Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

U.S. Calls Out China and Russia for Cyber Espionage Costing Billions. Hey, China and Russia, get off of our clouds.

That's the warning from a new U.S. national intelligence director's report to Congress released Thursday that states China and Russia are the biggest perpetrators of economic espionage through the Internet. 

The report, Foreign Spies Stealing U.S. Economic Secrets in Cyberspace, also warns that the efforts to calculate the cost of lost research and development is nearly impossible to calculate but could be costing up to $398 billion. As mobile devices proliferate, it's only going to get easier for spies to steal.

Analysts note that this is the first time the U.S. government report has so openly blamed countries that support cyber attacks and espionage at the national and state level.

"The computer networks of a broad array of U.S. government agencies, private companies, universities, and other institutions - all holding large volumes of sensitive economic information - were targeted by cyber espionage; much of this activity appears to have originated in China," reads the report.

Drawing on data from 13 agencies, including the CIA and FBI, over the past two years, the report concludes that attacks against U.S. government networks and military contracts are on the rise. But one of the most worrying trends is the growing number of attacks on businesses that are smaller than the Fortune 500 companies.

Additionally, the report states that China's intelligence services - as well as private companies and other entities - are exploiting Chinese citizens or others with family ties in China who have "insider access to corporate networks to steal trade secrets using removable media devices or e-mail." [Read more: FoxNews/3November2011]

FBI Says Russian Spies Got Close to Cabinet. The FBI rounded up a network of deep-cover Russian spies last year after the group came close to placing an agent near a Cabinet official in the Obama administration, a senior FBI counterspy said Monday as the bureau released once-secret documents on the case.

Frank Figliuzzi, assistant FBI director for counterintelligence, did not identify the Cabinet official, but other U.S. officials said it was Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mr. Figliuzzi said in an interview that the FBI decided to end its more than 10-year-long counterspy investigation of the network because of concerns that the spies were "getting very close to their objective."

"These 10 Russian officers were sent to the U.S. on a specific mission to get close to U.S. policymakers and leaders in our government," he said, noting that one had developed a friendship with someone close to a Cabinet official.

Mrs. Clinton's spokesman at the time the case broke, P.J. Crowley, sought to distance her from the case, but did not deny that she was the person mentioned in court papers. "There is no reason to believe that the Secretary of State was a special target of this spy ring," Mr. Crowley said in an email.

The spy who triggered concerns about high-level infiltration was Cynthia Murphy, later identified as Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) officer Lydia Guryev. Court papers say she met several times with a prominent New York-based financier active in political fundraising and described as a "personal friend" of a Cabinet official.

It was later disclosed that the financier was Alan Patricof, director of the venture capital firm Greycroft LLC and a donor to Democratic candidates, including Mrs. Clinton when she was a U.S. senator from New York. [Read more: Gertz/WashingtonTimes/31October2011]

Colombia's President Abolishes Intelligence Agency After Spying Scandal. Colombia's president has abolished the nation's 58-year-old domestic intelligence agency after it tapped phones to spy on Supreme Court judges, journalists and political opponents of former PresidentAlvaro Uribe.

President Juan Manuel Santos had previously promised to replace the agency, known as DAS, with a new entity.

Since allegations of illegal spying surfaced in Colombian media in 2009, more than 20 officials from the intelligence agency have been arrested, several of them Uribe allies. In July, Uribe's chief of staff, Bernardo Moreno, was jailed in connection to the chief federal prosecutor's investigation of phone tapping. In September, former DAS chief Jorge Noguera was sentenced to 25 years in jail for allowing paramilitary death squads to infiltrate the agency and obtain intelligence on activists and union leaders who they later killed.

Other government institutions, including the Attorney General's office, the police and the Foreign Ministry, will take over duties including responsibility for controlling immigration that had been assigned to the agency, Santos said in a statement yesterday.

In an interview with RCN Radio today, Uribe said he should have abolished the DAS when he was in office.

"I tried but I couldn't," said Uribe, who stepped down last year with an approval rating of 75 percent. [Read more: Jaramillo/Bloomberg/1November2011]

CIA Punishment? Go Work with NYPD. A senior CIA officer whose operational misjudgment contributed to one of the deadliest days in CIA history was recently assigned to a post with the New York City police department as a result of his mistakes, according to current and former officials.

According to two former officials, the posting marks the most significant sanction handed out for the December 2009 suicide bombing by an al Qaeda double agent at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan that killed seven CIA employees, and acts as an unofficial punishment for the officer's role in the operation. The CIA officer had been one of several high-ranking officials who approved the meeting at which the double agent detonated his bomb.

"The agency sent him to New York for Khost as punishment," said a former senior official briefed on the assignment.

The officer's assignment also comes despite previous statements that the agency found no individual at fault for the attack. Two CIA officers and a Jordanian spy directly involved in working with the double agent were killed. The officer transferred to New York is the lowest ranking of the officers involved in the planning and supervision of the operation.

The CIA official declined a request for an interview. ABC News is withholding his name at the request of the CIA, because his identity is classified as he remains undercover.

The NYPD did not respond to several requests for comment. The CIA refused to comment on the record.

The move highlights how the CIA acts to discipline its most experienced employees for operational mistakes by sidelining them, denying them further foreign postings or senior headquarters slots. The move is seen by many intelligence veterans as punishment because in the CIA foreign postings are considered plum assignments, as are positions within management at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The officer had been the CIA station chief in Jordan, where the double agent was first recruited by Jordanian intelligence. He had also served previously as the CIA's station chief in Pakistan and Poland, and as chief of the Counter Proliferation Division, the CIA arm that focuses on thwarting nuclear weapons. [Read more: Cole/ABCNews/31October2011]

Vladimir Putin Accused of Being a 'Philanderer and Wifebeater' while in KGB by German Intelligence Files. Vladimir Putin has been accused of being a wife-beater and philanderer by German spies.

The Russian prime minister allegedly had several affairs while he was himself a spy in Dresden in the late Eighties.

Files from West German spy agency BND published in the German media claim an interpreter agent befriended Putin's wife Lyudmila, now 53, who poured her heart out about her marriage.

She allegedly told the agent that her husband used �domestic violence and [had] numerous sexual affairs'.

Putin, 59, a former Russian President who is expected to return to power next year, headed Soviet intelligence operations in the East German city from 1985 to 1990. [Read more:  Hall/MailOnline/3November2011]

U.S. Drone Base in Ethiopia is Operational. The Air Force has been secretly flying Reaper drones on counterterrorism missions from a remote civilian airport in southern Ethiopia as part of a rapidly expanding U.S.-led proxy war against an al-Qaeda affiliate in East Africa, U.S. military officials said.

The Air Force has invested millions of dollars to upgrade an airfield in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, where it has built a small annex to house a fleet of drones that can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs. The Reapers began flying missions earlier this year over neighboring Somalia, where the United States and its allies in the region have been targeting al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group connected to al-Qaeda.

On Friday, the Pentagon said the drones are unarmed and have been used only for surveillance and collecting intelligence, though it would not rule out the possibility that they would be used to launch lethal strikes in the future. [Read more: Whitlock/27October2011]

CIA Following Twitter, Facebook. In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets - up to 5 million a day.

At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms - anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

From Arabic to Mandarin Chinese, from an angry tweet to a thoughtful blog, the analysts gather the information, often in native tongue. They cross-reference it with the local newspaper or a clandestinely intercepted phone conversation. From there, they build a picture sought by the highest levels at the White House, giving a real-time peek, for example, at the mood of a region after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden or perhaps a prediction of which Mideast nation seems ripe for revolt.

Yes, they saw the uprising in Egypt coming; they just didn't know exactly when revolution might hit, said the center's director, Doug Naquin.

The center already had "predicted that social media in places like Egypt could be a game-changer and a threat to the regime," he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press at the center. CIA officials said it was the first such visit by a reporter the agency has ever granted.

The CIA facility was set up in response to a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, with its first priority to focus on counterterrorism and counterproliferation. But its several hundred analysts - the actual number is classified - track a broad range, from Chinese Internet access to the mood on the street in Pakistan. [Read more: Dozier/AP/4November2011]

Computer Scientist Cracks Mysterious 'Copiale Cipher'. The manuscript seems straight out of fiction: a strange, handwritten message in abstract symbols and Roman letters meticulously covering 105 yellowing pages hidden in the depths of an academic archive.

Now, more than three centuries after it was devised, the 75,000-character Copiale Cipher finally has been broken.

The mysterious cryptogram, bound in gold and green brocade paper, reveals the rituals and political leanings of an 18th-century secret society in Germany. The rituals detailed in the document indicate the society had a fascination with eye surgery and ophthalmology, though it seems members of the society were not eye doctors.

"This opens up a window for people who study the history of ideas and the history of secret societies," said computer scientist Kevin Knight of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, part of the international team that finally cracked the cipher. "Historians believe that secret societies have had a role in revolutions, but all that is yet to be worked out, and a big part of the reason is because so many documents are enciphered."

To break the cipher, Knight and colleagues Be�ta Megyesi and Christiane Schaefer of Uppsala University in Sweden tracked down the original manuscript, which was found in the East Berlin Academy after the Cold War and now is in a private collection. They transcribed a machine-readable version of the text, using a computer program created by Knight to help quantify the co-occurrences of certain symbols and other patterns.

"When you get a new code and look at it, the possibilities are nearly infinite," Knight said. "Once you come up with a hypothesis based on your intuition as a human, you can turn over a lot of grunt work to the computer." [Read more: ScienceDaily/25October2011]

Pakistan Clandestinely Moving Its Nukes. Pakistan has started moving its nuclear weapons in low-security vans on congested roads to hide them from U.S. spy agencies, making the weapons more vulnerable to theft by Islamist militants, two magazines reported Nov. 4.

The Atlantic and National Journal, in a joint report citing unnamed sources, wrote that the U.S. raid on May 2 that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden at his Pakistani compound reinforced Islamabad's longstanding fears that Washington could try to dismantle the country's nuclear arsenal.

As a result the head of the Strategic Plans Divisions (SPD), which is charged with safeguarding Pakistan's atomic weapons, was ordered to take action to keep the location of nuclear weapons and components hidden from the United States, the report said.

Khalid Kidwai, the retired general who leads SPD, expanded his agency's efforts to disperse components and sensitive materials to different facilities, it said.

But instead of transporting the nuclear parts in armored, well-defended convoys, the atomic bombs "capable of destroying entire cities are transported in delivery vans on congested and dangerous roads," according to the report.

The pace of the dispersal movements has increased, raising concerns at the Pentagon, it said. 

Pakistan has long insisted its nuclear arsenal is safe and the article quotes an unnamed official from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency saying: "Of all things in the world to worry about, the issue you should worry about the least is the safety of our nuclear program." [Read more: AgenceFrancePresse/4November2011]

Services Getting More Control Over DIA Intel Systems. The Defense Intelligence Agency is giving the services and the big three military intelligence agencies more control over the design and usage of its critical information technology products.
The idea is to let those organizations tweak and modify DIA products to meet their needs without having to wait for Pentagon IT engineers to make those changes, said Grant Schneider, DIA's chief information officer. They will now be able to get what they need from those products faster and more efficiently under this new IT model, Schneider said today during a speech on cloud computing in Washington.

This modification work, however, will be done within a set of strict design parameters being developed by DIA, Schneider said. This will ensure that the tweaked versions of the DIA IT systems will still meet security thresholds set for all agency products, he added. "I have to have a development box to let the customers play in," Schneider said of the DIA design parameters.

By doing this, DIA hopes to close the gap between what the services want and what DIA can provide in its IT products, he said. "We are never going to keep pace with the requirements" coming from the field, Schneider admitted.

The speed at which IT changes, combined with the highly-specific needs of the various intel agencies, means keeping pace with the needs of the intel community will only get more difficult. Schneider said letting the intel agencies tailor DIA-built systems themselves will go a long way to closing that requirements gap, he explained. [Read more: Munoz/AolDefense/26October2011]

CIA ID'd North Korean Uranium Plant in 2002, Rice Says. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her new memoir states that senior Bush administration officials were told by the CIA in 2002 that North Korea had constructed a sizable uranium enrichment plant - eight years before Pyongyang declared such activities to the world, Foreign Policy reported on Tuesday (see GSN, Jan. 24).

In her upcoming book, "No Higher Honor," Rice said the administration learned in September 2002 of the "production scale" uranium plant. One month lather, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly challenged North Korean officials with the information during a visit to the isolated state.

However, any prospects for a deal to shutter the facility were lost when "hardliners" inside the Defense Department and then-Vice President Dick Cheney's office gave the press the story with the intention of undermining future bargaining deals with Pyongyang, Rice asserted.

The Bush administration said a North Korean official acknowledged the uranium work in the meeting with Kelly, but Pyongyang publicly rejected that assertion. [Read more: GlobalSecurityNewswire/26October2011]

Worker Suing Intelligence Agency Claims Anti-Muslim Bias. A Northern Virginia man is suing one of the nation's most secretive intelligence agencies, claiming it revoked his security clearance because his wife attended an Islamic school and works for a Muslim nonprofit.

Mahmoud M. Hegab, 30, hired last year as a budget analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, filed the discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria last month.

In court papers, Hegab, who lives in Alexandria, said he joined the agency in January 2010 and told officials during his orientation that he had gotten married to Bushra Nusairat, 24, between the time of his security clearance investigation and the date he reported to work.

The NGA supplies satellite imagery to the military and requires its 16,000 workers to obtain a top secret security clearance as a condition of employment. But the agency revoked Hegab's clearance in November 2010, citing concerns about Nusairat's background. Hegab was placed on unpaid leave in January.

Nusairat is a program associate with Islamic Relief USA, a global nonprofit that provides food aid and public health and educational programs in poor or disaster-prone regions and whose director advises the U.S. Agency for International Development at the State Department.

Hegab's attorney, Sheldon Cohen, argued in court papers that the decision to revoke his client's clearance "was based solely" on his wife's "religion, Islam, her constitutionally protected speech, and her association with, and employment by, an Islamic faith-based organization." [Read more: O'Keefe/WashingtonPost/8November2011]

Intelligence Budget Cuts Mean U.S. Will Have More Blind Spots. After seeing spending double over a decade, U.S. intelligence agencies are bracing for about $25 billion in budget cuts over the next 10 years that top officials said will increase security risks.

"We're going to have less capability in 10 years than we have today," said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who sits atop the 16 departments, agencies and offices that comprise the intelligence community and spend a combined $80 billion a year. "This is about risk management, because we're going to have some risk," he said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg News and two other organizations.

For example, after spending enormous amounts on collecting intelligence to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the pursuit of al-Qaeda, intelligence officials and policy makers must decide whether to pay less attention to those areas, said a former intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he's still charged with protecting classified information.

Clapper, along with intelligence and congressional officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the classified material, said that much of the savings will come from consolidating a multitude of different information technology systems which together cost about $12 billion a year. [Read more: Bloomberg/8November/2011]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Former U.S. and Soviet Spies to Discuss Reagan's Intelligence Impact. Nearly three decades ago, two CIA analysts stepped into the Oval Office to hand President Ronald Reagan a profound prediction.

America's Cold War nemesis, the Soviet Union, was teetering on economic collapse - which the president gleefully noted in his diary.

"It gave him hope," said Peter Nyren, an analyst with the CIA's Historical Collections Division. "The end was in sight."

Twenty-six years after that November 1985 briefing, the CIA will release the brief and other declassified documents during a symposium today at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

The CIA conference, "Ronald Reagan, Intelligence, and the End of the Cold War," will include a discussion by former U.S. and Soviet spies.

The CIA will also release more than 200 declassified documents that had informed the 40th president. [Read more: Bartholomew/DailyNews/2November2011]

Spy Satellite Engineer's Top Secret Is Revealed. Every day for decades, engineer Phil Pressel would come home from work and be unable to tell his wife what he'd been doing all day.

Now, Pressel is free to speak about his life's work: designing cameras for a top-secret U.S. government spy satellite. Officially known as the KH-9 Hexagon, engineers called it "Big Bird" for its massive size.

Until the government declassified it last month, Hexagon had been a secret for 46 years.

"The challenge for this satellite, to design it, was to survey the whole globe," Pressel tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.

It was a grand challenge for Pressel. Born in Belgium, he survived the Holocaust as a young boy when a French family hid him from the Nazis. Pressel says he never expected to come to America, much less become an engineer on a top-secret American spy satellite.

Hexagon's main purpose was, in a way, to prevent wars. It was designed to spot Soviet missile silos and troop movements.

"It permitted President Nixon, in the early 1970s, to sign the SALT-1 treaty, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty," Pressel says. Photos sent down from Hexagon enabled the U.S. to verify the Soviet Union's claims about its weapons stockpiles. [Read more: NPR/29October2011]

How a Letter on Hitler's Stationery, Written to a Boy in Jersey, Reached the CIA. At CIA headquarters in Langley, one of the newest artifacts in the agency's private museum is a message from a father to his 3-year-old son. The gold-embossed letterhead features a swastika and the name Adolf Hitler.

"Dear Dennis," the seven-sentence letter begins. "The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe - three short years ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins."

Dennis is Dennis Helms, now a 69-year-old intellectual-property lawyer in New Jersey. The letter writer was his father, Richard Helms, the CIA director during the Vietnam War and Watergate eras, who died in 2002. Right after Germany's surrender, Lt. Helms, an intelligence operative, sneaked into Hitler's chancellery in Berlin and pilfered the Fuehrer's stationery. He dated the letter "V-E day" for May 8, 1945.

The letter astounded the CIA museum's curatorial staff when it was acquired in May - and not only because Helms wrote with such paternal tenderness. It also conveyed a certain historical intuition about the evil that one man could do. The letter happened to arrive at Langley the day after Osama bin Laden was killed in May.

Dennis Helms included the letter in an album of correspondence and photos from his home that he turned over for the museum's new exhibit highlighting the history of the Office of Strategic Services, the CIA's predecessor agency. But he never knew its back story. How and when exactly did his father sneak into that compound to grab the stationery (along with a dinner plate)? His dad never explained in full.

That's the way it often goes in CIA families. A child can be proud of his parent but also frustrated by the lack of details, the opaque explanations about careers, the questions that can't even be asked. [Read more: Shapira/WashingtonPost/31October2011]

CIA and NSA Websites Invite Children. Worried about what your children are getting into while surfing the Web? Well, how about organizations involved in intelligence gathering and espionage?

Despite their very adult missions, both the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency have sections specifically for youngsters.

On the CIA's site - the same one that hosts definitions of cannabis, meningococcal meningitis and maternal mortality rate - children and teens can visit the Kids' Page where a cubist cartoon spy using her high heel as a phone presides over a "welcome" telling readers they can "learn more about the CIA, our employees, and what we do every day."

The NSA page is called America's CryptoKids and looks more like a B-level animated movie than a government organization PR campaign. The NSA has games, puzzles and a cast of animal security officers, including Rosetta Stone the multilingual fox, Crypto Cat, who learned code breaking from an elderly Navajo nanny, and Cy and Cyndi, the cybersecurity twins welcomed into the CryptoKids family last year.

So how do the CryptoKids fit into the NSA's mission "to protect U.S. national security systems and to produce foreign signals intelligence information?" And why would the CIA offer a word find and coloring book? [Read more: Parnass/ABCNews/4November2011]

The Fine Art of Foreign Espionage. Spies, when they do their jobs well, are unnoticed. They don't draw attention to their work, and their successes are rarely celebrated or even acknowledged.

It is understandable, then, that when British artist James Hart Dyke was approached with an offer to embed with the Secret Intelligence Service, the British foreign spy agency known as MI6, to capture the agency's life on canvas to mark its centenary, he suspected it was a joke. But the offer - made over a quiet cup of coffee - was real. Soon Hart Dyke, a painter who has previously worked as a war artist with the Grenadier Guards in Iraq and Afghanistan, was ushered into a world few outside it get to see.

Hart Dyke had to sign the Official Secrets Act, forbidding him from discussing his assignment until it was over. There were also some limits placed on where he could go and what he could see. He didn't shadow agents on assignments in the field, for example. And he was not permitted to identify anyone in his art. But he says the agency was open and welcoming, even if some of its officers seemed suspicious when he told them what he was doing in their offices, sketchbook in hand. Hart Dyke had a pass for MI6 headquarters in London, and also travelled to its offices elsewhere in Britain, and in Afghanistan.

The result is a striking collection of paintings and drawings that seduce and bewilder, while somehow still capturing the essence of the agency and the lives of those who work there.

What is most surprising about the images - at least when first seen - are their seeming ordinariness. There is a woman in a pub, a man walking a dog, a busy street. The painting Hart Dyke says was most popular with MI6 members depicts a hotel room with two chairs facing a small table, pulled back slightly as if arranged for a meeting. A man stands discreetly looking out the window, watching, waiting. The tension is implied rather than stated. The scenes depicted in many of the paintings could be sinister, or innocent and mundane. The audience is never really sure. "That's the world they're in...a very ambiguous world. I was trying to get a sense of what it might be like. You've got all this information coming in. A lot of it could be bogus, or very important. And you never quite know," Hart Dyke said in an interview. "Some of the paintings are very ambiguous, and some are very straight. But sometimes the straight ones are not so straight. So you end up questioning a lot of the images." [Read more: Petrou/MacLeans.ca/26October2011]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Russian Spy Tape Release - Who Benefits? The FBI has released some of the tapes that show the busted Russian spy ring in action. Videos of Anna Chapman supposedly using spy equipment in a department store have circulated the Internet. With the fact these Russian spies were arrested over a year ago, why are these tapes being released now? Who benefits by these released tapes? [Read more: Poupard/YahooNews/1November2011]

China And The Economic Espionage Act of 1996. On October 18th, Chinese-born Kexue Huang pled guilty in an American court to stealing trade secrets from his employers (Dow Chemical Company and Cargill) and sending them to China and Germany. This was the eighth time someone was charged under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, a law which made it a federal criminal offense to steal trade secrets. Most of these prosecutions have involved China.

Sometimes the Chinese connection is cleverly concealed. Four years ago, a Chinese engineer (Yuefei Ge) and a Chinese-American one (Lan Lee) were prosecuted for stealing military laser and communications technology, and then seeking backing from a company owned by the Chinese military, to finance the development of military equipment, based on the stolen technology. The two were tried for economic espionage, based on the 1996 Economic Espionage Act.

What was clever about Ge and Lee was that they were not stealing technology for a foreign power, but for the purpose of developing militarily useful applications of the technology. These items would then be sold to China, particularly if the Chinese came through with the research and development money. China has thus mobilized the power of venture capital to encourage their spies. Up until that point, only three people had been convicted of economic espionage, as defined by this Act, but the FBI was finding there was a lot more of it out there. The first conviction in a trial only occurred last year. Most of those caught tend to plead guilty in order to avoid a harsher sentence.

Some of these investigations are uncovering espionage efforts that have gone on for decades. [Read more: StrategyPage/2November2011]

A U.S. Intelligence Estimate on Iran? The increasingly likely prospect of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons poses significant problems for the U.S. as well as Israel and other allies. A flood of press reports related to an imminent new report from the IAEA indicates that Iran's efforts are more extensive than previously thought and Iran's development of a nuclear weapon could be a near-term reality. Remarkably the Obama administration and the U.S. Intelligence Community have been silent on the issue, leaving public discussion to the IAEA, leaks from the Israeli intelligence services, and speculation.

It is also remarkable that the last known U.S. intelligence estimate on the Iranian nuclear program was in 2007 - an estimate that was greatly flawed and sharply criticized by experts from all sides. Indeed, panels of experts at both the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Brookings Institution all pointed to that lack of intelligence on the subject, and to estimates being based on little more than guesses, and having been completed by a group composed of State Department "exiles" sent over the office of the Director of National Intelligence and not career intelligence analysts.

With respect to such important intelligence estimates the Bush administration broke with the long tradition of keeping these critical studies classified, and issued an unclassified summary to better inform public debate. As the AEI and Brookings studies of the 2007 estimate show, this was a wise decision, enabling an open and frank discussion of both the estimate's shortcomings as well as the critical issues relating to Iran's intentions and nuclear ambitions.

Some four years later, two possibilities exist. First, it is possible that a new national intelligence estimate on this critical problem has been done, but is so secret and tightly held that not even its existence has leaked or been mentioned in the press. While highly unlikely, particularly in the current security environment, it would be a bad precedent and reversal of an enlightened policy of informing public debate. If indeed a more recent estimate exists, an unclassified summary which avoids disclosure of sensitive intelligence should be provided as done in the 2007 case. Clearly it is possible to do this without harming U.S. national security. The most likely harm in such a case would be to an administration that lacks any clear or effective policy with respect to Iran - that being a political issue and not a security one. The second and more likely possibility is that the Obama administration has not directed, and the Intelligence Community has not performed, any more recent national estimate of the Iranian nuclear weapons program than the flawed and outdated one in 2007. Such a situation would be an even bigger outrage. [Read more: Wagner/HuffPost/7November2011]

Gasp! The CIA Uses Open-Source Intelligence! While I gladly wear a tinfoil hat at times, I'm confused as to why some people are concerned by the fact the intelligence community monitors public communications. Last week's story from The Associated Press, which focused on the CIA and its use of OSINT, shouldn't shock or surprise anyone at all.

The Associated Press (AP) recently visited a plain-looking building in Virginia, which is used by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and staffed by a team of "vengeful librarians" to sort massive amounts of OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence. The CIA calls this location an Open Source Center.

OSINT, believe it or not, is often a key source of information that leads to actionable intelligence. It's all around you, because OSINT is anything and everything publically available. Today, social media holds a wealth of OSINT sources, thanks to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, countless blogs and news websites, as well as video channels such as YouTube. OSINT also includes public records.

After the AP story ran, pundits expressed shock because the CIA was "spying" on people via social media. News headlines warning people to "be careful" with what they say on Twitter, because the CIA "may be watching", made the rounds all weekend long.

It's a needless worry, because most of what the CIA is doing is no different than what reporters do when following developing events. When a story breaks, journalists will follow breaking news on Twitter or, in some cases, Facebook, in order to amass immediate information and reaction.

So what is the CIA doing? As the AP report explains, it's doing its job. Earlier this year, the CIA monitored the reaction on Twitter to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. It also monitored comments here stateside, but most of the aforementioned "vengeful librarians" watched the reactions in China and Pakistan. [Read more: Ragan/TechHerald/7November2011]

Section IV - Careers, Obituaries, Books and Coming Events

Careers

Seeking a Preparedness Advisor to work with MESH, Inc., an innovative public-private coalition in Central Indiana that enables healthcare providers to respond effectively to emergency events and remain viable through recovery.

This position will provide emergency management coordination services and participate in a wide range of public health and medical preparedness activities. The Preparedness Advisor will also have responsibility to assist with coordination between private sector health care entities and providers, the Indianapolis Division of Homeland Security, the Marion County Public Health Department and numerous non-governmental organizations through the Marion County Medical Multi-Agency coordination Center (MedMACC) to ensure information exchange necessary for effective healthcare planning and emergency response.

REQUIREMENTS: -Bachelor's degree; Master's preferred -Clinical healthcare experience and licensure preferred (e.g., EMT-P, RN, MD) -Public health education preferred (e.g., MPH, MSN) -Military or operational emergency management/intelligence experience preferred -Secret or Top Secret security clearance preferred -Minimum of 5 years experience in public health, clinical health care or emergency management-related field preferred -Completion of the following Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) courses is preferred: ICS-100, ICS-200, ICS-300, ICS-400, ICS-700, ICS-800 and HSEEP

For more information about MESH, please visit our website at: http://www.meshcoalition.org To apply, visit: http://www.meshcoalition.org/about/careers Contact: Jim Floyd, M.Ed., CHS-III, WEMT, PI Director of Healthcare Intelligence 3930 Georgetown Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46254 Office Phone (317) 630-7362 Cell Phone (317) 397-3652 Pager: (317) 310-6762 Fax (317) 656-4125
Website: www.meshcoalition.org Twitter: JimFloydMESH

Selection of Latest Jobs of Interest to AFIO Members. For more information, click on blue link header for that job:

DIRECTOR, JITF-CT

We are committed to: Service to our country, our community, and our fellow citizens. Dedication, strength, and urgency of purpose to provide for our nation's defense. Customer-Focus in the products and services we provide. Integrity and accountability in all of our actions and activities. Commitment

Director, National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC)

The mission of DHS is carried out every day by dedicated men and women who answer the noble call to public service with superior courage. Come be a part of the best in preventing and deterring terrorist attacks, protecting against and responding to potential threats, ensuring safe and secure borders

Federal Security Director

Securing Travel, Protecting People - At the Transportation Security Administration, we serve in a high-stakes environment to safeguard the American way of life. In cities across the country, we secure airports, seaports, railroads, highways, and public transit systems, thus protecting our transporta

Principal Deputy for Security

***This announcement is currently advertised as a SNIS appointment. Area of consideration is rotation and lateral reassignment of current ODNI SNIS employees. GS-15s may not apply for this SNIS position. *** Mission of the Organization: The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX

Deputy Federal Security Director

Securing Travel, Protecting People - At the Transportation Security Administration, we serve in a high-stakes environment to safeguard the American way of life. In cities across the country, we secure airports, seaports, railroads, highways, and public transit systems, thus protecting our transporta

Senior Research Fellow

This is a Title 10 Excepted Service Appointment. Appointment NTE 3 years with the possibility for extension.

Deputy Chief Security Officer

The mission of DHS is carried out every day by dedicated men and women who answer the noble call to public service with superior courage. Come be a part of the best in preventing and deterring terrorist attacks, protecting against and responding to potential threats, ensuring safe and secure borders

Deputy Director, Office of Security

The Office of Security is seeking a Deputy Director for a leading-edge security organization responsible for counterespionage, anti-terrorism, investigations, as well as continuity and emergency preparedness outcomes and to assist the Director, Office of Security in leading people and organizational

Obituaries

Cameron LaClair - former MISX, CIG, CIA Officer, frequent contributor to AFIO Weekly Notes [tagged as cjlc], has died. Cameron John La Clair, Jr., died November 4 at age 90. He was among a handful of surviving officers who joined the Central Intelligence Agency at its inception in 1947, when it replaced the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). La Clair was an erudite man who did not hesitate to speak his mind, and described his profession directly: “I was a spy. My business was espionage. I stole secrets, and I recruited foreign nations who would help me do so. And I am proud of it!”
A friend of his, writer Joseph Goulden, wrote in 2007: “To describe Cam in a single phrase, it would be ‘quiet elegance’ He is a stately man in his 80s, always impeccably dressed, polite in speech and manner, careful with his words, quick of wit and with a broad intelligence.”
La Clair attended many AFIO events and also special monthly luncheons (of a nameless group) at a Spring Valley restaurant. His keen wit was not diminished by his infirmities.
Goulden further commented: During one of our many talks over the years, Cam discussed the cultural changes he witnessed in CIA “Given that we founding fathers were from the ‘war generation,’ we knew the importance of what was at stake in the world. We had seen – we had fought – tyranny, and none of us wished to see it inflicted on the world again. Idealists? To be sure, and idealistic for all the right reasons. We lived in a great society, and we truly desired a better world, not just for Americans, but for everyone.
            “Yes, we were anti-communist, but with a reason: being in Europe, we saw first-hand what Stalin intended for his chunk of territory, and the peoples and lands he could snatch up. Our generation chose to contest him, and by golly in the long run we prevailed.”
            Cam expressed barely disguised scorn for intellectual critics of CIA’s support of cultural programs and publications. “The fact that we financed such magazines as Encounter did not affect their editorial content whatsoever,” he said, “because such publications were run by persons who honestly opposed communism. But these persons needed money to publish their views, and that is where we were valuable.
“I always found it ironic that the most potent enemies of communism came from the left, and especially in France. We went into their own playing field, so to speak, to recruit the persons who became our most valued allies.”
            That many of the early officers came from the Ivy League was a natural progression of events. Many of these persons had traveled (or lived) in Europe, and knew the languages and the cultures. At one early stage, the form used for new hires to the CIG [Central Intelligence Group, CIA’s forerunner] contained a question that asked, in effect, whether the applicant would be dependent upon a government salary to support himself, or could he draw upon other means? “In other words, do you have enough money to get into the spying business on your own, or are you going to do it at Uncle Sam’s expense?
            For years LaClair skated around discussing details of his CIA work but when asked point-blank what he would consider his most important assignment as an intelligence officer, without hesitation he replied, “London, in the late 1960s and early 1970s.” He handled liaison between the US intelligence community and the SIS, at a high level. And he formed friendships with SIS officers that lasted well into his retirement.
LaClair retired from the Agency in 1978. His last decades were brightened by remarriage to a strikingly attractive blonde banker named Mary Elizabeth Power whom he met at one of the famed dinner-dances hosted by Paul Nitze. A self-educated expert on art, for years he served on the board of the Phillips Gallery. He also gave time to talk with young people who wanted advice on whether -- and how -- to enter the intelligence community. Survivors, in addition to his wife, include his daughter, Mary LaClair, his son, Cameron LaClair, III, and his four step-daughters: Allison Davis, Hilary Herrin, Catherine Cairo, and Andrea Tokheim. Four son-in-laws, and grandchildren. A time and date for a ceremony has not yet been announced. [Comments supplied by JGoulden - greatly abbreviated for this announcement.]

Ahmed al-Hawan. One of Egypt's most famous spies, who convinced the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad that he worked with them during the War of Attrition between 1967 and 1973, died in Cairo Tuesday at the age of 74.

Ahmed al-Hawan died after a long fight against illness, and his funeral is slated to be held on Wednesday, Egyptian state media reported.

He had provided the Israelis with false military information with the help of Egyptian Intelligence from 1967 until 1973. He took from the Mossad a state-of-the-art transmission device that only the United States and Israel had back then, and gave it to Egyptian intelligence.

During the past few years, he criticized the government of ousted president Hosni Mubarak for not allowing him to receive proper medical treatment or a proper pension.

Egypt's current military ruler Hussein Tantawi ordered him to be treated after Mubarak's resignation in February. [Read more: M&C/1November2011]

Benjamin F. Pepper. On Monday, October 31, 2011 B. Franklin Pepper passed away from cancer. Born in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia PA on March 2, 1930, he was known to some as Ben and others as Franklin. He led a life rich in government service, community service, and family. He attended the Buckley School in New York City, Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, St. Mark's School in Southborough, MA, and graduated from Princeton University in 1951. Franklin then served in the Navy and joined the Central Intelligence Agency, where he spent 30 years as a case officer in the Operations Directorate of the CIA. During that time, he served abroad in Berlin, Mexico City, and London, working primarily against Soviet and East European targets. His unique expertise was in the field of counterintelligence which was where his most important contributions were made. It is most noteworthy that when he retired, he had earned the deep respect and admiration of his fellow officers as a man of intelligence, fairness, dedication, objectivity and high integrity. He was asked to return to duty after his retirement to work on some of the most sensitive and controversial counterintelligence matters of recent times. Following his retirement from government service in 1978, Franklin pursued a long and dedicated career in volunteer service to his community. He served on the Board of Directors of the Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation in the Alexandria Route 1 corridor and as the appointee from the Lee District to the Virginia Community Services Board. He also served on the board of United Community Ministries and numerous other charitable organizations. He was active in beautification and economic development efforts throughout the corridor. He remained committed to the homeless and needy citizens of the southeastern portion of Fairfax County until his death. Franklin is survived by his wife of 60 years, Helen "Perky" Pepper of Alexandria Virginia, son Benjamin Jr. of Aurora CO, daughter Holly of Falls Church, three sisters, Virginia Purviance of Newport RI and Rebecca Sinkler of Center Sandwich, NH, and Tracy Marble of Augusta, GA, two granddaughters and three grandsons. In lieu of flowers gifts may be made to United Community Ministries or the Goodwin House Foundation, both located in Alexandria Virginia. Private family service. [WashingtonPost/4November2011]

Keith Bailey Schofield. Keith Bailey Schofield, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and friend, passed away surrounded by his family on November 2, 2011. He had congestive heart failure.
Keith served a distinguished and fulfilling career as a clandestine operations officer and senior executive for the Central Intelligence Agency. His assignments included two-year tours of duty in Uruguay, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico and at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He also served his country building Liberty Ships and A-20B bombers, and as a soldier and Infantry 2nd Lieutenant in the European theater in World War II.
Born September 27, 1923, in Rupert, Idaho, Keith was the oldest of four children born to Stella and Vao Schofield. Keith majored in Russian at Brigham Young University and graduated from Harvard Law School. While attending law school, Keith was introduced to his future wife, Phyllis Sheldon, by his friends from Rupert, Idaho who met Phyllis, a Massachusetts native, during a youth bicycle tour of Europe. They were married in Bedford, Massachusetts and sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple. Early in his career, Keith worked as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Idaho and twice waged spirited campaigns for U.S. Congress.
Keith was a faithful and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He served a mission in Argentina and, after retiring, served another mission with his wife, Phyllis, in Spain. He was a Temple ordinance worker and sealer; a counselor to mission presidents in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Spain; and a Branch President eight times, including at the Provo Missionary Training Center. Keith authored a book entitled Biography of Mormon: Mormon, Divine Genius of the Book of Mormon.
Keith will be remembered for his determination, idealism and energetic advocacy for the causes he believed in. He inspired his family with a love for travel, history and service. His enormous personal library, which he packed up and shipped numerous times during the family's international moves, demonstrated his genuine love for books and ideas. His favorite topics were religion, history and politics. Keith's discipline kept him in excellent physical condition - he won metals in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard dashes in several Senior Olympic Games despite undergoing a 7-artery bypass operation two decades earlier.
Keith is survived by his beloved wife, Phyllis; brother, Lyle; three children, Ann Lindsay (John), Robert, and Charity Dahl (Alex); and three treasured grandchildren, Heather Nakken (Brandon), Laura Basilius (Jacob), and John. He is preceded in death by his parents and his siblings Vaona McBride and Gary Schofield. [SaltLakeTribune/4November2011]

Margaret E. Straub. A retired Senior National Clandestine Service case officer passed away peacefully on October 27, 2011 following a brief illness and surrounded by family friends and colleagues. Margaret was a consummate professional and operations officer dedicated to the mission of the CIA. She was the daughter of a veteran of the Office of Strategic Services and career CIA officer and joined the Ops Ranks at a time when the DO remained mostly a male preserve. She earned the respect of her colleagues in the demanding world of running Clandestine Operations in some very difficult and dangerous foreign environments. Margaret is survived by a brother Kenneth s research scientist residing in California. Friends may call at the MURPHY FUNERAL HOME of ARLINGTON, 4510 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22203 on Thursday, November 3 from 2 to 3 p.m. with a Celebration of Life ceremony at 3 p.m. [WashingtonPost/31October2011]

Books

The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA by Richard Holm. Other than the long hours and the weekends, the continuous sniping from the public, the continuous sniping from the U.S. Congress, the perils of pissing off the wrong person, being constantly under the microscope, often in a place on Earth that most of us know only from our history and geography lessons, and the fact that you stand a fair chance of getting killed while simply doing your job, Richard Holm, in his memoir The Craft We Chose, makes the Central Intelligence Agency sound like an idyllic life. Oh yeah, and you have to always lie about where you work.

This story pulls you in before the book begins, in the foreword, as told by a doctor at the foremost Burn Treatment Center in the U.S., where Holm was medevacked to from the Congo. The first words that doctor heard from Holm were, "I got out of there." Immediately followed by, "I have a briefcase, please take custody of it." The story ends over 30 years later when Holm, who was repeatedly given performance awards and top ratings, including promotions to the loftiest strata of CIA-dom, and the highest award the CIA can give, is hung out to dry.

Holm's time in the CIA took him from the early days in Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, to the Congo, to Hong Kong, to Europe, and finally back to CIA headquarters, with many other places in between. When Holm left the U.S. the first time, CIA HQ was in what were called the 'tempos,' temporary, rat- and bug-infested wooden office buildings constructed in the area on the National Mall in Washington, DC. When he returned for his final tour of duty, CIA HQ was located in its present location in Langley, Virginia, and he had been subjected to a dozen different directors, some best forgotten. [Read more: Novacheck/BCBooks/30October2011]

New Book Disputes Obama Administration's Account of Bin Laden Raid. A new book based on a series of interviews with the Navy SEALs involved in the mission to kill Osama bin Laden claims to directly contradict the Obama administration's depiction of the operation, The Washington Examiner reported Friday.

"SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden," by former SEAL commander Chuck Pfarrer, claims to tell the true story of the successful raid to kill the terror chief on May 2.

According to a press release, the book takes "readers on the helicopter flight over the wall that leads deep into the terrorist lair and describing what it looked, sounded and smelled like as the bullets flew."

The book also takes issue with the Obama administration's characterization of the mission.

"In a hasty effort to claim victory and make political haste, administration aides changed their stories several times," the release said. "Their leaks made SEAL Team Six look ineffective and clumsy." [Read more: WashingtonExaminer/1November2011]

CIA History of DCI William Colby Finally Qualifies as "Non-Secret". CIA director William Colby rebuffed criticisms from senior Agency operators about disclosure of CIA misdeeds by describing the difference between "bad secrets," "non-secrets," "good secrets" and "lesser" secrets, according to a previously SECRET internal CIA history of the Colby tenure, published today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org).

Colby responded in March 1974 to the head of the CIA's clandestine service, who claimed that any public discussion would "degrade the fabric of our security" and "lead inevitably to a further exposure of intelligence sources and methods," by writing:

"There are some 'bad secrets' which are properly revealed by an aggressive press. there are some older 'non-secrets' which no longer need to be kept secret and which we should gradually surface, but there are some 'good secrets' which deserve greater protection than we have been able to give them, in part by reason of their association with 'secrets' of lesser importance."

The latest declassification (in August 2011) from a series of secret studies by the CIA History Staff of the agency's directors, the volume gains credibility from its authorship by veteran CIA analyst and operative Harold Ford, who courageously presented to the Congress well-documented internal critiques of CIA director-designate Robert Gates during his confirmation hearings in 1991. To win confirmation, Gates had to promise Congress not to fire Ford in retaliation. The history, William Colby as Director of Central Intelligence, 1973-1976, provides detailed accounts of key episodes such as the firing of counterintelligence chief James Angleton, Colby's role in the revelation of the CIA "family jewels," and the collapse of South Vietnam, where Colby had spent much of his career.

The posting features an introduction and review written by Archive senior fellow John Prados, author of the widely-praised biography, William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster (University Press of Kansas, 2009). The favorable Prados review points out some shortcomings as well, including the history's lack of attention to Colby's fraught relationships with Presidents Nixon and Ford, and most of all, Henry Kissinger. Declassified Kissinger transcripts show Kissinger fuming about Colby's airing of the CIA's dirty laundry, but Prados concludes that Colby in effect saved the CIA from possible abolition as an agency. [Read more: TheNationalSecurityArchive/28October2011]

The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War. In the 1950s, U.S. foreign policy makers and intelligence agencies faced a momentous choice: Should America, as former OSS officer Jim Thompson believed, fight the Cold War by helping other nations build democratic, capitalistic futures while preserving and strengthening their traditional cultures? Or would it be more practical, as Thompson's old OSS buddy Bill Bird argued, to help local strongmen seize power and prop them up with financial and military aid in return for their staunch anticommunism and the establishment of American military bases on their soil? History makes two things perfectly clear - America chose the latter course, and anyone who disagreed with that choice, including Jim Thompson, was in serious danger.

In The Ideal Man, journalist and Southeast Asia expert Joshua Kurlantzick tells the compelling and tragic story of an OSS officer posted to Thailand in 1945 who fell in love with that then-remote nation and made it his home. Through this powerful lens, Kurlantzick offers insight into a pivotal moment in Cold War history that set a course for American foreign policy that is still being followed today.

Kurlantzick reveals that, as a civilian, Thompson epitomized all that was best about postwar America. This former society dilettante quickly discovered the disappearing Thai cottage industry of silk farming and weaving and rebuilt it into a vast new source of wealth for the nation and thousands of its workers. But Jim Thompson was leading a double life.

Thanks to his growing business, his passion for his new home, and his innate curiosity, Thompson had access to people and places that no other American could equal. He quickly became the go-to man for agents of the newly formed CIA. But he made no secret of his support for nationalist fighters in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, or his opposition to America's increasing military presence and support of Thai generals. Soon, he and Bill Bird found themselves on opposite sides in coups, congressional investigations, and what was, at the time, America's largest-ever covert operation.

Thompson's very public opposition to what had become established American policy earned him plenty of enemies, especially among Thai generals. His disappearance in 1967 became an international mystery that has fostered decades of speculation.

Bristling with thorny insider tales of OSS and CIA exploits, political gamesmanship, and international intrigue, The Ideal Man is ideal reading for anyone who loves history, spy stories, and behind-the-scenes accounts of how diplomatic policy decisions are made - for better or worse. [Read more: Wiley/November2011]

Angleton and the CIA Revisited. Edward Jay Epstein has written at least two books that arise out of his relationship with James Jesus Angleton, the original CIA head of counterintelligence. Ed has drawn on these books to write the new ebook James Jesus Angleton: Was He Right? Ed explains:

Angleton was the first head of CIA counterintelligence and, for me, an enduring enigma. He was by far the most interesting and challenging person I ever interviewed in the American government. His intellectual construct of the world of espionage caused such discomfort in the intelligence community that he was fired on Christmas Eve on 1974, and his reputation was systematically trashed by leaks that portrayed him as paranoid. What interests me now that the evidence emerged after his death in 1987 that showed he was right about the vulnerability of US intelligence on three counts: First, KGB moles had penetrated deeply into the CIA and FBI; second, the KGB had the ability to sustain these moles for many years (Robert Hanssen was a mole for 22 years); third, and most important, the inability of the CIA to accept its own vulnerability allowed the KGB to convert it into a channel of disinformation.

Ed has now posted an excerpt from his book that should be of interest to those concerned about the vulnerability of US intelligence. Please check it out. [Read more: Johnson/Powerline/21October2011]

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in November, December, and beyond, 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.

Wednesday, 9 November 2011, 11:30AM - Scottsdale, AZ - AFIO Arizona hosts Dr. Timothy Rodgers on "Covert Operations"

Dr. Timothy Rodgers, Director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art & Claire C .Carter, Assistant Curator
“Covert Operations: contemporary artists investigating the known unknowns”
Dr. Timothy Rodgers, Director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and Claire C. Carter, Assistant Curator, will present six contemporary artists whose artwork considers illegal extradition flights, governmental archives, border and immigration sites, military and reconnaissance satellites, cryptology and terrorist profiling. At the heart of their art practices, these artists often use traditional research methods including the Freedom of Information Act to collect and reveal unreported information. Dr. Rodgers and Ms. Carter will examine their complex artworks and their (often) ambiguous conclusions.
The artists presented will include Thomas Demand, Trevor Paglen, Jim Sanborn, Taryn Simon, David Taylor and Kerry Tribe.
Location: McCormick Ranch Golf Course, 7505 McCormick Pky, Scottsdale AZ 85258
RSVP no later than 72 hours ahead of time, and if you register but do not show up you will be charged for the uncanceled meal. Please respond to this email to confirm your presence (or not).
Fees: $20 for AFIO members; $22 for guests; $25 for AFIO Members with NO RSVPs as per the requested date; All NO SHOWS or last minute cancellations will be charged for the lunch before they can attend future events.
For reservations or questions, please email ON OR BEFORE September 12, 2011 Simone simone@4smartphone.net or simone@afioaz.org or call and leave a message on 602.570.6016

Saturday, 12 November 2011, 11 am - 3 pm - Orange Park, FL - AFIO North Florida meeting features Col Will Merrill, speaking on Heroes of 9/11.
This meeting’s special guest and speaker will be Colonel Will G. Merrill, Jr., U.S. Army (Retired) who was to have spoken at our cancelled August meeting. A native of Ashland, Wisconsin, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in the Class of 1958. He will be speaking about his many and diverse Army experiences, and has recently authored a book on the Heros of 9/11.
Cost: $16 pp.
RSVP and inquiries to: qbegonia@comcast.net

Tuesday, 15 November 2011, Noon to 1 pm - Washington, DC - "Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA" - Nada Prouty speaks at the Spy Museum

After a childhood in war-torn Lebanon with an abusive father and facing the prospect of an arranged marriage, Nada Prouty jumped at the chance to forge her own path in America, a path that led to undercover work in the FBI, then the CIA. She worked quietly and professionally behind the scenes of some of the most high-profile cases in recent history, including the hunt for Saddam Hussein and the bombing of the USS Cole. Her work earned her great respect from her colleagues but her promising career came to an end in the wake of 9/11. At the height of anti-Arab fervor, federal investigators charged Prouty with passing intelligence to Hezbollah. Lacking sufficient evidence to make their case in court, prosecutors went to the media, suggesting that she had committed treason. Prouty, dubbed “Jihad Jane” by the New York Post and castigated in the blogosphere, was quickly cast as a terrorist mastermind by the relentless 24-hour news cycle. Though the CIA and a federal judge eventually exonerated Prouty of all charges, she was dismissed from the agency and stripped of her citizenship. In Uncompromised, Prouty tells her story in a bid to restore her name and reputation.
Tickets: Free. No registration required. Directions and more information available at: www.spymuseum.org

Tuesday, 15 November 2011, Noon - 1 p.m. - Washington, DC - The Vietnam War From The Rear Echelon: An Intelligence Officer's Memoir, 1972-1973 - at the International Spy Museum

Military intelligence officer Timothy Lomperis served in the headquarters of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) during some of the most dramatic days of the Vietnam War: the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive, the Christmas Bombings and the Paris Peace Talks. He and his comrades were deeply involved in trying to devise and implement military strategies while caught between the political imperatives of Washington and the deteriorating military situation on the ground. In his new book, Lomperis assesses the strengths and weaknesses of American intelligence in Vietnam and details the intense debates over the use and targeting of the prime U.S. weapon remaining in the war, the notorious B-52 bomber. He will discuss his participation in a secret mission designed to end the war until it was thwarted by a shocking interruption and his own gradual disillusionment that ultimately resolved itself into peaceful reconciliation.
Tickets: Free. No registration required. For more information visit www.spymuseum.org

Tuesday, 15 November 2011, 5:30 - 8:30 pm - Washington, DC - CIA Officer/author Richard Holm [The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA], many others, at The National Press Club's Book Fair & Author's Night

A large number of authors will be present at the annual NPC Book Fair held in the club's ballroom, 13th floor of the National Press Building, 14th and F Sts NW in Washington. Admission is free to club members and $5.00 for non-members. All are welcome, and all proceeds benefit the club's library and journalism programs.
Among the 80 authors selected to sign books and meet attendees, in addition to Dick Holm with "The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA"; will be Nada Prouty with her "Uncompromised: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of an Arab American Patriot in the CIA"; and Ronald Kessler with his "The Secrets of the FBI"; Pamela Constable with "Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself"; and Joby Warrick with his chilling account of "The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA."
More info at: http://press.org/library/book-fair/authors-and-books.
Attendance is only $5 for a serious book feast.

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.

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) no later than October 29, 2011 at afiosf@aol.com and mail a check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, P.O. Box 117578, Burlingame, CA 94011

Thursday, 17 November 2011, 11:30 am - Mount Vernon, VA - Defense Intel Alumni Association Fall Luncheon and Meeting

LTG Michael T. Flynn, USA, keynote speaker. Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Partner Engagement
Views of a Leading Intelligence Officer. Hear the latest from DIA.
Following the luncheon DIAA will hold their annual business meeting
and elections.
RSVP: DIAA, Inc., Attn: Luncheon, 256 Morris Creek Road, Cullen, Virginia 23934
Checks payable to DIAA, Inc., by 10 November 2011 $30.00 for current members/guests
$35.00 for non members/guests
Location: Mount Vernon Inn, 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy, Mount Vernon, VA. Questions to: Don Mathis, DIAA Membership/Outreach, 703-619-1630 or email him at dlmathis@gmail.com

Friday, 18 November 2011, 4:30 pm - Washington, DC - STALIN’S SPIES: FROM PARIS TO THE GULAG at the International Spy Museum

The Soviet Union’s very own James Bond, Dimitri Bystrolyotov, was one of the greatest Soviet Spies of all time. Dimitri was a sailor, doctor, lawyer and artist recruited by Stalin for his dashing good looks and ease with languages to seduce secrets from willing targets during the 1920s and 30s. However, after falling out of Stalin’s favor, Dimitri was sentenced to the Gulag for 16 years. In this behind-the-scenes event you will see powerful artifacts from Bystrolyotov’s life in the Gulag donated by his family, meet the Museum’s Historian and Collections Manager, and hear from a panel of top experts on the subject of Stalin’s spies: Prof. Emil Draitser, author of Stalin’s Romeo Spy, on Bystrolyotov; journalist and author Stephen Schwartz on NKVD Recruitment of intellectuals; and Prof. Susan Weissman on Marc Zborowski, who spied on Trotskyites in France and the United States. Finally, hear commentary from Peter Katel of Congressional Quarterly who will recount his parents’ encounter with one of these spies. This special afternoon concludes as speakers, staff, and guests continue the discussion over drinks with complementary light appetizers just around the corner at Riot Act Comedy Theater.

Tickets: Free. Space is limited. Register online at www.spymuseum.org

19 November 2011 - Melbourne, FL - The AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter luncheon features Gen John Cleland on "Radical Islam."

Major General John Cleland (Ret.) speaks on "Radical Islam." Lunch will be at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club. For further information, contact Donna Czarnecki at donnacz@aol.com.

19 November 2011, 2 pm - Kennebunk, ME - Espionage 101: Richard L. Holm, CIA operations officer with 32 years experience in the field and at CIA headquarters, will be guest speaker at this meeting of the Maine Chapter of AFIO. After mastering a number of mentally and physically challenging training courses including the Army's Jungle Operations Training School at Fort Sheridan, he was sent to Laos where he worked with the Hmong disrupting traffic on the Ho Chi Minh trail. While assigned to the Republic of Congo in 1965, Holm's plane crashed on a reconnaisance mission resulting in burns over 35 percent of his body, leaving him helpless and temporarily blinded with his eyelids seared shut. Holm credits his survival to care he received from a native tribesman who cleaned off burned skin and insects before applying a mysterious poultice which prevented dehydration and infection. Meanwhile a rescue team walked 100 miles through enemy territory to extricate him and bring him back to the U.S. for treatment.
After a lengthy hospitalization and rehabilitation, Holm resumed his CIA career going on to serve in Kuala Lampur and running agents into China from Hong Kong. In 1982 Holm was asked to take charge of the Counter Terrorist Group. As he continued to rise through the ranks his travels took him to seven countries and three continents in wide ranging assignments before ending his distinguished career in Paris.
Holm is the recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, CIA's highest award, and author of "The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA".
To learn more you need to be at the Brick Store Museum Program Center, 2 Dane St, Kennebunk, ME at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 19, 2011. Bring a friend. For information call 207-967-4298

30 November - 1 December 2011 - Fairfax, VA - NMIA Fall 2011 National Intelligence Symposium

The theme of this event is: "Intelligence / Information For Small Unit Operations". Small units have been and may increasingly be the foremost U.S. National Security direct action tool. Taking down high-profile terrorists, conducting counterinsurgency engagements, SWAT Team deployments, first responders and fighting fires - - small units have unique and dynamic intelligence / information needs. Yet while they are at the pointy-end of the spear; they are also at the end of the last mile. What do they need? Are they getting it? How can it be improved? The NMIA Symposium features an array of distinguished experts; let by the invited Keynote, LTG Michael Flynn, US Army; who recently led U.S. intelligence efforts in Afghanistan. Location: Northrup Grumman, Fairfax, Virginia
Register at https://nmia.site-ym.com/events/register.asp?id=186505

1-2 December 2011 - Washington, DC - 21st Annual Review of the Field of National Security Law
Event is co-sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security, the Center for National Security Law, Univ of VA Sch of Law; Center on Law, Ethics, and National Security, Duke Univ Sch of Law; and the Center on National Security and the Law, Georgetown Law.
Location: Ritz Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd St NW, Washington DC.
NOTE: You must reserve your room by November 18 to receive the special ABA Conference Rate of $269 Single/Double/or
prevailing Government Rate. Please be advised that after November 18, hotel rates go up significantly. Contact the Hotel
directly by calling 202/974-5570 or 1-800/558-9994 and mention the "ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security
21st Annual Review of the Field of National Security."
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION – REGISTER BY NOVEMBER 18 AND SAVE!!
www.americanbar.org/natsecurity

Thursday, 8 December 2011, 10:30 am - 2 pm - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO Winter Luncheon - Speaker: John D. Bennett, Director, National Clandestine Service, CIA and J.M. Berger, author of JIHAD JOE: Americans Who Go To War In The Name of Islam

Speaker: John D. Bennett, Director, National Clandestine Service, CIA, OFF THE RECORD, and morning speaker J.M. Berger, author of JIHAD JOE: Americans Who Go To War In The Name of Islam. Location: Crowne Plaza, Tysons Corner, VA Register here.

8 December 2011, 6 - 9 pm - New York, NY - The AFIO NY Metro Chapter meeting features Jim Rasenberger on "The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs"

Jim Rasenberger, Author: "THE BRILLIANT DISASTER: JFK, CASTRO AND AMERICA'S DOOMED INVASION OF CUBA'S BAY OF PIGS" April 17, 1961 "How could we have been so stupid" remarked one administration official. Did this "doomed invasion" contribute to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the assassination of President Kennedy? LOCATION: "3 West Club" 3 West 51st Street, Manhattan.

6:00 PM Registration 6:30 PM Meeting Start Please Note this Time Change from our usual start. Buffet Dinner Cash Bar COST: $40/person. Cash or Check, payable at the door only.
REGISTER: Strongly suggested, not required. Seating is limited.
Email: afiometro@yahoo.com or telephone Jerry Goodwin 347-334-1503.

Tuesday, 13 December 2011 - MacDill AFB, FL - The AFIO Florida Suncoast Chapter luncheon features Karla Stevenson on Afghanistan-Pakistan.

Stevenson is Coordinator, Analytic Outreach & Strategic Relationships Afghanistan-Pakistan Center, U.S. Central Command
Location: MacDill AFB Surf's Edge Club, 7315 Bayshore Blvd, MacDill AFB, FL 33621. Please RSVP no later than Tuesday, December 6, for
yourself and include the names of any guests. Email or call the Chapter Secretary at Michael F. Shapiro mfshapiro@att.net

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

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