Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

CIA.gov Launches New Museum Gallery. The Central Intelligence Agency recently launched an enhanced and redesigned online gallery to highlight the Agency's museum and its holdings. The new section has a more modern look, improved navigation, an interactive timeline, new videos, descriptions of an additional 100 artifacts and expanded access to the Agency's historical collections.

The enhanced museum virtual gallery provides new content and a fresh look at exhibits few members of the public get the chance to see because they are located at our headquarters compound. In addition to updated photos and descriptions of the museum's holdings, visitors can browse a series of narratives highlighting the Agency's varied mission. They can read about CIA's role in the hunt for Usama Bin Ladin; see how the Cold War-era CIA used a disguised deep sea mining ship, the Glomar Explorer, during a highly secret six-year effort to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean floor; and learn how the Agency used a carefully constructed ruse to rescue six Americans from Tehran in 1979.

The online exhibit shares how some technologies developed for CIA ultimately benefited the public. For example, battery-technology advances led to new and efficient means to power medical devices and consumer goods - like pacemakers and digital cameras - and technology developed to help analyze satellite imagery now aids radiologists in comparing digital x-ray images for the detection of breast cancer.

"Our virtual museum encourages visitors to explore in their own way information and artifacts - some recently declassified, and we designed it with a variety of users in mind," said CIA Museum Director Toni Hiley. [Read more: CIA.gov/26July2012]

Pakistan, US Intelligence Chiefs to Meet August 1-3. The head of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency will hold talks in Washington on August 1-3 with his CIA counterpart, a military statement said, with drone strikes expected to be a major issue.

It is the first time in a year that the chief of the Pakistan military's powerful ISI will make the trip, signaling a thaw in relations after US troops found and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011.

Lieutenant General Zaheer ul-Islam, who was appointed in March, "will visit USA from 1st to 3rd August. This will be a service-to-service bilateral visit," the statement said.

"He will meet his counterpart General David Petraeus, director CIA."

The short statement gave no other details, but a senior Pakistani security official earlier told AFP that the pair would discuss counter-terror cooperation and intelligence sharing. [Read more: AFP/28July2012]

Cyprus Plans September Trial for Terror Suspect. A man suspected of planning a foiled terrorist attack against Israeli tourists on Cyprus is a Lebanese-Palestinian with a Swedish passport and has been ordered to stand trial in September, officials said Friday.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the suspect is a Hezbollah operative who used the same "modus operandi" as a suicide bomber killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in an attack last week in Burgas, Bulgaria. Netanyahu did not offer evidence for those allegations.

Police spokesman Andreas Angelides told The Associated Press that the 24-year-old suspect faces a total of 17 "terrorism and terrorism-related charges," the most serious of which carries a sentence of life in prison. The trial has been scheduled to start Sept. 12.

An official with knowledge of the charges who spoke on condition of anonymity because court proceedings are not open to the public, said the charges include espionage and conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack. [Read more: Hadicostas/AP/27July2012]

Olympic Spies? IOC Shifts Focus to Gathering 'Intelligence' About Doping. Anti-doping officials revealed on Monday that, in the ongoing quest to weed drug cheats out of the London Olympics, they are shifting their focus from random testing to a more refined method. They are on the lookout for "intelligence and information."

"Intelligence means that we are obtaining information about what may be going on in the doping world, if I may say so, in terms of transport and transfer of substances, how they are coming in and out of a country, for instance," World Anti-Doping Agency vice-president Arne Ljungqvist said at a news conference.

"(The United Kingdom Anti-Doping Agency) is obviously working with other agencies in order to find out any information that could be helpful in producing the best possible anti-doping program, and doping-control program."

Up to 6,250 samples will be tested during the London Olympics, collected by more than 1,000 anti-doping workers. As of Monday morning, 1,461 blood and urine tests had been collected.

"The number of samples is not necessarily the important thing, the important thing is the quality," Ljungqvist said. "If you talk about novelties or innovations for these Games, there is one particular, which means that we are basing more of this testing on intelligence and information."

So what does that mean? [Read more: Fitz-Gerald/NationalPost/30July2012]

US Spy Agency Sponsors DefCon Booth. The head of the US Government's secretive National Security Agency took the unprecedented step on Friday of asking a convention of unruly hackers to join him in an effort to make the internet more secure.

In a speech to the 20th annual DefCon gathering in Las Vegas, four-star General Keith Alexander stressed common ground between US officials and hackers, telling them privacy must be preserved and that they could help by developing new tools.

"You're going to have to come in and help us," Alexander told thousands of attendees.

Alexander rarely gives speeches of any kind, let alone to a crowd of hackers, professional defenders, and researchers whose discoveries of software and hardware vulnerabilities are used by both sides.

Conference founder Jeff Moss, known in hacking circles as The Dark Tangent, told the conference that he had invited Alexander partly because he wanted them to learn about one of the world's "spookiest, least known" organisations. [Read more: Finke&Menn/ITNews/30July2012]

U.S. Spies Probably Won't Blow Up Our Airplanes, TSA Concludes. For years, America's spies had to take off their shoes before they got on planes, just like the rest of us. No more. The Transportation Security Administration has quietly enrolled government employees at three of the nation's intelligence agencies in a program that allows them to pass through airport security with less hassle.

It's part of a larger push by TSA chief John Pistole to move away from the brain-dead, one-size-fits-all mindset that treats all passengers as equally likely terror risks. That effort is still very much a work in progress; just last month, for example, a female flier was groped by a TSA screener - so she groped back, and was promptly arrested.

Still, there are signs of sanity emerging. Kids are no longer subject to pat-downs. And certain elite members of frequent flier programs from American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, U.S. Airways, and Alaska Airlines can keep their shoes on and their laptops inside their bags at 19 airports. Two million passengers have now gone through the so-called "pre check" program, since it was begun last year. The logic is that these people fly all the time, and have given their personal information to the airlines. That makes them rather unlikely terrorists.

Same goes for the more than 800,000 people who hold top secret clearances in this country. They've already gone through all kinds of background checks. So, intelligence community consultant Jim Carlson asked Pistole at Friday's session of the Aspen Security Forum, why not let them sign up for this "pre check," too.

Well actually, Pistole told the group, somewhat sheepish, we are. [Read more: Shachtman/Wired/27July2012]

US Mulls Actions to Disrupt Internet Spies. The U.S. Justice Department may put national security experts with cybersecurity training into department offices around the country in order to take legal action against computer facilities used in attacks on government agencies and private companies, according to a former high-ranking FBI official.

The department would then be able to sue Web-hosting firms and other third parties and get court approval to seize Web addresses or shut down hosting companies to disrupt attack networks, former FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry told Reuters Wednesday.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. Henry said Justice officials briefed him on the plan, which dates to before he left the agency in March.

"The Department of Justice's national security division has started to take a much more aggressive approach," Henry said in the interview. "It is looking at actions it can take to hold governments accountable" and "create some disruption to the adversary." [Read more: Reuters/30July2012]

Prosecutors Say Alleged Syrian Spy Tried to Infiltrate German Intelligence Service. A suspected Syrian spy who was arrested in Germany earlier this year once tried to infiltrate the country's intelligence services, officials said Tuesday.

The German federal prosecutors' office said 35-year-old Akram O. was employed by Syria's embassy in Berlin but not officially registered with German authorities when he applied in late 2010 for a post with the Interior Ministry.

The application was made "at the behest of his intelligence agency handlers," prosecutors said in a statement.

O., whose full name wasn't disclosed by prosecutors because of privacy rules, said at the time that he wanted to work for Germany's domestic intelligence agency or electronic surveillance office - both overseen by the ministry - but his application was turned down.

The Syrian national applied for German citizenship in 2009, making false claims about his personal and economic circumstances, but never obtained it, prosecutors said.

He was indicted last week on suspicion of spying on Syrian opposition activists in Germany since 2008. [Read more: AP/31July2012]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Area Man to Receive Top French Honor for WW II Efforts. Soon after he was drafted to serve in the United States Army in 1942, Chester A. Scerra said he was asked by one of his superiors if he spoke Italian.

"I said I did, and I was transported to Washington, D.C, where they made me a member of the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS was the Central Intelligence Agency before there was a Central Intelligence Agency. We did then what they do today," the 90-year-old Herkimer native said.

Not sure of what he had got himself into, Scerra said he traveled to Virginia to learn about bomb making and how to disarm explosives, and to Georgia for paratrooper training.

"If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't. But at the time, we were at war and I didn't want to be the only one of the guys to say he wanted out of the program," Scerra said has he sat on the deck of his home on the shore of Canadarago Lake this week.

"Jumping out of a plane? I thought that was crazy. A lot of the stuff we did was crazy. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it," he said.

A recipient of the Purple Heart and the Italian Cross of War Merit, among other awards, Scerra has been selected for France's highest honor, the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honnneur, for his contribution to the liberation of France during World War II.

The medal is expected to be presented to Scerra in November, although final arrangements, including the location of the ceremony, are pending. 

A member of the 390th Paratroop Battalion of the 98th Infantry Division, Sgt. Scerra made 29 jumps, assisted in various demolition efforts and disabled enemy bridges and communication.

Serving under the direction of Gen. William J. Donovan, "Donovan's Devils" were sent to Northern Africa for specialized training. Scerra's unit was then deployed to Corsica, tasked with gathering information on German troops who controlled the region, and relaying information to Allied forces.

"We were always on the run because the Germans were always looking for us," Scerra said. "It was terrible, just terrible. We lived in the mountains and relayed our intelligence to the British who would send in their bombers in at night. We were covered with lice and slept in a different place each night. That's how we lived behind enemy lines. If you were captured by the Germans, you'd be killed." [Read more: Juteau/UticaObserverDispatch/27July2012]

Former U.S. Officials Say CIA Considers Israel to be Mideast's Biggest Spy Threat. The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv, Israel, to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in.

The incident, described to the Associated Press by three former senior U.S. intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel.

It was a not-so-subtle reminder that, even in a country friendly to the United States, the CIA was itself being watched.

In a separate episode, according to another two former U.S. officials speaking to the Associated Press, a CIA officer in Israel came home to find the food in the refrigerator had been rearranged. In all the cases, the U.S. government believes Israel's security services were responsible.

Such meddling underscores what is widely known but rarely discussed outside intelligence circles: Despite inarguable ties between the U.S. and its closest ally in the Middle East and despite statements from U.S. politicians trumpeting the friendship, U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat. [Read more: AP/28July2012]

Hackers Linked to China's Army Seen From EU to D.C. The hackers clocked in at precisely 9:23 a.m. Brussels time on July 18 last year, and set to their task. In just 14 minutes of quick keyboard work, they scooped up the e-mails of the president of the European Union Council, Herman Van Rompuy, Europe's point man for shepherding the delicate politics of the bailout for Greece, according to a computer record of the hackers' activity.

Over 10 days last July, the hackers returned to the council's computers four times, accessing the internal communications of 11 of the EU's economic, security and foreign affairs officials. The breach, unreported until now, potentially gave the intruders an unvarnished view of the financial crisis gripping Europe. 

And the spies were themselves being watched. Working together in secret, some 30 North American private security researchers were tracking one of the biggest and busiest hacking groups in China.

Observed for years by U.S. intelligence, which dubbed it Byzantine Candor, the team of hackers also is known in security circles as the Comment group for its trademark of infiltrating computers using hidden webpage computer code known as "comments."

During almost two months of monitoring last year, the researchers say they were struck by the sheer scale of the hackers' work as data bled from one victim after the next: from oilfield services leader Halliburton Co. (HAL) to Washington law firm Wiley Rein LLP; from a Canadian magistrate involved in a sensitive China extradition case to Kolkata-based tobacco and technology conglomerate ITC Ltd. (ITC)

The researchers identified 20 victims in all - many of them organizations with secrets that could give China an edge as it strives to become the world's largest economy. The targets included lawyers pursuing trade claims against the country's exporters and an energy company preparing to drill in waters China claims as its own.

"What the general public hears about - stolen credit card numbers, somebody hacked LinkedIn (LNKD) - that's the tip of the iceberg, the unclassified stuff," said Shawn Henry, former executive assistant director of the FBI in charge of the agency's cyber division until leaving earlier this year. "I've been circling the iceberg in a submarine. This is the biggest vacuuming up of U.S. proprietary data that we've ever seen. It's a machine."

Exploiting a hole in the hackers' security, the researchers created a digital diary, logging the intruders' every move as they crept into networks, shut off anti-virus systems, camouflaged themselves as system administrators and covered their tracks, making them almost immune to detection by their victims. 

The minute-by-minute accounts spin a never-before told story of the workaday routines and relentless onslaught of a group so successful that a cyber unit within the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations in San Antonio is dedicated to tracking it, according to a person familiar with the unit. [Read more: Riley&Lawrence/Bloomberg/26July2012]

CIA Dragonfly Drone Almost Beat Modern UAVs by 40 Years, Was Swatted. US intelligence agencies were just as obsessed with drone spying 40 years ago as they are nowadays - only then, it was pipe-smoking entomologists and watchmakers who were in charge of building prototypes. Back in the '70s, the CIA needed some kind of miniature flyer to deliver an audio bug, and after considering (and rejecting) a faux bumblebee, decided that a robotic dragonfly would be the best option. The wee UAV used a "miniature fluidic oscillator" as a motor and was propelled by a small amount of gas. It was somehow guided by a laser beam, which served double-duty as the "datalink for the audio sensor payload," according to the CIA Museum. Unfortunately, the insect-based mech proved too difficult to control, especially with any degree of wind, and was eventually scuppered - all that's left of the now-declassified project is in the video after the break. [Read more: Dent/Engadget/30July2012]

This Week in the Civil War: Confederate Spy Belle Boyd Captured. One of the Confederacy's most famous spies, sexy temptress Belle Boyd, is captured by the Union on July 29, 1862, and hauled off to prison in Washington, D.C., only to be released about a month later in a prisoner exchange. 

Born into an affluent Virginia family ardently loyal to the South, Boyd used her charms to eavesdrop on Union officers while frequenting their camps. Reports have it that she beguiled at least one officer into providing her with advance word on federal troop movements before the First Battle of Bull Run or Manassas. 

As war progress, Boyd would regularly deliver gleaned war intelligence to the Confederacy, at times crossing enemy lines at great risk on horseback. Reports have it that Confederate Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was so impressed with the spy that he made her an honorary aide-de-camp. 

In the North, her espionage would garner her media attention to the point that some began calling her "La Belle Rebelle." 

Later in the war, in 1864, Boyd was sent to England as a Confederate courier but captured before she could complete that mission. Historians say she later escaped and went on to marry a Union naval officer and live in England until 1866, where she worked as a stage actress. Boyd eventually returned to the U.S. and died in Wisconsin in 1900 while on a lecture tour touting her adventure-filled life. [Read more: AP/27July2012]

Russia's Top Cyber Sleuth Foils US Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals. It's early February in Cancun, Mexico. A group of 60 or so financial analysts, reporters, diplomats, and cybersecurity specialists shake off the previous night's tequila and file into a ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. At the front of the room, a giant screen shows a globe targeted by crosshairs. Cancun is in the center of the bull's-eye.

A ruddy-faced, unshaven man bounds onstage. Wearing a wrinkled white polo shirt with a pair of red sunglasses perched on his head, he looks more like a beach bum who's lost his way than a business executive. In fact, he's one of Russia's richest men - the CEO of what is arguably the most important Internet security company in the world. His name is Eugene Kaspersky, and he paid for almost everyone in the audience to come here. "Buenos dias," he says in a throaty Russian accent, as he apologizes for missing the previous night's boozy activities. Over the past 72 hours, Kaspersky explains, he flew from Mexico to Germany and back to take part in another conference. "Kissinger, McCain, presidents, government ministers" were all there, he says. "I have panel. Left of me, minister of defense of Italy. Right of me, former head of CIA. I'm like, 'Whoa, colleagues.'"

He's bragging to be sure, but Kaspersky may be selling himself short. The Italian defense minister isn't going to determine whether criminals or governments get their hands on your data. Kaspersky and his company, Kaspersky Lab, very well might. Between 2009 and 2010, according to Forbes, retail sales of Kaspersky antivirus software increased 177 percent, reaching almost 4.5 million a year - nearly as much as its rivals Symantec and McAfee combined. Worldwide, 50 million people are now members of the Kaspersky Security Network, sending data to the company's Moscow headquarters every time they download an application to their desktop. Microsoft, Cisco, and Juniper Networks all embed Kaspersky code in their products - effectively giving the company 300 million users. When it comes to keeping computers free from infection, Kaspersky Lab is on its way to becoming an industry leader.

But this still doesn't fully capture Kaspersky's influence. Back in 2010, a researcher now working for Kaspersky discovered Stuxnet, the US-Israeli worm that wrecked nearly a thousand Iranian centrifuges and became the world's first openly acknowledged cyberweapon. In May of this year, Kaspersky's elite antihackers exposed a second weaponized computer program, which they dubbed Flame. It was subsequently revealed to be another US-Israeli operation aimed at Iran. In other words, Kaspersky Lab isn't just an antivirus company; it's also a leader in uncovering cyber-espionage. [Read more: Shachtman/Wired/23July2012]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Newsrooms as Intelligence Agencies. There's a scene in the movie �The Sum of All Fears' where CIA analyst Jack Ryan is desperately trying to get to a computer terminal to connect to the Russian president. Trying to convince someone, he says:

"My orders are to get the right information to the people who make the decisions. I just need to send some information."

Is journalism that dissimilar? At its core, isn't journalism about getting the right information, with context, to the people who make the decisions - i.e. citizens?

There are some similarities between the functions of newsrooms and those of intelligence agencies. Both need to know what's going on (at levels from local to global), both need information they can act on, both employ 'analysts' to parse information. Of course, there's a difference in their stated goals: imparting contextualized information to the broader public or holding government to account are certainly not what intelligence agencies are about.

But do the similarities stop there? Having relatively up-to-date satellite photographs of most of the world is something intelligence agencies have had for decades, but thanks to services like Google Maps, now everyone has access to such images. The result is that one of the skillsets of journalists in 2012 is that of a satellite image analyst.

Indeed, many of the current trends in journalism talk about data journalism, �big' data and verification - stuff intelligence agencies have been doing for a generation. The difference, these days, is that many of the tools and technologies which, for so long, were so big and expensive that only intelligence agencies could have access to them are now available for little or no cost to newsrooms. And newsrooms are only just starting to exploit these technologies. [Read more: Sheridan/Storyful/30July2012]

Beware of Sexy Waitresses in North Korean Restaurants - They May be Spies. The South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo did a interesting article the other day about the use of sexy waitresses in swanky North Korean restaurants in South Korea being used as possible spies, after some customers complained they felt like the waitresses were "listening in on their conversations."

"Whenever I visited the North Korean restaurant, I frequently felt that the waitresses were eavesdropping on what we were talking about behind the door," one South Korean businessman told.

"They only let me in one specific room, even though there were a lot of vacant tables."

The paper reports that one North Korean restaurant in Nepal was raided for tax-reasons, and a treasure-trove of documents about local South Korean guests was discovered.

This activity is why the restaurants tend to employ "young, good-looking women", the paper reports.

"I witnessed that some North Korean restaurants' waitresses offered sexual services to Southern businessmen working at conglomerates in the South in order to withdraw classified information on the companies," the businessman told JoongAng Ilbo.

The paper alleges that spies disguised as waitresses perform at a restaurant in Lianioning, northeast China, in 2009, to lure South Korean guests and withdraw classified information on current affairs in the South. [Read more: Tilford/Examiner/24July2012]

Russia Is Stockpiling Drones to Spy on Street Protests. Small surveillance drones are starting to be part of police departments across America, and the FAA will soon open up the airspace for more to come. This drone invasion has already raised all kinds of privacy concerns. And if you think that's bad, across the ocean, Russia seems hell-bent on outdoing its former Cold War enemy.

Russia's leading manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, Zala Aero, has provided the Russian government with more than 70 unmanned systems, each containing several aircraft. According to an article published yesterday on Open Democracy Russia, the Kremlin's romance with drones started in 2006, when the Interior Ministry deployed a Zala 421-04M to monitor street protests at a G8 summit in St. Petersburg. The Russian government has also bought drones from Israel.

Vladimir Putin himself is ready to jump on the drone bandwagon. "We need a program for unmanned aircraft. Experts say this is the most important area of development in aviation," he said in early June. "We need a range of all types, including automated strike aircraft, reconnaissance and other types." Indeed, Russia is allegedly going to spend around $13 billion on unmanned aerial vehicles through 2020.

According to its Zala executive Maksim Shinkevich, almost every Interior Ministry air group has a drone these days. Their favorite one? [Read more: Franceschi-Bicchierai/Wired/25July2012]

Is Israel Fixing the Intelligence to Justify an Attack on Iran? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's strong pro-Israel statements over the weekend, including his endorsement of Jerusalem as Israel's capital (a reversal of long-standing U.S. policy), increases the pressure on President Barack Obama to prove that he is an equally strong backer of Israel.

The key question is whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will interpret the presidential campaign rhetoric as an open invitation to provoke hostilities with Iran, in the expectation that President Obama will feel forced to jump in with both feet in support of our "ally" Israel. (Since there is no mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and Israel, "ally" actually is a misnomer - at least in a juridical sense.)

As we saw 10 years ago with respect to Iraq, if one intends to whip up support for war, one needs to find a casus belli - however thin a pretext it might be. How about juxtaposing "weapons of mass destruction" with terrorism. That worked to prepare for war on Iraq, and similar rhetorical groundwork for an attack on Iran is now being laid in Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu broke all records for speed in blaming Iran and Hezbollah for the recent terrorist attack that killed five Israelis in Burgas, Bulgaria, and in vowing that "Israel will react powerfully against Iranian terror."

But what is the evidence on Iranian or Hezbollah involvement? Bulgarian officials keep saying they have no such evidence. More surprising still, government officials in Washington and elsewhere keep warning against jumping to conclusions.

So far the "evidence" against Iran consists primarily of trust-me assertions by Mr. Netanyahu. On Fox News Sunday on July 22, Mr. Netanyahu claimed Israel has "rock-solid evidence" tying Iran to the attack in Bulgaria. The same day on CBS's Face the Nation, Mr. Netanyahu said, "We have unquestionable, fully substantiated intelligence that this [terrorist attack] was done by Hezbollah backed by Iran," adding that Israel gives "specific details to... responsible governments and agencies."

Did the Israelis somehow forget to give "specific details" to Bulgarian and U.S. officials? [Read more: McGovern/Baltimore Sun/30July2012]

Politicians Striking Poses on Intelligence Leaks. The level of hypocrisy in the current concern over leaks of classified intelligence information among politicians and the media is stunning.

Republicans are calling for a special counsel to investigate leaks from the White House, arguing that they are being used to help President Barack Obama's reelection image.

Whose security is being endangered there?

Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., showing Obama administration sensitivity to the situation, has assigned two Justice Department lawyers to investigate.

The media, which complained this year that the administration was being too aggressive in pursuing alleged leaks, are publicizing the exaggerated leak complaints while lamenting that government sources are becoming afraid to talk to reporters.

Last week the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence approved an amendment to the fiscal 2013 intelligence authorization bill. The proposal is titled "Preventing Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information."

Such a law wouldn't prevent leaks. Leaks are part of the relationship between journalists and government officials, especially regarding national security.

Let's face it: In the past three decades, national security leaks have become part of the clever public relations that dominate U.S. politics and even government. [Read more: Washington Post/30July2012]

Section IV - Books, Announcements, and Coming Events

Books

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. In July 1942, Thomas Argyll "Tar" Robertson, the improbably jocular head of the MI5 section that oversaw Britain's double agents during World War II, known as section B1A, suddenly found himself sitting on a weapon that could propel the Allied forces toward certain victory: the entire German spy ring in Britain. "The only network of agents possessed by the Germans in this country," Robertson wrote in an official memo to his superiors, "is that which is now under the control of Security Service."

"Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies," Ben Macintyre's complex, absorbing final installment in his trilogy about World War II espionage, describes in entertaining detail how Allied Forces gained that advantage and used it to take the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944.

About two years before Robertson's epiphany, British intelligence concluded that "a live spy was more useful than a dead one," so they began forming "an intricate, self-reinforcing structure" of double agents and handlers who could cause the Germans "massive and perhaps critical damage." Overseen by the Twenty Committee, "so named because the number twenty in Roman numerals, XX, forms a double cross," the operation comprised a host of extraordinary characters, including five of the most peculiar agents in the war. [Read more: Wilwol/SanFranciscoChronicle/30July2012]

Comrades, Gangsters, Spies. Who is America's principal geopolitical foe? When Mitt Romney suggested recently that it was Russia, he was met with howls of high-minded derision. Didn't the presumptive Republican nominee know the Cold War was over? Wasn't he aware of all the benefits the U.S. had reaped thanks to the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Moscow?

Mr. Romney's smug critics might laugh a bit less once they read "Deception," Edward Lucas's riveting follow-up to his prescient 2008 book on Russia, "The New Cold War." Mr. Lucas, a senior editor at the Economist and its former Moscow bureau chief, understands that even if the West has ceased to think of Russia as its enemy, the reverse has never really been true, especially among those who now govern from the Kremlin.

"The New Cold War" dealt mainly with how Vladimir Putin's Russia bullies its perceived enemies, using everything from pipelines to polonium poisoning. "Deception" has a narrower focus: the regime's aggressive use of its intelligence services to achieve ends that are malign and frequently criminal.

True, most states conduct espionage, and many of them, including the United States, collect intelligence on friend and foe alike. Yet Russia is a case apart. A country that runs spies like no other is run by a spy like no other. Mr. Putin spent the formative part of his career as a KGB counterintelligence officer in East Germany. The suspiciousness, double dealing and mania for control that went with that job have become the leitmotifs of Russian policy making today.

There is also the sheer scale of Russia's intelligence apparatus. The Russian military may be a ghost of its former self, but the old KGB - now divided among the FSB (for domestic intelligence), the SVR (for foreign intelligence) and the GRU (for military intelligence) - maintains all its prestige and lavish funding. The FSB alone, Mr. Lucas reports, employs 300,000 people, a larger force by far than the U.S. Marine Corps. [Read more: Stephens/WallStreetJournal/25July2012]

Hollow Strength by Art Keller: Veritatem Cognoscere Press, 364 pages, 3/2012, fiction. Synopsis: WILL THERE BE WAR BETWEEN THE US AND IRAN? June, 2014. The world is shocked as Iran's newest and most powerful destroyer, the Shaheed, explodes and sinks on its maiden voyage, killing a full cadre of VIPs, including a dozen of the most powerful clerics in Iran. The ship's executive officer, Commander Mohsen Saeed of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, ashore during the explosion, frantically works to uncover the truth behind the sinking of his ship. Unfortunately for Saeed, learning that truth puts him and his family in grave danger; he is targeted by death squads who want him to carry the secrets he has unearthed to his grave. Meanwhile, accusations of blame for the sinking of the Shaheed bring the US and Iran to the brink of war. As the net of pursuit draws ever closer, CIA officers Joe Cerrato and Cynthia Banks struggle to get Saeed and his family out of Iran before they are caught and executed in cold blood. Full of authentic detail from an author who has served as a field officer in the CIA's Clandestine Service, Hollow Strength serves up a compelling picture of the Iran of tomorrow, and the perils of real world espionage operations. It is available on the books's website as e-book for Kindle format, and a e-Pub version compatible with Nook and I-Pad devices, and as a PDF for Adobe devices. It is available as a trade paperback on the book's website. Also on the book's website is a "movie trailer" about the book, "book jacket blurbs," the first 9 Chapters as a free PDF download, and links to several interviews the author has give about Iran in general and the novel Hollow Strength in particular. It is further available from Amazon as a Kindle book and trade paperback, and from Barnes and Noble as a Nook book. The author worked as a collection management officer and case officer in the CIA's Clandestine Service, during which time he had a heavy Iran focus. Ideal for those spy thriller aficionados among AFIO members, the book also contains an extended non-fiction afterword on US policy towards Iran that was excerpted in part by Foreign Policy.com as "It Worked On Saddam: Why Patience, not bombs, is the best way to defuse Iran's nuclear ambitions." Visit website at http://www.hollowstrength.com/

The Old Spook - fiction by Charles Ameringer. [Solstice Publishing, 2012] Doublespaced text filling 335 pages. A spy/detective novel about a veteran CIA operative (Tom Miller) that morphs Richard Burton (Alec Leamus) into Humphrey Bogart (Sam Spade)—and back again. The culture and tradecraft of the CIA. The story begins with a flashback of the old spook's career that reveals the stress of shady dealings with sinister characters and transports the reader to such places as Mexico and encounters with the Russian agent who recruited Lee Harvey Oswald or to Miami and meetings with Mafia figures to plot the assassination of Fidel Castro. [dust jacket copy]
About the author: Charles Ameringer is professor emeritus of Latin American history at Penn State University; a former captain in the USAF Reserve; and before beginning his teaching career served as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Department of Defense

Announcements
 [IMPORTANT: AFIO does not "vet" or endorse these research inquiries or job offers. Reasonable-sounding inquiries and career offerings are published as a service to our members, and for researchers, educators, and subscribers. You are urged to exercise your usual caution and good judgment when responding or supplying any information.]

Two former U.S. Officials to Instruct National Security Professionals at Institute of World Politics' new PASS:PORT Program

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden and former National Counterintelligence Executive Michelle Van Cleave will be featured instructors in PASS:PORT, a new national security professional training program created by The Institute of World Politics (IWP). Hayden, a retired four-star Air Force general, was director of NSA, 1999-05, and CIA director from 2006-09. Van Cleave served as the federal government's first National Counterintelligence Executive from 2003-06. PASS:PORT was designed by IWP to help US national security professionals to do more with less by challenging them to take what they already know and think more strategically, says PASS:PORT Director J. Michael Waller, a professor at IWP. "PASS:PORT is designed to help busy professionals to take some time and really think about what they are doing and how they are doing it. We want to challenge the very fundamentals of strategic thinking in the national security field," Waller said.
PASS:PORT stands for Professional Advancement for Security Strategists: Program on Reducing Threats. It is an accelerated program of eight evening seminars and three extended weekend retreats in the Washington, DC area, between September 2012 and June 2013. The fee is approximately $10,000 for the program, per person. A complete listing of topics to be covered, including most current faculty listings, calendar information, and application instructions, can be found at www.iwppassport.org.

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in August, September, and beyond, with full details are listed on the AFIO Website at www.afio.com. The titles for some of these are in detail below and online.

Wednesday, 1 August 2012, noon – Washington, DC - "Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran" - author presentation at International Spy Museum

The United States and Iran have been at daggers drawn for more than thirty years. While this rivalry has never erupted into open war, it has been an enduring "twilight war" in which spies and terrorists often play the lead role. US Government historian David Crist will discuss his groundbreaking book which pulls back the curtain on many of the deepest secrets of this lethal struggle. Hear about the massive spy network that the CIA developed in Iran with German help in the 1980s, how these spies communicated with their American handlers using invisible ink, and how their discovery led to the deaths of more than two dozen people. Hear his remarkable new findings about the Iran-Contra affair that almost scuttled the Reagan administration, and learn the story behind the Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the United States—and then redefected back to Iran in 2010.
Free! No registration required. More info and directions at www.spymuseum.org

4 August 2012, 11:30 am - Melbourne, FL - AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter hosts CIA's James Fletcher on "Three HUMINT Cases from Life."

Speaker will be James B. Fletcher, former CIA operations officer and executive whose topic will be Three HUMINT Cases From Life and How Their Intelligence Was Used.
Location: Indian River Colony Club, Melbourne, FL.
To attend or for more information contact: Donna Czarnecki, donnacz12@aol.com

Saturday, 11 August 2012, 11 am - 3 pm - Orange Park, FL - AFIO North Florida Chapter luncheon features Special Forces officer.

Our next Chapter meeting will be held at the Country Club of Orange Park.
This meeting will feature an extremely interesting guest speaker in the person of Mr. Tom Waskovich. He is a former Special Forces (Green Beret) officer who served as a Team Leader and Reaction Force Platoon Leader for MACVSOG, the only Top Secret unit in Vietnam. He participated in the first covert mission to block the Ho Chi Minh Trail in 1969, which was perhaps the most successful of the SOG missions.
Tom is also the past Executive Director of the Special Operations Association and also served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the SOA, which is made up of more than 2,000 current and former Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Air Force Air Commandos, who served
in covert operations behind enemy lines.
He is the founder and past President of the Board of Directors and currently President Emeritus of Vetwork (www.vetwork.org), a veterans assistance program that was founded in 1987. He was Chairman of the St. Johns County (FL) Veterans Council in 2005 and has acted as the military advisor and assistant producer for the Vietnam documentary "Service, Sacrifice and Courage."
Please RSVP to Quiel at qbegonia@comcast.net or call 904-545-9549 as soon as possible. Remember that guests and prospective members are cordially invited, and we need 20 attendees to keep the country club happy

Wednesday, 15 August 2012, noon - Washington, DC – "Spies on Screen: Our Man Flint" at the International Spy Museum
He was the best - undisciplined but the best.
Erratic weather, global disaster, eco-terrorism. 21st century problems? Guess again: these issues are circa 1966! Out-of-control earthquakes and pop-up volcanoes are just part of a world-saving mission for super agent Derek Flint. James Coburn portrays the uber spy who is tops at everything from seduction and deduction to dolphin chit-chat. When the world's intelligence agencies realize their top operatives are being picked off, Flint's former boss, intelligence chief Cramden, played by Lee J. Cobb, grudgingly calls in "the original man of mystery." Flint battles the controlling secret organization GALAXY, all while keeping his cool and his mojo. As an Americanized version of James Bond, Flint's over-the-top persona as the sexiest, suavest, smartest, and sportiest spy is 007 taken to the extreme. Following the screening, International Spy Museum Executive Director Peter Earnest, will discuss how pop culture portrayals of spies and villains affected his own career as an officer in the Clandestine Service of the CIA during the 60s and 70s. He may even reveal whether all spies really are glamorous playboys.
Tickets: $9. Price includes screening, special spy debrief, and popcorn. Register at www.spymuseum.org

21 August 2012, 11:30 am - 2 pm - McLean, VA - The Defense Intelligence Forum meets to hear Tom Dowling on "Iran: Cultural Quirks and How To Understand Them."

Tom Dowling will speak on "Iran: Understanding the cultural quirks that shape Iranian behavior and make it difficult for us to understand them." Tom is a retired Foreign Service Officer with 30 years of experience working mostly in or on the Middle East. He served in Iran from 1976 to 1978 and worked on the State Department working group during the first months of the revolution. Later, he was consul in charge in Dubai from 1980 to 1982. From 1996 to 2002, he served as deputy director and acting director of Department of State/Bureau of Intelligence and Research for Near East and South Asia. For the life of the 9-11 Commission, he worked on this commission as a professional staff member of a group responsible for tracing the origins of Al Qaeda. Last Summer Tom helped organize and spoke twice at an Intelligence Community seminar on Iran. He has been a faculty member at NIU since 1998 and taught courses on Middle East for Intel Analysts, Islam in Modern World, and Operational Capability Analysis, which he was instrumental in its development. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Hunter College City University of New York with a BA in Political Science. Other degrees include a Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University and a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence from the Joint Military Intelligence College. For this forum, you may attribute the speaker's remarks. Everything will be on the record.
The Defense Intelligence Forum is open to members of all Intelligence Community associations and their guests. Make reservations by 20 August 2012 by email to diforum@diaalumni.org. Include names, telephone numbers, and email addresses. For each attendee, choose among chicken cacciatore, tilapia puttanesca, lasagna, sausage with peppers, or fettuccini with portabella for your luncheon selection.
Pay at the door with a check for $ 29.00 per person, payable to DIAA, Inc. Check is preferred, but will accept cash; however, credit cards payments are discouraged.

22-24 August 2012 - Raleigh, NC - "Dramatic Revelations - J. Edgar Hoover, Castro, Deep Throat, Carlos the Jackal, and Secret from CIA" the theme of the 8th Annual Raleigh Spy Conference

8th Raleigh Spy Conference – August 22-24, NC Museum of History
Dramatic Revelations: Castro, J. Edgar Hoover, Deep Throat, CIA Secrets From the Deep and the New Profile of Today's Terrorist

Ready to register? Go to www.raleighspyconference.com to register to review the line-up for 2012 and to learn about past conferences. You can also register by telephone by calling Carlie Sorosiak at Raleigh Metro Magazine, 919-831-0999 or email carlie@metromagazine.net.  

Need more info on the conference? Fidel Castro had foreknowledge of the JFK assassination. Who was the real J Edgar Hoover?.Deep Throat's motives were not what the public thought.  How did the CIA scoop a satellite 12,000 below the sea? What is the new profile of today's terrorist?

These are the topics for the 8th Raleigh Spy Conference August 22-24 at the NC Museum of History, presented by top experts drawing on the latest in declassified information. And the public is invited to learn and ask question and get to know  each speaker personally:

Brian Latell – Keynote speaker,  formerly a Cuba hand for the CIA, has plowed through newly declassified documents - and interviewed secret Cuban agents who can now talk for the first time - for his new book Castro's Secrets, revealing that the Cuban intelligence services were highly sophisticated. Cuban operatives duped the CIA and planted nearly 50 double agents in the US intelligence services. Latell also reveals from secret sources that Castro had prior knowledge of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

John Fox  - FBI Historian,  on J. Edgar Hoover's role as chief domestic intelligence officer of the United States - and as one of the most significant and controversial figures in American history – while serving as FBI Director from 1924 to his death in 1972. But who was the real Hoover?

Max Holland, editor of the insider web site Washington Decoded - and a prolific and respected author on key events of the modern era - has dug into newly declassified documents to reveal the true story of the motivation that compelled FBI assistant director Mark Felt to disguise himself as the infamous Deep Throat, the source that played a major role in bringing down a presidency and elevating two obscure journalists to super-star status. Watergate remains a watershed event in American history - and Mark Felt was the man who made it happen.

David Waltrop, a CIA officer currently serving as a Program Manager in the Agency's Historical Collections Division will share the recently declassified story of one of the most secret operations of the Cold War. Called An Underwater Ice Station Zebra, this little known undersea mission was hidden in rumor and speculation - until now.

Albert Grajales, INTERPOL Director of Puerto Rico and Coordinator of Intelligence / Antiterrorism Office of the Attorney General (Secretary of Justice) and the Special Investigations Bureau (SIB) of Puerto Rico will present an insider's assessment of the profile of the modern terrorist, beginning with Carlos the Jackal up to today's dangerous operatives.

Between sessions, spy conference attendees can visit with representatives of the Historical Collections Division of the CIA who will offer free attractive booklets containing recently declassified information on key Cold War events. The CIA presence at last year's conference offered conference audiences a first-hand opportunity to talk directly with Agency staff and learn more about CIA and its operations.

And in a rare appearance outside the CIA Store inside CIA headquarters in Langley, VA, representatives of the Employee Activity Association will be on-site offering dozens of gifts and items ordinarily available only to CIA employees and VIP visitors to the Agency.

According to conference founder Bernie Reeves,  a very special person will be the subject of a tribute at the 8th Raleigh Spy Conference- Brian Kelley, the CIA officer who played a major role in the creation of the conference who passed away a month after last year's event. Reeves says the tribute will be led by Dan Mulvenna, a former security officer for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a close friend of Kelley's who has also served as a speaker at the conference.

"Brian was key in the success of the Raleigh Spy Conference", adds Reeves. "He loved recruiting top experts to speak, and he loved being in Raleigh and the friends he made here. Dan is putting together a fitting tribute for Brian that will communicate his important role as an intelligence officer - and his unique ability to create lasting friendships".

The Raleigh Spy Conference is recognized for its leading role in providing a dynamic environment to the general public for the discussion of declassified information released since the end of the Cold War. The roster of speakers since 2003 has included highly regarded intelligence officers, scholars  and authors.

Go to www.raleighspyconference.com to register to review the line-up for 2012 and to learn about past conferences. You can also register by telephone by calling Carlie Sorosiak at Raleigh Metro Magazine, 919-831-0999 or email carlie@metromagazine.net.   

The Raleigh Spy Conference was founded in 2003 by Bernie Reeves, editor and publisher of Raleigh Metro Magazine (www.metronc.com). Discounts are offered for intelligence workers, members of the armed forces, students, and seniors.
Bernie Reeves and Raleigh Metro Magazine will be hosting this 8th Raleigh Spy Conference at the NC Museum of History in downtown Raleigh.
And if you missed the 7th Raleigh Spy Conference, a beautifully prepared set of DVDs of event are available here.

30 August 2012 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts Col. Joseph (Joe) Felter, US Army and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Felter will be speaking about current topics on counterinsurgency strategy. 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-members. 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.

10 - 14 September 2012 - Helen, GA - 2012 ASA Veteran Annual Reunion

Attention all veterans who were fortunate to be stationed at the 14th USASA Fld. Sta. in Hakata, Japan on the island of Kyushu. It's time for another reunion. The reunion will be held at the Helendorf River Inn & Conference Center. This hotel/motel is right in the middle of Helen so one can walk just about anywhere they wish to go.
Reservations can be made by calling (800) 445-2271. Don't forget to mention you are with the 14th, ASA veterans reunion and the reunion date of Sept. 10th - 14th. A contract for a block of 15 Chattahoochee riverfront rooms has been reserved and will be held until August 1 awaiting individual reservations. Our reunion date is the week before Oktoberfest, so if we need more than 15 rooms, we need to know so we can reserve additional ones. Room prices are much higher during the Octoberfest event. The total cost per room will be $296.00 plus 15% state and local taxes for four nights. The cost is for a single or double occupancy. Each of these rooms will have a refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, private balcony and are all elevator accessible.
Meeting space for our reunion group will be available all four days with out any additional cost. They also have free WI-FI and an enclosed heated pool. If you wish to learn more about where we will be staying for our 14th. ASA 2012 reunion, you can click the URL - http://www.helendorf.com/ If you have any questions or ideas please call 770-957-1085 or e-mail Tom & Marianne Morfoot at mm30248@earthlink.net

12 September 2012 - Albuquerque, NM - AFIO NM Chapter Hosts Fall Meeting. Details to follow.

13 September 2012 - Fairfax, VA - "The DCI Papers" - a CIA Historical Documents 'Release Event' Conference co-hosted with George Mason University's School of Public Policy.

Intelligence, Policy and Politics: The DCI, the White House and Congress Thursday, September 13, 2012 from 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM (ET) Arlington, VA

The CIA and George Mason School of Public Policy host "Intelligence, Policy and Politics," featuring panel discussions with former DCIs including Michael Hayden (confirmed), James Woolsey (confirmed), Leon Panetta (confirmed), Porter Goss (confirmed), William Webster, and other invited officials, and a keynote from CIA Chief Historian Dr. David Robarge.
This event takes place at George Mason University, Founders Hall, 3351 N Fairfax Dr Arlington, VA 22201
REGISTER NOW FOR CIA CONFERENCE WHILE SPACE REMAINS. No charge. Early registration for AFIO Members.
AFIO Members should register here. Seats are free and on a first-come, first-serve basis until August 24th.

14-15 September 2012 - Syracuse, NY - 3rd Annual Seminar on Teaching Law and National Security: Educating the Next Generation of Decisionmakers: The Intersection of National Security Law and International Affairs
In modern foreign affairs and national and international security governance, the policy and subject area experts and lawyers attend the same meetings, hash out common policy positions, and worry about how to implement their prescriptions. Yet the international affairs experts and national security lawyers work in parallel, not together. They speak different professional languages, and their analytic reference points and methods are normally divergent, if not inharmonious. At times, a good deal of energy in governance is spent finding common ground between the lawyers and the policy experts. The objective of the Conference is to explore ways to enrich the education in our related but disparate disciplines by exposing one side and its methods and ways of approaching problems to the other.
$150 registration fee. For more information or to register: http://insct.org/teaching-national-security-law-seminar/

20 September 2012 12:30 - 2 pm - Los Angeles, CA - The AFIO Los Angeles Area Chapter luncheon focuses on "Intelligence & Security Issues Facing Los Angeles Harbor.

The Port of Los Angeles is the number one port by container volume and cargo value in the United States, its world-class security operations which include Homeland Security operations and the nation's largest dedicated port police force, will be the topic of discussion. Location: The LMU campus. RSVP to attend to afio_la@yahoo.com. Lunch will be served.

Thursday, 20 September 2012 - Mahwah, NJ - IACSP 20th Annual Terrorism, Trends & Forecasts Symposium

Location: Bergen County Law & Public Safety Institute.
Top presenters will be featured in the areas of antiterrorism, homeland security, consequence management, and other related areas.
The event is attended by a combined audience of law enforcement and emergency responders, corrections, homeland security, military, intelligence community, academia, and corporate security personnel.
Several writers and staff for the IACSP's longstanding publication, The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, will be on hand at the symposium, as well as members of the IACSP advisory board. The IACSP's journal has been in publication since the 1980's (over 25 years).
Further information available at www.iacsp.com

Friday, 5 October 2012, 6-7:30 pm - Washington, DC - "The Precipice of Nuclear Annihilation: Through the Eyes of the Cuban Missile Crisis - 50 Years Later" - talk by former CIA Scientific Officer Gene Poteat at the Institute of World Politics

You are cordially invited to attend a special lecture on the topic of "The Precipice of Nuclear Annihilation: Through the Eyes of the Cuban Missile Crisis Fifty Years Later - The Value of Evidence over Speculation"
by Gene Poteat, current President, Association of Former Intelligence Officers, is a Retired Senior CIA Scientific Intelligence Officer.
With the emergence of unstable nuclear-armed nations and their despotic leaders, what lessons should we have learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when dealing with today's crises? How was the U.S. blindsided by the Soviet missile build-up in Cuba ...just a few miles south of Florida? How close did we come to a nuclear exchange and, during the showdown, who blinked first? What secret agreements were made that ended the crisis and how did they differ from face-saving press releases? What were the long-term consequences of the agreement that ended the Crisis.
CIA Scientific Officer Gene Poteat was on the scene in 1962. His first-hand account and revelations will answer these questions.
Location: The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
Please RSVP to kbridges@iwp.edu.

9 October 2012 - MacDill AFB, FL - AFIO Suncoast Chapter Meeting

Speaker TBA. Location – Surf's Edge Club on MacDill AFB.
Questions or registrations? Email or call the Chapter Secretary at mfshapiro@att.net. Check-in at 1130 hours; opening ceremonies, lunch and business meeting at noon, followed by our speaker.
Note that our meetings have moved to a new facility, the Surf's Edge Club, where the luncheon cost is $20.
You must present your $20 check payable to "Suncoast Chapter, AFIO" (or cash) at check-in to cover the luncheon.
Anyone with special AFIO Gate Access should proceed to the Bayshore Gate. If you need directions, please let us know.
The cash wine and soda bar will open at 1100 hours for those that wish to come early to socialize. Inquiries to Michael Shapiro Secretary, Florida Suncoast Chapter of AFIO at (813) 832-1164 or at mfshapiro@att.net or visit www.suncoastafio.org

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

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