Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Russia Upgrades Radar Station in Syria to Aid Iran. Russia has upgraded a surveillance station it maintains in Syrian territory in order to provide Iran early warning of an Israeli attack, according to the Israeli security-related blog Debkafile.

The surveillance station, located south of Damascus, had been able to monitor air traffic in Israel as far south as Tel Aviv, as well as northern Jordan and western Iraq.

Since the upgrade, its range reportedly extends to all parts of Israel and Jordan and as far south as the northern part of Saudi Arabia.

According to the report, Russia has introduced cutting-edge technology to the station and expanded its manpower.

Russia has taken a firm stand against any military attack on Iran or any attempt to force Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said this week that Russia is concerned about the threat of an attack against Iran.

"If it happens, the fallout would be truly catastrophic," he said, also warning that any outside attempt to displace Mr. Assad would open Syria to "a Libyan scenario."

Debkafile said the upgrade of the electronic surveillance station at Jabal Al Harrah was in response to concern expressed by Iran that the station's resources were being stretched to the limit by providing so much intelligence to the Assad regime in Syria that Tehran no longer could rely on its real-time warnings of an Israeli attack.

The monitoring station had been providing Mr. Assad with information on the Syrian resistance movements. [Read more: Rabinovich/WashingtonTimes/29February2012]

Secret Codes Ready to Take Quantum Leap in Space. If secret agent James Bond wanted to tell his MI6 superiors about the location of a stolen superweapon without tipping off villains, he might turn to a global satellite network that transmitted coded keys made unbreakable by the weird laws of physics. Such "quantum key distribution" already exists on Earth beyond the realm of Hollywood spy fantasies, and could soon head for space.

Plans to launch quantum communication satellites have already begun to take shape in Canada, Japan and the European Union. The satellites could securely transmit digital keys through light particles by using physics tricks such as quantum entanglement - the phenomenon that allows two entangled particles to affect one another other even across the distance of a galaxy.

"If we can build these quantum key distribution systems and make them global, we will be able to transfer information in such a way that if there's a hacker who tries to find this information, we will know," said Raymond LaFlamme, director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. "Then we will be able to find a better way to encrypt that bit of information." [Read more: Hsu/InnovationDailyNews/29February2012]

FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling. The Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a "sea change" inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann.

Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called "Big Brother in the 21st Century" on Friday, said that the court ruling prompted the FBI to turn off about 3,000 GPS tracking devices that were in use.

These devices were often stuck underneath cars to track the movements of the car owners. In U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that using a device to track a car owner without a search warrant violated the law.

After the ruling, the FBI had a problem collecting the devices that it had turned off, Mr. Weissmann said. In some cases, he said, the FBI sought court orders to obtain permission to turn the devices on briefly - only in order to locate and retrieve them.

Mr. Weissmann said that the FBI is now working to develop new guidelines for the use of GPS devices. He said the agency is also working on guidelines to cover the broader implications of the court decision beyond GPS devices.

For instance, he said, agency is now "wrestling" with the legality of whether agents can lift up the lid of a trash can without committing trespass. The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones held that the agents had trespassed when placing the GPS device on a car without warrant. [Read more: Angwin/WallStreetJournal/25February2012]

CIA-Led Force May Speed Afghan Exit. Top Pentagon officials are considering putting elite special operations troops under CIA control in Afghanistan after 2014, just as they were during last year's raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, sources told The Associated Press.

The plan is one of several possible scenarios being debated by Pentagon staffers. It has not yet been presented to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the White House or Congress, the sources said.

If the plan were adopted, the U.S. and Afghanistan could say there are no more U.S. troops on the ground in the war-torn country because once the SEALs, Rangers and other elite units are assigned to CIA control, even temporarily, they become spies.

No matter who's in charge, the special operations units still would target militants on joint raids with Afghans and keep training Afghan forces to do the job on their own.

The idea floated by a senior defense intelligence official comes as U.S. defense chiefs try to figure out how to draw down troops fast enough to meet the White House's 2014 deadline. Pentagon staffers already have put forward a plan to hand over much of the war-fighting to special operations troops. This idea would take that plan one step further, shrinking the U.S. presence to less than 20,000 troops after 2014, according to four current and two former U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program involves classified operatives. [Read more: AP/3March2012]

Support For Military Intervention In Syria. While no foreign nations are intervening militarily in Syria to aid the largely unarmed rebellion, the United States has quietly deployed substantial intelligence resources. This includes UAVs, various recon satellites, and some people on the ground inside Syria and in neighboring countries. The purpose of all this is to document the violence the government is inflicting on its citizens. UAVs and satellites take pictures and videos, as well as recording communications. People on the ground collect witness accounts.

This data is being passed on to NATO, Arab League, and other allies to encourage support for more overt aid for the rebels. At the moment Russia and China are using their vetoes to block meaningful UN action. Many nations will not even consider armed intervention without UN approval.

This use of the UN veto is beginning to backfire as anger grows at the savage treatment the Syrian government is inflicting on its people. This consists of shooting at peaceful demonstrations and the funerals of those killed at the demonstrations. The Syrian Army has been firing artillery and tank shells at residential neighborhoods for weeks and the secret police are constantly arresting people for "treason." It's an ugly situation, one that might be resolved if enough atrocities are documented and shown around. [Read more: StrategyPage/28February2012]

Former World War II Intelligence Agent Honored in Lake Ridge. On Feb. 29, Elizabeth Peet McIntosh, 97, was honored by the Library of Virginia for her work in World War II intelligence with a brief ceremony at Westminster at Lake Ridge, where she lives.

Librarian of Virginia Sandra Treadway presented a commemorative plaque to McIntosh and spoke briefly of women's role in history.

"The role that they have played hasn't always found its way into the history books," she said. For the past six years, they have been honoring Virginia women who played a role in history. 

"We receive suggestions, nominations, and do some research about Virginia women who should be honored," she said. Eight women are then placed on a poster which is distributed to schools around the state. They are also honored in exhibits. 

McIntosh's ceremony kicks off March as Women's History Month for the Library of Virginia. Her writings about her time in the Office of Strategic Services, including Undercover Girl and Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS, helped to spark a conversation about women's roles in WWII intelligence, "a story that until that book came out and others began to talk about it, had really been forgotten in Virginia history and our nation's history," Treadway said. [Read more: Leon/LakeRidgePatch/1March2012]

FBI Director Urges Attack Intelligence-Sharing. FBI director Robert Mueller, in a keynote address Thursday at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, urged real-time sharing of cybercrime and threat intelligence between the public and private sectors akin to the type of cooperation forged to fight terrorism post-9/11.

"Real-time information-sharing is essential. Much can and should be done to share with the private sector, and in turn give the private sector the means and motivation to work with us" at the FBI, Mueller said. 

The FBI is continuing to build specialized cybercrime task forces to work locally with state and local law enforcement, Mueller said. "It's a similar model to the terrorism task force, but to fight cybercrime," he said. "As we continue to share information, we will continue to break down the walls that [block] our abilities to share such information - the same way we did [after] the September 11 [terrorist] attacks."

Mueller said the FBI now has specialized cybersquads in each of its 50 field offices. 

But companies traditionally have been frustrated with sharing their breach information with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies: they say it's more of a one-way street, where they share but then never hear back from law enforcement. [Read more: Higgins/InformationWeek/2March2012]

Bomb Blast Rocks Intelligence Headquarters in Southern Yemen. A huge bomb blast rocked the headquarters of local military intelligence agency in Yemen's southern port city of Aden Monday morning, with no immediate reports of casualties, a police officer told Xinhua.

The explosion hit a headquarters of the military intelligence agency in the al-Mansoura district in Aden when a bomb planted by unknown gunmen went off at the main gate of the building, no immediate reports of casualties were available, the local police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The powerful bomb blast shattered the windows of some residential buildings nearby the intelligence agency, which was partially damaged, the officer said.

Local military and government officials said that militants of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) were likely behind the attack. [Read more: Xinhua/5March2012]

Forgotten Petition Takes Pakistan's Spy Agency to Court. A 16-year-old petition alleging that Pakistan's intelligence agency bribed senior politicians in the 1990 general elections resurfaced in the country's highest court Wednesday, the attorney for the petitioner told CNN.

The petition, filed in the Supreme Court in 1996 by former Air Force Marshall Asghar Khan, alleges that Pakistan's controversial spy agency - the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI - bribed senior politicians to create a pro-military government, according to attorney Salman Akram Raja.

Raja said the former spymaster, Gen. Asad Durrani, admitted in an affidavit to bribing politicians with more than $1.5 million before the 1990 general elections against Pakistan's former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. [Read more: Habib/CNN/29February2012]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

March Madness a Security Threat? Who knew basketball could be a national security threat?

According to a regional cybersecurity expert, the month of March introduces one of the greatest threats out there: the NCAA Final Four basketball championships.

"March Madness. You wouldn't think of it as a cyber threat, would you?" said Mark Orndorff, the chief information assurance executive for the Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA, during a recent meeting held by the Fort Meade Alliance in Linthicum.

"But it really is, because we're going to be conducting military operations on our network at the same time a whole bunch of DoD employees are going to want to be checking on" the games.

It's one of the types of threat addressed in a recent report released by the Fort Meade Alliance, a group of military, business, government and education officials in the region around Fort George G. Meade.

According to the alliance, cyber threats have been outpacing the expertise of those who defend computer networks and there aren't enough people in the IT industry who understand how to create, attack and defend a network. Shortages of cyber experts, the alliance says, are greatly felt in the region because it's the home turf of DISA, the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

"That shortfall could grow more severe in coming years and the cyber needs continue to grow," according to the paper. [Read more: Reed/HometownAnnapolis/2March2012]

Should US Intelligence Agency Have a Role in Protecting Electric Grid? As Congress wrestles over cybersecurity legislation related to securing critical infrastructure and the electric power grid, arguments are surfacing on whether the power companies should handle any new federally mandated network protections or whether the U.S. government - in particular the National Security Agency - should be in the middle of it.

Some of these tensions, which usually remain behind closed doors in Washington circles, burst into the open this week with a Washington Post article that revealed how White House officials, on behalf of President Obama, have been issuing stern rebukes to NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander for what they say was his overstepping some boundaries in speeches arguing for more legal authority to defend the nation against cyberattacks.

At least one legislative proposal on Capitol Hill has advocated that power companies do continuous scanning with threat data provided by NSA and turn over any evidence of cyberattacks to the government, though critics call the idea obtrusive and a privacy violation.

The Feb. 27 Washington Post article quoted an unnamed White House administration official saying about Alexander, "We have had to remind him to at least be cognizant of what the administration's policy positions are, so if he's openly advocating for something beyond that, that is undermining the commander-in-chief."

Strong words, and at a panel at the RSA Conference this week on the topic of protecting the U.S. power grid, which is a sprawling geographic collection of interconnected grid segments primarily operated by private-sector companies, speakers expressed passionate views on the question of whether it's a good idea for the NSA to be involved in power-grid protection or not. [Read more: Messmer/NetworkWorld/3March2012]

Air Force Set to Shoot Down Its Own Giant Spy Blimp. After spending more than $140 million, the Air Force is poised to pull the plug on its ambitious project to send a king-sized, all-seeing spy blimp to Afghanistan. Which is a bit of a strange move: Not only is the scheduled first flight of the 370-foot-long "Blue Devil Block 2" airship less than six weeks away, but just yesterday, a top Air Force official bragged to Congress about the blimp's predecessor, the "Blue Devil Block 1" program. In other words, the Air Force is set to ground its mega-blimp spy ship before it even gets off the ground - literally.

Not long ago, Blue Devil and its kind were being pushed as the future of aerial surveillance. Instead of a drone's single sensor, Blue Devil would employ an array of cameras and eavesdropping gear to keep tabs on entire villages for days at a time. And with so much space aboard the airship, racks and racks of processors could process the data generated by those sensors in the sky, easing the burden on intelligence analysts currently overloaded by drones' video feeds.

Now, that lighter-than-air future could be in jeopardy, thanks to a series of schedule delays, technical complications and, above all, inflated costs. But it's not just Blue Devil that's in trouble. The Navy just deflated its MZ-3A blimp. The Army's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle airship, which was supposed to be in Afghanistan by now, has run into significant development roadblocks as well. Blimps' status as the Next Big Thing in high-flying spycraft is in jeopardy.

Yet there have been some encouraging signs for the overall Blue Devil effort. Block 1 of the program - a similar suite of coordinated sensors, mounted on modified executive planes - had became a proven method for shortening insurgent bomb-makers' lives in Afghanistan. "Warfighter feedback on the situational awareness provided by Blue Devil Block 1 has been overwhelmingly positive," Steven Walker, the Air Force's deputy assistant secretary for science and technology, told a Congressional panel on Wednesday. "Since December 2010, Blue Devil ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] has been instrumental in identifying a number of high value individuals and improvised explosive device emplacements."

But the next phase of Blue Devil was ambitious, and with that ambition came complications. [Read more: Shachtman/Wired/2March2012]

Ex-CIA Duo Tells Tales of Secrecy.  An IU professor and his wife, who are ex-CIA operatives, discussed their adventures Wednesday at the Student Alliance for National Security call-out meeting.

The CIA hired Professor Gene Coyle in 1976. After following her husband around the world, Jan Coyle decided to join the CIA, too, and they worked together in tandem.

"We are complete opposites, but we compliment each other really well," she said.

The Coyles served in various locations throughout the world, including New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Portugal and Greece.

The duo spoke about creating cover stories, the adrenaline of the job and fitting in with locals. [Read more: Osman/IDSNews/29February2012]

The House Intelligence Committee: A Rare Example of Bipartisanship. The House intelligence committee used to be one of the meanest snake pits in Congress, a place where members were so busy sniping at each other that they failed to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community. It was a model of what was wrong with Washington.

Amazingly enough, the committee has found its way out of the wilderness under a new chairman and ranking Democrat, Reps. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who is from Maryland's 2nd District. With their leadership, the House has approved intelligence-authorization bills by lopsided, bipartisan margins the past two fiscal years, after many years when the committee was too divided to pass such legislation.

"Rogers and Ruppersberger have made bipartisanship work," says Gen. Mike Hayden, a former CIA director who struggled with the old, dysfunctional system. Back then, he recalls, "the committee was just wild - incredibly contentious and highly politicized. They have worked hard to get it back to business."

So what produced this little miracle of bipartisanship? That's the interesting part of the story, because maybe the same process could work elsewhere in gridlock city. [Read more: Ignatius/WashingtonPost/2March2012]

One Last Fight for Secret Soldiers. In a small building on Arcade Street in St. Paul, about a dozen Hmong veterans of the Vietnam War - all trained, paid and armed to fight for the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency - gather regularly to discuss upcoming public service events or festivities where their honor guard might be needed. They dress in old military uniforms they have bought on their own and have decorated with patches of their own design.

The meetings now come with a renewed urgency.

When they die, these secret warriors of a secret American war want to buried in veterans cemeteries alongside their American comrades. But even though they now are commonly acknowledged as having fought for the United States in northern Laos, they are prohibited by law from being buried in national or state veterans cemeteries, which are reserved for American service members and honorably discharged U.S. military veterans and their families.

A bill in the Minnesota House asks Congress and the president to change the prohibition. But the state Department of Veterans Affairs warns that doing so could open the door for others who have helped Americans in their conflicts overseas, escalating costs and crowding the cemeteries.

Last week, the veterans made their plea at a hearing of the House Veterans Services Division.

"We were American soldiers fighting alongside American soldiers," testified Chue Chou Tchang, the national chairman of the Special Guerrilla Unit, an association of Hmong fighters in the United States, speaking through an interpreter. "We fought like brothers. We died together. Coming to this country, we'd like to rest with the American soldiers that fought with us."

Forbidden by a United Nations agreement from committing American troops in Laos in the early 1960s, the CIA launched a covert operation of training and funding Hmong soldiers, first to retrieve the bodies of pilots whose planes had crashed and then to block supplies and attack North Vietnamese and communist troops. An estimated 30,000 people, more than 10 percent of the Hmong population in Laos, were killed in the war and about 100,000 Hmong became refugees inside Laos, settling into already-existing towns or in resettlement centers. Beginning in the late 1970s, the United States and other nations began resettling Hmong; more than 60,000 Hmong live in Minnesota. [Read more: Brusnwick/StarTribune/4March2012]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Hitting Intelligence Harms U.S. We're seeing big cuts to U.S. defense spending and big cuts to the U.S. intelligence community ("Putting national security at risk," Web, Feb. 17). What's wrong with this picture?

Logic and history both warn us that if we are going to cut our military spending, we had better make sure our intelligence community at least is up to full strength. Why? In 1941, we had limited intelligence capabilities, and in December 1941, a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor plunged us into World War II.

President Clinton made huge cuts to the intelligence community, creating a situation where very little intelligence was coming in, making the United States very vulnerable. President George W. Bush was in the process of rebuilding the intelligence community when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks struck without warning.

Now, some 10 years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Obama is proposing big cuts to the intelligence community budget - cuts that would make the United States more vulnerable to attacks of all types.

The federal government's job is to head off, if possible, any type of attack before an it reaches our shores. The government should not be in the business of cleaning up a mess created because it severely cut our intelligence capabilities. [Read more: Wootters/WashingtonTimes/28February2012]

White House Picks DHS Over NSA to Help Private Sector Cybersecurity. It looks like the White House thinks DHS bureaucracy can help private-sector cybersecurity more than the NSA's technology.

For the past year, the National Security Agency has been pushing for a big role in protecting private-sector computer networks from cyber attacks, according to published reports. The Obama Administration said it blocked these efforts out of privacy concerns.

As the Washington Post reported:

"The most contentious issue was a legislative proposal last year that would have required hundreds of companies that provide critical services such as electricity generation to allow their Internet traffic be continuously scanned using computer threat data provided by the spy agency. The companies would have been expected to turn over evidence of potential cyberattacks to the government."

Although the NSA argued these were unobtrusive measures, the Justice Department and the White House said it would permit unprecedented government monitoring of routine civilian Internet activity. The plan was based on a pilot program run by the NSA under which Internet service providers used the NSA's library of threat data to scan computer traffic to and from top defense contractors. 

The proposal "would have required an estimated 300 to 500 companies with a role in critical infrastructure systems to allow their Internet carrier or some other company to scan their computer networks for malicious software using government threat data."

NSA officials said this would have been an automated procedure and that its personnel would have only become involved when a scan identified a potential threat. They also said identifying information on specific internet users would have been blocked.

The administration is clearly nervous about anything resembling government monitoring of the internet. The White House blocked draft legislation that would have let any government agency monitor private computer networks for cyber threats and to take measures to counter those threats. Under the legislation now being considered by Congress only private-sector entities will be able to monitor networks and operate the countermeasures.

While I'm all in favor of protecting privacy I have to wonder how independent these "private sector entities" will be from the government. There have been far too many cases where this separation was nothing more than a fig leaf giving the government a certain level of plausible deniability. [Read more: vonHoffman/CIO/28February2012]

Out of Sight But Not Out of Mind. On March 1 a rather amazing story appeared on the front page of The Washington Post. The article stated that various current and former US military and intelligence officials had told a Post reporter that Iran's underground nuclear facility was "not impregnable." Despite Iran's best efforts, the Post reported, the complex could be penetrated and its contents of uranium enrichment centrifuges could be destroyed.

What prompted the sources to speak to the Post? And, considering how sensitive the information was, why hadn't the Obama Administration requested - as they have on several occasions - that the Post not print the story? The obvious conclusion is that the administration probably initiated the story to send a message. But to whom? Perhaps the message is intended for Iran: "Don't think that you can protect your nuclear facilities from attack. Negotiate a settlement or face the consequences." Or perhaps the message was intended for Israeli officials about to visit Washington: "There is no 'closing window of vulnerability' during which you have to attack Iran before they can safely protect their nuclear facilities. They will be vulnerable for a long time." Most probably, the message was meant for both countries.

But the story highlights the fact that the US intelligence community has long had an interest in determining the vulnerability of underground complexes. In fact, the Defense Intelligence Agency even has a dedicated organization for addressing them, the Underground Facilities Analysis Center, or UFAC. An important tool that the United States has for detecting and assessing underground complexes is satellite reconnaissance. But this is a limited resource because of the obvious fact that it's hard to use photography from space to detect activities under ground.

William Burrows' classic 1986 book about satellite reconnaissance, Deep Black, opened with a vivid scene of retired US Air Force Major General George Keegan recounting how in the early 1970s he had become obsessed with Soviet civil defense preparedness. As head of Air Force intelligence, Keegan had ordered his junior officers to gather all the satellite photography that they could of Soviet underground shelter building. Eventually he compiled a massive amount of data indicating - he claimed - that virtually every large apartment building erected in the Soviet Union since 1955 included a fallout shelter, factories had underground bunkers, and there were "seventy-five huge underground command posts." A few of these underground facilities housed command centers for the Strategic Rocket Forces and were buried in the Ural Mountains. In particular, Yamantau Mountain ("Evil Mountain" in the local Bashkir language) and Kosvinsky Mountain were considered to be the Soviet equivalents to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, home to NORAD (not to mention the W.O.P.R. and the Stargate).

Today several non-governmental organizations use commercial remote sensing images to detect underground facilities in places like Iraq and North Korea. Some of their work is very impressive, but the US intelligence community is undoubtedly much better at this. They certainly have more powerful satellites and software. [Read more: Day/TheSpaceReview/5March2012]

'Buying Time' by U.S. Intelligence Community May Not be Sufficient in Addressing Iran's Nuclear Ambitions. Recently, a front-page story in America's newspaper of record, the New York Times, reported that "American intelligence analysts continue to believe that there is no hard evidence that Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb." Apparently, the Times's reporters - as it would otherwise be a betrayal of their objectivity and fairness - must first witness Iran exploding a nuclear bomb to have enough "hard evidence" to conclude Iran's (partial) objective is to obtain one. 

Why does this matter? "At the center of the debate is the murky question of the ultimate ambitions of the leaders in Tehran," the paper read. That is true. But when the center of a crucial foreign policy debate is the "ultimate ambitions of the leaders in Tehran" - rather than a concrete solution or direction to move in - the debate itself would seem not to reflect any sort of policy.

What's also at the center of the debate is this: If Iran is determined to seek nuclear weapons, and if it can be credibly determined that Iran might use those weapons against its adversaries, then the United States - as well as its allies - has a strategic and moral duty to disarm the rogue regime.

In the New York Times's defense, however, the story is at least half true: Obama administration officials are saying these things. There is an apparently conscious attempt to play down the threat that Iran poses to Israel's existence, as well as the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to the United States and the rest of the world. It has become a political consideration as to how those in the intelligence community - those charged with analyzing and assessing Iran's nuclear capability and ambitions - are assessing the rogue state. [Read more: Halper/CuttingEdge/5March2012]

Section IV - Books, Obituaries and Coming Events

Books

SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon. To readers of Ian Fleming's wildly popular James Bond spy thrillers, SMERSH was an omnipotent - and murderous - arm of Soviet intelligence, part of the network later known as the KGB. Fleming introduced SMERSH in his inaugural work, "Casino Royale," published in 1953, and over the years credited the organization with such exploits as the murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940.

Given Fleming's background as a British Secret Intelligence Service officer during World War II, even intelligence professionals assumed he wrote with authority. But subsequent information, initially from defectors, then from Soviet files, tell a somewhat different story.

SMERSH - an acronym for the Russian words smyert shpionam ("Death to Spies") - existed as a military counterintelligence organization only from April 1943 to May 1946. Vadim Birstein, a Russian-American scientist who came to the United States in 1991, suggests that Fleming used the term because it "sounds vaguely absurd in English." But there was not an iota of jollity in its mission.

Mr. Birstein began his study of SMERSH as a human rights activist and expert on prisoners in the gulag. He found a grim story, worse even than the creation of Fleming's imagination. He writes, "SMERSH spied on its own servicemen, investigated and arrested even senior officers on Stalin's orders and tirelessly vetted Soviet POWs." Some 47 Red Army generals arrested by military counterintelligence during the war were either executed or died in prison.

Military tribunals sentenced 417,000 servicemen who were investigated by counterintelligence; 217,000 of them were shot. About 5.4 million Soviet POWs and civilians sent to Germany as slave laborers went through SMERSH's hands after release; 600,000 ended up in gulags. "In Eastern Europe, SMERSH cleansed newly-acquired land of any threat to Sovietization. Former Russian emigres in those countries were specially targeted by SMERSH."

The very word SMERSH struck terror in the ranks. As one Red Army veteran attested, "Its officers frequently invented criminal cases to demonstrate their necessity and usefulness, but mainly to avoid being sent to the front lines. They lived very well and escaped the bullets and bombs." [Read more: Goulden/WashingtonTimes/28February2012]

The Dreyfus Affair: The Scandal That Tore France in Two. The German military attach� in Paris receives a visit from a seedy-looking man who claims to be a French army officer in desperate need of money, offering to sell them military secrets.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus was a rising star in the French artillery command. Reserved yet intelligent and ambitious, Dreyfus had everything: a family, money, and a clear path to a prestigious post on the General Staff. However, Dreyfus had enemies as a result of his ambition. Many of them came from the impoverished Catholic aristocracy and disliked Dreyfus because he was rich, bourgeois, and, above all, a Jew.

On the basis of flimsy evidence, Dreyfus was placed under arrest for the crime of high treason. Not long afterward, he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life on the legendary, lethal Devil's Island. The saga of Dreyfus's many trials-he was not exonerated until 1906, twelve years after first being arrested-the fight to free him, and the intrigues on both sides, is a fast-moving mystery story rife with heroes and villains, loose women, loyal wives, bisexual men, tricksters, and charlatans. But this was no mere sideshow. The anti-Semitism and deceit on display in the Dreyfus case was an ominous prelude to the Holocaust and the long, bloody twentieth century to come.

In an era when religious conflict, fierce patriotism, and charged debates over national identity pervade the public sphere, the scandal of Captain Dreyfus still has much to teach us. In the hands of prizewinning novelist, biographer, and narrative historian Piers Paul Read, this real-life morality tale comes alive for a new generation. Using his storytelling skills and a nuanced, deep knowledge of French history, Read rediscovers l'affaire Dreyfus as a rich, riveting tale. [BloomsburyPress/March2012]

The Right Guard. For those who love stories involving America's intelligence services, The Right Guard by Alexandra Hamlet ($24.95, Foxboro Press, Annapolis, MD) is going to prove a suspenseful and satisfying story with ramifications of present times. Set in 1978, it reflects the present political and economic climate of the United States. Recall that Jimmy Carter was still president and the Iranian hostage taking of our diplomats was still a year away. When more than one million military weapons and equipment are missing from U.S. military inventories across the nation, CIA operatives struggle to find out who is involved in a secretive, "phantom" group hostile to a wildly spending, intrusive U.S. administration. The action is set against the world of intelligence and defense in the 1970s and chapters often begin with actual newspaper articles relating to the topics that are contained in the novel. This is the author's debut novel and one can only hope she has another on the way. [Read more: AlanCaruba/March2012]

'The Dictionary of Espionage'. We use words to tell each other what we mean. Words illuminate reality. But sometimes, and it seems increasingly so in these troubled times, words can be used to conceal truth.

This is why "The Dictionary of Espionage" is so timely and will appeal to the average citizen who is made vaguely uneasy when he is told that his government is engaged in "surgical strikes" against our enemies, which on occasion, unfortunately, result in "collateral damage" - that is, the U.S. government set out to kill someone but ended up killing someone else.

In this accessibly written book, Washington author Joseph C. Goulden illuminates and defines much of the standard jargon of the intelligence community with refreshing asides about many of spying's urban legends - many of which may or may not be true. Informed by remarkable access to the intelligence community, the book, first issued in 1986, has been significantly updated and contains a foreword by Peter Earnest, the founding executive director of the International Spy Museum in Washington and a former CIA operations officer.

Both Mr. Earnest and Mr. Goulden make an important point in their introductions to the dictionary. Not so long ago, intelligence gatherers of nations lived in a hermetically sealed world. For example, until fairly recently, it was a felony for a British newspaper to disclose the name of the person known as C - the pseudonym for the head of the United Kingdom's MI-6 foreign intelligence service - or the director of MI-5, its counterintelligence arm.

In 1953, when Ian Fleming had his James Bond character first report to M, the fictional spy chief, he was sailing very close to prosecution even with that alphabetical fudge. And one does not have to be all that old to recall when Washingtonians drove past the sign for the "Virginia Bureau of Public Roads" in McLean, which masked the entrance to the CIA campus.

Nowadays of course, the retired head of MI-5 is a dishy blond London media celebrity named Stella Rimington who writes spy thrillers of her own. In our own country, the once-secret language that spies used with one another to keep outsiders at bay has crept into everyday parlance. Sometimes, inevitably, the original usage Mr. Goulden gives us has morphed into quite another thing in layman's terms. [Read more: Srodes/WashingtonTimes/5March2012]

Obituaries

Stanley A. Ciesielski. Stanley A. Ciesielski, a retired career Central Intelligence Agency intelligence officer who was a co-founder of the Polish Heritage Association of Maryland, died Monday of lung cancer at a niece's home in Hampstead.

He was 101.

"Stanley Ciesielski was a great friend and adviser. I knew him through our work in the Polish community," said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a longtime friend. "He was a great patriot fighting for the freedom of Poland. He was one of the founders of the Polish Heritage Society, whose purpose was to support the Solidarity movement, particularly during those dark days of martial law," she said.

"He did everything from sending food to people in Poland to playing a significant role in keeping our Polish history and heritage alive here in America," she said. "He fought for liberty of Poland from communism - doing everything he could through his career in national security."

The son of Polish immigrants, Mr. Ciesielski was born in New Kensington, Pa., and moved with his family in the 1920s to a rowhouse on Newkirk Street in East Baltimore.

He graduated from City College in 1928 and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1934 from what is now Loyola University Maryland.

During the 1930s, he worked as a private investigator, and from 1940 to 1941 he edited a newspaper. He enlisted in the Army in 1941 and served stateside in the Counter Intelligence Corps.

Mr. Ciesielski attained the rank of major at the time of his discharge from the service in 1949, and he joined the CIA a year later.

He was a staff officer at CIA headquarters in Washington from 1950 to 1956 and was chief of special installation in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1956 to 1958.

Mr. Ciesielski returned to CIA headquarters in Washington in 1959, where he was an intelligence officer until retiring in 1972.

From 1978 to 1980, he served as a member of the State of Maryland Ethnic Heritage Committee.

Throughout his life, Mr. Ciesielski maintained an interest in his Polish heritage and Polish culture. [Read more: Rasmussen/BaltimoreSun/2March2012]

Philip S. Dickson Jr. Philip S. Dickson Jr., 84, a retired CIA officer who specialized in research and development, died of multiple myeloma Feb. 13 at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Cassandra Dickson.

Philip Sidney Dickson Jr. was born in New York City. He served in the Marine Corps near the end of World War II and in 1950 graduated from Harvard University. He then served 32 years in the CIA.

He was a Bethesda resident and had also lived part time in Vero Beach, Fla. His avocations included gardening and fishing.

His first marriage, to Doris Ryan, ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 36 years, Susan Bussells Dickson of Bethesda; two daughters from his first marriage, Cassandra Dickson of Portland, Ore., and Caroline Dickson of Columbia; and two grandchildren. [Barnes/WashingtonPost/1March2012]

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in March, April, 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, 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, 8 March 2012, Noon-2:00 pm - Washington DC - The Returned Services League of Australia, Washington Sub-Branch, meets to hear CAPT Evin Thompson USN on the history of the US Navy SEALs.

CAPT Thompson is currently Navy Special Warfare Branch Head, Expeditionary Warfare Division, Navy Staff.
WHERE - Amenities Room, Embassy of Australia, 1601 Massachusetts Ave NW. NOTE: Valid ID required.
Charge - $15.00, including buffet lunch and sodas. Alcoholic beverages- $2.00 each.
RSVP by noon on March 7, to David Ward at 202-352-8550 or via e-mail at dmward1973@gmail.com
Attire : Business casual
Parking: There is no parking at the Embassy. There is paid public parking behind and under the Airline Pilots Association (17th and Mass) and at 1500 Mass Ave NW.

Friday, 9 March 2012, 5:30-7:00 PM - Washington, DC - The Institute of World Politics hosts Lt Col. Forrest Hare, USAF on Cyber Threats and National Security

Forrest Hare, Lt Col, USAF, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Intelligence, speaks on the topic of Cyber threats and national security: There does not have to be a war for a security threat to exist
Mr. Schmidt, the current cyber security coordinator for the President, has made it clear that we are not currently in a cyber war.
We all appreciate that, while we are not at war with any countries today, many nation-states, and non-state actors, are preparing for that potentiality and do possess a real and credible threat in many domains, including cyberspace. In this discussion, we will look at cyber security from the perspective of national security with the realization that national security organizations may have differing perspectives of the threats in the cyber domain.
Location: 1521 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
RSVPs REQUIRED. Please do so to kbridges@iwp.edu. Bring ID to show at the door.

Friday, 9 March 2012, noon - 3pm - Ashburn, VA - Loudoun Crime Commission Luncheon invites all to hear John Weisman discuss "You can reveal more in fiction than can be done in nonfiction."

John Weisman will be the speaker at the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn VA from 1200 to 1500. He will be talking about "When writing about certain sensitive subjects, sometimes you can get closer to the truth in fiction than you can in nonfiction…" as well as discussing his new book, KBL: Kill Bin Laden, which he will also have for purchase and signing. I'm told that he has no problem signing books brought in as well so if members have any they may bring them.
Location: Belmont Country Club is directly off Rte 7 in Ashburn at 19661 Belmont Manor Lane, Ashburn, VA, 20147. Directions can be found at http://www.belmontcountryclub.com/location-direction.shtml.
Cost: $20.00 paid by cash or check at the door. Doors open at 1200 with lunch at 1230 and John on at 1300.
RSVP by March 6 to collins@loudouncrimecommission.org. Reservation strongly suggested but we always have a few extra seats for stragglers. We expect a larger crowd than normal.

Wednesday, 14 March 2012, 11:30am - Scottsdale, AZ - Hank Potosky on "The Secret Service Protection." at AFIO Arizona

Hank had a thirty-one year career as a Special Agent and Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the United States Secret Service.
He was Coordinator/Director for the 1988 Iowa Caucus and for Secret Service Security Manpower for the 1983 Economic Summit in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was the Secret Service Liaison and Security Coordinator with United Nation Officials for two United Nations General Assemblies. He was involved in the protection of seven Presidents and seven Vice-Presidents and numerous foreign Heads of State. He also
investigated cases involving counterfeiting, forgery of government securities, fraud against the U.S. Government, identity theft and electronics crimes.
New location: McCormick Ranch Golf Course, 7505 McCormick Pwy, Scottsdale, AZ - 480.948.0260.
RSVP no later than 72 hours ahead of time; in the past, not reserving or cancelling without prior notice (72 hours prior to the meeting) created much grief for those of us organizing the meeting and dealing with the personnel!
WE ARE charged for the no-shows and please remember, we are a small organization with a humble coffer!
We would therefore APPRECIATE that you all respond to this email to confirm your presence (or not).
Our meeting fees will be as follows: • $20.00 for AFIO members; • $22.00 for guests; • $25.00 for AFIO Members with NO RSVPs as per the requested date
• All NO SHOWS or last minute cancellations will need to pay for the lunch
For reservations or questions, please email ON OR BEFORE January 9th, 2012 Simone simone@4smartphone.net or simone@afioaz.org or call and leave a message on 602.570.6016

Wednesday, 14 March 2012, noon - Washington, DC - Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway - Presentation and book signing

"Elliot Carlson's biography of Capt. Joe Rochefort is the first to be written of the officer who headed the U. S. Navy's decrypt unit at Pearl Harbor and broke the Japanese Navy's code before the Battle of Midway. Carlson brings Rochefort to life as the irreverent, fiercely independent, and consequential officer that he was and discusses his frustrations as he searches in vain for Yamamoto's fleet prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but share his joy when he succeeds in tracking the fleet in early 1942 and breaks the code that leads Rochefort to believe Yamamoto's invasion target is Midway. His conclusions, bitterly opposed by some top Navy brass, are credited with making the U.S. victory possible and helping change the course of the war."
WHERE: McGowan Theater, National Archives, Washington, DC. Directions: http://www.archives.gov/nae/visit/theater.html
A book signing will follow the program

Thursday, 15 March 2012, 11:30 am - Colorado Springs, CO – The AFIO Rocky Mountain Chapter presents a re-scheduling 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

Friday, 16 March 2012, noon – 2 pm – Washington, DC - "Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat" by Max Holland at International Spy Museum

Leak: Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat
Through the shadowy persona of "Deep Throat," FBI official Mark Felt became as famous as the Watergate scandal his "leaks" helped uncover. Best known through Hal Holbrook's portrayal in the film version of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's All the President's Men, Felt was regarded for decades as a conscientious but highly secretive whistleblower who shunned the limelight. Yet even after he finally revealed his identity in 2005, questions about his true motivations persisted.
Max Holland has found the missing piece of that Deep Throat puzzle—one that's been hidden in plain sight all along. He reveals for the first time in detail what truly motivated the FBI's number-two executive to become the most fabled secret source in American history. In the process, he directly challenges Felt's own explanations while also demolishing the legend fostered by Woodward and Bernstein's bestselling account.
Holland critiques all the theories of Felt's motivation that have circulated over the years, including notions that Felt had been genuinely upset by White House law-breaking or had tried to defend and insulate the FBI from the machinations of President Nixon and his Watergate henchmen. And, while acknowledging that Woodward finally disowned the "principled whistleblower" image of Felt in The Secret Man, Holland shows why that famed journalist's latest explanation still falls short of the truth.
Holland showcases the many twists and turns to Felt's story that are not widely known, revealing not a selfless official acting out of altruistic patriotism, but rather a career bureaucrat with his own very private agenda. Drawing on new interviews and oral histories, old and just-released FBI Watergate files, papers of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, presidential tape recordings, and Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate-related papers, he sheds important new light on both Felt's motivations and the complex and often problematic relationship between the press and government officials.
Fast-paced and scrupulously fact-checked, Leak resolves the mystery residing at the heart of Mark Felt's actions. By doing so, it radically revises our understanding of America's most famous presidential scandal.
Free! WHERE: International Spy Museum: 800 F Street, NW Washington, DC Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Visit www.spymuseum.org

17 March 2012, 2 pm - Kennebunk, ME - AFIO Maine Chapter hosts Mary Margaret Graham, former DDNIC/CIA, speaking on "The Role of Intelligence in the 21st Century"

Mrs. Mary Margaret Graham is a former senior intelligence officer  who retired in 2008 as the first Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection where she was responsible for oversight of intelligence programs for the 16 agencies which make up the Intelligence Community.  In addition to 29 years in numerous field and headquarters assignments in CIA, she served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director of the National Security Agency in the mid-1990s.  Mrs. Graham currently serves as Chair of the Defense Intelligence Agency Advisory Board. She is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards for her service.  WHERE: The Brick Store Museum Program Center, 2 Dane Street, Kennebunk, ME.  The public is invited. For information call 207-967-4298

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.

Thursday, 29 March 2012, 9am-5:30pm - Washington, DC - Wilson Center & Georgetown University hosts conference "Moles, Defectors, and Deceptions: James Angleton and His Influence on US Counterintelligence."

The goal of the conference is to foster informed, scholarly discussion of James Angleton and his time at the CIA, as well as his continuing influence on American counterintelligence. The conference will bring together a wide variety of experts on intelligence history with a view towards examining Angleton's career and legacy from all sides. A draft program is attached for your reference. We appreciate your consideration of this letter and look forward to hearing from
you. Please RSVP (acceptances only) to ColdWar@wilsoncenter.org. Should you have questions about the event, contact Bruce Hoffman at (202) 687-7847, or Christian Ostermann at (202) 691-4176. Alternatively contact Tim McDonnell at (202) 691 4308 or atTimothy.McDonnell@wilsoncenter.org.
Event location: Woodrow Wilson Center.

29 March 2012 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Deputy Director Mike Sena, Northern California Regional Intelligence Center. He will be speaking about the National Fusion Center Networks' role in the information sharing environment. 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.

Monday, 2 April 2012, 6:30pm - Washington, DC - "9/11, False Flags, and Black Ops" at International Spy Museum

9/11, False Flags, and Black Ops: An Evening of Debate with David Frum, Jonathan Kay, and Webster Tarpley
Don't be an April Fool. The truth may be out there, but when does the search for it turn into a wild goose chase? Canadian journalist, Jonathan Kay, set out to answer that question with his profile of the 9/11 Trust Movement in his acclaimed book, Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. One of the most fascinating people that Kay interviewed is Webster Tarpley. Dr. Tarpley, who has addressed ideas and issues from Venetian history to economic recovery from the current world depression, is the author of 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in the USA. He has developed his theories about international governmental involvement in assassinations and the engineering of the 9/11 attacks by rogue actors from the military and intelligence community over many years, beginning with his investigation of the Aldo Moro murder in Italy in the 1980s. Columnist and commentator, David Frum, founder of the FrumForum.com, will moderate this lively Kay-Tarpley discussion about 9/11, nefarious plots, and other conspiracy theories.
WHERE: International Spy Museum: 800 F Street, NW Washington, DC Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
TICKETS: Tickets: $15. Visit www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 4 April 2012, 1000-1130 [lunch to 1300]- Annapolis Junction, MD - National Cryptologic Museum Foundation Spring Program features Douglas Waller on Wild Bill Donovan

The NCMF welcome Douglas Waller as their guest speaker for the spring program. The presentation is at the L-3 Stratis Conference Center in the National Business Park (NBP). Directions are below. After the program, lunch will be served until 1300.

Douglas Waller is a veteran correspondent, author and lecturer. He served in TIME Magazine's Washington Bureau from 1994 to 2007 where he covered foreign affairs extensively as a diplomatic corespondent. Before joining TIME, Waller served as a reporter on Newsweek magazine. He has written a total of eight books of which Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster who created the OSS and Modern American Espionage is his latest.

Donovan was the man President Franklin Roosevelt made his top spy of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. One of America's most exciting and secretive generals, Donovan is a mythic figure whose legacy is still intensely debated. "Wild Bill" Donovan was Director of the OSS, the country's first intelligence agency, the forerunner of today's CIA.

We hope you can join us on 4 April. The Program fee is $40. Make your check out to NCMF, and return by 28 March. Replies/RSVPs to cryptmf@aol.com

Directions from Baltimore: Take MD-295 (Baltimore-Washington Parkway) south towards Washington; Take the MD-32 West exit towards Columbia; Keep right at the fork toward NBP; Turn right onto NBP; Take 2nd right to 2720 Technology Drive (L3 is on the left)
Directions from Washington: Take MD-295 (Baltimore-Washington Parkway) north towards Baltimore; Take the MD-32 West exit towards Columbia: Keep right at the fork toward NBP; Turn right onto NBP; Take 2nd right to 2720 Technology Drive (L3 is on the left)

5 April 2012 - Stony Brook, LI, NY - The new Long Island Spy Museum [LISM] hosts their first annual spy symposium

Draft schedule as follows: 9-9:30 Coffee/Light Refreshments; 9:30-9:45 Introduction: Master of Ceremonies - Actor Peter Firth from the critically acclaimed television series MI-5; 9:45-10:45 Speaker #1: Michael Sulick- Former Director of National Clandestine Service, CIA, and 28 year CIA veteran: "Revolutionary War (Revolutionary War Espionage & George Washington's Spies"; 10:45-11:45 Speaker # 2: Bill Birnes- A New York Times best selling author, TV personality, Espionage historian, and holds a law degree from New York University: "WWII-Office of Strategic Services (OSS): The Birth of an Intelligence Agency; Patriots, Buccaneers & Movie Stars"; 11:45-12:45 LUNCH BREAK; 12:45-1:45 Speaker #3: Michael Hayden - Former Director of CIA & NSA: "CIA, the War on Terror, and the Killing of Bin Laden"; 1:45- 2 Coffee Break; 2:00 -3:00 Speaker #4: Cindy Webb - Former Chief Of Counterintelligence, CIA "Counter-Intelligence in the Cold War and Beyond"; 3:00-4:00 Speaker#5: Tom Betro - Former Director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, (NCIS): "Counterintelligence 2.0; CI Challenges and Opportunities in the Internet Era"; 4:00-4:30 Q&A for entire panel with the audience; 4.30-4:40 Closing Remarks.
Where: Stony Brook University
Visit: http://longislandspymuseum.org/ for updated schedule.
Long Island Spy Museum, 275 Christian Ave, Stony Brook, NY 11790 -
Call 631-371-1473 for additional information.

Tuesday, 10 April 2012, 11:30 am - 2 pm - MacDill AFB - AFIO Florida Suncoast Chapter hosts Hon. Gun M. Bilirakis at this luncheon.

Gus M. Bilirakis, Republican from Palm Harbor serving on the Committees on Homeland Security, Veterans' Affairs and Foreign Affairs. Gus has been appointed Chairman of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communication, a vital post for the state of Florida. He will be touching a number of topics of vital interest to our nation.
Event location: MacDill AFB Surf's Edge Club, 7315 Bayshore Boulevard, MacDill AFB, FL 33621. RSVP no later than Wednesday, April 4, for yourself and include the names of any guests. Email
or call the Chapter Secretary at mfshapiro@att.net.
Cost is $20. If you make a reservation, don't cancel and get a cancellation confirmation by the response deadline and then don't show up, you will be responsible for the cost of the luncheon.
Note that the base is now enforcing a handscan registration for those with ID cards so, if you haven't been on-base recently, you should look into this or allow some extra time when you arrive for the meeting. Should you not have a 'bumper sticker' or ID card for access to MacDill AFB, please so state in your RSVP. If you have not already submitted information required for the Gate Access List, be sure to include your license number, name on drivers license and state of issue for yourself and for any guests you are bringing on base.
Anyone with special AFIO Gate Access should proceed to the Bayshore Gate. If you need directions, please let us know.

Wednesday, 18 April 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Washington, DC - "Graphic Intelligence: Comics, the KKK, and Covert Ops" at the International Spy Museum

Comic books often reflect the time in which they are created. Since the Cold War, spies have been hot, and the world of comics has had a great assortment of espionage volumes. National security lawyer and comic collector/dealer Mark S. Zaid has assembled a rich array of comics that address spies and espionage. He'll showcase some of the coolest and rarest volumes in his collection while he describes how spy comics mirrored the intelligence issues of the time period in which they were published—some purporting to reveal true spy cases. He'll also share tales of how comics may have been used as intelligence tools and to push social agendas involving war, race, and sex. Then there is the story of the famous superhero who teamed up with actual spies to strike a blow for justice and equality in the United States. Award-winning author Rick Bowers shares the story behind his new book Superman vs. the Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate. Bowers reveals how the producers of The Adventures of Superman radio show took on the resurgent Ku Klux Klan in 1946, teaming up with infiltrators within the secret society to produce a ground-breaking, 16-part radio drama in which the Man of Steel conquered the hooded hate mongers.
WHERE: International Spy Museum: 800 F Street, NW Washington, DC Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station.
Tickets: $15.00 Register at www.spymuseum.org

19 April 2012, 8 AM - 7 PM - Fort Lauderdale, FL - South Florida InfraGard Branch Regional Conference on "Current and Future Security threats: How are the private and public sectors working to meet these challenges."

The South Florida InfraGard Branch of the InfraGard Membership Alliance invites AFIO members to participat in their first Regional Conference: Current and Future Security threats: How are the private and public sectors
working to meet these challenges.
As security threats continue to develop and new plans and intentions are exposed which target our private and public sector entities, it is imperative to stay aware and current on technology/physical security best practices, to prevent, mitigate and react to potential disruption and loss of services, life and property. Conference speakers will represent all sectors and functions facing the challenges threatening our Cyber and Critical Infrastructure, and
will address methods to protect it, as well as Technology and Risk Management trends and advances towards the safeguarding of our National Security.
FOOD: Breakfast, full gourmet lunch, snacks and an evening cocktail event are included. LOCATION: Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport Hotel.
REGISTER AT: http://www.s-fla.eventbrite.com
For list of speakers, their topics, their bios, and additional information visit http://www.infragardmiami.com/
Questions to Nancy Bianco, South Florida InfraGard, 650 533-5360 or nrbianco@mindspring.com

Wednesday, 9 May 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m – Washington, DC - "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden - From 9/11 to Abbottabad" at the International Spy Museum

"Tonight, I can report…that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden."—US President Barack Obama, May 1, 2011

When Osama bin Laden declared war against the United States for the first time to a Western audience, Peter Bergen was there. He produced Osama bin Laden's first television interview. His book, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader, was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2006. Bergen has continued to write and report extensively on bin Laden and the conflict between the US and al Qaeda for publications ranging from The New York Times to Rolling Stone. He's produced award-winning documentaries on the subject matter, and in his latest book he has turned his attention to the hunt and termination of the notorious terrorist. Join us for an inside account of Bergen's professional connection to bin Laden, his perspective on the decade-long hunt to capture or kill him, and his thoughts on the results of Operation Neptune Spear.
WHERE: International Spy Museum: 800 F Street, NW Washington, DC Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Tickets: $15.00 Register at www.spymuseum.org

11-13 May 2012 - North Conway, NH - The New England Chapter of the Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association (NCVA-NE) holds Spring Mini-Reunion

Location: North Conway Grand Hotel, North Conway, New Hampshire. The registration cut-off date for the event is 27 April 2012. For additional information, local members and prospective members may call (518) 664-8032 or visit http://ncva-ne.org

Friday, 18 May 2012, 6:30 – 9:30 pm – Washington, DC - "Surveillance 101 with Eric O'Neill" at the International Spy Museum

Test your surveillance skills on the mean streets of DC!

What if you were assigned to watch the most damaging spy in US history? As a young operative in the FBI, Eric O'Neill was put into position as Robert Hanssen's assistant with the secret task of spying on his boss, who was under suspicion of working for Russia.$7 O'Neill's background with the FBI was in surveillance, so he was up to the challenge. But how would you measure up? It's your chance to find out. O'Neill is prepared to share his hard-earned expertise with you. This intense small group introduction to surveillance will include learning the basics and conducting surveillance in the streets of DC. Will you be able to track the "Rabbit" without being "made?" You'll learn how to snap clandestine shots and keep your target in view so you won't miss operational acts or secret meetings. O'Neill will lead the exercise and help you learn how to blend into the shadows for the best spy results!
WHERE: International Spy Museum: 800 F Street, NW Washington, DC Gallery Place/Chinatown Metrorail Station
Tickets $94.00. Space is limited to only 10 participants – advance registration required. Call 202 654-0932 to register.

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

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