Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

CIA Employee ID'd as Victim in Kabul Shooting. An Afghan working for the U.S. government killed one CIA employee and wounded another American in an attack on the intelligence agency's office in Kabul, officials said Monday. The assailant was killed.

The shooting Sunday evening is the most recent in a growing number of attacks this year by Afghans working with the country's international allies. Some assailants have turned out to be Taliban sleeper agents, while others have been motivated by personal grievances.

Gunfire was first heard sometime after 8 p.m. local time around the former Ariana Hotel, a building that ex-U.S. intelligence officials said is the CIA station in Kabul. The spy agency occupied the heavily secured building just blocks from the Afghan presidential palace in late 2001 after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban.

A U.S. official in Washington said the American who died was a CIA employee. The official requested anonymity because he was speaking about intelligence matters.

The U.S. Embassy said an Afghan employee of the complex carried out the attack. [Read more: CBS/AP/26September2011]

Not So Simple: US Spy Agency Trying to Go Mobile. Troy Lange knows that just mentioning cellphones is enough to give security officers heartburn at the National Security Agency.

Lange, as the NSA's mobility mission manager, is developing a smartphone that he wants to bring inside the super-secret U.S. spy agency to access classified information and apps while on the move. He wants it to work as easily as any of the smartphones those that are so ubiquitous in the outside world.

That is no small vision for an agency where entire buildings are designated as Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, known as SCIFs in spy speak, with many restrictions to ensure the handling and discussion of secret information stays secure.

Visitors to the Fort Meade, Maryland, NSA complex are not allowed to bring outside cellphones into the building.

Lange argues that using smartphones inside areas that deal with secret material will increase efficiency. [Read more:  Zakaria/Reuters/23September2011] 

Conflict of Interest Row as Ex-MI5 Chief Rules on Fate of Russian "Spy" Accused of Using Her Job in Parliament to Snoop on Britain. A former head of MI5 is at the centre of a row over his role in deciding whether a young Russian woman accused of using her job in Parliament to spy on Britain should be sent back to her home country.

Sir Stephen Lander, the former director-general of the security service, is to sit on a panel of judges who will rule on whether Katia Zatuliveter should be deported.

Miss Zatuliveter, 25, who worked for Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock, was arrested last year, reportedly on the orders of MI5. [Read more:  Verkaik/DailyMail/25September2011]

Dirty Secrets of South Africa's Spy Agencies. South Africa's intelligence services have been rocked by claims of financial mismanagement - and fears that the police crime intelligence unit is being infiltrated by foreign agents.

Central to the claims are payments made to foreign intelligence "sources", while it has also emerged that an investigation is under way into how a broker was paid from a National Intelligence Agency account.

These are some of the findings of an oversight report drafted by parliament's joint standing committee on intelligence. The committee now wants: A ban on "sophisticated" cellphones and other devices that cannot be intercepted; Fraud investigations involving intelligence agents to be expedited, and; Better coordination of intelligence structures to avoid infiltration by foreign agents. [Read more:  Kgosana/TimesLive/25September2011] 

Back From Iran, U.S. Hikers Share Tales of Strife. The two American hikers who were held in Iran on espionage charges say they kept their days strictly regimented, running laps, weight-lifting water bottles, discussing literature and quizzing each other, in an effort to stay physically and mentally fit while in captivity. They spent 781 days that way in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran.

On Sunday, the hikers, Shane M. Bauer and Joshua F. Fattal, arrived in New York City after a long diplomatic battle to secure their release that further challenged the fraught relationship between the United States and Iran. A third hiker arrested with them, Sarah E. Shourd, was freed last September. [Read more:  Nir&Harris/NYTimes/26September2011] 

Iran's Ministry of Intelligence Detains Alleged BBC Spies. Tehran - The Iranian Intelligence Ministry has summoned and detained several people it alleges have links to the BBB's Persian language service. Iran accuses the BBC of operating a spy ring sending information to MI6.

An unspecified number of people have been summoned by the Iranian Intelligence Agency over their alleged links with the BBC Persian language service, broadcast in Farsi, the Sacramento Bee reports. The service is banned in Iran to safeguard the country's national interests. The summons follows the arrest of six independent film makers on Sept. 17. [Read more:  DigitalJournal/26September2011] 

CIA Documents Shed Light on South Korea's Nuke Ambition in 1970. As the international community continues to grapple with how best to thwart North Korea's nuclear ambitions, a Seoul-based publication has revealed declassified U.S. Central Intelligence Agency documents shedding light on South Korea's own efforts to acquire nuclear weapons four decades ago.

Global Asia, a publication of the East Asia Foundation in Seoul, said the previously secret U.S. documents show that South Korea continued to develop nuclear weapons at least two years after Washington thought it had ceased during the 1970s.

Such a past can help shape sensible policies in the current regional efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear program, scholars Peter Hayes and Chung-in Moon said in the Global Asia September issue.

Chung, Global Asia's editor-in-chief and a professor at Yonsei University, and Hayes, director of the Nautilus Institute and a member of Global Asia's editorial board, claimed Seoul's former nuclear ambition was "largely triggered by eroding or ambiguous security assurances from Washington." [Read more:  KoreaHerald/26September2011] 

Heads to Roll in Nigerian Defense Agency Over Boko Haram Leader's Escape.  A crisis of confidence has erupted between the Nigeria Police and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) over the escape of a leader of the Boko Haram sect, Ali Tishau, from detention.

There were indications yesterday that heads would roll in the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) over the escape.

A new Chief of Defence, Gen. S.Y. Audu, has been posted to the DIA to reorganise the place, which was earlier headed by a Major-Gen. from the Engineering Corps. [Read more:  Ali/TheNationOnline/24September2011] 

Iran Reschedules Espionage Trial for Texas Graduate Student. A doctoral student at the University of Texas (UT), Austin, who has been detained for months in his native Iran on espionage charges will go on trial on 4 October, according to sources close to the student.

Omid Kokabee, who was working toward a Ph.D. in optics, was arrested at a Tehran airport while on vacation in Iran in late January or early February. He had been due to appear in court on 16 July on charges of "illegal earnings" and "communicating with a hostile government," but officials cancelled his trial at the last minute.

News of the new trial date comes as a number of scientific groups - including the American Physical Society (APS), the international optics society SPIE, the Optical Society of America, the International Commission for Optics, and the European Optical Society - have signed open letters to the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, requesting clemency for Kokabee. They join an online petition for Kokabee's release. [Read more:  Cartwright/Sciencemag/23September2011] 

Military Struggles to Find Helium for Spy Blimp Surge. The U.S. military is sending so many spy blimps to Afghanistan that "�industry cannot keep up with the increased demand" for helium and the containers that hold the gas.

That's according to documents from the Defense Logistics Agency, the Pentagon office responsible for keeping vital supplies flowing to the warzone.

With their ability to stay in the air for days at a time - and hold more spy gear than any drone - aerostats and airships are quickly becoming surveillance tools of choice in the Afghan War. The military carried out three aerostat surges between last fall and this summer; several dozen are deployed in Afghanistan now. But really, that's just a scene-setter. Early next year, the U.S. military is planning to send not one, but two "freakishly large" airships to the skies above Afghanistan.

If the giant blimps can get the helium and helium containers they need to fly, that is. [Read more:  Lim& Shachtman/Wired/22September2011] 

At CIA, Climate Change is a Secret. When the Central Intelligence Agency established a Center on Climate Change and National Security in 2009, it drew fierce opposition from congressional Republicans who disputed the need for an intelligence initiative on this topic. But now there is a different, and possibly better, reason to doubt the value of the Center: It has adopted an extreme view of classification policy which holds that everything the Center does is a national security secret.

Last week, the CIA categorically denied (pdf) a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a copy of any Center studies or reports concerning the impacts of global warming.

"We completed a thorough search for records responsive to your request and located material that we determined is currently and properly classified and must be denied in its entirety...," wrote CIA's Susan Viscuso to requester Jeffrey Richelson, an intelligence historian affiliated with the National Security Archive. [Read more:  Aftergood/SecrecyNews/22September2011] 

Report to Congress: Over 4.2M Held Security Clearances in 2010, Including Over 1M Top Secret. The U.S. intelligence community reports that more than 4.2 million people held security clearances last year. It's the first formal count of clearance holders and produced a much higher number than previously estimated.

The report to Congress was required by the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act. The report says more than 666,000 government workers hold Top Secret clearances, as do more than 524,000 federal contractors. The rest have lower clearances. [Read more: AP/20September2011]

Marines Honored for Intelligence. Marines, family members and friends gathered for the first Marine Corps Association Intelligence Awards Dinner Sept. 15 in Arlington, Va.

The awards ceremony was hosted by the Marine Corps Association Foundation in coordination with the Marine Corps Intelligence Department and served as the first occasion to recognize the professional achievements of the top performing Marines in the intelligence field for 2010.

"I felt I was doing my duties," said Cpl. Jeremy C. Price-Johnson, 2nd Radio Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. "But somebody higher up felt I was deserving of the recognition."

Price-Johnson was among four Marines and one civilian who received awards for outstanding performance in their field.

"The success that we had while I was in Afghanistan gave me the step up," he said.

Price-Johnson deployed with Cryptologic Support Team 17 to Nangarhar Province Afghanistan in 2010.

Like most intelligence Marines, Price-Johnson helps to win the battles behind the scenes.

"So often we do our business quietly, without a whole lot of fanfare," said Brig. Gen. Vincent R. Stewart, director of intelligence. "We're rarely recognized for it. These Marines are truly committed to being a part of something that is greater than themselves." [Read more: Marines/20September2011]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Spies Track Physical Illnesses of Foreign Leaders. In democracy or dictatorship, there may be no secret more closely guarded than the health of the country's leader. So when world leaders gather for an event like the U.N. General Assembly, intelligence agencies closely watch presidents and prime ministers for any clues as to their true medical conditions.

An ill-timed cough or sudden fever of a president, prime minister, dictator, or monarch can send financial markets into a tailspin, spark a nation to revolution, ignite a succession crisis, or swing an election. Rose McDermott of Brown University, who has extensively researched and written about medical intelligence, says a foreign government can enjoy great political and diplomatic advantage if it can find out the true condition of an ailing world leader. [Read more:  Thomas/VOANews/21September2011] 

Spies Probe the Mental State of Foreign Leaders Pt II. When world leaders speak publicly, as many will do at the U.N. General Assembly, the CIA will be poring over not only what they say, but how they say it. Intelligence agencies devote considerable resources to ferreting out not only the physical well-being of presidents and prime ministers but their mental health as well. The two are closely linked, but mental health is more difficult to determine from afar. 

Films and books abound with fictional stories of a leader gone mad who does something totally irrational, like starting a unprovoked war or launching a nuclear attack. But the possibilities of fiction becoming truth are real, especially in a country where one person holds absolute power.  [Read more:  Thomas/VOANews/21September2011] 

Contract to Spy: Is the U.S. Government Using Contractors the Way You Think They Are? Let's say there is an American overseas, loading Hellfire missiles onto drones that are targeting and killing terrorists. Would it matter to you whether that person is a private contractor and not a U.S. service member?

That's one of the questions lawmakers are still struggling with some 10 years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, which, because of massive shortages in the government sector saw a boom in the private contracting industry.

The temporary hiring practice that began as a stopgap measure has ballooned into a multibillion-dollar industry where the line is often blurred between functions customarily handled by government employees and those carried out by hired contractors on behalf of the United States. [Read more:  Kelly/CNN/20September2011] 

Post-War Intelligence Service Recruited Mass-Murdering Nazi. The fledgling post-war German secret service hired and trained a Nazi wanted for more than 90,000 murders, contracting him to infiltrate Castro's Cuba, according to newly released documents.

Walther Rauff was a senior SS man who had led the working group which developed the mobile gas chamber - converted trucks which killed the people in the back with engine exhaust fumes. They were taken to concentration camps through Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

The newly created Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), West Germany's federal intelligence service hired him in 1958, even though he never made a secret of his past, according to the documents seen by Der Spiegel magazine.

The recruitment of Rauff was, "in no way politically or morally defensible," said head of the BND's history research group, Bodo Hechelhammer.

Rauf had fled an Allied prisoner camp after the end of the war and ended up in Chile, where a fellow former SS man Rudolf Oebsger-R�der contacted him on behalf of the BND. [Read more:  TheLocal/25September2011] 

The Spy Who Came Out as a Klod. Walter Seddon Clayton was the spymaster who ran Australia's network of KGB spies from 1944 to 1950.

He had migrated to Australia from New Zealand in 1930, joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1933, becoming a member of its central committee in 1943 and a member of the central control commission in 1944. The commission was responsible for the internal discipline and security of the party, including the organisation and operation of an undercover or clandestine apparatus for the maintenance of party activities under illegal conditions.

By April 1947, US code-breakers had decrypted portions of several dozen cables sent between Moscow and Canberra in 1945-46, in a top-secret operation called Venona, which showed that someone with the cryptonym Klod was "Canberra's regular purveyor of information" to Soviet intelligence. By July 1949, the British security intelligence agency MI5 and its new Australian offspring, ASIO, had "tentatively identified" Clayton as being Klod. However, they were never able to find conclusive evidence of this that could be used without alerting Soviet intelligence to the fact that its codes had been broken and its secret communications were being read by Western intelligence. For much of the 1950s, ASIO could not even find where Clayton was hiding. [Read more:  TheAustralian/23September2011] 

Section III - COMMENTARY

Iran's Nuclear Setbacks: More Than Just Bad Luck?  Iran's star-crossed nuclear and energy programs have suffered a rash of setbacks, mishaps and catastrophes in the past two years.

Assassins killed three scientists with links to Iran's nuclear programs. The Stuxnet computer worm that famously infected computers worldwide zeroed in on a single target in Iran, devices that can make weapons-usable uranium. Dozens of unexplained explosions hit the country's gas pipelines, and Iran's first nuclear power plant suffered major equipment failures as technicians struggle to bring it online.

Has Iran just been unlucky? Probably not.

The chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Fereidoun Abbasi, heatedly told journalists at a meeting in Vienna last week that the United States was supporting an Israeli assassination campaign against his scientists. His emotional comments came almost a year after motorcyclists attached a bomb to the door of his car in Tehran. He and his wife barely escaped with their lives. [Read more: Birch/AP/24September2011] 

No Plans for EU Secret Intelligence Operation. Almost a decade has passed since the European Union equipped itself with a security structure aimed at providing analysis of external and internal threats. Embedded in the pale building that hosts the European Council in Brussels, this structure remains largely secretive. The name itself is not meant to clarify its role. Indeed, the Joint Situation Centre, shortened to SitCen, does not immediately convey the idea of an intelligence service to those who are not familiar with the sector.

But, as things stand now, its secretiveness seems to be the result of a lack of public communication rather than the need to keep private the work of the agency. Its reports, although hardly accessible, are in fact a patchwork of unfiltered information spontaneously arriving from national intelligence services, after having been made available to domestic authorities.

SitCen is a sort of Eurostat of intelligence reports. Like the EU statistical office, SitCen gathers pre-analysed information sent by national agencies and puts it together in EU-wide reports. Its added value is to widen the perspective and make sense of national data on a wider and more meaningful framework. But just like Eurostat, SitCen must rely on national figures and information that is difficult to assess. It is difficult to ascertain whether information is wrong and this could potentially have catastrophic consequences. [Read more: Guarascio /PublicServiceEurope/23September2011] 

The Bizarre System of Hiring Intelligence Contractors. This morning I testified at the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs' Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia (a mouthful, I know) about how we can better manage and administer contractors within the intelligence community. I'm pasting a brief excerpt of my written testimony below, followed by a link to the full text of my remarks.

"Every contract the government issues for a company to perform work is defined by the Statement of Work (SOW). This is a document that defines the parameters of the work the contractor will perform, including a description of the project, expected duties the contractor must fulfill, and the outputs and metrics by which performance will be measured. These are often poorly written, kept intentionally vague, and wind up not actually addressing the stated intent of the contracts.

"As one example, every SOW I've had to either administer, edit, review, or write has stated as a basic metric of performance the number of employees the contractor should hire. That is, the basic means by which the government measures the contractor's performance is based first and foremost on the number of people hired to work on the contract. This has two serious consequences that affect the contracting environment: it removes the distinction between employees that would make work products better, and it confuses the number of employees with contract performance.

"The frankly bizarre system of hiring intelligence contractors is born from several interdependent processes: getting a security clearance, getting hired, and getting "read on" to work at a government site. The system of getting a clearance is structured such that those with clearances are given preference above those without clearance, regardless of the relevant experience of either employee. In other words, if two candidates are competing for a job with a contractor, and one has deep relevant experience but no clearance, she will most likely lose to a candidate with less relevant experience but a current and active security clearance. [Read more: Foust/TheAtlantic/20September2011]

China's Growing Spy Threat. The Chinese government's 'vacuum cleaner' approach to espionage is worrying foreign governments, companies and overseas dissidents. They're right to be concerned.

Beijing fiercely denies it. Much of the world ignores it. But according to analysts and officials, the communist-controlled People's Republic of China operates the single largest intelligence-gathering apparatus in the world - and its growing appetite for secrets has apparently become insatiable.

From economic and military espionage to keeping tabs on exiled dissidents, China's global spying operations are rapidly expanding. And, therefore, so is the threat. Some analysts even argue the regime - which is also gobbling up such key natural resources as farmland, energy, and minerals - has an eye on dominating the world.

Estimates on the number of spies and agents employed by the communist state vary widely. According to public statements by French author and investigative journalist Roger Faligot, who has written several books about the regime's security services, there are around two million Chinese working directly or indirectly for China's intelligence apparatus. 

Other analysts say it would be impossible to count the exact number. 'I doubt they know themselves,' says Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center. Regardless, the number is undoubtedly extraordinary. 'China can rightly claim to have the world's largest, most amorphous, but also most active intelligence sector,' he says. [Read more: Newman/TheDiplomat/19September2011]

Section IV - Obituaries, Books and Coming Events

Obituaries

Cicely Angleton, Poet and CIA Official's Spouse. Cicely Angleton, 89, a poet and history scholar who was the wife of a former CIA director of counterintelligence, James J. Angleton, died Sept. 23 at her home in Great Falls. She had congestive heart failure, according to her daughter Guru Sangat Kaur Khalsa.

Mrs. Angleton was married in 1943 and graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1947.

She and her husband lived in Arlington County for many years. During the summers, they often vacationed in northern Wisconsin, where Mrs. Angleton wrote and directed musical plays for children. [Read more:  WashingtonPost/24September2011] 

Brian J. Kelley, Onetime Spying Suspect, Dies at 68. Brian J. Kelley, an American counterintelligence expert who helped focus attention on a possible Russian spy in Washington, only to be wrongly suspected of being a K.G.B. mole himself, died on Monday at his home in Vienna, Va. He was 68.

Mr. Kelley appeared to have died in his sleep, his wife, Patricia, said. The cause is not known.

Starting in the 1990s, Mr. Kelley, then a Central Intelligence Agency officer, was falsely accused by his own agency, as well as by the F.B.I., of supplying covert information to Moscow.

The real mole, the F.B.I. agent-turned-spy Robert P. Hanssen, was apprehended in 2001, but not before Mr. Kelley had been followed, interrogated, suspended and told that he might well be charged with a capital offense. Members of Mr. Kelley's family were also interrogated, according to his wife and to news accounts.

Reinstated by the C.I.A. in 2001, Mr. Kelley retired in 2006.

During his ordeal, Mr. Kelley later told The Hartford Courant, he felt like the central character in "The Fugitive," the 1993 film starring Harrison Ford as a man who becomes the target of a vast, organized dragnet after being falsely accused of murder.

Brian Joseph Kelley was born on Jan. 8, 1943, in Waterbury, Conn. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vt., followed by a master's in East Asian studies from Florida State University.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, Mr. Kelley served in the Air Force, working in its Office of Special Investigations. Afterward, he joined the C.I.A., where he worked in classified counterintelligence.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, David Wise, the author of "Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America" (2002), said that Mr. Kelley's troubles took root in the late 1980s, after he discovered information that led the F.B.I. to start investigating a State Department official, Felix Bloch, as a possible spy for Moscow.

After someone alerted Mr. Bloch to the investigation, suspicion fell on Mr. Kelley. "In the wilderness of mirrors of counterintelligence, the idea that he was instrumental in discovering Bloch made him a suspect of having tipped off Bloch," Mr. Wise said.

In fact, the tip had come from Mr. Hanssen. "The F.B.I. suspected that the person - the mole, if you will - who tipped off Bloch had to be in the C.I.A.," Mr. Wise said. "They couldn't conceive that it was one of their own."

As best as Mr. Kelley could determine afterward, his wife said, he was followed around the clock for several years. His phone was tapped, he was subject to rigorous interrogation and his family and colleagues were questioned.

Appearing on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" in 2003, Mr. Kelley's lawyer, John Moustakas, said, "They threatened him with capital offenses," adding, "His sisters, his daughter, his friends, his colleagues were all told, to the exclusion of all others, 'Brian Kelley is an agent of the Russian government.' "

Mr. Kelley was suspended from his job for more than a year.

In 2000, the F.B.I. paid $7 million for a secret K.G.B. file that contained an audiotape of the American mole talking to his Russian handler. Agents played it, expecting to hear Mr. Kelley's voice. But the voice they heard was Mr. Hanssen's.

Arrested in 2001, Mr. Hanssen pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence at the so-called Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo.

Mr. Bloch, who was not charged, was dismissed from the State Department in 1990 and has since worked as a grocery clerk and a bus driver in North Carolina.

Mr. Kelley eventually received apologies from both the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. In 2007, the year after he retired, the C.I.A. awarded him its Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal.

Mr. Kelley's first marriage, to Carole Frost, ended in divorce. Besides his wife, Patricia McCarthy Kelley, whom he married in 2009, he is survived by two sisters, Pamela Baim and Mary Lou Raider; three children from his first marriage, Barry, Brian T. and Erin Kelley Aldrich; four stepchildren, Nicholas Riegel, Marissa Riegel, Brian Riegel and Elisabeth Viilu; and 10 grandchildren.

At his death, he was on the faculty of the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school in Washington, where he taught counterintelligence.

"It was his lifelong journey to teach people, so hopefully this never happens again," Patricia McCarthy Kelley said Wednesday. "This could happen to anybody, and Brian just happened to crack a case that put him in the matrix." [Fox/NYTimes/21September2011]

Books and Documentaries 

The Secret Book of CIA Humor. Just because you're protecting the national government, doesn't mean you should take yourself too seriously. This is a lesson that Ed Mickolus and many other agents learned while serving their country. Far from the James Bond stereotype of secret agents, real Central Intelligence Agency work includes endless paperwork, extreme security precautions, and excessive procedures. But a well-trained operative knows how to keep calm and stay sane in these types of situations. He finds the humor in it.

A tireless stand-up comedian, the author interviewed intelligence officers across the United States to capture the authentic humor of this unique occupation. Much of the information came from his former colleagues in the CIA, where he spent thirty-three years as a dedicated employee and obsessive prankster. He includes rookie hazing stories, performance appraisal outtakes, and on-the-job anecdotes in a series of chapters that depicts the U.S. government at work. Whether inventing urban legends, psyching out their colleagues with phony farewell parties and desks full of rice, or trying to embarrass coworkers on family day, this group seems to continually test the intelligence aspect of the Central Intelligence Agency. [Read more: Pelican/September2011]

Russian Spy Agency Targeting Western Diplomats. Russia's spy agency is waging a massive undercover campaign of harassment against British and American diplomats, as well as other targets, using deniable "psychological" techniques developed by the KGB, a new book reveals.

The federal security service (FSB's) operation involves breaking into the private homes of western diplomats - a method the US state department describes as "home intrusions". Typically the agents move around personal items - opening windows, or setting alarms - in an attempt to demoralise and intimidate their targets.

The FSB operation includes bugging of private apartments, widespread phone tapping, physical surveillance, and email interception. Its victims include local Russian staff working for western embassies, opposition activists, human rights workers and journalists. The clandestine campaign is revealed in Mafia State, a book by the Guardian's former Moscow correspondent Luke Harding, serialised in Saturday's Weekend magazine. [Read more:  Guardian/23September2011] 

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in 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.

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

29 September 2011 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Supervisory Special Agent Max Noel, Ret., Federal Bureau of Investigation. He will be speaking about how he cracked the Unabom case and tracked Theodore J. Kaczynski. The meeting location will be confirmed upon receipt of registration. 11:30AM no host cocktails; noon - luncheon. $25 member rate with advance reservation and payment; $35 non-members accompanied by a member. No walk-ins allowed. Seating is limited. E-mail RSVP to Mariko Kawaguchi (please indicate meat or fish) at afiosf@aol.com and mail a check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, PO Box 117578, Burlingame, CA 94011

Saturday, 1 October 2011, 1000 - 1430 - Salem, MA - AFIO New England to hear former Associate DNI/Collection, and CIA COA NYC on 9/11.

Our speaker will be Mary Margaret Graham, former Associate DNI for Collection, and CIA COS in NYC on 9/11. She was in the WTC when the planes hit. Ms. Graham is a veteran of the Clandestine Service and has had a variety of assignments overseas.
Our schedule is as follows: Registration & gathering, 1000 - 1130, membership meeting
1130 – 1200. Luncheon at 1200 followed by our speaker, with adjournment at 2:30PM.
Note, as this meeting is a one day event we have not made any hotel arrangements.
Our October 2011 chapter meeting will be held on Saturday 1 October at the Salem Waterfront Hotel located in Salem MA. The hotel web site is here: http://www.salemwaterfronthotel.com/. For directions to the hotel look here: http://www.salemwaterfronthotel.com/location.html
Information about Salem MA and local hotels can be found here: http://salem.org/

For additional information contact us at afionechapter@gmail.com

Advance reservations are $25.00, $30.00 at the door - per person.

Luncheon reservations must be made by 16 September 2011.

Mail your check and the reservation form to:

Mr. Arthur Hulnick, 216 Summit Avenue # E102, Brookline, MA 02446, 617-739-7074 or hlnk@aol.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. David Major, retired Supervisory Special Agent and Director of Counterintelligence, Intelligence and Security Programs for the FBI who supervised the Walker case after Walker's arrest, 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. Major 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

7 October 2011, 6:30 - 8 pm - Washington, DC - American Traitors: Fathers and Sons - at the Institute of World Politics in honor of the late Brian Kelley.

Bryan Denson, Reporter, Federal Courts/Investigations, The Oregonian, speaks on the viral nature of being a traitor -- it can run in families.
"I would never hurt my kids" said convicted spy Jim Nicholson to interviewer Katie Couric as he was recounting the events which caused him to be arrested as a spy and sentenced to twenty four years in federal penitentiary. Yet a dozen years later, Nicholson convinced his youngest son Nathan to make contact with the Russian SVR to try and collect some $300,000 which the SVR maintained in Nicholson's "escrow account" which had built up during the eighteen months in which Nicholson was on the SVR payroll while a serving senior CIA operations officer. Nicholson maintained that he needed money to keep his family together after a costly divorce and that he saw no other way to get the money he needed other than to sell secrets to the Russians.
Nathan Nicholson was twelve when his father was arrested. Nathan struggled growing up and enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school. An injury caused Nathan to be discharged early and he faced financial difficulties. His father saw in his son a conduit to the SVR and convinced his son to seek out the SVR to begin to collect escrow money. Young Nathan revered his father and agreed to the plan.
What happened next? Bryan Denson, a senior investigative reporter for the Oregonian newspaper covered the Nicholson family caper which ended with eight additional years added to the sentence for Jim Nicholson. Denson did extensive interviews with Nathan, his mother, his sister and other notables who knew Nicholson and knew about what transpired prior to the arrest of Nathan by the FBI.

Location: The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th Street NW , Washington, DC 20036
RSVPs REQUIRED: sent to kbridges@iwp.edu.
This event was organized by the late Professor Brian Kelley and will be held in his honor.

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

Tuesday, 11 October 2011 - MacDill AFB, FL - The AFIO Florida Suncoast Chapter hosts meeting and luncheon.

Location: MacDill AFB Surf’s Edge Club, 7315 Bayshore Boulevard, MacDill AFB, FL 33621.
RSVP no later than Wednesday, October 5, for yourself and include the names of any guests. Email or call the Chapter Secretary, Michael F. Shapiro at mfshapiro@att.net.
Check-in at 1130 hours; opening ceremonies, lunch and business meeting at noon, followed by our speaker.
Note that our meetings have moved to a new facility, the Surf’s Edge Club, where the luncheon cost is $20.
You must present your $20 check payable to “Suncoast Chapter, AFIO” (or cash) at check-in to cover the luncheon.
Note that the base is now enforcing a handscan registration for those with ID cards so, if you haven't been on-base recently, you should look into this or allow some extra time when you arrive for the meeting.
Should you not have a 'bumper sticker' or ID card for access to MacDill AFB, please so state in your RSVP. If you have not already submitted information required from the Gate Access List, be sure to include your license number, name on drivers license and state of issue for yourself and for any guests you are bringing on base.
Anyone with special AFIO Gate Access should proceed to the Bayshore Gate. If you need directions, please let us know.
The main gate will send you to the visitor‘s center and they will not be able to help you enter the base, only give you directions to the Bayshore Gate.
The cash wine and soda bar will open at 1100 hours for those that wish to come early to socialize.

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

Saturday, 15 October 2011, 1 - 3 pm - Washington DC - "Riot Act" by Ed Mickolus, at the International Spy Museum

This former CIA officer and self-described humorist has written "The Secret Book of CIA Humor" and will be giving an author presentation with an entertaining collection of rookie hazing practices, performance appraisal outtakes, and on-the-job anecdotes from his thirty year career with the Agency. Includes “Useful Phrases to Know When Traveling in Terrorist Areas,” “The Problem with Security Covers,” and “You Might be a Taliban If. . ..”
In his real life Ed Mickolus worked as an analyst, covert action officer, manager, and public affairs officer. He now teaches intelligence issues for federal agencies. He considers himself a recovering standup comic, and he lives in northern VA. To register visit www.spymuseum.org

Saturday, 15 October 2011 - Washington, DC - The OSS Society hosts the 2011 William J. Donovan Award Dinner honoring Adm Eric T. Olson, USN.

Admiral Eric T. Olson, Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, has been selected to receive the 2011 William J. Donovan Award Dinner. By invitation only. Further information at www.osssociety.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.

Wednesday, 02 November 2011, 12:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Simi Valley, CA - "Reagan, Intelligence, and the End of the Cold War" - a special CIA Document Release Event

Featured guest speakers include Kenneth Adelman, Former Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and Oleg Kalugin, Former Major General in the Soviet KGB.

Panelists include: Peter Clement, CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence for Analytic Programs; Douglas MacEachin, Former CIA Deputy Director of Intelligence; Admiral Bobby Inman, Former CIA Deputy Director; Martin Anderson, Former Advisor to President Reagan; Gregory Treverton, Director, RAND Center for Global Risk and Security; David Holloway, Stanford University; Mary Sarotte, University of Southern California; Bruce D. Berkowitz, Author; Dr. Nicholas Dujmovic, CIA Historian; and David Lodge, CIA Analyst.

Location: The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library, 40 Presidential Dr, Simi Valley, CA 93065

Click here to make reservations. For more information, please call 805-577-4141 or visit this link.

2-3 November 2-11 - Buckley AFB, Aurora, CO - DNI hosts 2011 Intelink Technical Exchange.
The ITE [Intelink Technical Exchange] brings together practitioners and technologists from the intelligence, national defense, homeland security, and law enforcement communities working to improve intelligence information sharing. The ITE is open to government employees and contractors. AFIO members may attend but need to show AFIO ID.
CALL FOR PAPERS: If you wish to present at the ITE, send your abstracts by September 15, 2011 to ITE@ugov.gov Your topic should describe substantive technical work area relevant to the National Security Enterprise, our information environment, or the business of intelligence.
Contact ITE@ugov.gov for additional information

Thursday, 17 November 2011, 11:30 am Colorado Springs, CO – The Rocky Mountain Chapter presents Sheriff Terry Maketa speaking about his official visits to Israel and Trinidad.  This should be an interesting talk as El Paso County Sheriff’s rarely travel this far from home.  Dick Durham will lead the meeting as the President will be in London on his own fact finding and gathering mission.  To be held at a new location, The Inn at Palmer Divide, 443 S. Highway 105 Palmer Lake, CO, Exit 161 westbound off I-25, West on Highway 105.  Please RSVP to Tom VanWormer at robsmom@pcisys.net

17 November 2011 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Richard W. Held, former Special Agent in Charge, San Francisco Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Topic: The Cyber Threat: Changing the Nature of Future Conflict.

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

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