret service that were never meant to be published - just imagine this was an exhibition of photographs from the CIA!," he said.

"Here in Germany we have this treasure, an archive that is pretty much open to everyone - something worth so much, especially in a time when we are debating surveillance issues."

Germany has some of the toughest privacy laws in the world due to its experience with state surveillance systems once used by the Nazis and the Stasi.

Menner spent days combing through the vast archives once built by the Stasi using a network of informants numbering one in 90 East German citizens and open to the public since 1990. [Read more: Marsh/Reuters/9August2011]

Clarke Airs Suspicions Over Sept. 11 Intel Failures. Often depicted as allies in the fight against al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks, Richard Clarke and George Tenet resurfaced this week with new recriminations over intelligence breakdowns and blame.

Clarke, who served in two administrations as a White House counter-terrorism adviser, started the squabble by saying he now suspects the CIA hid its knowledge that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers had entered the United States because the agency had tried - and failed - to recruit them as informants.

Clarke acknowledged his theory is not based on any evidence in a forthcoming documentary, according to a copy of the interview provided to the Post. But he says it is "the only conceivable reason that I've been able to come up with" to explain why the CIA failed to inform the FBI or the White House of the would-be hijackers presence.

Clarke goes on to say he believes "there was a high-level decision in the CIA ordering people not to share information," all but pointing a finger at the CIA Director at the time, George J. Tenet.

Tenet, who has kept a low public profile since leaving the agency, posted a sharply worded statement on his Web site saying Clarke "was an able public servant" but that "his recently released comments about the run up to 9/11 are reckless and profoundly wrong."

The statement was also attributed to two other senior CIA officials apparently named in the documentary: Cofer Black, who was the head of the counter-terrorism center; and Richard Blee, who served as chief of the agency's Osama bin Laden unit.

The documentary, called "Who is Richard Blee?" and produced by FF4 Films, is timed to the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The Clarke interview is scheduled to appear for the first time Thursday night, on a PBS station in Colorado and on the Web site SecrecyKills.com. [Read more: Miller/WashingtonPost/11August2011]

Following Criticism, Official Says Spy Plane Costs are Dropping. An Air Force official said the service has slashed by 10 percent the costs to use its Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, a revelation that comes weeks after senators sharply questioned the price to operate the spy plane fleet.

The costs of operating the unmanned aircraft "are coming down," Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Thomas, the service's Global Hawk functional manager, told The Hill on Wednesday at a Washington conference. When pressed, Thomas said officials have wrung up to 10 percent from the Global Hawk program's operating costs.

Thomas questioned the Pentagon's own initial cost estimates for the program.

"It's a complex system and we're not always sure how much it's going to cost," he said. "For example, in 2002, it was supposed to cost $10 million a copy - but no one knows where that number came from. Somebody said, �It was supposed to cost $10 million,' and we went back and tried to find out who said that. There was no rigor, no data behind that.

"Already, the costs are starting to come down as we realize what it takes to operate it, what things are more reliable. The [people involved with the] U-2 [have] had many, many years to figure [that] out."

The new cost projection comes just weeks after the Senate Armed Services Committee slammed the price of the Global Hawk program. The declaration also comes as the Pentagon is looking for ways to find $350 billion in savings over a decade, while bracing for the possibility of nearly $1 trillion in cuts over the same period. [Read more: Bennett/TheHill/11August2011]

Special Operations Veterans Rise in Hierarchy. A growing number of veteran commandos in Special Operations are rising to top positions in traditional military units and across the national security bureaucracy, reflecting the importance of their specialized training to fight unconventional wars that defined the past decade. 

Among the most visible of these appointments were the recent promotions of two Navy Seal commanders to the No. 2 slots at a pair of military regional commands, a historic first.

Vice Adm. Robert S. Harward was named deputy commander of Central Command, the military's busiest, managing two wars while watching a complex set of partners and rivals across Southwest Asia and the Middle East. Vice Adm. Joseph D. Kernan was named deputy commander of Southern Command, specializing in upgrading the skills of local security forces across Latin America and the Caribbean with the exercise of American influence, or "soft power."

The intermingling of conventional forces and Special Operations personnel is under way elsewhere, too, reflecting a significant shift in military culture and reshaping not only the armed services but also the executive branch and Capitol Hill.

Senior Obama administration officials say these veteran commandos bring to policy making in Washington astute long-range planning skills and a knack for working with disparate federal agencies. But to succeed, these appointees will have to overcome years of distrust between traditional military units and Special Operations forces, who are trained very differently and whose cultures diverge sharply.

Admiral Harward caught the attention of senior White House officials while working on counterterrorism as a military staff officer on the National Security Council after he had commanded Special Operations forces in Afghanistan. He brought to the White House experience combining military, intelligence and diplomacy to fight terrorism.

"We had to build a whole different network," Admiral Harward said of the task facing the government after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, "with the 'intel' community, with the embassy country teams, with the whole interagency." [Read more: Shanker&Schmitt/NYTimes/8August2011]

Russia and China accused of Cyber-Spying Campaign to Steal U.S. Secrets. The military and intelligence services of Russia and China are conducting a sustained campaign to steal American commercial and military secrets through cyber espionage, according to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he warned that sophisticated computer hacking poses a major danger to U.S. interests.

"Nation states are investing huge amounts of time, personnel and money to steal our data," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said Friday in a speech to an association of retired U.S. intelligence officers. "We are not as prepared as we need to be."

Rogers' remarks were framed as a warning against overly steep cuts in the intelligence and defense budgets, and he cited cyber attacks as the top threat to the United States outside of Al Qaeda. He particularly blamed Russia and China.

"Clearly the intelligence agencies and the military [from both countries] are involved," he said afterward.

Rogers' views are widely shared by national security officials, but the allegations are rarely voiced in public. The origins of many cyber attacks are deliberately hidden, and efforts by the Pentagon's National Security Agency to identify the sources rely on classified systems that officials are loath to discuss.

The issue is politically sensitive, and U.S. officials say there is no consensus on how to respond to computer-based attacks that they believe are tied to specific governments. [Read more: Dilanian/LATimes/12August2011]

Meehan Introduces Intel-Sharing Bill. U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7, of Upper Darby, recently introduced legislation that would ensure intelligence analysis and information sharing related to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons.

House Resolution 2764, known as the Weapons of Mass Destruction Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011, would a "establish weapons of mass destruction intelligence and information sharing functions of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the Department of Homeland Security and require dissemination of information analyzed by the department" to partnering agencies, states the bill summary.

"Our intelligence community is one of the most sophisticated in the world," Meehan said in a release. "But in order for us to be as diligent and efficient as possible, we must ensure that intelligence is getting to the appropriate federal, state and local officials. Sharing information across the intelligence community is a critically important part of keeping our nation safe."

Meehan said chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons are detectable, but "intelligence collection is much more challenging and we need as much advance warning as possible to mitigate the effects of such dangerous weapons." [Read more: Lynch/DailyTimes/12August2011]

DNI Air America Retirement Report to Congress is Released: DNI Concludes Congress Should Not Grant Retirement Benefits to Air America Employees for Their Proprietary Services. As required by Section 1057 of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, DNI finally released its Report on July 28, 2011, exactly 15 months beyond the required due date.1 At page 26, the penultimate paragraph in the report states: "...we do not believe that there is a clear and compelling case for granting universal and retroactive Federal retirement benefits to former employees of Air America. Granting such benefits would undermine the national security utility of proprietaries, create a costly and unjustified precedent for granting such benefits to other proprietary employees, and would not withstand legal or public scrutiny."

In reaching this conclusion, the Report (also @ page 26) relied on three self-established and somewhat specious criteria:

"Mission. What serves, and does not disserve (sic), the continuing mission of the intelligence community with respect to granting Federal retirement benefits?

"Precedent. How did the employees view their status and how have similarly situated personnel been treated?

"Extenuating Circumstances. Are there unique circumstances that argue compellingly for differential treatment of Air America employees? Did the Government take or fail to take certain actions that...disfavored Air America employees?"

"In responding to this congressional tasking we...considered potential options in determining to do the right thing in this case. However, any option must fit into a framework of justified entitlement. We were unable to construct that framework, and without finding or establishing a clear and compelling basis for granting Federal retirement benefits that would withstand public scrutiny and legal precedent, we believe granting such benefits would not serve the interest of the intelligence community, the Nation, or the legacy of Air America."

Under its Mission commentary, the DNI report states:

"We believe granting Federal status to those employed in a proprietary organization is fundamentally contrary to the very nature of a proprietary organization and to the employees� ability to perform their mission as non-Federal employees serving the lawful purposes of the U.S. Government." [Read more: AirAmerica/July2011]

Pakistan lets China see US Helicopter. Pakistan allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples from the top-secret stealth helicopter that US special forces left behind when they killed Osama bin Laden, the Financial Times has learnt.

The action is the latest incident to underscore the increasingly complicated relationship and lack of trust between Islamabad and Washington following the raid.

"The US now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," said one person in intelligence circles, referring to the Pakistani spy agency. The Chinese engineers were allowed to survey the wreckage and take photographs of it, as well as take samples of the special "stealth" skin that allowed the American team to enter Pakistan undetected by radar, he said.

President Barack Obama's national security council had been discussing this incident and trying to decide how to respond. A senior official said the situation "doesn't make us happy", but that the administration had little recourse. [Read more: Fifield/FinancialTimes/14August2011]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Cybertheft and the U.S. Economy. In August 2011, the cybersecurity firm McAfee released an eye-opening report (PDF) detailing its investigation into a multi-year, most likely state-sponsored cyberattack that includes intrusions into the U.S. federal government and defense contractors, resulting in the theft of massive stores of intellectual property. The report's author and McAfee's vice president of threat research, Dmitri Alperovitch, describes these attacks, known as Operation Shady RAT, as a profound threat, indicative of a larger trend that may result in "the complete destruction" of the U.S. economy. Rather than focus on the potential for a theoretical "cyber Pearl Harbor," he says that U.S. policymakers should use all of the nation's power to stem the steady theft of national secrets.

What do you see as the broader implications for U.S. cybersecurity policy given these Shady RAT attacks?

The policy discussion up to date, at least in open circles, has been a bit misfocused. The challenge has been that everyone has been talking about waiting for this massive event--a "cyber Pearl Harbor"--but what's really happening is that we're suffering a "death by a thousand cuts." It's not one event, such as our electric grid going down, but rather a wholesale transfer of wealth from our economy (PDF) to our adversaries' economies that's been going on for the last six years or more. The results of these activities, especially theft, will manifest itself in dramatic ways over the years with reduced economic growth, reduced competitiveness, a loss of jobs, and everything that comes with that. While we should be worried about destructive attacks that can cause widespread damage, physical damage, and even potentially loss of life, the massive espionage (WSJ) that's been taking place is really the more pressing issue.

What's the first step to getting at this problem? [Read more: Masters/CouncilonForeignRelations/11August2011]

NGA Makes Real-Time Intell Top Priority. Barry Barlow is director of the Acquisition Directorate of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a job he has held since late 2009. A member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, he has been with the directorate, either as director or deputy director since 2006.

The Acquisition Directorate is responsible for the acquisition of systems related to imagery, imagery analysis and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). Barlow spoke with Defense Systems Editor-in-Chief Barry Rosenberg and NGA's acquisition strategy and finding technology enablers to get real-time geospatial intelligence into people's hands.

DS: How does acquisition fit into NGA's strategy of putting GEOINT directly into the hands of the users?

Barlow: The NGA vision has three goals, one of which is more relevant to acquisition than the others. The first goal is online on-demand access. The second goal is broadening and deepening analysis, and within that is the third goal, which is to put in place the changes that are transforming our business processes to be able to support that.

The first goal of online on-demand activity is the one that is more germane to acquisition. There's a set of things we're doing now in several areas, an example of which is visualization, or what we call the GEOINT Visualization Service. If you go into any ops center, even an ops center that's not in the intell community, you will see people using a Google Earth representation of what's going on in the world. We want to provide that Google Earth visualization capability so that people can get [the same] context to what's going on.

We are expanding and bringing this into play with social media tools such as chat and instant messenger capabilities, so that as an event is occurring, we're not just getting updates on the hour or twice a day, we're getting those updates in real time so that people looking at the globe can see that.

A second thing that we're doing is we're actually just letting the technology work for us. When we migrated to our new facility, we took the majority of our data off tape and put it in spinning disk. Technology enabled that because it became cost effective to do that. But now what we see is that online on-demand access lets people get any information that's been taken in two to three minutes, whereas in the past it might have taken two to three hours. That will lead to broadening and deepening analytics because they're not going to have to look for the information; it'll be available. [Read more: Rosenberg/DefenseSystems/10August2011]

Afghanistan's Former Spy Chief: 'Never Trust the Taliban.' He may no longer be Afghanistan's spymaster general, but in the new career he has moved into, Amrullah Saleh must retain many of the trappings from his former job.

Visitors to the Kabul home of the intelligence boss-turned-politician encounter checkpoints from at least a block away, while outside his villa, lean, purposeful guards from his native Panjshir Valley eye approaching strangers warily.

Like any official who spent six years at the sharp end of one of the most ruthless intelligence wars in the world, the 39-year-old former head of the Afghan domestic intelligence service has gained his fair share of enemies.

But since quitting his post last year, he now has even more reason to fear - after forming an influential new opposition group that has denounced the plans of President Hamid Karzai and the West for a political settlement with the Taliban.

"Very simply, the Taliban are our killers, they are not our brothers," Mr. Saleh told The Sunday Telegraph last week. [Read more: Farmer/Telegraph/11August2011]

Untold Story of the Bay of Pigs. From a transport ship floating in Cuba's Bay of Pigs, CIA operative Grayston Lynch knew the U.S. mission to overthrow Fidel Castro was faltering. The Cuban exiles he had brought with him had abandoned their posts, so he grabbed the boat's recoilless rifles and machine guns and began firing at the aircraft overhead.

On a day of chaos and infamy in April 1961, Lynch would soon understand the consequences of his shooting. He had fired on his agency's own planes, which were trying to protect the U.S.-led Cuban exiles invading the island from being slaughtered by Castro's forces. "We couldn't tell them from the Castro planes," Lynch later explained.

The Bay of Pigs is one of America's most infamous Cold War blunders, and it has been studied, debated, and dramatized endlessly ever since. Yet, for 50 years, details like Lynch's story were hidden away in top-secret CIA files that were finally released this month and reviewed by NEWSWEEK.

The CIA's official history of the Bay of Pigs operation is filled with dramatic and harrowing details that not only lay bare the strategic, logistical, and political problems that doomed the invasion, but also how the still-green President John F. Kennedy scrambled to keep the U.S. from entering into a full conflict with Cuba.

The disclosure is the handiwork of the dogged researcher Peter Kornbluh and his Washington-based National Security Archive. The right-to-know group used the Freedom of Information Act and lawsuits to force the CIA to release all its major documents on Kennedy's failed efforts to overthrow Castro, who this month turned 85 and stands as a living reminder of America's failure to repel communism on an island just 90 miles from Florida.

Written by then-CIA chief historian Jack Pfeiffer between 1974 and 1984, the five-volume history - the last volume of which remains classified - seeks to spread the blame beyond the agency to the State Department and White House, while confirming that the invasion was even more disastrously handled than previously known. [Read more: Dalleck/Newsweek/14August2011]

Section III - COMMENTARY

When Secrecy Gets Out of Hand. Every 6-year-old knows what a secret is. But apparently our nation's national security establishment does not.

Consider this strange case from earlier this year. On June 8, the National Security Agency, a top-secret government spy agency, heralded the "declassification" of a 200-year-old publication, translated from the original German, on cryptography. It turns out, however, as reported by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists on his blog Secrecy News, that the 1809 study had long been publicly available and had even been digitized and published online through Google Books several years earlier. In fact, the 19th century study had not met the government's own standards for classification in the first place.

The day after this odd "declassification," the government's four-year prosecution of NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake under the Espionage Act collapsed when the government withdrew charges. The official explanation was that the government had to drop its prosecution to protect sensitive information about the NSA's targeting of a particular telecommunications technology that the judge would have compelled it to disclose.

But in my opinion, the classified information Drake was charged with having possessed illegally - like the 1809 study - never should have been classified in the first place. [Leonard/KansasCity/11August2011] 

Jane Fonda and Her Friendly North Vietnamese Intelligence Officer. Last month, actress Jane Fonda published an article on her website titled "My Trip to Hanoi." In the article Ms. Fonda tried to explain her two-week visit to Hanoi during the summer of 1972 - and by doing so, dispel all the "slanderous" internet rumors and accusations of "treason" that have been made against her because of her actions during that trip.

Why address this old controversy now? Because a few days earlier, the television shopping network QVC, after receiving many protests, had abruptly canceled a scheduled appearance by Ms. Fonda to promote her new self-help memoir. So the article was intended to set the record straight. The Oscar-winning actress did offer an apology of sorts (really more of an excuse than an apology) for the famous photograph of her manning a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. But the bulk of the article was a defense of the trip and her motivations.

No one but Ms. Fonda can know what her true motivations were, but it is clear that the North Vietnamese exploited her for their own propaganda purposes. She would have been an idiot, which clearly she is not, to have assumed that they would try to do anything less.

One of the strongest charges lodged against Ms. Fonda has been that she was acting as a North Vietnamese agent when she took these actions, and therefore was guilty of treason. If that was the case, then she would presumably have been acting under instructions from a North Vietnamese official, probably a North Vietnamese intelligence officer. The next logical question, then, is whether Ms. Fonda had contacts with North Vietnamese intelligence?

Since intelligence officers of all countries operate "under cover," not revealing their true affiliation, answering this kind of question is usually extremely difficult. In this case, however, it turns out that the Vietnamese have answered the question for us. They have not only revealed that Ms. Fonda was in contact with a North Vietnamese intelligence officer in 1972; they have also told us the officer's name, his operational alias, the cover he was using, as well as his operational instructions and what his goals were in targeting American citizens.

A 2005 article published in Thanh Nien, the official newspaper of the Vietnamese Communist Party's Ho Chi Minh Youth Group, describes an interview with a retired Vietnamese official named Ho Nam, who in 1972 was a consular officer assigned to the North Vietnamese diplomatic mission in Paris. Ho Nam describes how he met with Fonda when she came to the mission to request a travel visa to North Vietnam. He and another consular officer taught Ms. Fonda a North Vietnamese army fighting song that she wanted to learn for to use while in Hanoi. He quotes her as saying, "I want to sing it as a gift to your soldiers." Ho Nam also recalls that when Ms. Fonda left Hanoi after completing her visit, she called him from Bangkok, and asked him to meet her at Paris's Orly International Airport when she returned to France, which he did.

Who was this Ho Nam? Was he just an ordinary North Vietnamese consular officer who was concerned with nothing more than processing visa applications? Or was he something else? [Read more: Pribbenow/WashingtonDecoded/10August2011]

This Week at War: Outsourcing the Drug War. According to a recent New York Times story, the U.S. government is stepping up its assistance to Mexico's security forces in the battle against drug cartels. The article described a growing presence of private security contractors from the United States, along with a few CIA operatives, at some Mexican federal police and army bases. Many of the contractors are retired members of U.S. military special operations forces and the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to the article, the contractors are providing specialized training to a few selected units in the federal police and other security forces. Even more important, the contractors and CIA officers are establishing intelligence analysis centers alongside Mexican command posts.

Policymakers responsible for the U.S. assistance effort in Mexico seem to be applying some lessons learned during America's decade of war. The intelligence analysis centers the U.S. contractors are now setting up in Mexico are innovations developed by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, and elsewhere. As described by General Stanley McChrystal in an essay he wrote for Foreign Policy, the centers are deliberately located down at the tactical level and gather collectors and analysts across intelligence agencies together in one room. The goal is to improve collaboration and more rapidly respond to incoming information and adversary activity. A decade of practical experience across the globe has refined this concept, which the United States is now exporting to Mexico.

The use of unobtrusive civilian contractors is another consequence from the last decade of experience with irregular conflict. I have recently discussed the increasing "civilianization" of warfare. Irregular adversaries have long taken on civilian guise in order to avoid the superior firepower usually wielded by nation-states. U.S. policymakers today find it politically untenable to use conventional military force, especially ground forces, against irregular adversaries. Increasingly more convenient are civilian substitutes such as CIA paramilitaries, contractors, and hired proxies. Mexico has long had severe cultural and legal prohibitions on a foreign military presence, especially from the United States. This will increasingly be the rule elsewhere in the world. But as we can see in Mexico and elsewhere, the U.S. government now has a well-established workaround.

U.S. assistance to Mexico may improve the tactical skills of elite Mexican security forces and a sophisticated intelligence operation may find targets for these shooters. But are Mexican policymakers directing their troops against the right targets? The rate of violence is as high as ever and there is no obvious decline in the flow of drugs into the United States. What is Mexico's counter-cartel campaign achieving? [Read more: Haddick/ForeignPolicy/12August2011]

Department of Internet Defense. "Cybersecurity" is one of those hot topics that has launched a thousand seminars and strategy papers without producing much in the way of policy. But that's beginning to change, in one of 2011's most important but least noted government moves. 

This summer, with little public fanfare, the Obama administration rolled out a strategy for cybersecurity that couples the spooky technical wizardry of the National Security Agency with the friendly, cops-and-firefighters ethos of the Department of Homeland Security. This partnership may be the smartest aspect of the policy, which has so far avoided the controversies that usually attach themselves like viruses to anything involving government and the Internet.

The new initiative was explained at a conference here last week sponsored by the Aspen Strategy Group, a forum that has been meeting each summer for 30 years to discuss defense issues. Among the participants were the two people who helped frame the plan, William Lynn and Jane Holl Lute, the deputy secretaries of defense and homeland security, respectively.

What's driving the policy is a growing recognition that the Internet is under attack - right now, every day - by foreign intelligence agencies and malicious hackers alike. Experts cite some frightening examples: An attack in May on Citigroup, in which hackers stole credit card information on 360,000 clients; a still-mysterious assault last October on the Nasdaq stock exchange; a 2009 breach of the U.S. electrical grid by Russian and Chinese intruders; and a 2009 heist of plans for the F-35 joint strike fighter.

And that's just what's public. McAfee, the computer security firm, registers 60,000 new bits of malicious software every day. But classified estimates are said to be much scarier - with a hundred attacks for every one that's publicly disclosed. It's good to be skeptical about such unspecified threats - when officials warn direly, "If only you knew what we know" - but in this case, the danger is obviously real. The question is what to do about it. [Read more: Ignatius/WashingtonPost/12August2011]

Section IV - Obituaries, Books, Careers, Legal Issues, and Coming Events

Obituaries

Clair George. Clair E. George, a widely respected veteran of the CIA's clandestine service who oversaw all global espionage activities for the agency in the mid-1980s and was later convicted of lying to Congress during investigations into the Iran-contra scandal, died Aug. 11 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.

He was 81 and died of cardiac arrest, said his daughter Leslie George.

Mr. George was the highest-ranking CIA official to stand trial over the biggest White House scandal since Watergate: a White House-led operation to covertly sell weapons to Iran and divert the profits to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras.

The operation had been engineered out of the White House by Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who served on the National Security Council staff. North was then aided by CIA Director William Casey.

Aspects of the operation violated a congressionally-mandated restriction of overt U.S. support of the contras. Mr. George initially told Congress the CIA was not involved in the operation, and he later apologized for being evasive. He said he was trying to protect the agency.

He explained he had reservations about the operation all along but said he did not push hard enough to stop it outright.

"At no time - which maybe I should have - did I dash into the director's office and say, 'Hey, Bill, we have got to stop all this stuff,'" Mr. George testified before Congress in 1987. He received a presidential pardon on Christmas Eve 1992, shortly after his conviction by a federal jury.

Mr. George challenged the traditional image of CIA recruits in the 1950s. He was not a son of privilege and lacked an Ivy League pedigree. By many accounts, he developed a loyal following for his ebullient manner and courage working in some of the world's most volatile regions.

Raised in a Pennsylvania coal town, he did Army counterintelligence work in the Far East before joining the CIA in 1955. Through cunning and mettle, he advanced through the ranks of the clandestine service, working in Cold War proxy zones in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He was chief of station in Beirut when civil war erupted in Lebanon in 1975.

The next year, he volunteered to replace the station chief in Athens, who had been assassinated by a terrorist organization. This gesture, perhaps more than anything, brought him recognition as a dedicated officer willing to make his safety secondary to the needs of the agency. [Read more: Bernstein/WashingtonPost/12August2011]

Books

New Edition of Richelson's "U.S. Intelligence Community." A new edition of Jeffrey Richelson's encyclopedic work on "The U.S. Intelligence Community" (Westview Press, July 2011) has just been published.

The book provides a uniquely synoptic view of the structure and functions of the massive U.S. intelligence bureaucracy. Descriptive rather than prescriptive, the book serves best as a guide to some of the more obscure details of intelligence organizations, code names and procedures.

I provided a blurb for the book, which I have regularly found useful. But it may be pointed out that the original edition of this work pre-dated the World Wide Web, and the latest (sixth) edition retains something of a pre-web sensibility. If, for some reason, you wanted to know when the now-defunct National Imagery and Mapping Agency was established, Richelson could tell you. But so could Wikipedia. And while the new volume includes a list of Intelligence Community Directives, a directive (ICD 114) on GAO access to intelligence information that took effect June 30, 2011 was too recent to be included. [Read more:  Aftergood/SecrecyNews/11August2011] 

Former Top CIA Officer's New Book Provides Rare, Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Life and Work of a Member of the Nation's Clandestine Service. Richard L. Holm's new book, 'The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA', contains suspense worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster or a best-selling spy novel - with one important difference: This story is true. For more than three decades, Holm worked in Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Directorate of Operations - now the National Clandestine Service - the component directly responsible for collecting human intelligence.

At almost every turn Holm encountered his share of dangerous characters and situations, including two years in the jungles of Laos helping to fight the invading North Vietnamese communists, and surviving a harrowing plane crash in central Africa's Congo that burned over 35 percent of his body, nearly ending his life before he'd even turned 30. Temporarily blinded and helpless, Holm's life was saved by a local tribesman who cleaned off his burned skin with a knife, extracted dozens of insects from his festering wounds, and applied a strange black paste made from snake oil and tree bark (which Holm credits with staving off infection and dehydration), while four other men trudged 100 miles through enemy-held territory to secure his rescue and return to the United States for medical care.

After a painful and prolonged rehabilitation, Holm returned to service, working to recruit agents to spy on China and the Soviet Union, shepherding the agency's first counterterrorism efforts, fighting to rein in a political investigation gone amok, and receiving the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the agency's highest award.

"I almost did not write this book," confides Holm, explaining that due to the secretive nature of the work he, like many of his colleagues, objected to operations officers publishing memoirs. But Holm changed his mind about chronicling his career after a lunch with longtime friend and mentor Richard Helms, a towering figure in the U.S. intelligence community and a highly respected, outstanding Director of Central Intelligence. "At first I balked at the idea, but then Dick explained to me that if we don't write about the Cold War period, it will be written about by journalists and academics, and they will get it wrong," explains Holm.

The more Holm thought about it, the more he knew his former boss was right. "Dick Helms knew it is imperative for Americans to understand and support what the CIA does. He believed, and I concur wholeheartedly, that the more the public appreciates what we do the stronger their support will be. That is why I wrote this book," concludes the author.  [Read more:  Benzinga/9August2011]

Her Hitler! The Bizarre Plot by British Spies to make the Fuhrer a Fraulein. As wartime plots go, it stood as much chance of success as Captain Blackadder's attempt to avoid battle by sticking two pencils up his nose, putting underpants on his head and claiming to be from the planet Wibble.

With no end to the Second World War in sight, British spies came up with a plan to lace Adolf Hitler's food with female sex hormones to curb his aggressive impulses.

Agents planned to smuggle doses of oestrogen into his food to make him less aggressive and more like his docile younger sister Paula, who worked as a secretary.

He explained that oestrogen was chosen because it was tasteless and would have a slow and subtle effect, meaning it would pass Hitler's food testers unnoticed.

The Allied plot to turn Herr Hitler into Her Hitler was just one of a number of wacky ideas cooked up to break the stalemate, according to a new book.

Others included dropping glue on Nazi troops to stick them to the ground, and disguising bombs as tins of fruit being exported to Germany.

The hare-brained schemes are revealed in Secret Weapons: Technology, Science And The Race To Win World War II, by Professor Brian Ford. [Read more: Sims/DailyMail/15August2011]

Consolidated, Extensive Reviews on National Intelligence Issues by AFIO Life Member Robert Steele. Worth a careful examination by this smart, well-informed, tell-it-as-it-is prolific reviewer.

AFIO life member Robert Steele has just posted a consolidated updated list of all of his book reviews on national intelligence (less a few books simply not worth notice).  That can be seen at  Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Most).  AFIO members may also wish to explore Steele's explorations of other intelligence categories, including

• Intelligence (Collective & Quantum) (100)
• Intelligence (Commercial) (78)
• Intelligence (Extra-Terrestrial) (19)
• Intelligence (Government/Secret) (333)
• Intelligence (Public) (226)
• Intelligence (Wealth of Networks) (63)

Careers

Executive Vice President for The Institute of World Politics. The Institute of World Politics (IWP), founded to fill a major national need for professional education in statecraft and national security affairs, seeks an accomplished and inspired leader to serve as Executive Vice President (EVP). This is an outstanding opportunity for a dynamic executive to partner with the President, Board of Trustees, faculty, and staff to help realize the vision for the Institute, and to provide financial management, resource development and administrative leadership at a time when the organization is poised to achieve even greater levels of success. 

The Institute of World Politics is an independent, nonprofit, graduate school of national security and international affairs dedicated to developing leaders with a sound understanding of international politics and the ethical conduct of statecraft based on knowledge and appreciation of the American political economy and the Western moral tradition. The Institute is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The Institute offers three master's level degree programs as well as certificate programs in eight areas of specialization. It is the only graduate school in the nation consciously dedicated to teaching all the arts of statecraft, and seeks to educate new generations of leaders who will be committed to service, capable of integrated strategic thinking, and conscious of the necessity of virtue and its application to the affairs of state.

The Executive Vice President will report to the President and will provide advice, counsel and information to the Board of Trustees as appropriate. The EVP will work closely with the academic leadership of the Institute and will lead the effort to grow the institution, ensure new revenue streams and create partnership opportunities to increase the Institute's reputation and enhance its ability to achieve its mission of developing effective leaders in statecraft, national security, and foreign policy. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of creative problem solving with demonstrated ability to identify and create innovative approaches to resource management. The EVP will also have the capacity to represent the Institute compellingly to donors and external partners. S/he will have exceptional integrity, intelligence and maturity, and be comfortable in an academic environment. S/he will have exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated appreciation for individuals at all levels of an organization, and a passion for the values and mission of the Institute.

Review of nominations and applications will begin immediately, and will continue until the position is filled. Please direct all inquiries, nominations, and application materials, including a letter of interest and curriculum vitae to Julie Filizetti, Vice President & Director and Pamela Pezzoli, Senior Associate at Isaacson, Miller via email to 4262@imsearch.com. The Institute of World Politics is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

Legal Issues

DNI Air America Retirement Report to Congress is Released: Air America Association Member Response and Commentary, by Gary B. Bisson, Esq.

Gary Bisson writes: DNI Concludes Congress Should Not Grant Retirement Benefits to Air America Employees for Their Proprietary Services As required by Section 1057 of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, DNI finally released its Report on July 28, 2011, exactly 15 months beyond the required due date. [For background on some of the reasons advanced by DNI for this delay, see this author’s Member Commentary in AFIO WINS #34-10, dated September 14, 2010 At page 26, the penultimate paragraph in the report states: “...we do not believe that there is a clear and compelling case for granting universal and retroactive Federal retirement benefits to former employees of Air America. Granting such benefits would undermine the national security utility of proprietaries, create a costly and unjustified precedent for granting such benefits to other proprietary employees, and would not withstand legal or public scrutiny.” In reaching this conclusion, the Report (also @ page 26) relied on three self-established and somewhat specious criteria: “Mission. What serves, and does not disserve (sic), the continuing mission of the intelligence community with respect to granting Federal retirement benefits? “Precedent. How did the employees view their status and how have similarly situated personnel been treated? “Extenuating Circumstances. Are there unique circumstances that argue compellingly for differential treatment of Air America employees? Did the Government take or fail to take certain actions that...disfavored Air America employees?” “In responding to this congressional tasking we...considered potential options in determining to do the right thing in this case. However, any option must fit into a framework of justified entitlement. We were unable to construct that framework, and without finding or establishing a clear and compelling basis for granting Federal retirement benefits that would withstand public scrutiny and legal precedent, we believe granting such benefits would not serve the interest of the intelligence community, the Nation, or the legacy of Air America.” [Emphasis added.] Under its Mission commentary, the DNI report states: “We believe granting Federal status to those employed in a proprietary organization is fundamentally contrary to the very nature of a proprietary organization and to the employees’ ability to perform their mission as non-Federal employees serving the lawful purposes of the U.S. Government.”

When parsed, the Report’s conclusions, writes Bisson, do not withstand public scrutiny, as follows. 1. Whether granting Federal status to proprietary employees is fundamentally contrary to the nature of proprietary organizations: It is self-evident that the very nature of a proprietary organization is that it is a Federal instrumentality. Since the organization has this Federal status, so do its employees even though knowledge of that status may be limited within the organization, or even unknown. 2. Whether this status would impair the employees’ ability to perform their mission as non-Federal employees: Air America had two types of proprietary employees, e.g., those unaware of CIA ownership and those who were made officially aware (“witting”) of such ownership by CIA employees working under cover as Air America employees. Clearly, all employees, witting or unwitting, or those under cover, performed their services in a highly exemplary and professional manner regardless of whether Agency ownership was known. 3. Would granting this Federal status for retirement purposes truly undermine the national security utility of proprietaries? Beginning with the origins of the CIA, granting Federal status to proprietary corporation employees for retirement purposes has not undermined national security. In the National Archives, there is the official declassified OSS War Report, issued in July of 1969. Volume 1 of this report, @ page 128, states: “Corporations, even though established for cover purposes, were recognized as bona fide government companies, under a Treasury ruling issued at the time of the liquidation of OSS. Employees of such corporations received credit toward government service longevity.” And again, in the Foreign Service Act of 1980, Congress granted credited service for Federal retirement purposes to 10 CIA proprietary organizations (listed at 5 U.S.C. 8332(b)(11)), including Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Asia Foundation. Obviously, the national security utility of proprietary organizations has not been undermined by these prior grants of Federal retirement credit. 4. Would a Congressional grant of credited service create a costly and unjustified precedent for awarding such benefits to other proprietary employees? This should not be the case if the Congress were to proceed to pass Air America retirement legislation notwithstanding the recommendation of the DNI Report. As in the case of the Foreign Service Act grants, Congress can state that no equitable precedent is intended for other proprietary employee entitlements by this enactment benefitting Air America proprietary services performed between 1950- 1975. Bisson's six-page response continues at the Air America website, and provides a PDF of the DNI's Report, as well as supporting documents and news articles.

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in August, September, and October with full details are listed on the AFIO Website at www.afio.com. The titles for some of these are in detail below and online.

24 - 26 August 2011 - Raleigh, NC - "Spies Among Us - The Secret World of Illegals" - theme of the 7th Raleigh Spy Conference

Special guests/speakers: Michael Hayden, former DCIA and DIRNSA; Michael Sulick, former Director of the National Clandestine Service, CiA
Returning presenters:
Brian Kelley, CIA & Professor at Institute of World Politics;
Nigel West - world-famous intelligence author/speaker - former Member of Parliament;
Dan Mulvenna - RCMP/CASIS
Writer's Roundtable to feature Douglas Waller, author of Wild Bill Donovan, about the founder of the Office of Strategic Services — the World War 11 forerunner of the CIA — will serve as anchor. Other authors on the roundtable are David Wise, often called 'the dean of intelligence authors,' to discuss his new book Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With America, and Kent Clizbe, author of Willing Accomplices, a book concerning the continuing influence of Soviet propaganda on Western academia and media and other noted writers in the field.

New to the conference this year: The Historical Collections Division of the Office of Information Services of the Central Intelligence Agency will present a few booklets of recently declassified secret documents, ranging from the Korean War, the Warsaw Pact, Air America, martial law in Poland, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the papers of controversial CIA director Richard Helms. Officials from CIA’s Historical Division will be on hand in Raleigh to discuss their work and answer individual questions.

For more information: www.raleighspyconference.com
email: cyndi@metromagazine.com
Location: North Carolina Museum of History, Downtown Raleigh, NC

30 August 2011, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. - Jupiter, FL - AFIO members invited by FBI InfraGard meeting on Critical Infrastructure Security - Public and Private Sectors
Topic: Critical Infrastructure Security Public and Private sectors
Venue: G4S Americas Complex, 1395 University Boulevard, Jupiter, Florida 33458
Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/3e6qcuu
Agenda:
8:00 - 9:00 AM: Registration
9:00 - 9:15 AM: Introduction and welcoming remarks.
9:15 - 10:00 AM: Mr. Ken Worster - Topic : Security Glazing: How to Play Defense Against Terrorism, Violent Crime, Forced Entry, and Violent Weather
10:00 - 11:00 AM: Mr. Joseph (Bob) Granger - Topic “Quantifying Risk: The Science of Putting a Price Tag on Vulnerabilities”
11:00 - 11:15 AM: Break
11:15 - 12:45 PM: Randy Atlas, Ph.D. AIA, CPP - Topic: Designing for security with crime prevention through environmental design
12: 45 - 1 PM: Q & A’s - Adjournment
Please contact SA Nelson Barbosa to RSVP at nelson.barbosa@ic.fbi.gov
305-787-6130 office

Friday, 9 September 2011, 6:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - Surveillance 101 with Eric O'Neill at the International Spy Museum
What if you were assigned to watch the most damaging spy in U.S. history? As a young operative in the FBI, Eric O’Neill was put into position as Robert Hanssen’s assistant with the secret task of spying on his boss, who was under suspicion of working for Russia. O’Neill’s background with the FBI was in surveillance, so he was up to the challenge. But how would you measure up? It’s your chance to find out. O’Neill is prepared to share his hard-earned expertise with you. This intense small group introduction to surveillance FBI-style will include learning the basics and conducting surveillance in the streets of DC. Will you be able to track the “Rabbit” without being “made?” You’ll learn how to snap clandestine shots and keep your target in view, so you won’t miss operational acts or clandestine meetings. O’Neill will lead the exercise and help you learn how to blend into the shadows for the best spy results!
Tickets:  $94.00 - Call Laura at the Spy Museum at 202-654-0932 to register.

12 September 2011 - Washington, DC - DACOR-DIAA Forum hosts speaker on Islamic Doctrine of Shariah.

Lieutenant General Harry Edward Soyster, USA (Ret.), and John Guandolo will speak on the Islamic Doctrine of Shariah. The speakers were on the team that wrote Shariah: The Threat to America. General Soyster was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He has served as Commanding General of the US Army Intelligence and Security Command, US Army Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, and 24th Infantry Division chief of staff. He served in Korea and in combat in Vietnam. Following retirement, he became vice president for international operations for Military Professional Resources, Inc. John Guandolo advises internationally on the Global Islamic Movement. In the FBI, he served in the Counterterrorism Division, investigated narcotics trafficking, was the bureau’s liaison to the Capitol Police, and created and implemented the bureau’s Counterterrorism Training and Education Course. A Naval Academy graduate, he was commissioned into the Marine Corps and served in combat in the first Gulf War. This Forum is open to members of all Intelligence Community associations and their guests.

DACOR members reserve directly with DACOR (202-682-0500, Extension 15). All others reserve by 5 September by mailing a check for $25 per person (payable to DIAA, Inc) to DIAA (Attn: Forum), 256 Morris Creek Road, Cullen, Virginia 23934. Give your name and the names of your guests, your email address, and your telephone number. To get a refund if you are not a DACOR member, you must cancel by noon on 8 September by email to diaalumni.org or by telephone to 571-426-0098. Event location is: DACOR Bacon House, 1801 F St NW, Washington, DC.

Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 5-6 p.m. - Hampton Roads, VA - The AFIO Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter Membership Meeting

Location: Tabb Library in York County. Main Meeting Room. (Directions follow) We will discuss a slate of new chapter officers, chapter plans for the Fall and other business matters. Please consider nominating yourself or someone else for the offices of chapter President, Treasurer and Secretary. Please rsvp: Melissa Saunders mwsaunders@cox.net

Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 7:00 p.m. - Washington, DC - Dinner with a Spy: An Evening with Jonna and Tony Mendez at the International Spy Museum.

Dine with Tony and Jonna Mendez, both former CIA chiefs of disguise, who will share their stories of how they used their artistry to enable intelligence officers and agents to slip away from surveillance, clandestinely infiltrate and exfiltrate denied areas, hide top secret information, and pass stolen secrets. Both officers spent their careers in the CIA’s Office of Technical Service, often compared to Q’s laboratory in the James Bond stories. The Mendezes will recount their extraordinary disguise exploits evading the KGB, Stasi, and DGI, and you’ll learn how George Clooney and Ben Affleck are immortalizing Mr. Mendez’s most famous exploit “The Canadian Caper” in a movie set to release in 2012. You will be one of only 20 guests at Zola for a three-course dinner and wine-pairing where you’ll talk with the Mendezes about their remarkable careers and their thoughts on today’s intelligence issues. Tickets:  $200 - Please call Laura at 202-654-0932 to register.

Thursday,15 September 2011, 11:30 am - Englewood, CO - AFIO Rocky Mountain Chapter hosts, from the FBI SAC James Yacone, Denver Division. SAC Yacone is a West Point graduate and has earned the Silver Star as a helicopter pilot during "Black Hawk Down". This is a joint meeting of the AFIO and Denver INFRAGARD. This is a one time event at Centennial Airport. There are seating limitations of 45 seats so we will accept reservations on a first come first basis. Event location: Centennial Airport in Englewood,CO. You will receive directions when you RSVP to Tom VanWormer at robsmom@pcisys.net or telephone him at 719-481-8273. The lunch will cost $12.00 pay at the door.

Wednesday, 21 September 2011, 6:30 pm - Washington, DC - "L'AFFAIRE FAREWELL" at the International Spy Museum

"One of the most important spy cases of the 20th century." –former French foreign minister, Hubert V�drine
This riveting film is loosely based on the real life story of Vladimir Vetrov, a high ranking KGB intelligence officer who revealed the USSR's efforts to steal technical, industrial, and scientific secrets from the West. From 1980 to 1982, Vetrov, using the codename "Farewell," secretly passed over 4,000 classified documents to the French. The materials exposed Soviet penetrations and the official list of Line X officers operating secretly in embassies around the world plumbing Western science and technology to keep the Soviets competitive. The 2009 French film L'affaire Farewell portrays the results of Vetrov's espionage—how it enabled Western intelligence to root out nearly 200 spies destroying Soviet ability to steal technology. The roll-up crippled Soviet technology efforts which had run on stolen Western research and forced the USSR into a weakened position at an extremely critical time during the Cold War. A post-screening discussion of this engaging thriller will be lead by International Spy Museum executive director Peter Earnest who served as a CIA case officer in Europe during the Cold War.
In French and Russian with English subtitles. Co-sponsored by Road Scholar organization.
Tickets: $9 – Cash bar. To purchase tickets visit www.spymuseum.org

Monday, 26 September 2011 - Boston, MA - CIA's Historical Collections Division Conference "Piercing the Iron Curtain: The Use of Technology to Resolve the Missile Gap" at JFK Presidential Library

Scope: The Missile Gap was an episode in American history that was in effect a misperception of the rate of soviet ICBM deployment relative to US ICBM deployment. The United States and USSR were in a race to develop long range missiles. Because of the tight Soviet security, the US had little evidence about the USSRs progress developing intercontinental ballistic missiles. At the outset, ignorance of the Soviet ICBM program abounded, projections of potential missile production became estimates, Soviet ICBM testing , Khrushchev's boasting, USAF mirror imaging, and setbacks in US ICBM development yielded wild estimates of a critical gap between US and the Soviet ICBM capabilities. CIA developed new collection, processing and analytic capabilities that ultimately solved the "Gap" issue—for all but the USAF. 185 documents. EVENT LOCATION: JFK Presidential Library, Boston, MA. Details about event to follow from AFIO as we get closer to event.

27 September 2011, 5:30 - 8 pm - New York, NY - AFIO New York Metro features Dr. Draitser on "Stalin's Romeo Spy."

SPEAKER: Emil Draitser, Ph.D., Professor Russian Studies, Hunter College of the City of New York.
TOPIC: "STALIN'S ROMEO SPY" - His book about the remarkable rise and fall of the KGB's most daring operative Dmitri Bystrolyotov. Details at www.stalinsromeospy.com

Event location: "3 West Club" 3 West 51st St, New York City. Buffet dinner. Cash bar. $40/person. 5:30 PM Registration 6:00 PM Meeting Start

Reservations: Strongly Suggested, Not Required: Seating is limited. Replies/RSVP to afiometro@yahoo.com

Wednesday, 05 October 2011, 8:15am - 3:10pm - Laurel, MD - General Membership Meeting of the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation.

Program: 0815-0900: registration & breakfast; 0900-0915: Welcome by NCMF President, Eugene Becker; 0915-0945: opening address by NSA Director or Deputy Director; 0945-1000: NCM update by Museum Curator Patrick Weadon; 1000-1115: panel discussion on "International Relations with Iran" by Amb Bruce Laingen and Kenneth Timmerman, author and investigative reporter; 1115-1200: Cyber Security Legal issues by Stewart Baker, former general counsel, NSA, author of Skating on Stilts; 1200-1300: lunch and auditorium video presentation of the 1997 Dedication of National Vigilance Park to commemorate the sacrifices of aerial reconnaissance crews;
1300-1400: keynote address by James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence; 1400-1410: break; 1410-1440: new museum project and capital campaign update by Lt. Gen. Ken Minihan, MG Rod Isler and Brig Gen Neal Robinson; 1440-1500 the role of the NSA Center for Cryptologic History by Col William Williams; and 1500-1510: closing remarks by Brig Gen Billy Bingham.
LOCATION: JHU/APL Kossiakoff Center - 11100 Johns Hopkins Rd, Laurel, MD 20723-6099 tel: 240-228-7574.
FEE: $15 to NCMF members, $40 per guest. NCMF fee includes breakfast & lunch, and a.m. Refreshments. Shuttle service is available from 0800-0900 and from 1500-1545. Handicap parking is limited.
A silent auction, vintage book sale, and the CWF [NSA's Civilian Welfare Fund] gift shop sale will be held in the lobby area through 1300. Cryptologic artifacts will be on display.
REGISTRATION: Mail registration form with your check or credit card information by 07 September 2011 to NCMF, PO Box 1682 Ft Meade Md 20755. Checks payable to NCMF are preferred method of payment.
Symposium assistance: please call (301) 688-2336 or 301-688-5436 or email: cryptmf@aol.com

Thursday, 6 October 2011, 6:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - American Traitors, Fathers and Sons: The John Walker and Jim Nicholson Family Spy Stories at the International Spy Museum.

How could you do this to your son?" –Mike Wallace to John Walker on 60 Minutes
When the family business is espionage, dynamics and dysfunction take on a whole new meaning. From inside a federal prison, former CIA operative Jim Nicholson directed his son Nathan on a global trek to collect the pension promised to him by his handlers for spying on behalf of Russia. From 2006 to 2008, Nathan smuggled his father’s messages to Russian intelligence officers on three continents in exchange for cold cash. The father-son exploits echoed those of notorious spy John Walker, the retired Navy communications specialist who in 1983 lured his pliable son Michael into his spy ring. The Walkers orchestrated one of the most devastating security breaches in U.S. history. Brian Kelley, a retired CIA counterintelligence operative, along with Bryan Denson, an investigative reporter for The Oregonian, will present the eerie parallels between Walker and Nicholson. Using video interviews with the spies and their sons, they will explain how Walker, who once declared, “Kmart has better security than the Navy,” and Nicholson, the highest-ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage, lured their sons into the “family business” of spying. Kelley and Denson will examine the human cost of treachery as inflicted by two traitorous dads on the sons who loved them.
Tickets:  $15.00. To register visit www.spymuseum.org

Thursday-Friday, 6 - 7 October 2011 - Laurel, MD - The NSA's Center for Cryptologic History hosts their Biennial Cryptologic History Symposium with theme: Cryptology in War and Peace: Crisis Points in History.

The National Security Agency’s Center for Cryptologic History sponsors the Cryptologic History Symposium every two years. The next one will be held 6-7 October 2011. Historians from the Center, the Intelligence Community, the defense establishment, and the military services, as well as distinguished scholars from American and foreign academic institutions, veterans of the profession, and the interested public all will gather for two days of reflection and debate on topics from the cryptologic past. The theme for the upcoming conference will be: “Cryptology in War and Peace: Crisis Points in History.” This topical approach is especially relevant as the year 2011 is an important anniversary marking the start of many seminal events in our nation’s military history. The events that can be commemorated are many. Participants will delve into the roles of signals intelligence and information assurance, and not just as these capabilities supported military operations. More cogently, observers will examine how these factors affected and shaped military tactics, operations, strategy, planning, and command and control throughout history. The role of cryptology in preventing conflict and supporting peaceful pursuits will also be examined. The panels will include presentations in a range of technological, operational, organizational, counterintelligence, policy, and international themes. Past symposia have featured scholarship that set out new ways to consider out cryptologic heritage, and this one will be no exception. The mix of practitioners, scholars, and the public precipitates a lively debate that promotes an enhanced appreciation for the context of past events. The Symposium will be held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory’s Kossiakoff Center, in Laurel, Maryland, a location central to the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas. As has been the case with previous symposia, the conference will provide unparalleled opportunities for interaction with leading historians and distinguished experts. So please make plans to join us for either one or both days of this intellectually stimulating conference. Dr. Kent Sieg, the Center’s Symposium Executive Director, 301-688-2336 or via email at kgsieg@nsa.gov. Registration form is here.

7 - 9 October 2011 - Glens Falls, NY - NE Chapter of Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association (NCVA-NE) Fall Mini-Reunion.

Location: Queensbury Hotel, Glens Falls, NY. The registration cut-off date for any local members of the NCVA-NE is September 7, 2011. For additional information call (518) 664-8032 or visit website. Questions? Ask Victor Knorowski, 8 Eagle Lane, Mechanicville, NY 12118 e-mail: knork620@verizon.net or call him at (518) 664-8032

Wednesday, 12 October 2011, 6:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - Dana Priest on "Top Secret America" at the International Spy Museum

An expos� of what this Washington Post reporter claims is a new, secret “Fourth Branch” of American government.
When Dana Priest began researching a Washington Post series on national security following 9/11, she found a top-secret world that, to her, seems to have become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. Reporter Priest, author of Top Secret America, will reveal how she investigated this shadow world and the enormous consequences of this invisible universe of over 1,300 government facilities, nearly 2,000 outside contractors, and more than 850,000 people granted “Top Secret” security clearance. The result may be that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is, according to this journalist, putting the U.S. in greater danger. Priest will also screen some segments from the recent FRONTLINE documentary developed in conjunction with her book.
Tickets:  $9.00. To register visit www.spymuseum.org

Thursday, 20 October 2011, noon - Washington, DC - A Vast and Fiendish Plot: The Confederate Attack on New York City - at the International Spy Museum

Ballroom to Battlefield Civil War Program
In 1864, Manhattan had a population of 880,000…a population that came perilously close to death on the evening of 25 November. Six Confederate saboteurs planned to destroy the North’s largest city with a string of 21 separate fires set simultaneously with the goal of engulfing the city in flames. This terrorist plot was the brainchild of the Confederate Secret Service. They had hoped to target a number of northern cities including Boston, Chicago, and Cincinnati to show how easily the Confederacy could strike at Federal cities. Clint Johnson, author of A Vast and Fiendish Plot, will explore this little-known plan for sabotage, explain its links to Canada, and reveal why the saboteurs ultimately failed. Johnson will also speculate on how the saboteurs could have accomplished what would have been the worst terrorist attack in American history.
Tickets:  Free.  No registration required. More information at www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 26 October 2011, noon - Washington, DC - MH/CHAOS: The CIA's Campaign Against the Radical Left and the Black Panthers

Operation MHCHAOS was the code name for a secret domestic spying program conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1960s and early 1970s charged with unmasking any foreign influences on the student antiwar movement. CIA counterintelligence officer Frank Rafalko was a part of the operation. The New York Times revealed MHCHAOS in 1974, then Congress investigated, and MHCHAOS took its place in the pantheon of intelligence abuses. Rafalko, however, says in MH/CHAOS that the operation was justified and that the CIA was the logical agency to conduct it. He’ll defend his perspective with dramatic intelligence collected on the New Left and black radicals.
Tickets:  Free.  No registration required. More information at www.spymuseum.org

Thursday, 27 October 2011 - Washington, DC - CIA Historical Collections Division Conference: "A City Torn Apart; Building the Berlin Wall - 1961"

Scope: For nearly 50 years the German City of Berlin was the living symbol of the Cold War. The Soviets closed the Sector Border dividing East Berlin from West Berlin on August 13th, 1961, effectively establishing what become known as the Berlin Wall. This symposium focused on the events leading up to the establishment of the Berlin Wall. The period covered included the Vienna Conference on 3 June to the confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961. EVENT LOCATION: National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. Contributors will include NATO, ARMY, JFK & LBJ Presidential Libraries, SHAEF, and State Department. Details about event to follow from AFIO as we get closer to event.

27 October 2011, 0930- 1715 - Newport News - AFIO Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter Third Annual Workshop on National Security and Intelligence: Energy Security

Location: Christopher Newport University, David Student Union, Newport News, Tabb Library, York County. Directions: From Norfolk take I-64 West. Merge onto US-17 North via Exit 258B toward Yorktown. Follow US-17 North approximately 2.2 miles to Victory Blvd/VA-171 East. Turn right onto Victory Blvd/VA-171 East. Turn right at the next traffic light onto Hampton Hwy/VA-134 South. Turn right at the next traffic light onto Long Green Blvd. Tabb Library is on the immediate right. It is across the street from the Victory YMCA. From Williamsburg take I-64 East. Merge onto Victory Blvd/VA-171 East via Exit 256B. Follow Victory Blvd/VA-171 East approximately 2 miles. Turn right onto Hampton Hwy/VA-134 South. Turn right at the next traffic light onto Long Green Blvd. Tabb Library is on the immediate right. It is across the street from the Victory YMCA. Registrations and questions to Melissa Saunders mwsaunders@cox.net or call 757-897-6268.

2 November 2011 - Simi Valley, CA - CIA Historical Collections Division Conference: "Ronald Reagan, Intelligence, and the End of the Cold War"

Scope: President Reagan and his use of intelligence in the formulation of US-Soviet policy. The symposium will feature high-level former policymakers, intelligence practitioners, intelligence analysts, and historians discussing how the Reagan Administration used intelligence in making policies to end the Cold War. As part of this event, the CIA is releasing a collection of some 200 declassified documents, including intelligence assessments, research papers, National Intelligence Estimates, high-level memos, and briefing materials provided to the Administration during this period. The collection includes several video briefings prepared by the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence and delivered to policymakers on such varied topics as the Soviet space program, the Andropov succession, the Chernobyl disaster, and the Moscow summit. 200 documents. Event Location: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA. Event Partners: Center for the Study of Intelligence, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Details about event to follow from AFIO as we get closer to event

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

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