Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Detainee Deaths Prosecutor Backs Secrecy of CIA Files. The federal prosecutor appointed to investigate the abuse and death of detainees in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency is backing the CIA's efforts to keep its internal probes of those incidents secret, despite the fact that the criminal investigations are about to wrap up.

Prosecutor John Durham said in a declaration dated March 2 that disclosing two CIA Inspector General reports on alleged abuse could jeopardize the criminal probe because the reports "relate directly to issues that the criminal investigators working under my supervision are actively examining, namely, the facts and circumstances surrounding the deaths of two individuals while in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency."

One of the reports relates to the death of Iraqi Manadal al-Jamaidi at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. It is not clear what the second report relates to, but sources say the other episode that Durham probed in-depth was the 2002 death of Afghan Gul Rahman at a facility in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit.

While Durham said at one point in his declaration that his subordinates are "actively examining" the deaths, he went on to say "the above-referenced investigations are now winding down and are expected to be concluded shortly."

Just over a month ago, Attorney General Eric Holder told a House committee that the Justice Department was "about to close those investigations." The incidents were also examined by federal prosecutors during the Bush era. No charges were filed, but Holder elected to re-open those two cases after Durham conducted a broad inquiry into about 100 incidents of detainee deaths and alleged abuse at the hands of CIA officers and contractors.

Durham's declaration was filed in federal court in Washington Tuesday night in connection with an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking the CIA Inspector General reports. [Read more: Gerstein/Politico/7March2012]

Northrop Grumman to Strengthen Cybersecurity Across DoD, Intelligence Community Networks. Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a cybersecurity task order by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to strengthen cybersecurity protections across all U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community networks by implementing the Host Based Security System (HBSS) as part of the DoD Information Assurance and Computer Network Defense contract.

The task order was competitively awarded under the Encore 2 contract vehicle and is valued at $189 million over a three-year base period with two one-year options. As prime integrator, Northrop Grumman will provide software license maintenance support, training, help desk and architectural infrastructure support personnel.

"Cybersecurity is one of Northrop Grumman's four core businesses due to its vital role in our nation's defense," said Karen Williams, vice president of Northrop Grumman's Defense Technologies Division. "The HBSS award reinforces Northrop Grumman's position as a top provider of defense-in-depth cybersecurity solutions across the DoD and intelligence domains."

HBSS is the DoD's commercial-off-the-shelf suite of automated and standardized software used to provide enhanced host based security - security on desktops and laptops versus at the boundary such as routers and switches - against both inside and external threats. [Read more: DefPro/7March2012]

FBI Director Says Terrorists May Seek to Train Recruits for Cyber Attacks on US. FBI Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday that terrorists may seek to train their own recruits or hire outsiders with an eye toward pursuing cyber attacks on the United States.

"Terrorists have not used the Internet to launch a full-scale cyber attack, but we cannot underestimate their intent," Mueller said in prepared testimony to a House appropriations subcommittee. He said terrorists have shown interest in developing hacking skills, and that the evolving nature of the problem makes the FBI's counterterrorism mission more difficult.

Under questioning by Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, Mueller said he would support increasing the criminal penalties for computer hacking in the context of economic espionage as the U.S. seeks to protect sensitive information.

"Our companies are targeted for insider information and our universities and national laboratories are targeted for their research and development," the FBI director told the congressional panel.  [Read more:  AP/7March2012]

LulzSec 'Leader' Spy for FBI. Six members of the suspected computer hacking groups affiliated with Anonymous were charged - including the suspected ring leader, who directed the entire operation from a Manhattan apartment complex - after it was revealed one of the group's most high profile members has been working with federal authorities for months. Hector Monsegur, a 28-year-old American believed to use the name 'Sabu' on the internet, was arrested by federal agents last year and has been cooperating with law enforcement ever since, officials said. He pleaded guilty last August.

At least four of the five other members of the group were arrested recently based on information provided by Monsegur - one in Chicago and three overseas, officials said. Each was charged with conspiracy and at least two were to appear in federal court in Lower Manhattan. Federal officials said they expect the arrests to seriously damage LulzSec, an underground group also known as Lulz Security, which is also an offshoot of the hacking group Anonymous.

Law enforcement sources said that the six people charged are allegedly among the most sophisticated hackers in the world. The FBI said motives for attacks varied - for example an attack on credit card companies was based on the refusal by the firms to process contributions to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, and another attack was simply a way of mocking internet security. The investigation began with a tip last June, officials said. [Read more: PostNoon/7March2012]

Former CIA Officials Say Iran's Clerics Want to Goad Israel Into an Attack. Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington today, is laying more political groundwork for a possible preemptive Israeli airstrike against Iran's nuclear sites.

But as Netanyahu rallies his American supporters and discourages diplomatic engagement with Tehran, some intelligence officials and Iran experts tell The Daily Beast that an Israeli attack may be exactly what Tehran's most hard-line leaders have been trying to provoke.

Marty Martin, a former senior officer in the CIA, ran the unit that hunted Al Qaeda terrorists from 2002 to 2004. Iran's most militant leaders "are goading the Israelis," he tells The Daily Beast, "because a bombing will help them put their internal problems aside."

Martin, who spent most of his 25-year career at the CIA in the Middle East, argues that some clerics and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, confronted with a discontented and restless population, are looking for ways to solidify public support. "The way they see it, if Israel bombs them it relieves the internal pressure," says Martin. "Amid this turmoil, its always good to have an outside enemy."

Iran's internal troubles include a 12 percent unemployment rate, a shattered economy (due in part to international sanctions), resentment over the oppressive regime, and widespread disgust over corruption.

Martin, who retired from the agency in 2007, now works as an independent consultant. He was prominent inside the agency not just for his leadership against Al Qaeda but also for his expertise on the Middle East: his Louisiana drawl disguises the fact that he speaks fluent Arabic.

"If you are an Iranian," he says, "there is actually a benefit to an Israel strike - an Israel strike which won't be successful completely militarily, but will be successful for saying 'game on'!"

Paul Pillar, the former national intelligence officer for the Middle East, agrees, though he emphasizes that only part of the Iranian leadership is likely plotting this way. "It's quite rational," he said, "from the perspective of the specific elements in the regime that believe it would work to their political advantage." Pillar, who spent 28 years at the CIA, is now a professor at Georgetown University. "I strongly believe that the net political effect of an attack would be to help the hardliners," he says. [Read more: Roston/TheDailyBeast/5March2012]

Couple Charged with Plot to Sell Secrets to Chinese Government Company.  A California couple is fighting espionage charges over an alleged plot to sell trade secrets to a company controlled by the Chinese government.

Following a July 2011 raid on Walter and Christina Liew's Bay Area house, investigators said they found that a safety deposit box belonging to the couple at an Oakland bank contained documents outlining a more than decade-long plot to steal DuPont Co. corporate secrets and sell them to a Chinese government-owned company.

The Liews are now at the center of a case that the Justice Department says marks the first time US officials have filed criminal espionage charges against a state-owned foreign company.

The company, Pangang Group, is fighting the charges, which were unveiled a month ago in San Francisco.

The Liews were charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets and sell them to the Chinese, charges they deny. [Read more: NewsCore/9March2012]

Embassy Closure Hampers CIA Mission in Syria. Washington The challenge for the CIA increased when the United States shut its embassy in Damascus last month.

The facility had provided diplomatic cover for agency officers and a base for intelligence-gathering operations inside Syria's capital.

US President Barack Obama has refrained from issuing a classified "finding" that would give the CIA authority to conduct covert operations inside Syria against Al Assad, US officials said. Even in its core mission of gathering intelligence, the agency has been cautious, according to officials who described Syria as a sophisticated counter-intelligence adversary, with substantial assistance from Iran.

No agency teams were sent to meet with opposition elements in Homs before that city became the target of a violent crackdown by Al Assad's forces. And officials said no surveillance drones have been deployed over Syria, whose air defences are considered more than capable of shooting down unmanned aircraft. Instead, the US agencies have had to monitor events from higher altitudes. [Read more: WashingtonPost/9March2012]

Officers: No Plans for CIA to Run War. U.S. military commanders said Wednesday that there were no plans to turn the Afghan war over to CIA control after 2014, with special operations answering to American intelligence officials.

"There are absolutely no plans right now to put special operations under Title 50 in Afghanistan now that I am aware of," said Adm. Bill McRaven, the overall special-operations commander, referring to the legal authority under which the CIA operates.

Gen. James Mattis, who heads U.S. Central Command, and McRaven told the House Armed Services Committee that they would continue an emphasis on special-operations training of Afghan forces, especially at the village level. [Read more: Dozier/AP/8March2012]

Napolitano Releases Directive for Sharing Classified Intel with Local Police. To alleviate the ongoing problems associated with the sharing of classified information between the agencies within the Homeland Security Department and local law enforcement departments, a plan to implement President Barack Obama's executive order was revealed on Friday in Washington, D.C.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano released an implementing directive that strengthens the sharing of classified information by the federal government with state, local, tribal, and private sector (SLTPS) partners. 

The directive implements Executive Order 13549, "Classified National Security Information Program for State, Local, Tribal, and Private Sector Entities." On August 18, 2010, President Obama issued Executive Order 13549 to federal agencies involved in national and homeland security operations.

"The need to securely share actionable, timely, and relevant classified information among state, local, tribal, and private sector partners in support of homeland security is critical and self-evident as we work together to address evolving threats," said Secretary Napolitano during a press conference on Friday.

"Equally evident is the need for a unified, consistent program for the application of standardized security processes and procedures for security clearance management and the safeguarding of classified information across the executive branch and in support of classified information sharing efforts with our partners," said the Homeland Security Secretary.

"This directive strengthens this effort by instilling uniformity and consistency in the application of security standards when classified information is shared," she added. [Read more: Kouri/Examiner/10March2012]

Secret Squadron: SAS Elite Operate at Large as Spies in Africa. A secret squadron of Australian SAS soldiers has been operating at large in Africa, performing work normally done by spies in an unannounced and possibly dangerous expansion of Australia's foreign military engagement.

The deployment of the SAS's 4 Squadron - the existence of which has never been publicly confirmed - has put the special forces unit at the outer reaches of Australian and international law.

Fairfax has confirmed that troopers from the squadron have mounted dozens of secret operations over the past year in African nations including Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya.

They have been out of uniform and not accompanied by Australian Secret Intelligence Service officers, with whom undercover SAS forces are conventionally deployed.

It is believed the missions have involved gathering intelligence on terrorism and scoping rescue strategies for Australian civilians trapped by kidnapping or civil war.

But the operations have raised serious concerns within the Australian military and intelligence community, because they involve countries where Australia is not at war. [Read more: Epstein&Welch/BrisbaneTimes/13March2012]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

DNI Jim Clapper Out in Fall? Rumor Mill Says Maybe. Jim Clapper, the first Director of National Intelligence to order budget cuts across the intelligence community, may be leaving his post this fall.

Or, then again, he may not. At this stage, all is rumor. So far, we've got three people with good intelligence connections saying Clapper is likely on the way out. We've got one former senior intelligence saying it is not likely.

But as so often with the intelligence community, rumors possess value because they indicate perception as much as fact. There may be senior Obama administration officials who would like to see Clapper gone. He is a career military man heading a "civilian" intelligence community and there's another such fish over at CIA named Petraeus. And we all know how they treated retired Adm. Dennis Blair.

Also, two of the sources for the rumor may have a strong institutional interest in Clapper's departure. But we can't say more for fear of blowing their cover.

A source with excellent intelligence community access had a specific piece of information. "Clapper was told he is no longer valued....back in October. General Cartwright was offered the job but declined," this source said in an email. [Read more: Clark/AOLDefense/5March2012]

'Eye in the Sky': The Case File on NGA Director Letitia Long. On May 1, 2011, Letitia 'Tish' Long was at Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, watching the greatest intelligence-special operations mission of the past decade, unfold.

"We were anxious. It was tense. There were periods of time when we didn't know exactly what was happening," Long told CNN.

Long and others could do little but wait to see whether months of intelligence preparation would pay off as Navy SEALs raided the compound in Pakistan where they believed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding out.

She was one of only a few women in the room that day, and the only woman who headed a major intelligence agency.

In August 2010, Long was named director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, one of the U.S. intelligence agencies that played a critical role in the bin Laden mission.

Yet even today, few have probably ever heard of Long or the agency she runs outside of Washington's inner circles.

The agency she leads is a combat support agency that falls within the Department of Defense and serves up highly-detailed images that inform an impressive list of clients ranging from the president to the director of national intelligence to the wartime commanders on the ground who plan day-to-day combat and special operations missions.

To zoom in just a bit more, you might imagine NGA's mission as being akin to building an integrated model of the world. Building that model requires images that are precise, that incorporate not only the merging of maps and physical features such as mountain ranges, but also the imagery that comes from satellites orbiting the earth.

It is truly 'intelligence from above', and below - and the side.

NGA then often integrates detailed images with human geographic information and even social media as it creates the most accurate picture possible of any place on the planet.

Why does it matter? Because it influences intelligence decisions at the highest levels. For example, that 'compound' in Pakistan had been placed under constant surveillance. Based on imagery that NGA helped gather, analysts and military planners could see a tall man repeatedly walking around the compound yard. Although they couldn't know for sure it was bin Laden, those pictures along with other information, was enough for President Barack Obama to green light the mission.

As a lifelong intelligence professional, Long will tell you that the value of such detailed imagery and analysis cannot be overstated, particularly when it comes to the support of a special operations mission. She uses the bin laden raid as an example.

"The first thing our analysts asked the teams afterward, when we had a chance to debrief them, was, 'What surprised you?'" said Long. "'What didn't you know that you should have? What could we or should we have told you that you needed to know beforehand?' And the answer was, 'Nothing. We felt like we had been there before.'" [Read more: Kelly&Benson/CNN/9March2012]

International Man of Mystery Runs for Governor. Neil Livingstone's biography reads like that of a real-life man of international intrigue, where big paydays and dealings with dictators are commonplace. Now the counterterrorism expert says he wants to leave all that behind to become Montana's governor, where chairing the state land board and congratulating state football champions could count as an exciting day.

Livingstone lists his own exploits as exploring tunnels beneath the demilitarized zone separating the Koreas, fleeing from angry Nazis in Argentina, suffering interrogation in 1980s Libya and dining with Russian mafioso. He also says he was wrongly subpoenaed for gun running and involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. And that time he was on the yacht belonging to a swashbuckling pirate whose other guests included numerous hookers? He was on a mission, he says, securing private planes to spy on a foreign country.

Libyan documents leaked last year stated that Livingstone was among a small group seeking a multi-million dollar payday to help Moammar Gadhafi find a safe haven. Livingstone, who has been a vocal critic of Gadhafi, said he was trying to bring a quick end to the bloodshed. The deal was rebuffed by the Obama administration.

Livingstone, a Republican, doesn't think his colorful background or his list of controversial past clients harms his chances.

Livingstone most recently ran a company he started in 2007 called Executive Action - the same term used by the CIA in the 1950s to refer to their assassination operations. He started that company after leaving another called GlobalOptions Inc., which billed itself as a "private CIA." [Read more: Gouras/AP/11March2012]

This Week in History: CIA Agent Kidnapped in Lebanon. Shortly after 8 a.m. on March 16, 1984, like every other morning, CIA station chief in Beirut William Buckley left his 10th floor penthouse apartment in the western part of the city for the American Embassy. On that morning, he had decided to drive himself to work, against regulations for US officials in Lebanon at the time due to the danger of kidnapping. All non-essential staff and diplomats' family members had been evacuated from the country a month earlier.

As recalled at the time by the manager of Buckley's apartment building, the CIA officer walked out of the building that morning and got into his car, parked in an adjacent lot. Almost immediately after leaving the parking lot, a white Renault in front of him stopped short and forced him to a stop. A gunman walked up to Buckley, pointed a pistol at his head and put him into the Renault without a fight. Aside from in two disturbing videos sent to US diplomats in the following months, he would never be seen alive again.

Buckley's kidnappers whisked him through the city, divided into sections controlled by various militias, to a predetermined safehouse. The carefully planned operation was the work of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mughniyeh.

The CIA and other US intelligence agencies were quickly tasked with locating the station chief and various foreign spy agencies - including the Mossad, which presumably had a significant presence in Beirut at the time - were approached for assistance. Aside from the desire to get their agent back alive, CIA officials were worried that Buckley might compromise other agents and intelligence assets in the country were he to be tortured.

The top secret documents he was carrying in a "burn bag" latched to his wrist at the time of the kidnapping were just as worrisome. The CIA knew that while a mechanism that would ignite its contents if opened incorrectly protected the "burn bag," it was far from foolproof. A bit of ingenuity or coerced instructions on how to open it could easily bypass the self-destruct mechanism.

Indeed, the Agency's fears that the bag's contents might be compromised would soon be realized.

After months of hearing nothing from or about Buckley, a US embassy received a package containing a video of the kidnapped CIA officer. Appearing disoriented, physically exhausted and beaten, Buckley was shown lying on the floor naked, holding a file marked "Top Secret" to cover his genitals. The kidnappers had managed to open the burn bag.

Another video was sent less than a month later, showing Buckley in an even worse condition. According to interviews with CIA sources, forensic experts who examined the video identified puncture marks on Buckley's body indicating he was being regularly drugged. The experts concluded he had undergone long periods of torture, shackling and was being held in a makeshift cell with no light. There was little hope he had been able to withstand the torture long enough to protect US intelligence secrets.

Buckley died in Hezbollah captivity sometime the next year, although the exact date is unknown. [Read more: Omer-Man/JeruselumPost/11March2012]

Section III - COMMENTARY

LulzSec's Sabu: 'Ask Me About the CIA'. Last July the Guardian was investigating the elusive, mysterious individuals behind LulzSec and Anonymous - the loose hacker groups who had suddenly become front page news, as they led a wave of cyber attacks against a range major corporations and law enforcement. One individual, or one hacker name, stood out: Sabu, a prolific hacker often referred to as the leader of the groups.

Getting to Sabu was not easy; he was well aware of the illegal nature of his activities. But that month, the Guardian had a stroke of luck. Sabu objected violently to a piece we had carried, examining - and shooting down - allegations from a rival pro-US hacker that Sabu was using Anonymous and Lulzsec to push an extreme Islamic agenda.

He asked me to join him in an off-the-record internet chat - a conversation that happened seven weeks after Sabu, now unmasked as Hector Xavier Monsegur, had already been picked up by the FBI.

Given the latest revelations about Sabu's activities, that he worked as an informer from after his arrest on 7 June until just a few days ago, I think it is appropriate to publish a few extracts from our conversation.

Sabu - and we cannot even be sure that our correspondent was the real Monsegur and not a US agent - was not representing himself accurately to the newspaper. If anything, he was testing the Guardian out, openly flirting with the notion that he worked for the CIA - and then inviting me to knock him down.

Less than three weeks later, Monsegur pleaded guilty to 12 counts relating to computer hacking in secret, which carry a maximum sentence of 124 years and six months. But there is no sign in the logs of a man under pressure.

Sabu began by denouncing the Guardian's publication of the vague allegations of the supposed Islamic links of the hacker community. Then he switched tack, asking why the paper hadn't published rumors linking him to the CIA, arguing that would amount to an equivalent and equally inaccurate allegation. Given what we know now, the swerve is particularly noteworthy. [Read more: Ball/TheGuardian/7March2012]

The New Face of Corporate Espionage. Over the past five years, a highly sophisticated team of operatives have stealthily infiltrated more than 70 U.S. corporations and organizations to steal priceless company secrets. They did it without ever setting foot in any victim's office. Sitting at undisclosed computers, they could be anywhere in the world.

This is the new face of corporate espionage. Thieves whose identities are safely obscured by digital tradecraft rather than a ski mask, are robbing companies of the ideas that are the source of American ingenuity.

We now rely on the Internet to do business, supply communities with power and water, communicate with loved ones and support our troops on the battlefield. Our digital infrastructure is part of our country's lifeblood. Individual consumers, government agencies and small and large businesses are all increasingly vulnerable to growing threats.

However, there is another reason to care about Internet security that is less known: protecting U.S. competitiveness and jobs in the global economy.

In the coming weeks, Congress has an opportunity to do just that. As we mark National Consumer Protection Week - a time for consumer advocacy groups, private organizations and agencies at every level of government to highlight the ways individuals and families can protect themselves from scams, fraud and abuse - we are reminded of the role we each play in defending ourselves from online attacks and in securing cyberspace.

U.S. companies use information networks to create and store their unique ideas. The ideas power our economic growth. Every day, the networks of these companies, from large corporations to small businesses, are targeted by criminal organizations and nation-state thieves for these trade secrets.

Though this new corporate espionage is rampant and rising, calculating the damage to U.S. interests remains difficult. Not all data theft victims are aware of - or willing to report - these incidents. Even when a cyber-intrusion is detected, investigators usually cannot determine what information has been stolen or how the ultimate recipients will use it.

In the aggregate, the theft of this property, including everything from sensitive defense technology to innovative industrial designs, insidiously erodes government and corporate competitive advantages among global peers.

The effect on individual companies can be far more tangible and dramatic. U.S. companies invest considerable time and money in researching and developing new products, only to be undercut by competition, using their stolen property to make cheaper versions. [Read more: Bryson/Politico/8March2012]

Obama Is Right to Prosecute Leakers Who Are Not the Same as Whistle-Blowers. The Obama administration has taken harsh criticism for its record-setting prosecutions of individuals leaking classified information. But don't equate that with hostility to whistle-blowers, says a former Justice Department official. 

ABC News's Jake Tapper drew headlines last month for his harsh questioning of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney for what he termed the Obama administration's campaign "to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court." Referring to the six government employees or contractors who have been charged with leaking information during the past three years, Tapper repeated what has become orthodoxy among many reporters and government-watchdog groups: the Obama administration is waging war on government transparency and the very role of the free press.

It is true the administration is setting records for the prosecution of those who leak classified national-security information, but equating this record with hostility to whistle-blowers misstates the facts.

The difference between a leaker and a whistle-blower is important. Leaks of classified information can endanger American soldiers and intelligence officers and expose sensitive national-security programs to our enemies. Whistle-blowers expose violations of law, abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific threat to public health or safety.

The critics who label those being prosecuted today as whistle-blowers credit them with noble motives they do not deserve and ignore the harm they have caused. For example, the Justice Department has indicted former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for giving New York Times reporter James Risen classified information about what has been reported to be U.S. attempts to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program. It is easy to imagine how such a disclosure could harm national security and difficult to see what wrongdoing Sterling hoped to expose, since preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon has been long-stated American policy. In this particular instance, the Times apparently agreed: the paper has admitted that after being warned by the Bush administration that publishing Risen's story would harm national security, editors there spiked it. (Risen later published his account in a book.)

Far from principled intent, Sterling seems to have been motivated by retribution. After being first reassigned and later fired by the CIA, he sued the agency, charging racial discrimination, only to see the lawsuit dismissed in court. According to the government's indictment, Sterling began reaching out to Risen just a few weeks after the agency rejected his third offer to settle the suit.

In the most recent case, former CIA officer John Kiriakou was indicted in January for exposing the classified identity of one CIA agent and revealing the participation of another in the agency's controversial enhanced-interrogation program. Tapper described this case as targeting a "CIA officer for allegedly providing information in 2009 about CIA torture"; in fact, the indictment has nothing to do with the disclosure of information about waterboarding or other torture tactics during the last administration, but with the identities of career intelligence officers. [Read more: Miller/DailyBeast/10March2012]

Will US Really Know if Iran Has Nuclear Bomb? Despite President Barack Obama's assurances that the United States will know if Iran begins to secretly build a nuclear bomb, some senior officials familiar with U.S. intelligence and spying capabilities in Iran are doubtful.

The issue is a crucial one because the White House has suggested that U.S. satellites, sensors and spies, as well as United Nations inspections, provide a reliable tripwire to decide whether diplomacy has failed and military action is needed to stop Iran from assembling a nuclear device.

The officials' doubts stem, in part, from Iran's record of deceit.

Over the last decade, Western intelligence agencies have twice discovered large-scale clandestine Iranian facilities built to enrich uranium. The question now is whether Iran is hiding other nuclear enrichment sites or weapons research centers.

"You have to assume that, if they went clandestine once, they could well go clandestine in other places," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"As someone who deals with this stuff every day, I'm not sure how (the president) is that confident," said Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "I am confident that at some point ... we would know, probably. The problem is, you wouldn't know if that meant they'd have a weapon in three days or in three months."

Iran must produce weapons-grade uranium if it wants to build a bomb. For now, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors make regular monitoring visits to the two uranium enrichment complexes, at Natanz and Fordow, and they measure and track every bit of nuclear material.

The U.N. inspectors would quickly detect diversion of uranium or any sudden push to boost enrichment from 20 percent to 90 percent to supply fuel for a weapon. If the teams are denied access or expelled from Iran, however, that safety mechanism disappears and Washington and its allies will be left to assume the worst.

"As long as the IAEA is inspecting the enrichment program, you're going to get a heads up" if Iran tries to build a bomb, said Robert Kelley, a former senior IAEA inspector and nuclear expert at Los Alamos National Laboratory. [Read more: Dilanian/McClatchy/12March2012]

Section IV - Books, Corrections and Coming Events

Books

Deception: Spies, Lies, and How Russia Dupes the West. There is a popular shoot-and-kill game on Russian websites called Voinushka, meaning Little War, in which commands are issued by the image of a youthful-looking and khaki-clad Vladimir Putin - the country's all-powerful and sinister leader, who was recently re-elected in a heavily rigged poll.

Alongside him is a voluptuous, scantily dressed redhead wearing a Soviet-style military hat and toting a rifle. This is none other than the glamorous Anna Vasilyevna Kushchenko - better known here in the West as Anna Chapman, the agent whose undercover activities in London and New York led to her expulsion from the U.S. in 2010.

Since returning to Moscow, she has traded on her fame, partying hard, posing semi-naked for glossy magazines, hosting a TV show and becoming an intimate friend of Putin.

Despite the ultimate failure of her mission, she symbolises everything he wishes to project about the modern Russia - unstoppable, youthful and daring.

In the West, the reaction to Anna's antics tends to be amused condescension verging on complacency.

The New York Post dismissed her as an '007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top secret meetings around Manhattan [with] a fancy apartment and a Victoria's Secret body'.

For she was a rotten spy - her tradecraft was startlingly sloppy.

The company she set up in London as a front misspelt its phony address on official documents.

And what did she produce as she sat in a coffee shop, sending digital transmissions by laptop to her Russian controller as he cruised by in his car outside? Nothing, as far as we know, to keep any of us awake at night, now the Cold War is over. But we dismiss the espionage of Anna and her ilk at our peril. 

The Russian regime is tyrannical, criminal, murderous, and every bit as paranoid and predatory as its predecessor, the Soviet Union.

It thinks the West duplicitous, arrogant and greedy and it wants our secrets, whether military, business or political. To get them it uses an underground army of spies based here, whose most potent weapon is their ordinariness. 

They are the kind of people you might meet at the school gates, work alongside in an office or see mowing the lawn next door, stealthily penetrating our society.

That Russia runs such agents in the U.S., Britain and Europe (and elsewhere) should be cause for alarm.

Imagine someone who loathes you has a key to your front door. It will be little comfort if he has not yet got round to burning your house down, stealing your valuables, or planting drugs. The worry is that he could. Deception is at the very heart of today's Russia. [Read more: Lucas/DailyMail/9March2012]

The Widow Spy: My CIA Journey From the Jungles of Laos To Prison in Moscow. A famous black-and-white photo at the International Spy Museum in Washington shows a young woman being manhandled by a mob of swarthy guys.

The guys are Soviet KGB agents; the woman is Martha D. Peterson, a case officer with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The photograph shows her 1977 arrest on a railroad bridge in Moscow. They're trying to grab an SRR-100, an electronic monitoring device hooked to her bra.

Peterson spent two years in Moscow, posing as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy. An important part of her duties was contacting an official in the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, code-named TRIGON, who was photographing secret Soviet documents and passing them to the Americans.

Her mission has been recounted in other books. (One good example is "Spycraft," co-authored by the CIA's former technical chief, Robert Wallace.) Peterson, however, who retired to the Wilmington area in 2003, finally gives her side of the story, and quite a story it is.

A former community college teacher in North Carolina, with a master's from Chapel Hill, Peterson married a former Green Beret who had enlisted as a paramilitary officer with the CIA. In 1971, she followed him to Laos.

While he "advised" battalions of irregular Laotian troops, who were harassing North Vietnamese supply lines into the South, she lived in less-than-luxurious conditions - one night, a small lizard called a chinchuck landed in her dinner plate and proceeded to do something rude there. To pass the time, she signed on as a low-level clerk in the local CIA office. [Read more: Steelman/StarNews/10March2012]

Getting Watergate's History Right: Max Holland's Page-Turner Explaining Deep Throat's Motives. As we approach the 40th anniversary of Watergate a number of books are being published to mark the occasion. Several of my friends report that they are reading Thomas Mallon's novel, Watergate and they have asked me if Pat Nixon really did have an affair. To my knowledge, she didn't, and it certainly was not possible that an affair could have occurred as Mallon describes it happening in the novel. A reporter also called me with a question about Don Folsom's recently released Nixon's Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America's Most Troubled President, which, based on the questions the reporter posed to me, sounds more like fiction than Mallon's work does, although I've not read it.

Strikingly, and ironically, as more information has become available about Watergate, more writers are getting this history wrong. I suspect this is happening because the record is so massive that it has become overwhelming for most. For this reason, it is nice to discover a writer who not only get the facts right, but actually sheds light upon this dark history as never before. That is precisely what Max Holland has done with his terrific new work, Leak: Why Mark Felt Became Deep Throat. As the title indicates, this work is about why the FBI Assistant Director leaked key information about the Watergate investigation to the news media.

Because I was asked by the publisher to read Holland's work in manuscript form, I do not consider this a review. Rather, I believe it is a pre-publication opportunity to call attention to excellent work, and to take note of how Holland tackled the massive, complex, and often confusing record. The short explanation is that he did so very carefully, which takes time.

To show how Holland effectively dealt with this difficult record, I will point out how another very able author fell short when recently writing on the same subject. Albeit, he wrote only cursorily and quite broadly about Watergate, unfortunately, he did so incorrectly. [Read more: Dean/Justia/9March2012]

Corrections

Smersh Correction: Joe Goulden writes that he erred in his review of SMERSH in WIN#09-12 in writing that Ian Fleming, the creator of the James Bond novels, served in the Secret Intelligence Service during World War Two. Fleming had intelligence duties, to be sure, but not with SIS.

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, 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

Saturday, 17 March 2012, 5:15 PM - Washington, DC - "Codebreaking with IBM machines in World War II" - a presentation by Stephen Budiansky
Many important enemy code systems were broken by the US Army and Navy during World War II with the help of a variety of special-purpose analytic machinery.
Among the most important of these were special adaptations of commercial IBM card machines, developed to automate specific time-consuming tasks both in initially solving enemy cryptosystems and then in routinely deciphering intercepted messages.
Other innovative cryptanalytic hardware developed during the war used optical, paper-tape, and other storage devices that pushed electro-mechanical computing to its technological limits in this era just prior to the dawn of the digital revolution.
Speaker: Stephen Budiansky, author of "Battle of Wits"
Where: Washington Marriott Hotel, 1221 22nd Street NW, Washington, D.C.
Organizer: Cryptographic Engineering Research Group at George Mason University
Part of: SHARCS 2012: Special-Purpose Hardware for Attacking Cryptographic Systems workshop
Registration fee: Talk + book signing: $50; Talk + book signing + dinner: $150.
Register: http://2012.sharcs.org/reg.html
See also: http://budiansky.com http://2012.sharcs.org/http://cryptography.gmu.edu/

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.

Saturday, 24 March 2012, 1000 - 1430 - Milford, MA - AFIO New England hears Deputy Exec Director CTC Executive Directorate on Counter-Terrorism

Our afternoon speaker will be Howard Stoffer. Howard is currently the Deputy Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, a post he has held since November 2009. From July 2005 to November 2009 he served as Director for Administration and Information of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate. He worked at U.S. Mission to the United Nations as Minister-Counselor in the Management and Reform Section from 2001-2005 and as Counselor for Political Affairs from 1997-2001. Other assignments include Tel Aviv (1994-1997), Moscow (1991-1993), the Soviet and China desks in the State Department (late 1980's), and one year with the Sinai peacekeeping mission – the Multinational Force and Observers. In the early 1980's, he was an advisor to the U.S. Delegations to the Strategic Arms and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Negotiations.
He earned a B.A. from Columbia College in 1971 and a PhD from Columbia University's Graduate Faculties in Political Science in 1980.
Note, as this meeting is a one day event we have not made any hotel arrangements.
Where: Courtyard by Marriott in Milford, Mass. The hotel web site is here http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bosml-courtyard-boston-milford
Schedule: Registration & gathering, 1000 - 1130, membership meeting 1130 – 1200. Luncheon at 1200 followed by our speaker, with adjournment at 2:30PM.
For additional information contact us at afionechapter@gmail.com
Advance reservations are $25.00, $30.00 at the door - per person.
Luncheon reservations must be made by 10 March 2012.
Mail your check and the reservation form to: Mr. Arthur Hulnick, 216 Summit Avenue # E102, Brookline, MA 02446; 617-739-7074 or hlnk@aol.com

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 at Timothy.McDonnell@wilsoncenter.org.
Event location: Woodrow Wilson Center.

29 March 2012 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Ron Brooks, Director of the NCRIC and the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

Ron Brooks, who is the Director of the NCRIC and the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area will be speaking about the 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 participate 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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