Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Iran, Perceiving Threat from West, Willing to Attack on U.S. Soil, U.S. Intelligence Report Finds. U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States in response to perceived threats from America and its allies, the U.S. spy chief said Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in prepared testimony that an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington that was uncovered last year reflects an aggressive new willingness within the upper ranks of the Islamist republic to authorize attacks against the United States.

That plot "shows that some Iranian officials - probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime," Clapper said in the testimony, which was submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee in advance of a threat assessment hearing Tuesday. "We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas."

The assessment signals a potentially dire new direction in the adversarial relationship between the United States and Iran, at a time when there are indications that a covert campaign is already underway to thwart Iran's alleged ambition to develop a nuclear weapons.

Clapper's warning about Iran was delivered as part of the U.S. intelligence community's annual overview of the nation's most serious national security concerns. As the hearing got underway, Clapper signaled that the United States is seeking to avoid a violent confrontation with Iran, instead pushing for more and more sanctions and also monitoring the possibility of a preemptive strike by Israel.

"Our hope is that the sanctions...would have the effect of inducing a change in Iranian policy toward their apparent pursuit of a nuclear capability," Clapper said. "Obviously this is a very sensitive issue right now. We're doing a lot with the Israelis."

Clapper's testimony also calls attention to a heightened concern over cyber-related threats, as well as the diminished but persistent danger to the United States posed by al-Qaeda.

This year's assessment is the first to evaluate al-Qaeda's capabilities since Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. commando raid in May. That blow, combined with the toll taken by subsequent strikes and raids, has destroyed al-Qaeda's core.

As a result, Clapper said in the testimony, the United States is entering a "critical transitional phase for the terrorist threat," in which smaller-bore strikes from regional nodes are more likely than elaborate, mass-casualty plots. [Read more: Miller/WashingtonPost/31January2012]

U.S. Spies to Rely More on Allies Due to Budget Austerity. U.S. intelligence agencies will rely increasingly on international allies for information sharing as budgets tighten in the current climate of austerity, a senior intelligence official said on Thursday.

"Our dependency on our allies ... is going to grow," Defense Intelligence Agency Deputy Director David Shedd said. He was speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum on information sharing.

The federal government is in belt-tightening mode and President Barack Obama is expected to release his 2013 budget proposal on February 13.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in October said he had proposed to the White House "double-digit" budget cuts in intelligence programs over 10 years.

"In the context of budget austerity, I think the concept certainly worth considering is burden sharing, where we look at another country to have primacy on a collection and potentially in areas of analysis," Shedd said.

He would not name specific foreign allies but said while the United States has a global presence on intelligence, it might not have the depth in certain areas that another country might. [Read more: Zakaria/Reuters/26January2012]

DARPA-Funded Hacker's Tiny $50 Spy Computer Hides In Offices, Drops From Drones. Even more embarrassing than a student discovering your GPS tracking device on his car, as the FBI found out last year, is having to ask him to give the expensive piece of equipment back.

So security researcher Brendan O'Connor is trying a different approach to spy hardware: building a sensor-equipped surveillance-capable computer that's so cheap it can be sacrificed after one use, with off-the-shelf parts that anyone can buy and assemble for less than fifty dollars.

At the Shmoocon security conference Friday in Washington D.C., O'Connor plans to present the F-BOMB, or Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors. Built from just the hardware in a commercially-available PogoPlug mini-computer, a few tiny antennae, eight gigabytes of flash memory and some 3D-printed plastic casing, the F-BOMB serves as 3.5 by 4 by 1 inch spy computer. And O'Connor has designed the cheap gadgets to dropped from a drone, plugged inconspicuously into a wall socket, thrown over a barrier, or otherwise put into irretrievable positions to quietly collect data and send it back to the owner over any available Wifi network. With PogoPlugs currently on sale at Amazon for $25, O'Connor built his prototypes with gear that added up to just $46 each.

"If some target is surrounded by bad men with guns, you don't want to have to retrieve this, but you also don't want to have to pay four or five hundred dollars for every use," says O'Connor. "The idea is that it's as close to free as possible. So you can throw a bunch of these sensors at a target and get away with losing a couple nodes in the process."

Homemade as it may look, the F-BOMB is more than a hacker hobby. O'Connor says his one-man security consultancy Malice Afterthought received a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract earlier this month to develop the devices as part of the Cyber Fast Track program, which awards small sums to inventors. [Read more: Greenberg/Forbes/27January2012]

Panetta Credits Pakistani Doctor in Bin Laden Raid. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has confirmed publicly for the first time that an imprisoned doctor in Pakistan was working with the C.I.A. to gain access to Osama bin Laden's compound in the months before American troops killed Bin Laden last May. 

Mr. Panetta, in an interview on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" to be broadcast Sunday, also said he believed that some officials in Pakistan knew that Bin Laden was hiding in the sprawling Abbottabad compound that was encircled with walls 18 feet high. CBS released excerpts from the interview on Saturday.

"It was the largest compound in the area," Mr. Panetta said. "So, you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, 'What the hell's going on there?' "

Mr. Panetta said that his beliefs were based on a hunch rather than any hard evidence, and American officials have said privately that the cache of electronic files seized at Bin Laden's compound contain no proof that Pakistani authorities were protecting Bin Laden.

Still, Mr. Panetta, who was the director of the C.I.A. when the raid occurred, said that one of the reasons the Obama administration did not notify Pakistan's government before the Navy Seal raid last May was that American spy agencies had previously spotted Pakistani military helicopters flying over the compound and were concerned that Pakistani authorities might tip off Bin Laden.

Mr. Panetta is the first American official to publicly confirm that a Pakistani doctor imprisoned by Pakistan's intelligence service in the days after the Bin Laden raid had been working for the C.I.A., collecting intelligence in Abbottabad. [Read more: Mazzetti/NYTimes/28January2012]

U.S. Weapons for Future Include Key Relics. The lineup of weapons the Pentagon has picked to fit President Barack Obama's new forward-looking defense strategy, called "Priorities for 21st Century Defense," features relics of the past.

They include the Air Force's venerable B-52 bomber, whose current model entered service shortly before Obama was born. There is the even older U-2 spy plane, which began flying in 1955 and burst into the spotlight in May 1960 when Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union.

When Obama went to the Pentagon on Jan. 5 to announce his new defense strategy, he said that as the U.S. shifts from a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, it will "get rid of outdated Cold War-era systems." He was not specific. But when the first details of the Pentagon's 2013 budget plan were announced Thursday, it was clear that some prominent remaining Cold War-era "systems" will live on.

That includes not just the B-52 bomber and the U-2 spy plane, but also the foundation of U.S. nuclear deterrence strategy: a "triad" of nuclear weapons that can be launched from land, sea and air. That concept, credited by many for preventing nuclear conflict throughout the Cold War, is now seen by some arms control experts as the kind of outdated structure that the United States can afford to get rid of.

Some think the U.S. should do away with at least one leg of that "triad," perhaps the bomber role. That would not just save money and clear the way for larger reductions in the number of U.S. nuclear weapons - an Obama goal in line with his April 2009 pledge to seek the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said recently that maintaining the current structure of U.S. nuclear forces was "not in keeping with the modern world." He and like-minded lawmakers argue that nuclear weapons play no role in deterring threats such as global terrorists.

The U.S. now has about 5,000 operational nuclear weapons, about half as many as a decade ago. They can be launched from ballistic missile submarines, from underground silos housing intercontinental ballistic missiles, and from B-52 and B-2 bombers at air bases in Louisiana, North Dakota and Missouri. [Read more: Burns/AP/28January2012]

Shakeup at CIA. CIA Director David H. Petraeus recently replaced the agency's director of support, a senior manager who also runs the agency's massive worldwide logistics, including the security office.

The support directorate is facing sharp cuts in funding and personnel that are causing concerns among some in the agency.

According to agency sources, Mr. Petraeus, a retired Army four-star general, took the action last month and replaced John Pereira by moving him to a new training position called chief of corporate learning.

His replacement is agency veteran Sue Gordon, who has upset some people in the support directorate and security office who view her as having little experience in the very secret world of CIA security affairs.

The shake-up followed internal reviews that showed the support directorate - built up over the past decade to bolster CIA and military activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere - was a cash cow and that its funding and personnel could be cut as part of overall government budget trimming efforts, the sources said.

Mrs. Gordon, who officials said is married to a CIA manager, was selected for the security director post by Mr. Petraeus.

"She is wearing four stars now and apparently there is panic at the DS," one official said of the support directorate.

CIA spokesman Preston Golson said criticism by unidentified sources is deplorable.

"The former head of support is a decorated officer who Director Petraeus has trusted with one of his highest priorities for the workforce - he is Chief of Corporate Learning," he told Inside the Ring. "The claim that he was pushed out for mismanagement is just not true. Under his leadership, the Directorate of Support has led the charge in getting our people to difficult places around the world to defend our nation."

Regarding Mrs. Gordon, Mr. Golson said she is "an accomplished officer with over two decades of experience leading in all four agency directorates. She is an innovative and dynamic leader, and unattributed claims to the contrary are ridiculous."

Regarding cuts, he said: "As any American taxpayer should rightly expect, the agency is always working to increase efficiencies and savings, while completing the mission expected of us."

Meanwhile, the sources said Mr. Petraeus was upset by several senior agency officials who did not properly keep him informed about the recent controversy over the CIA intelligence liaison with the New York Police Department (NYPD). [Read more: Gertz/WashingtonTimes/25January2012]

Lockheed Martin Honors Pioneers of Recently Declassified National Reconnaissance Satellites. Pioneers of the highly successful Gambit and Hexagon legacy reconnaissance systems recently unveiled by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) were honored during a Jan. 24 ceremony at Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif. 

Gambit and Hexagon followed Corona, the nation's first photo reconnaissance satellite system to return an image from space successfully. All three programs were built by industry teams under contract to the NRO with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company as the satellite system integrator. These programs provided vital national security information from 1960 until 1986. 

Approximately 400 former employees involved in some aspect of Hexagon and Gambit and their guests attended the ceremony which featured displays and videos highlighting spacecraft production, launch and technical capabilities including actual Earth imagery. Speakers included Bruce Carlson, director of the NRO, and Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

In his remarks, Carlson expressed his gratitude to the entire Lockheed Martin team for their contributions to national security: "Without this vital work, we would not have had the search, surveillance, and mapping capabilities that provided the high resolution imagery that gave our nation's decision makers the ability to deal with our adversaries from a position of strength."

"The successes achieved by the Hexagon and Gambit teams built upon the Corona legacy to deliver unprecedented mission capabilities and longevity," said Maguire. "We are enormously proud of our role in providing these vitally important remote sensing assets to the nation." [Read more: PRNewswire/25January2012]

CBO Says Federal Employees Rake in Much More Pay. Buoyed by generous benefit packages, federal workers earn significantly better compensation than similarly educated workers in the private sector, according to a report released Monday from Congress' chief scorekeeper that threatens to reignite at the national level last year's state battles over public-employee rights.

Overall, federal workers earn 16 percent more in total compensation - including wages and benefits - than comparable private-sector employees, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Only private-sector workers with the highest levels of education, such as doctors and lawyers, earn more than their public counterparts.

The finding is incendiary at a time when Republicans in Congress are fighting for a freeze on federal worker salaries and the Obama administration is balking, arguing that after two years of freezes, it's time to ramp up pay.

The CBO said federal workers do better in wages at the low education end, are about equal in the middle, and fall behind the private sector at the top end.

But the key difference is in benefits, where federal workers average more than $20 per hour in compensation - 48 percent higher than the $13.60 in prorated hourly benefits in the private sector. Added together, CBO said, that means significantly higher pay for government employees.

"For workers at all education levels, the cost of total compensation averaged about $52 per hour worked for federal employees, compared with about $45 per hour worked for employees in the private sector with certain similar observable characteristics," CBO analysts said in their report. [Read more: Dinan/WashingtonTimes/30January/2012]

2 More Russian Diplomats Return Home. CTV News has learned that two more Russian diplomats have left Canada in the wake of an espionage scandal involving a junior Canadian naval officer.

Sources say a defence attach� in Ottawa and a consulate worker in Toronto have been sent back to Russia. The Russian embassy says they left simply because their contracts had ended.

Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle, 40, was charged two weeks ago with leaking information to a "foreign entity" and breach of trust.

He is also charged under the Criminal Code with a breach of trust by a public officer.

Shortly after Delisle's arrest, four Russian embassy staff were sent back home. Moscow denied their return had anything to do with the espionage allegations.

The Canadian military then relocated some staff at its East Coast intelligence centre out of precaution. [Read more: CTVNews/30January2012]

US Intelligence Expects NKorea Under New Leader to Attempt More Exports of Weapons Technology. U.S. intelligence expects North Korea's new young leader Kim Jong Un to continue Pyongyang's policy of attempting to export its weapon systems.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that the North's export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to countries including Iran and Syria illustrated the reach of its proliferation activities.

He also cited North Korea's assistance to Syria in building a nuclear reactor, destroyed by Israel in 2007.

Clapper said it was too early to assess the extent of Kim's authority. Kim took power after his father died in December. [Read more: AP/31January2012]

WikiLeaks Scandal Sparks US Intelligence Reform. The WikiLeaks document dump, which saw hundreds of thousands of classified US files leaked, rattled US intelligence officials, forcing them to implement reforms to prevent another such breach.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, said changes were being put in place over the next five years that would create a new security "architecture," making it infinitely harder to disclose America's secrets.

The "terrible event," which saw sensitive US diplomatic and military cables exposed for public scrutiny, "caused us to make some changes," Clapper told a Washington think-tank, acknowledging the "challenge" ahead.

"We have to do more to protect data and ensure that the information we are giving is actually going to an authorized recipient," he said.

Chief among the changes are improvements in "labeling," and digital "tagging" of diplomatic cables, Clapper said during remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

At the same time, he said, US officials are eager to ensure information that is intended to be shared can be disseminated without major additional hurdles.

Clapper added that the effort aims to protect US secrets not only from outside enemies, but from actors with the system who do not have specific authorization to distribute sensitive US cables and files.

"Frankly we always had responsibility for detecting insider threats. What WikiLeaks has obviously done is heighten our sensitivity about that," he said. [Read more: Valery/AFP/27January2012]

Top U.S. Spies to Face Grilling on Taliban, Iran Talks. The possible release of detained Taliban leaders is likely to join Iran's nuclear ambitions at the top of a busy agenda when the top seven American intelligence chiefs testify before the Congress this week.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper -- as well as the heads of the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Counterterrorism Center and State and Homeland Security department intelligence units -- will be grilled on "worldwide threats" at a pair of open hearings.

The hearings -- before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday and its House of Representatives counterpart on Thursday -- are an annual ritual. But they offer a rare opportunity for legislators publicly to raise sensitive national security topics that are usually discussed only in secret briefings.

Lawmakers have expressed concern about the Obama administration's efforts to engage in peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, including consideration of the release of five Taliban leaders incarcerated at Guantanamo as a "confidence building" gesture, sources close to the committee said.

Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week that he and the panel's Democratic chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, had twice written to the Obama administration "raising strong objections" to the proposed move, which purportedly would involve the release of the Taliban prisoners into Afghan government custody.

Chambliss said he and Feinstein first wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "We've gotten a response" from Clinton, he said, declining to discuss the classified contents of her letter.

But he hinted that Clinton's response did not mollify them, adding that he and Feinstein then wrote a second letter to President Barack Obama.

Chambliss said there was "every reason to believe" some of the five Taliban detainees were involved in the death of CIA officer Johnny Michael Spann during an uprising by Taliban prisoners at a fortress outside the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001.

"I think it's bad policy. We don't negotiate with terrorists. We never have," Chambliss said, calling the detainees "five of the meanest, nastiest killers in the world."

Two detainees slated for possible release, former senior Taliban army commanders Mohammed Fazl and Noorullah Noori, were held at the historic Qala-i-Jangi fortress outside Mazar-i-Sharif when the prison revolt erupted in 2001.

But a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, insisted earlier this month that he knew of no evidence that they were involved in the death of Spann, who was surrounded and killed by rioting prisoners. [Read more: Hosenball&Strobel/Reuters/30January2012]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

For CIA Family, a Deadly Suicide Bombing Leads to Painful Divisions. The call from the Central Intelligence Agency came on a December afternoon in 2009 while Gary Anderson was skiing with his three children. It's about your wife, the agency man said.

Standing inside Eagle Rock ski lodge in Pennsylvania, Anderson pleaded for details. The CIA official said simply: Where are you? We'll meet you.

Anderson suspected dreadful news about Jennifer Matthews, his college sweetheart, his wife of 22 years and a CIA operative on assignment almost 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan. With several hours until the CIA meeting, Anderson and his three children - then 12, 9 and 6 - hit the slopes for one more hour. The father wanted to cling a little longer to normalcy, to a life between before and after.

Finally, the Fredericksburg family got into their silver minivan and headed to a nearby motel. There, in a sterile conference room, CIA officials told Anderson the news: His wife, one of the CIA's top al-Qaeda experts, had just been killed in an explosion at a base in Khost province, in eastern Afghanistan. There was no mention of a double agent, no indication that six other CIA operatives had died in the deadliest attack on agency personnel in decades.

Anderson, who is commenting publicly on the loss of his wife for the first time, was so stunned that he couldn't formulate questions, except: Are you sure she's dead?

Then he summoned his children, who were waiting outside.

"I just said to them, 'Your mom has died.' The two oldest fell apart. They started crying," he remembered. "One of them asked, 'Is this really true?' I just kind of hugged them. And then the craziness started after that."

A Jordanian double agent's suicide bombing of the CIA base received days of media coverage. The CIA had been tricked into welcoming one of al-Qaeda's own onto the agency's base, enabling him to detonate a vest laden with explosives. On television, pundits and agency retirees called the incident a catastrophe, Langley's "Pearl Harbor." Initially, commentators did not utter Matthews's name, but they did describe the Khost base chief as a "mother of three." Anderson felt that his wife, however anonymously, was bearing all the blame.

Five months after her burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Matthews's name became public at a CIA ceremony honoring fallen employees.

Then, in October 2010, the CIA released results of the agency's internal investigation into the Khost attack, fueling another round of stories that Matthews was partially responsible. Matthews and her team, the report concluded, failed to follow the agency's procedures for vetting informants. One of Matthews's severest critics was her uncle, Dave Matthews, a retired CIA official who had helped inspire his niece to join the agency.

Now Anderson and other relatives who once agreed not to speak with the media are breaking their silence to talk about Matthews's life and death and about how her promotion to a perilous CIA posting has divided them. [Shapira/WashingtonPost/28January2012]

Questions for the Intelligence Community. According to Washington Post's Pincus, here are some questions he believes that members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence should ask the heads of the intelligence community when the panel meets Tuesday morning for Congress' first public assessment in 2012 of worldwide threats. Some are obvious, some clearly have no answer, some should not be answered, and others reflect more of a goading of the various heads (mainly Petraeus) than any serious quest for needed answers. But the source and nature of the questions is worth presenting to AFIO readers....

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is the only country where substantial numbers of U.S. forces are fighting. President Obama and the NATO coalition have set 2014 as the date for all foreign combat forces to withdraw and the Afghan army and police to take over security responsibilities.

In the December 2011 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan, the community opinion was that gains from the 2009 troop surge have been mitigated by continuing government incompetence and corruption and insurgents' ability to be resupplied from Pakistan sanctuaries. The apparent stalemate, if continued, endangers future stability as U.S. combat troops continue to depart, says the NIE.

The Afghan coalition commander, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker signed a dissent to the NIE's judgments, questioning the intelligence community assumptions about Taliban intentions, the capability of Afghan security forces and the speed of the U.S. withdrawal.

For CIA Director David H. Petraeus:

1. When you were Afghan commander you also had disagreements with intelligence community views of the fighting so what is your personal position today in this dispute?

2. What causes such differences and how should members of Congress and the public judge them?

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opposed negotiating with the Taliban and recently said the Afghan war would be ended only by "beating them."

The Taliban delegation has arrived in Qatar to man their political office, which the Obama administration hopes will lead to political talks with the Karzai government to end the fighting.

For Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr.:

1. Does this group represent all the Taliban insurgents?

2. Does it represent the Haqqani network, which has ties to al-Qaida?

3. Does the Pakistan Army's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence support the political negotiations?

4. Is it true that U.S. officials in Qatar are working out an arrangement with the Taliban delegation to move Taliban detainees from Guantanamo? [Read more: Pincus/WashingtonPost/30January2012]

Ex-C.I.A. Officer's Path From Terrorist Hunter to Defendant. In March 2002, John Kiriakou coordinated a team of fellow Central Intelligence Agency officers and Pakistani agents that descended upon a house in Pakistan where they believed they might find Abu Zubaydah, a high-level figure in Al Qaeda. 

Rushing into the house amid the bloody aftermath of a shootout, Mr. Kiriakou seized a heavily wounded man, photographed his ear, and used his cellphone to send the image to an analyst. "It's him," the analyst reported back after comparing the shape of the ear to file photographs of Abu Zubaydah.

Mr. Kiriakou, who recounted the episode in a 2010 memoir, and his colleagues had captured alive the first big target in the Qaeda hierarchy after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington - "one of the brightest moments of my professional life," he described it.

Now, Mr. Kiriakou is embroiled in another drama. The same government that a decade ago sent him to risk his life taking on Al Qaeda is now trying to send him to prison for as much as 30 years, charging him with disclosing classified information - the identity of two former colleagues who participated in interrogating detainees - to journalists.

Several friends said the C.I.A. this week abruptly fired his wife, who had worked as an analyst there since before the couple met; specifically, one said, she was called, while on maternity leave, and told her to submit her resignation. (The agency declined to comment.)

Mr. Kiriakou's lawyer Plato Cacheris said Tuesday that his client would plead not guilty, but could not discuss the matter. Friends and former colleagues say that Mr. Kiriakou is determined to fight the case.

The grandson of Greek immigrants, Mr. Kiriakou, 47, grew up in New Castle, in western Pennsylvania's steel country. His parents, both now dead, were elementary school teachers, and his father eventually became a principal, a childhood friend recalled.

The friend, Gary Senko, still lives in New Castle and has remained friends with Mr. Kiriakou; the two were in each other's weddings, he is the godfather of Mr. Kiriakou's daughter, and they text each other during Pittsburgh Steelers games. As a high school student, he said, Mr. Kiriakou played in the school band and was an honor student, taking an interest in politics and making clear that he had set his sights on the wider world.

"We joked that he was going to run for president some day," Mr. Senko recalled.

Mr. Kiriakou attended George Washington University on a partial scholarship, majoring in Middle Eastern Studies. He applied to the C.I.A. at the suggestion of a professor, Dr. Jerrold M. Post, who had served at the agency, according to Mr. Kiriakou's 2010 memoir, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the C.I.A.'s War on Terror."

He began as an analyst and learned Arabic, but eventually trained as an operations officer, working in Athens and the Middle East. [Read more: Savage/NYTimes/24January2012]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Obama's Lean, Mean SEAL Machine. Early last week, dozens of U.S. national-security officials received a set of classified PowerPoint slides. In October, Somali outlaws had taken two humanitarian-relief workers hostage, including an American woman, and now U.S. commandos were preparing to launch a rescue mission. Officials in Washington were scheduled to review the operation by secure video conference on Tuesday morning. But then word came that the secret meeting was being pushed up to late in the day on Monday. Why the urgency? There were growing concerns about the rapidly deteriorating health of Jessica Buchanan, the American aid worker. U.S. intelligence knew, for example, that her captors were not giving her the antibiotics needed to treat a medical condition she had. But military sources tell Newsweek that it was a separate piece of intelligence that made them decide to move quickly: something they could see. Using sophisticated surveillance techniques, possibly a drone, they were able to peer into the compound where the hostages were being held. They saw Buchanan doubled over in pain, according to two military sources briefed on the matter.

There was little time to lose. Late Monday evening, President Obama signed off on the operation, and hours later about two dozen Navy SEALs parachuted into the predawn darkness of the Somali hinterland. Once on the ground, they hiked for nearly two miles, then burst into the Somalis' encampment, killed all nine captors, and freed the hostages. There were no casualties among the SEALs. "They hit all their marks," says one senior administration official. "It was the stuff of Entebbe."

The Somali raid, for all of its Hollywood drama, is only one of hundreds of daring missions conducted by elite U.S. commandos in recent years. Navy SEALs and other special operators, with the encouragement of President Obama, have become a primary weapon in "denied areas" like Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Their ability to go after terrorists, pirates, or other criminals with stealth, precision, and lethal force is in line with Obama's basic approach to the shadow wars. From the earliest days of his administration he began pushing his generals to pursue missions that were surgical and narrowly tailored to clearly defined objectives - whether rescuing hostages or protecting well-defined American interests. What he did not want to do was open up new fronts in the war on terror or get drawn into fighting local insurgencies around the world. [Read more: Klaidman/DailyBeast/30January2012]

Mossad Assassin Insurance. In the wake of five recent assassinations of senior people in its nuclear weapons program, Iran has ordered additional security for hundreds of key people working on this officially non-existent program. This is in addition to less stringent, and less visible, security measures implemented nearly a year ago. The new measures apparently involve lots of bodyguards and restrictions on the activities of these nuclear scientists, engineers, and technicians.

All this will not do much for the morale of those being protected. Nothing says "someone is trying to kill you" more than the constant presence of security personnel and their irritating interference in your life, and especially your freedom of movement. This will only encourage whoever is behind the killing to strike again. That will be a real hit to morale and productivity. The effort also ties down thousands of security personnel and makes the government look bad. The government blames the Mossad (Israeli) and the CIA (U.S.) for the killings. [Read more: StrategyPage/29January2012]

Bulava Enters Hasty Production. Russia has ordered mass production of the new Bulava SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile). The exact number of missiles was not disclosed but the order covered deliveries for the next eight years. The Bulava is only used in the new Borei SSBN (nuclear submarine carrying SLBMs). Each Borei carries 16 Bulavas and you need some spares for testing, maintenance, and such. Reloads are not an issue. So there will have to be about 18 Bulavas per Borei. There are currently two Boreis built and waiting for their Bulava missiles. Six more Boreis are to be built, indicating the need for over a hundred Bulavas before the end of the decade.

The Bulava R-30 3M30 (SS-NX-30) successfully completed its sea trials on December 23rd when a Borei class submarine fired two of them. The submerged sub was in the White Sea. The two missiles landed 6,000 kilometers to the east, in the North Pacific off Kamchatka Island. This makes 11 successful Bulava test firings out of 18 attempts. These last two missiles make five in a row that were successfully fired. As a result of this the Bulava has been accepted into service.

Last June another successful test was conducted, for the first time, from one of the Borei class submarines it was designed for. This was the third successful launch in a row. That was a big deal because seven of the previous 15 tests have been failures. Until this latest test the Bulava was in danger of being cancelled. No longer, the December tests were the final ones.

Some of the failures were spectacular. In late 2009, a test took place off the northern coast of Russia and resulted in a brilliant light show in the pre-dawn sky that was visible to many in Norway. At first the Russians denied that the spectacular lights had anything to do with them. But within a day they admitted it was Bulava failing its 12th flight test.

After that light show Russian political and military leaders became upset (make that VERY upset) at the inept development of the new Bulava missile. This weapon was to arm the new Borei class SSBN. The Bulava developers were told that they had until the end of 2010 to make the missile work. Otherwise, the project would be cancelled, heads would roll (OK, people will be fired), and the older R-29RM Sineva SLBM would replace the Bulava. Sineva is the last liquid fuel Russian SLBM in service and is used in the current Delta class SSBNs.

Apparently, the accountants caught wind of this and told the bosses how much such a switch would cost (we're talking several billion dollars, at least). So the final decision was that Bulava would be made to work, no matter what it took. Moreover, an investigative committee determined that most of the problems may have been due to sloppy manufacturing. So the construction of the Bulavas was moved to a different factory. That decision was also reversed, after someone did the math. Several senior development officials have already been fired. More jobs are on the line, although the latest successful tests have saved many careers.

For a while switching to the older, but more reliable, Sineva missiles looked like a reasonable move. [Read more: StrategyPage/30January2012]

Section IV - Obituaries, Documentaries and Coming Events

Obituaries

Miguel Nazar Haro. Miguel Nazar Haro, who led Mexico's domestic spy agency and was accused of being behind the disappearances of alleged leftist guerrillas in the 1970s, has died at age 87.

His son, Jose Luis Nassar Daw, confirmed on Friday that Nazar Haro died late Thursday but didn't release a cause of death.

Nazar Haro headed Mexico's now-dissolved Federal Security Directorate from 1978 to 1982 at the height of the government's "dirty war" against leftist insurgents.

He was arrested in 2004 and put under house arrest on charges stemming from the disappearances of six farmers who were alleged members of a group called the Brigada Campesina de los Lacandones, an armed group that the government linked to at least one kidnapping.

A judge dismissed all charges against Nazar Haro in 2006. [Read more: AP/27January2012]

Documentaries

National Geographic Lifts Veil on NSA. There's a common joke around here that NSA stands for "No Such Agency."

Of course, everyone knows it stands for National Security Agency, but finding out precisely what the agency does on Fort Meade is not easy.

The National Geographic Channel will run a one-hour documentary Monday night that will seek to shed some light on the NSA's activities. The special is said to offer the first behind-the-scenes footage of NSA in more than a decade.

"[NSA is] still considered one of the most secretive intelligence agencies in the world," National Geographic wrote on its website. "But that's about to change. With the first access given to a documentary film crew since 9/11, National Geographic goes 'Inside the NSA' for a new one-hour special to demystify the modern-day spy agency."

To view video preview on National Geographic Channel, follow this link: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/all-videos/av-11592-11792/ngc-welcome-to-the-nsa/

Inside the NSA: America's Cyber Secrets will air at 9 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel. [Read more: Lemke/OdentonPatch/30January2012]

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in February 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, 1 February 2012, 6:00 pm - Nellis AFB, NV - The AFIO "Roger E. McCarthy" Las Vegas Chapter holds meeting with Mike Butchko on "Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) and Homeland Security."

Place: The Officers' Club at Nellis Air Force Base. All guests must use the MAIN GATE located at the intersection on Craig Road and Las Vegas Blvd. Address: 5871 Fitzgerald Blvd., Nellis AFB, NV 89191 Phone: 702-644-2582.
(Guest names must be submitted along with their birth date to me by 4:00 p.m., Monday, January 23, 2012
Please join us at 5 p.m. in the "Robin's Roost" bar area for liaison and beverages
Our featured speaker for the evening will be: Michael J. Butchko, Chief Operating Officer, National Security Technologies LLC (NSTec).
Butchko brings over 30 years of command and civilian management experience to NSTec that includes managing the highly successful Joint Base Operations Support Contract (JBOSC) at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and commanding the Air Force Development Test Center at Eglin AFB where he managed operating budgets up to $600M and up to 8,000 personnel. Throughout his career, he has maintained an exemplary safety and environmental compliance record with accident and lost time rates well below industry averages—with no fatalities and no compliance violations.

Prior to accepting his current position as Chief Operating Officer for NSTec, he was Vice-President of Logistics and Range Operations for Northrop Grumman Technical Services. He was responsible for multiple national and international operations supporting various test and training ranges, base infrastructure and logistics support for several aircraft programs. His previous position was as President, Space Gateway Support, LLC (SGS), which operates the Joint Base Operations Support Contract at Kennedy Space Center and other operations support contracts which together employed nearly 3,000 personnel.

Mr. Butchko will discuss the role that the Nevada National Security Site (formally known as the Nevada Test Site) plays in our local and national homeland security. He will discuss first responder training; nuclear search and detection both local and national; and, research into defeating vehicle-borne improvised explosives. The discussion brings into focus how the mission on the Site has evolved from the sole nuclear role for which the Site is well known.

If you are planning to attend the AFIO meeting on Wednesday, February 1, please provide your name and birth date to me, Mary Bentley as soon as possible. I need to have it sent to me by 4:00p.m., Monday January 23, 2012, in order to have your name included on the access list for Nellis AFB. Also, if you have any guests, please provide their name and birth date for them as well.

Questions/Reservations? Email Mary.Bentley@doe.gov or call her at 702-295-0417.

1 - 29 February 2012, 9 am – 6 pm – Give Gift of Full Month access to Spy Museum as part of "LOVE A SPY"

This February, take your love undercover at the International Spy Museum! The Museum has developed a package to spice up the romance at your next rendezvous. Throughout February the Museum will offer a Love A Spy promotional package, which includes 2 tickets to the Museum's permanent exhibit and a special gift from the retail store that will help spies turn up the heat. This package is good throughout the month of February, excluding the Feb 18-19th holiday weekend. Tickets: $29.95 To purchase, visit www.spymuseum.org

Thursday, 2 February 2012, 12:00 pm - Washington, DC - William Shawcross, British writer and broadcaster, speaks on the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, at Dacor Bacon House.

To attend, contact Fatma Hocaoglu, Program Coordinator, DACOR Bacon House Foundation, 1801 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20006, P 202.682.0500 ext. 17, or email him at fhocaoglu@dacorbacon.org

1, 8, 15, 22 February 2012 - Washington, DC - "The Greatest Spies of WWII: Garbo, Baker, De Clarens…and Hemingway?" (4-Session Daytime Course) at the International Spy Museum in collaboration with Smithsonian Associates

Imagine operating behind enemy lines using your wits, fame, or seductive powers to fight a ruthless adversary. The spies of World War II knew that they faced death upon discovery, yet they continued to engage in daring and dangerous exploits to thwart the Axis powers. Some were incredibly effective while others, like Hemingway, were just incredibly bold. In this series, a distinguished group of experts and former intelligence officers will introduce you to some of the bravest and most daring spies of the 20th century.

Juan Pujol Garcia
Wednesday, 1 February 1012, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm - Washington, DC - at the International Spy Museum in collaboration with Smithsonian Associates Program

Spaniard Juan Pujol Garcia—codenamed Garbo—was one of the most effective double agents in history. While working for the British, he deceived the Germans into believing he was operating a valuable spy network. It was valuable…for the Allies. International Spy Museum historian and former CIA analyst Mark Stout will reveal how Garbo managed to deceive the Germans so thoroughly that they thought the D-Day invasion of Normandy was a ploy to distract from a real invasion in the Pas-de-Calais.

Josephine Baker
Wednesday, 8 February 2012, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm at the International Spy Museum in collaboration with Smithsonian Associates Program

Night club sensation Josephine Baker escaped racism in the U.S. to live a glamorous life as the toast of European café society. As a star in Paris, her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise, will reveal Baker's espionage on behalf of the French Resistance and place it in the context of Baker's glamorous and groundbreaking life.

Jeannie de Clarens
Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm at the International Spy Museum in collaboration with Smithsonian Associates Program

As a member of Georges Lamarque's French Resistance network, Jeannie de Clarens risked her life and was captured twice. Her exact and detailed reports on Germany's secret military plans, especially their development of the V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets, helped persuade Prime Minister Winston Churchill to bomb the German test site at Peenemunde. David Ignatius, Washington Post foreign affairs columnist and spy novelist, will profile his friend de Clarens using selections from his recently filmed interview with the formidable former spy.

Ernest Hemingway
Wednesday, 22 February 2012, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm at the International Spy Museum in collaboration with Smithsonian Associates Program

Ernest Hemingway, true to his macho image, plunged into WWII intelligence work with his brother Leicester and his son Jack. The Hemingways searched for Fascist spies in Cuba, patrolled the Caribbean for Nazi subs, parachuted into occupied France, roamed the battlefields of France after D-Day, and even met secretly with the KGB. Nicholas Reynolds, an intelligence and military historian who has taught at the Naval War College, served as Officer-in-Charge of Field History for USMC, and worked on the history of the OSS for the CIA Museum, will recount the Hemingways' exploits.
Tickets: $112 for the 4 sessions. Register by phone with the Smithsonian Associates at 202-633-3030 or online at http://residentassociates.org

2 February 2012 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Maj. Gen. J. Michael Myatt, USMC (ret.), on "Reflections on Intelligence Support for Ground Commanders for Gulf War 1.0."

Myatt speaks on "Reflections on Intelligence Support for Ground Commanders for Gulf War 1.0." The meeting will be held at UICC, 2700 45th Avenue, San Francisco (between Sloat/Wawona): 11:30AM no host cocktails; noon - luncheon. $25 member rate with advance reservation and payment; $35 non-member/no reservation. 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, P.O. Box 117578, Burlingame, CA 94011.

4 February 2012 - Melbourne, FL - The AFIO Satellite Florida Chapter luncheon features AFIO National President Gene Poteat on "Evolution of CIA Covert Ops from Beginning to the SEAL Team Raid in Pakistan."

Gene Poteat, AFIO National President, addresses the chapter which meets at Indian River Colony Club, Melbourne FL at noon. For tickets and information, please contact Donna Czarnecki, 321 600-4415 or 321 848 4425

Saturday, 4 February 2012, 12 Noon - Williamsburg, VA - The AFIO Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter hosts retired CIA station chief and paramilitary advisor Richard L. Holm at the Center Street Grill, 5101 Center Street, Williamsburg, VA
Holm, a recipient of the agency's Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the Donovan Award, will be discussing a 35-year career that took him from perilous postings in Laos and the Congo to less dirty but just as demanding assignments in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Brussels, and an especially challenging Parisian assignment.
For RSVP or any questions, please contact Stan Winarski or Clay Farrington at afiohamptonroads@cox.net.

Tuesday, 7 February 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Washington, DC - "Terrorists in Love: The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals" at the International Spy Museum

What do you do if the girl of your dreams gets married off to a National Guard general who can pay a bigger dowry than you can? If you are Abdullah al-Gilani, you join al-Qaeda. Later you learn that your true love ran away from her husband to join the jihad in Iraq—where she may have been martyred. This sad story of star-crossed lovers is just one of the true tales Ken Ballen, author of Terrorists in Love, will share in a night devoted to misspent passion. As a former prosecutor and counsel to the House Iran-Contra Committee, and now as President of Terror Free Tomorrow, he has tapped into the inner secrets of the terrorist world that no spy agency could divine. When terrorists opened their hearts to him, he found that the stories of Islamic radicals and terrorists are as much about love as hate: a missed love, a love you cannot have, a love you can only find in God, a love a man can never have with a woman, or in one case with another man. Consider bringing your sweetheart to this eye-opening evening… if you can make the dowry.
Tickets: $9 For more information visit www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 8 February 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Washington, DC - "Poison Lecture: A Performance about Magic and Deception" at the International Spy Museum

"Combines the secretive worlds of magic and espionage, entertainment and geopolitics, mass captivation and government, to wittily expose their kindred spirit."--Beatrice Gross, independent curator
Poison Lecture is everything a lecture is not: it is a multi-layered performance piece exploring the seemingly unlikely connections between legendary magician John Mulholland, the CIA, and the science of espionage. This unique event is the creation of Christine Rebet, a French visual artist based in New York. Inspired by the fact that the CIA hired Mulholland, America's most famous magician to write two secret manuals on sleight-of-hand and covert communication techniques in the early days of the Cold War, Rebet developed this thought-provoking performance. Featured at the Phoenix Fringe Festival, X initiative New York, and at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, Poison Lecture melds historic images with a live magician performing key tricks while "Mulholland" explains them. As the piece unfolds, darker aspects of espionage—assassination, mind control, and manipulation—are revealed, all in the context of iconic foreign political situations of the Cold War.
Tickets: $20 To register or For more information visit www.spymuseum.org

14 February 2012 - MacDill AFB, FL - AFIO Florida Suncoast Chapter featuring former FBI Agent Catherine Hunt

Catherine Hunt, former FBI, is Proposal Manager, EKS Group, LLC. EKS provides the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community with expertise on intelligence operations, counterintelligence, human intelligence, information operations, and counterterrorism.
Ms. Hunt served as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for 11 years in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Divisions and held positions in the Legal Attaché offices at the U.S. Embassies in Cairo and Baghdad.Throughout her career, Ms. Hunt worked counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations, was the Hate Crimes Coordinator within FBI San Francisco's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), and was a FBI Certified Crisis Negotiator. Hunt spent 4 months embedded with the military in Iraq soon after the U.S. invasion, conducting interviews and investigations. Ms. Hunt holds a Masters in Social Work from USF.
Event takes place at the MacDill AFB Surf's Edge Club, 7315 Bayshore Boulevard, MacDill AFB, FL 33621.
Please RSVP no later than Wednesday, February 8, for yourself and include the names of any guests.
Email or call the Chapter Secretary 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.
Anyone with special AFIO Gate Access should proceed to the Bayshore Gate. If you need directions, please let us know.
The cash wine and soda bar will open at 1100 hours for those that wish to come early to socialize. Inquiries to Michael Shapiro Secretary, Florida Suncoast Chapter of AFIO at (813) 832-1164 or at mfshapiro@att.net or visit www.suncoastafio.org

15 February 2012, 3 - 4 pm - Washington, DC - "George F. Kennan: An American Life"

As one of the Cold War's most influential foreign policy thinkers, Kennan was the architect of containment and the Marshall Plan. But after leaving government, he went on to become one of the most outspoken critics of American diplomacy, politics, and culture during the last half of the twentieth century. Now the full scope of Kennan's long life and vast influence is revealed by one of today's most important Cold War scholars.
Organized by the Cold War International History Project in collaboration with the Kennan Institute and International Security Studies Drawing upon extensive interviews with George Kennan and exclusive access to his personal archive, former Wilson Center fellow and Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University John Lewis Gaddis, will discuss his revealing new biography, George F. Kennan: An American Life. Event takes place at 6th Floor Flom Auditorium, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Visit www.CWIHP.org for more information and to RSVP

Thursday, 16 February 2012, noon – 1:00 pm – Washington, DC - "Shadow Commander: The Epic Story of Donald D. Blackburn - Guerrilla Leader and Special Forces Hero" at the International Spy Museum

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army's most secretive unit may have been the Studies and Observations Group (SOG). This unit captured enemy prisoners for interrogation, rescued American POWs, and conducted reconnaissance missions in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It also ran teams of clandestine agents and conducted psychological operations. The leader of this group in the mid-1960s was a legendary Army officer, Donald Blackburn, a man who in 1942 had refused to surrender at Bataan and had gone on to raise a 22,000-man army of Filipinos to fight the Japanese. Author Mike Guardia will describe Blackburn's colorful life, how his SOG mapped out the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and how, after his return to Washington, he was the architect of the famous Son Tay Prison Raid, the largest POW rescue mission of the war.
Free! No Registration Required! For more information visit www.spymuseum.org

23 February 2012, 1230 - 1430 hrs - Los Angeles, CA - the AFIO Los Angeles Chapter meeting features Lt. Col. Phil Meinhardt USAF (ret.) on "Eagle Pull" in Vietnam

Meinhardt will be addressing the chapter on what happened after the 1973 truce in Vietnam and the evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, called 'Eagle Pull' which he wrote. Col. Meinhardt arrived in Vietnam on June 23, 1973 as the Air Force Liaison Officer to the Vietnamese Joint General Staff, continuing with assignments to the U.S. Support Activities Group and the Military Assistance Group, Thailand. Col. Meinhardt is a 1960 graduate of the Air Force Academy and pilot with a thirty-four year military career that included Chief of Advanced Concepts and Director of Advanced Space Technology for Air Force Space and Missile Systems. Col. Meinhardt is a former Republican nominee to Congress with an extensive planning and policy background.
RSVP AFIO_LA@yahoo.com if you would like to attend, lunch will be served for $20. The meeting will take place at the LMU campus in the Hilton Business Building in RM. 304

Wednesday, 7 March 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Washington, DC - "Intel and the Arab Spring: What Does the Future Hold?" at the International Spy Museum

How could the world have missed the signs that an Arab Spring was coming? Did the U.S. suffer from poor intelligence, compromised relationships, or simply a failure of the imagination? And now how do we prevent the reemergence of blind spots as we build relationships with rapidly emerging regimes and their intelligence services? Join experts Reuel Marc Gerecht, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, author of The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East, and a former Middle East specialist in the CIA's Clandestine Service; and Colonel W. Patrick Lang, former Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism, author of Intelligence: The Human Factor, and expert consultant on intel operations in Muslim countries; for a spirited discussion of how the U.S.'s understanding—or misunderstanding—of the Middle East affects intelligence collection and analysis in the region. Sparks may fly when the speakers share their potentially conflicting ideas about how the U.S. can alter a decades-old paradigm
Ticket: $15. To register or for more information visit www.spymuseum.org

Thursday, 15 March 2012, 11:30 am - Colorado Springs, CO – The AFIO Rocky Mountain Chapter presents a re-schedulding of 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. To be held at 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

Wednesday, 21 March 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 pm - Washington, DC - "WEAPONS OF MASS DISRUPTION" at the International Spy Museum

Was your computer one of the machines that attacked Estonia?
Go behind-the-scenes on some of the most aggressive cyber attacks of our time. Join Dave Marcus, Director of Security Research for McAfee Labs, for a special screening of Weapons of Mass Disruption. The film, inspired by the Spy Museum's exhibit of the same name, focuses on key events in the evolution of cyber warfare, from the CIA's successful cyber-sabotage of the Soviet Union's trans-Siberia pipeline in the 1980s, to Stuxnet, a calculated cyber attack on Iran in 2009-10. On-screen experts, including Marcus, discuss cyber attacks you may know: the two week attack on Estonia in 2007 in which the country was essentially shut down; and those you may not: the theft of F35 fighter related information in 2009. They also cover the cyber security issues financial institutions face and the vulnerabilities of critical U.S. water and electricity infrastructure systems. The fascinating interviews with cyber experts include insights such as which popular movie of 2007 made Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of the Kaspersky Labs, break out in a cold sweat. Marcus, who specializes in advance intelligence gathering, digital forensic analysis, as well as intrusion detection and prevention, will lead a post-screening discussion of the film's major points and the latest on information security, malware, and vulnerability assessment. Tickets: $15 To register or for more information visit www.spymuseum.org

22-24 March 2012 - Charlotte, NC - Charlotte International Cryptologic Symposium

The line up of speakers includes: Ron Lawrence who will open the Crypto Symposium with a short talk about all the events going on in the hotel and about radio collecting and how this came about.
Debbie Anderson, daughter of Joe Desch the man who designed the Navy Cryptanalytic Bombe, is speaking and showing the documentary "The Dayton Codebreakers." Jim Oram of enigma-replica.com will be speaking on:"Restoration techniques of the Enigma" includes the showing of a video on the restorations he has completed. Free tours of Jim's Enigma Shop where Enigmas are restored.
John Alexander, a private collector from UK, will be speaking and offering some views of his Crypto equipment.
Richard Brisson, a collector from Ottawa Canada with website www.campx.ca, recently retired from the Communications Security Establishment Canada, will be speaking on the history and artifacts related to cryptology and espionage.
Dr. David Hatch, of NSA and CCH, will provide a display of a SIGABA Machine. Dr. Nicholas Gessler, Research Associate Information Science & Information Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Gessler will be bringing a wide variety of Historical Cryptologic equipment for display.
LOCATION: Sheraton Charlotte Airport Hotel, 3315 Scott Futrell Dr, Charlotte, NC 28208.
Register at http://www.cc-awa.org/Registration-2012.html
Registration covers both the Cryptologic Symposium and the Antique Radio Charlotte event.

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

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