Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Deadly Attack in Libya Was Major Blow to CIA Efforts. The attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans has dealt the Central Intelligence Agency a major setback in its intelligence-gathering efforts at a time of increasing instability in the North African nation. 

Among the more than two dozen American personnel evacuated from the city after the assault on the American mission and a nearby annex were about a dozen C.I.A. operatives and contractors, who played a crucial role in conducting surveillance and collecting information on an array of armed militant groups in and around the city.

"It's a catastrophic intelligence loss," said one American official who has served in Libya and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the F.B.I. is still investigating the attack. "We got our eyes poked out."

The C.I.A.'s surveillance targets in Benghazi and eastern Libya include Ansar al-Sharia, a militia that some have blamed for the attack, as well as suspected members of Al Qaeda's affiliate in North Africa, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Eastern Libya is also being buffeted by strong crosscurrents that intelligence operatives are trying to monitor closely. The killing of Mr. Stevens has ignited public anger against the militias, underscored on Friday when thousands of Libyans took to the streets of Benghazi to demand that the groups be disarmed. The makeup of militias varies widely; some are moderate, while others are ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis. [Read more: NYTimes/23September2012]

Spy Device Disguised as Rock Blown Up Near Iran Nuclear Site. A spy device camouflaged as a rock exploded when it came into contact with Iranian troops near an underground nuclear enrichment plant, The Sunday Times reported this week.

Last month, Revolutionary Guards at the Fordo nuclear facility, near the northern city of Qom, came across the rock and attempted to move it, according to sources who spoke to the newspaper.

The guards, who had been on patrol to check terminals connecting data and telephone links to the site, reportedly witnessed the disguised spy device exploding when they came into contact with it.

Experts who surveyed the scene of the explosion, according to the newspaper, analyzed remnants of the device and found it had been able to intercept data from computers at the nuclear plant, where uranium is enriched.

News of the explosion was reportedly first kept secret by the Iranians. But last week, Fereydoun Abbasi the Iranian vice-president and the head of the nuclear energy agency, revealed that the power lines between Qom and the Fordo facility were blown-up in August.

The finding has sparked speculation over whether the spy device could have been a significant source of intelligence for Western countries, which has now been lost. [Read more: AlArabiya/23September2012]

Intel Community Must Find More Efficient Ways to Process Data, Says ISR Chief. Even more important than being able to digitally transmit 1.8 petabytes of intelligence data collected from unmanned aircraft and other sensor platforms is the equally daunting task of turning that data into information that can be used by combatant commanders and senior decision makers, said a top Air Force official.

As good as the Air Force's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection process is at this time, there's always room for improvement, Lt. Gen. Larry James, deputy chief of staff for ISR is quoted in an Air Force story as saying on Sept. 17 at the Air Force Association Annual Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition in Washington, D.C.

"The machine definitely has to help the analyst," James said, referring to the Air Force's Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), which serve as the backbone the Air Force data management mission.

DCGS collects information from many layers, ranging from space sensors to air platforms, cyber networks and other source. [Read more: Welsh/DefenseSystems/21September2012]

Ex-Blackwater Firm Will Teach Military Spies Self-Defense. Now that the private security company formerly known as Blackwater is under new ownership, it's entering into a new partnership with the Defense Department. The U.S. military's intelligence service is hiring the firm, along with five others, to train its operatives to defend themselves as they collect information in dangerous places - something particularly salient as the Mideast continues to light up with anti-American fervor.

The Defense Intelligence Agency announced on Thursday evening it would award six private security companies a share of a $20 million contract to provide "individual protective measures training courses" for its operatives. Among them is Academi, the 3.0 version of Blackwater, now under new ownership and management. It appears to be the first Blackwater/Academi contract with the military since a Blackwater "shell company" called Paravant held one to train Afghan policemen - and used it to steal their guns for personal use, while posing as South Park characters to disguise their tracks.

And this isn't just any old training contract. It's part of an effort to prepare the Defense Intelligence Agency's information gatherers for work in the rugged, remote, and unpleasant parts of the world. "The training is designed for personnel before they leave on overseas deployments," reads a description of the contract, "to provide them with a foundation of hard and soft skills relevant to living and working in hostile and austere environments." Nor is it a one-off: the training contract has a five-year life span.

The announcement comes at a time when Washington is alarmed by the ability of a militant group to launch a deadly assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. [Read more: Ackerman/Wired/21September2012]

Canada Spy Agency Warns of Security Risk from Foreign Investment. Canada's spy agency has issued a stark warning about national security risks tied to some foreign investment, saying companies with ties to "hostile" governments might try to acquire control of "strategic" sectors of Canada's economy.

The comments were made in the 2010-11 annual report from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, which was introduced in Canada's Parliament this week just as shareholders of Calgary's Nexen Inc. overwhelmingly voted to support a takeover by Beijing-controlled Cnooc Ltd., and legislators debate what role state-owned enterprises should play in the Canadian economy.

"While the vast majority of foreign investment in Canada is carried out in an open and transparent manner, certain state-owned enterprises and private firms with close ties to their home governments have pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits here," the CSIS annual report said.

"CSIS expects that national security concerns related to foreign investment in Canada will continue to materialize, owing to the increasingly prominent role that state-owned enterprises are playing in the economic strategies of some foreign government."

CSIS issued a similar warning on foreign investment in its previous annual report, but in this year's version it goes into more depth about state-owned enterprises.

CSIS doesn't specifically name foreign companies or state-owned enterprises that it believes pose security risks to Canada. The agency wasn't immediately available for comment. [Read more: Vieira/WallStreetJournal/21September2012]

Yemeni Intelligence Official Shot Dead in Sanaa. Masked gunmen shot dead a senior intelligence official in Sanaa on Monday, a security source said, the latest in a series of assassinations in Yemen as the U.S.-allied government battles al Qaeda militants.

Abdulilah Al-Ashwal, a colonel in the Political Security Office, the domestic intelligence service, was leaving a mosque in the Safiya district of Sanaa when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on him, the source said. [Read more: Reuters/24September2012]

Iranian Dissidents Convince U.S. to Drop Terror Label. Rarely in the annals of lobbying in the capital has so obscure a cause attracted so stellar a group of supporters: former directors of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., retired generals and famous politicians of both parties. 

The Iranian opposition group that attracted that A-list of Washington backers, many of them generously compensated for speeches, learned Friday that it had achieved its goal: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to remove the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Mujahedeen, from the State Department's list of designated terrorist organizations.

The decision removes a shadow from the Mujahedeen Khalq, known as the M.E.K., which lost a brutal power struggle with supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the first years after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and then relocated to Iraq. Scorned by many Iranians as a cult and for its long alliance with Saddam Hussein, the group nonetheless has been promoted by some conservative American politicians as offering a democratic alternative for Iran's future. While the decision is likely to anger Iran, experts said that United States-Iran relations are already at such a low point that it is unlikely to make them much worse. [Read more: Shane/NYTimes/21September2012]

Dead Russian Dissident's Links to UK Espionage to Stay Secret: Hearing. Possible links between British intelligence agencies and former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died from poisoning in London in 2006, will be kept secret at the government's request, a lawyer at a preliminary hearing on his death said on Thursday.

Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic who had been granted British citizenship, died days after he was poisoned with polonium-210, a highly toxic radioactive isotope, which was slipped to him in a cup of tea at a plush London hotel.

On his death bed he accused Russian spies of ordering his killing, and British police and prosecutors say there is evidence to charge two former KGB agents Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun with his murder.

The two deny the accusations and Russia has refused to extradite them.

Hugh Davies, the inquest's lawyer, said the full inquiry into his death could consider possible motives and examine "competing and controversial theories".

Davies disclosed that parts of a British police report which detailed what contacts Litvinenko had with Britain's spy agencies would be kept secret at the government's request.

"The redaction should not be taken as indication one way or another whether or not Mr. Litvinenko did have such contacts," Davies said. [Read more: Holden/Reuters/20September2012]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Espionage in International Organizations: Brussels Edition. It's an open secret that United Nations headquarters in New York is a hive of intelligence activity. During the Cold War, intelligence agents sometimes planted themselves in interpreters' booths, hoping to snap photos of classified documents in the hands of incautious diplomats. As Colum Lynch documents here, Moscow has been a particularly active player in the UN spy game, but certainly not the only one. In the late 1970s, the CIA helped engineer the defection of a senior Soviet UN employee. And in the run-up to the Iraq war, the United States and the United Kingdom apparently snooped on private meetings of states opposed to the war.

But Belgium's intelligence chief makes the case in this interview with the EUObserver that Brussels, home to the European Union and NATO, bids fair to be the world's spy capital: 

"I have said several times, and we are very well placed here in Belgium and particularly here in Brussels to say it, that the level of espionage is the same if not even higher than in the days of the Cold War. Some services thought that with the coming down of the Berlin wall the Cold War was over and espionage was something of the past. But we can state that in Belgium, espionage, Russian espionage and from other countries, like the Chinese, but also others, we are at the same level as the Cold War, which is not surprising given where we are. We are a country with an enormous concentration of diplomats, businessmen, international institutions, Nato, European institutions. So for an intelligence officer, for a spy, this is a kindergarten. It's the place to be." [Read more: Bosco/ForeignPolicy/19September2012]

Espionage In Academia: How To Stop Spies And Thieves From Swiping Top Research. Pirates, spies, moles, thieves: those who want to steal the scientific treasures of French research laboratories had better be careful.

With a new measure to protect the "nation's scientific and technical potential," in the next few months every organization, university and engineering school will be receiving instructions on how to protect themselves. Indeed, spying on national or foreign competitors is not limited to industrial espionage: fundamental and applied research are also targeted.

"This is not imaginary. You would have to be naively optimistic not to know that there research is a target of international information-gathering strategies," says Jean Marimbert, secretary general and security chief of the French education and research ministry. 

No doubt there are few espionage scandals as bad as that of "Farewell," the code name of a French double agent who worked for the KGB and its French counterpart of the time, the DST, during the 1970s and 1980s; nor as serious as the case of Rolf Dobbertin, a French researcher accused of spying for East Germany in 1979. He was finally acquitted in 1991.

But the threat exists. Certainly, preventing the proliferation of nuclear, chemical or bacteriological weapons is still a priority, but with globalization and economic competition, attention is also turning toward laboratories researching for patents, start-ups, and other innovative products. There have been leaks, although the people we interviewed did not want to discuss them. "A research scientist is not going to brag that someone stole his computer or his idea. A laboratory will not be proud of having been burglarized," we were told. But several enlightening stories are already making the rounds. [Read more: Larousserie/LeMonde/22September2012]

The Spies Next Door. The U.S. economy is stuck in the doldrums, but the intelligence business in America is booming. The 17 organizations that today comprise the U.S. intelligence community are all, to one degree or another, building new multimillion-dollar headquarters buildings and operational facilities all over the greater Washington metropolitan area despite recent budget cuts. 

For example, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began construction last year on a brand-new headquarters complex on the grounds of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Anacostia, which formerly was a federally run psychiatric facility. When completed sometime in 2017, DHS intends to consolidate 40 of its offices that are currently spread throughout the Washington region in the new complex, including its own intelligence component and those of its subordinate agencies, like the intelligence staff of the U.S. Coast Guard.

On a per capita basis, there are more spies working in and around the Beltway than anywhere else in the world. Almost half of the 200,000 men and women who belong to the U.S. intelligence community work in Washington, as do several thousand foreign intelligence officers who operate openly from dozens of embassies and international organizations in the U.S. capital, trawling the landscape for secrets.

According to a 2001 report prepared by the General Services Administration (GSA), which owns or leases all U.S. government facilities, as of 9/11 the CIA had offices in 29 facilities spread throughout the District of Columbia, northern Virginia, and southern Maryland. This did not include over a dozen covert safe houses, training facilities, and communications centers, as well as several large heavily guarded warehouses inside the GSA Stores Depot in Franconia, Virginia, where the agency stored its classified files, equipment, and supplies. And that was before the terrorist attacks that dramatically increased the intelligence community's post-Cold War role.

The same was true of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which the GSA report showed was operating from over a dozen sites in the Washington area. Among the more interesting FBI sites referred to in the GSA report was the Art Barn at 2401 Tilden Street in Northwest D.C., whose attic was filled with eavesdropping equipment during the Cold War so that the FBI could listen to the telephone calls of the Hungarian and Czech embassies across the street. The Art Barn's clandestine work became a matter of public record in the 1980s when the attic's floorboards collapsed, sending hundreds of pounds of the FBI's wiretapping equipment crashing down into the art gallery on the ground floor.

The facilities may have changed, but the intelligence community plays as big a role as ever in Washington, with many of its most important offices hiding in plain sight. Meet the spies next door: [Read more: Aid/ForeignPolicy/21September2012]

The CIA Burglar Who Went Rogue. The six CIA officers were sweating. It was almost noon on a June day in the Middle Eastern capital, already in the 90s outside and even hotter inside the black sedan where the five men and one woman sat jammed in together. Sat and waited.

They had flown in two days earlier for this mission: to break into the embassy of a South Asian country, steal that country's secret codes and get out without leaving a trace. During months of planning, they had been assured by the local CIA station that the building would be empty at this hour except for one person - a member of the embassy's diplomatic staff working secretly for the agency.

But suddenly the driver's hand-held radio crackled with a voice-encrypted warning: "Maintain position. Do not approach target." It was the local CIA station, relaying a warning from the agency's spy inside: a cleaning lady had arrived.

From the back seat Douglas Groat swore under his breath. A tall, muscular man of 43, he was the leader of the break-in team, at this point - 1990 - a seven-year veteran of this risky work. "We were white faces in a car in daytime," Groat recalls, too noticeable for comfort. Still they waited, for an hour, he says, before the radio crackled again: "OK to proceed to target." The cleaning lady had left.

Groat and the others were out of the car within seconds. The embassy staffer let them in the back door. Groat picked the lock on the code room - a small, windowless space secured for secret communications, a standard feature of most embassies - and the team swept inside. Groat opened the safe within 15 minutes, having practiced on a similar model back in the States. The woman and two other officers were trained in photography and what the CIA calls "flaps and seals"; they carefully opened and photographed the code books and one-time pads, or booklets of random numbers used to create almost unbreakable codes, and then resealed each document and replaced it in the safe exactly as it had been before. Two hours after entering the embassy, they were gone.

After dropping the break-in specialists off at their hotel, the driver took the photographs to the U.S. Embassy, where they were sent to CIA headquarters by diplomatic pouch. The next morning, the team flew out. [Read more: Wise/SmithsonianMagazine/October2012]

30 Issues: Why You Should Care About ... Cybersecurity. The town of Sandwich on Cape Cod is on the map for tourists. But for international cyber attacks?

Three years ago, hackers from Russia broke the Sandwich computer network to steal more than $30,000 through wire transfers.

"Something happened many years ago and the town was able to immediately step in," said assistant town manager Doug Lapp.

Lapp said Sandwich officials significantly beefed up security and hired a full-time information technology director after the theft. But Lapp said cities and towns aren't required to protect their network infrastructures. They just do the best they can.

"Some towns have IT staff," he said, "some towns have more IT staff, some towns don't have any at all. Some have I-nets, fiber optic cables that connect things, so it varies a lot from town to town, depending on the size and the budget."

Cybercrimes are on the uptick far beyond Sandwich. They impact more than 500 million people every year. And they're not just affecting consumers. The Internet has changed the face of national security. Foreign, government-sponsored hackers commonly use the internet to steal private technology and government secrets. Cyberespionage is apparently so easy to conduct, the greatest challenge facing foreign governments may be sifting through all of the information they steal from abroad.

James Lewis is a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. Lewis keeps a list of what he considers the world's most significant cyber incidents. He's noted 108 incidents since May 2006, when the U.S. State Department's networks were hacked and terabytes of information were downloaded to someone outside the country.

"My favorite still has to be the CENTCOMM hack of November 2008," he said, "because this was the classified military system of the command running the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And a foreign intelligence service was able to get in and we couldn't dislodge them."

How dangerous was this incident? [Read more: Corcoran/WGBH/25September2012]

A House of Intrigue and, the Neighbors Say, Espionage. In real estate, the saying goes, location is key, and it is certainly true for the little white house at 5437 Fieldston Road in Riverdale.

In a world without global tensions and nuclear showdowns, this modest, single-family house in the Bronx might have enjoyed a perfectly neutral existence.

Instead it became infamous locally, gaining a reputation as a spy house because it is separated by a fence from the Russian Federation, which opened in 1974 as a diplomatic residence.

This unassuming house provided perhaps the best physical vantage point to the 20-story building on the property, which lies between Mosholu Avenue and Fieldston Road near 255th Street and is encircled by an imposing, spike-tipped fence.

Shortly after the Russian compound opened, the house was bought by a corporation, Van Cortland Realty, whose ownership was difficult to discern. Neighbors say they can never remember anyone living there - even up to the present day.

The property was maintained by a landscaper, and junk mail and circulars were presumably collected periodically, although none of about a dozen neighbors interviewed can recall how.

"I call it the mystery house," said Mike O'Rourke, 86, who has been a doorman at Fieldston Manor, across the street from the house, for 20 years.

"I've never seen anyone go in or out," Mr. O'Rourke said. [Read more: Kilgannon/NYTimes/19September2012]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Israel, Iran and the All-Seeing Eye of the Mossad. It has been revealed that last month there was another covert attack on Iran's nuclear project, in which the power cables to the Fordow Enrichment Plant were blown up. As with all attacks of this sort, at least two purposes were served. Firstly, the development of nuclear weapons was disrupted; secondly, it was intended to have a damaging impact on Iranian morale.

The perpetrators of this operation remain unconfirmed, but the immediate suspects will naturally be the Mossad. This may be true, but in much of the Muslim world there is a perception of the Israeli military machine as having a superhumanly long grasp. Notwithstanding Israel's various inconclusive recent military operations, it maintains an almost mythological status. The legacy of Entebbe, Operation Wrath of God and the Six Day War lives on: the reputation of Israel's military and secret services is so fearsome that it has been blamed for everything from the Breivik massacre in Norway to shark attacks in the Red Sea.

For its part, the Mossad has always seemed keen to perpetuate this reputation. Their attacks have always been as flamboyant and audacious as they are deadly. From the 1996 killing of the Hamas suicide bombmaker Yahya Ayyash, whose head was blown off by a booby-trapped mobile phone, to the assassination of the Hamas weapons smuggler in Dubai two years ago, for which operatives disguised themselves as tennis players (in Israel, tennis kit has become a standard fancy dress outfit), Mossad operations command the attention of the world. Even magnetic bombs on motorcycles have entered our cultural consciousness, and have sparked (failed) copycat attacks.

The Mossad, and people connected to it, seem intent on fostering an impression of omniscience. In March, for example, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that the former Mossad head Meir Dagan - whose company, Gulliver Energy, had just been given permission to mine for Uranium in the Negev desert, by the way - gave a lecture at a Haifa hospital in which he asserted that the all-seeing eye of the Mossad "will know" when Iran moves to the stage of nuclear weapon production, and Israel will attack immediately.

The roots of this lie deep. [Read more: Simons/TheTelegraph/19September2012]

After Benghazi. The terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi calls for an aggressive response. Diplomatic installations have been considered inviolable since antiquity, and the murder of Americans must be avenged.

But the aftermath of the attack also brings up practical questions on the use of diplomatic installations for information and intelligence gathering because it is easy for hostile intelligence services to locate, identify and monitor embassy employees. 

Embassies are fixed targets in a world where victory in almost any endeavor - from warfare to football - depends on speed, flexibility, and maneuverability. Saddam Hussein's vast tank armies, dug in and unmoving, were sitting ducks for American air power. In pro football, those 300 pound players are not monoliths, they're stunningly fast and agile. 

A hostile intelligence service can shut down an embassy just by keeping track of who walks in and out. A hostile enemy can obliterate an embassy using obsolete military weapons. Once an embassy is neutralized, it can no longer gather information to protect itself, much less serve the needs of Americans and our allies.

The solution is to have people operating outside of those embassies. I did this continuously in foreign countries - including Libya - for more than 15 of my 18 years in the CIA. I had no security, no Marine guards, not even an alarm system in my house. Except for brief tours in war zones, I never carried a weapon. The enemy did not disrupt or attack me because they couldn't identify and locate me. The enemy would never have been able to locate the safe houses I used because they were unconnected to any embassy. I never had diplomatic immunity, and it didn't bother me a bit. Diplomatic immunity didn't protect our ambassador in Libya. [Read more: Jones/Powerline/24September2012]

Keeping the Spooks in Czech. Last month, the Czech Republic's Security Information Service (BIS), its counter-intelligence service, warned that Russian espionage was a serious, growing and aggressive challenge. It suggested there could be as many as 150 Russian agents within this small country, who could "pose an immediate risk to Czech citizens."

To drive home the message, Czech military intelligence (VZ) released its own report identifying Russia as their main threat.

Does this say more about Moscow's traditional role as Central Europe's bogeyman than actual Russian activity and intent? Or is there some unfolding campaign of undercover pressure?

Relations between Moscow and Prague have often been problematic for historical, economic and political reasons. Indeed, Russia's former ambassador to Prague, Alexei Fedotov - who stands accused by the Czechs of coordinating the espionage campaign - told the Czech newspaper Pravo that these reports were a "media fiction produced on political order."

However, not only do other countries' intelligence services corroborate Prague's line, it fits a general pattern across Central Europe. While the espionage activities of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and military intelligence (GRU) have increased globally, Central Europe is a region that seems of particular interest, within which the Russians are maintaining extensive, long-term operations. In 2010, for example, it emerged that deep-cover agent Robert Rakhardzho had been spying there since 2004. Rakhardzho fled to Russia and three Czech generals were forced to resign in disgrace.

But every country spies, on enemies, neighbors and friends alike. Is this really something to get excited about? Yes, this is a big deal. [Read more: Galeotti/MoscowNews/24September2012]

Section IV - Books, Obituaries and Coming Events

Books

Meet The Spy Who Inspired The Creation Of James Bond. One of Britain's greatest spies of the Second World War, a secret agent who went by the code name White Rabbit, has been identified as the inspiration behind Ian Fleming's James Bond.

He's the dashing secret agent who surrounded himself with women, ruthlessly dispatched his enemies and had a series of swashbuckling adventures.

It is not James Bond but a real Second World War hero who has now been identified as the inspiration behind Ian Fleming's fictional creation.

A new biography of Wing Commander Forest "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas, one of Britain's greatest secret agents of the war, claims the writer based the character of 007 on the spy and recreated many of his real life experiences in his novels.

Yeo-Thomas, who was known by the code name White Rabbit, was parachuted into occupied France three times - after one mission reporting back directly to Winston Churchill - before being captured and tortured by the Gestapo.

He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp but managed to escape and reach the Allied lines.

His link to Bond is revealed in a document discovered at the National Archives, in west London, by historian Sophie Jackson during her research into a new account of Yeo-Thomas' exploits, Churchill's White Rabbit: The True Story of a Real-Life James Bond.

In a dossier of recently declassified documents, she found a memo from May 1945 in which Fleming, who also worked in intelligence during the war, briefs colleagues on the agent and his successful escape from the Nazis. [Read more: Copping/TheTelegraph/23September2012]

Obituaries

Edwin P. Wilson. He claimed to own 100 corporations in the United States and Europe, many of them real and many of them shells. He had an apartment in Geneva; a hunting lodge in England; a seaside villa in Tripoli, Libya; a town house in Washington; and real estate in North Carolina, Lebanon and Mexico. He entertained congressmen, generals and Central Intelligence Agency bigwigs at his 2,338-acre estate in Northern Virginia.

He showered minks on his mistress, whom he called "Wonder Woman." He owned three private planes and bragged that he knew flight attendants on the Concorde by name.

His preferred habitat was a hall of mirrors. His business empire existed as a cover for espionage, but it also made him a lot of money. He had the advantage of being able to call the Internal Revenue Service and use national security jargon to get the details on a potential customer. And if the I.R.S. questioned his own tax filings, he terminated the discussion by saying he was a C.I.A. operative on a covert mission.

"Being in the C.I.A. was like putting on a magic coat that forever made him invisible and invincible," Peter Maas wrote in "Manhunt," his 1986 book about Mr. Wilson.

For Mr. Wilson, who died on Sept. 10 in Seattle at 84, the adventure collapsed with his arrest in 1982 on charges of selling Libya 20 tons of powerful explosives.

Over the next two years, he was tried in four federal cases in four different courts, accused of, among other things, smuggling arms and plotting to murder his wife. He was sentenced to a total of 52 years in prison. He served 22 of them, mostly in solitary confinement. Then the dagger of fate took a strange twist.

After studying thousands of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Mr. Wilson and his lawyer went back to court and demolished the government's case. [Read more: Martin/NYTimes/22September2012]

Kenneth Michael Absher. Kenneth Michael Absher, a former longtime member of AFIO's board, and a Fellow of the Bush School's Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs (SIIA) and lecturer at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service passed away on August 25, 2012. At the Bush School, Mr. Absher encouraged and advised students interested in public service, particularly in the U.S. intelligence community. In 2011, he led a group of Bush School students in a capstone research project which assessed the effectiveness of interagency coordination within the intelligence community. The results of the study were presented to the Director of National Intelligence.

Born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in San Antonio, Mr. Absher graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton University, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy. He served in the U. S. Army, and in 1961 began what would be a 31-year career with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). When he retired in 1993, he was a member of the Senior Intelligence Service, having served over 31 years in the Directorate of Operations, now known as the National Clandestine Service. Mr. Absher was Chief of Station in two different field assignments, and chief of base in two others. He had four tours in CIA headquarters managing foreign intelligence operations.

During his long and distinguished career, Mr. Absher served in Western Europe, the Caribbean and Indochina. He provided direct intelligence support to the US handling of major Cold War events such as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; the Vietnam War; the 1983 military and rescue operation in Grenada (Operation "URGENT FURY"); and the break-up of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. Mr. Absher's service to the nation was recognized with numerous honors, including twice being awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit, given for performance of especially meritorious service or for achievement conspicuously above normal duties.

After his retirement, Mr. Absher taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the National Defense Intelligence College in Washington D.C. and was a consultant on intelligence issues to numerous government departments, agencies, and commissions, including the Aspin/Brown Commission's appraisal of U.S. intelligence (1996); and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence where he contributed to its staff study, "IC21: Intelligence Community in the 21st Century". In 1999, Mr. Absher published an article in CIA's "Studies in Intelligence" on the Agency's role in Operation URGENT FURY, which won an award from CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.

From January 2003 to February 2005, Mr. Absher served on the Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Antonio, and was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to three accountability review boards to investigate terrorist attacks in Iraq which killed eleven US mission personnel. For seven weeks in the summer of 2006, Mr. Absher worked in the Office of the Director of CIA and the DNI representative at the headquarters of the US Pacific Command Assessing the North Korean Missile launches. He also served on the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of San Antonio; and on the board of the National Defense Intelligence College Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Absher's study of the role of intelligence in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Mindsets and Missiles: A First Hand Account of the Cuban Missile Crisis was published in 2009. In 2012 Mr. Absher, together with co-authors Dr. Michael Desch and Ambassador Roman Popadiuk, published the first scholarly account of the history and role of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, entitled Privileged and Confidential: The Secret History of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

Bush School Acting Dean Andrew Card noted Absher's significant contributions to the nation's security and his patriotism. "We were honored to have Mike Absher on our faculty. Our students had access to his cogent analysis of intelligence and security issues, and also saw an outstanding example of a devoted public servant. Mike was an ardent patriot, dedicated public servant, distinguished practitioner and scholar of the role of intelligence in American statecraft, committed participant in the life of the Bush School and Scowcroft Institute, and friend and counselor to Bush School students since 2005. He will be missed by us all. We look forward to celebrating Mike's life in the days ahead." [Read more: TheBushSchool/September2012]

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY Spy Museum Events in September, October, 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.

Thursday, 27 September 2012 - Washington, DC - Geospatial Intelligence and the Lay of the Land by Keith Masback, USGIF at the International Spy Museum

How can you plan humanitarian assistance projects, disaster relief, or pinpoint an enemy—perhaps in Abbottabad—from great distances with as few surprises as possible? Geospatial intelligence. GEOINT is the combined use of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information to give the clearest possible picture of an area - including its "human terrain" - before boots hit the ground. Keith J. Masback, President of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, will explain the basics of this relatively new category of intel, and he will discuss the general techniques that could be used in varying missions, from responding to natural and man-made disasters, to watching suspected nuclear sites, to tracking down high value targets like Osama bin Laden.
Tickets: $90. Internet Quick Tix code for the program: 1M2-627 or call 202 633-3030. Visit www.spymuseum.org

Friday, 28 September 2012 - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO Fall Luncheon features DIA Director Lt Gen Michael T. Flynn, and Colonel Rose Mary Sheldon, PhD of VMI

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, USA, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, will discuss the greater global scope of DIA, and the acceleration of change - Today's Defense Intelligence Imperative. He speaks at 1 p.m. following lunch.
Registration is at 10:30 am; Morning speaker is Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, PhD Professor of History at Virginia Military Institute speaking on "AMBUSH: Surprise Attack in Ancient Greek Warfare and Lessons It Provides for Today" [Frontline Bks, Sept 2012]. Her talk presentation starts at 11 am; 3-course Lunch at Noon; Event ends promptly at 2 pm.
NOTE TO MEDIA and all attendees: Director Flynn's presentation will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule. When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity, nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.
TO REGISTER: Proceed here to register while space remains.

29 September 2012, 1000 - 1430 - Milford, MA - The AFIO New England Chapter meeting features Ken Sawka, expert on Competitive Intelligence, Early Warning Systems, and Strategy Development.

Schedule: Registration & gathering, 1000 - 1130, membership meeting 1130 – 1200. Luncheon at 1200 followed by our speaker, with adjournment at 2:30PM.
Where: At the Courtyard by Marriott in Milford, Mass. The hotel web site is here: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bosml-courtyard-boston-milford
Ken Sawka is President and CEO of the private intelligence consulting firm Outward Insights. Ken is a nationally recognized competitive intelligence, early warning system, and strategy development expert. He has had a long and acclaimed career as both an intelligence practitioner and consultant, having developed competitive intelligence programs with numerous Fortune 500 companies. An expert commentator, Ken is a published author and has been quoted extensively on competitive strategy and intelligence matters in Time, Investor's Business Daily, American Banker, and other prominent journals. He is a regular contributor to the Kiplinger.com Business Resource Center, and has appeared on CNBC's acclaimed Squawk Box.
Prior to joining Outward Insights, Ken directed pricing and competitive analysis at Deloitte Consulting and also served as a Practice Leader in Deloitte's Strategy and Operations Group, managing the delivery of services in strategy development, competitive analysis, and scenario planning. Key clients were in the telecommunications, healthcare, and financial services industries. He was also an Intelligence Analyst with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Ken holds a Bachelors Degree in Political Science (cum laude) and Masters Degree in International Relations from American University. Ken is based in the Outward Insights headquarters office in Andover, MA.
Note, as this meeting is a one day event we have not made any hotel arrangements.
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 15 September 2012.**************
Mail your check and the reservation form to: Arthur Hulnick, 216 Summit Ave # E102, Brookline, MA 02446; 617-739-7074 or send questions to hlnk@aol.com

Tuesday, 2 October 2012, 8-9 am - Tysons Corner, VA - SPYPEDIA's Global Terrorism Espionage and Cybersecurity is hosting FREE Monthly Briefings
(G-TEC Briefing)
Location: Microsoft Store, Tysons Corner Center Mall, Level 2, Parking Area: P5, Tysons Corner, Virginia.
To Register: 703 642-7450 or email contact@cicentre.com
Seating is limited; Reservations required.

Wednesday, 03 October 20126:30 pm - Washington, DC - The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby - a screening at the International Spy Museum

"A public convinced of the CIA's value will help protect its true secrets." — William Colby, Honorable Men, 1978.
When Carl Colby decided to make a documentary film on his late father William E. Colby, he found the perfect vehicle for telling the story of American espionage and special operations in the second half of the 20th century. From his days as an OSS Jedburgh officer in WWII; to his assignments in Stockholm, Rome, and Saigon as CIA Station Chief; then as Chief of the Far East Division; followed by Head of CORDS/Pacification Program (and Phoenix Program) during the Vietnam War; and finally as Director of Central Intelligence during the Church and Pike Hearings into CIA wrong-doing in the 1970's; Colby's career is the quintessential spy story. He knew everyone and he knew their secrets. This very personal film includes interviews with veteran CIA officers, OSS veterans, government officials, and nationally recognized journalists. Join Carl Colby for a special screening and discussion of his well-received real life spy thriller.
Tickets: $9. For further information or directions visit www.spymuseum.org

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

Wednesday, 10 October 2012, 11:30 am - Scottsdale, AZ - AFIO Arizona Chapter Luncheon features an FBI SSA discussing "The FBI'S WMD information needs, procedures, and structure - and Domestic Terrorism."

Andrew Braun, Supervisory Special Agent (SSA), FBI Phoenix Division, Joint Terrorism Task Force – Weapons of Mass Destruction – Domestic Terrorism.
Presentation will provide a "behind the curtain" view of the FBI's operating pictures as it exists in 2012. It will outline FBI investigative background, direction, strategic operations initiatives, capabilities and collection efforts.
RSVP no later than 72 hours ahead of time; in the past, not reserving or canceling 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
LOCATION: McCormick Ranch Golf Course, 7505 McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale AZ 85258 ~ Phone 480.948.0260
For reservations or questions, please email Simone –simone@4smartphone.net or simone@afioaz.org. To call please leave a message on 602.570.6016

Wednesday, 10 October 2012, noon - Washington, DC - Castro's Secrets: The CIA and Cuba's Intelligence Machine - a author book presentation at the International Spy Museum

In Castro's Secrets, Brian Latell, former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America and long-time Cuba analyst, offers a strikingly original image of Fidel Castro as Cuba's supreme spymaster. Latell exposes many long-buried secrets of Castro's lengthy reign, including numerous assassinations and assassination attempts against foreign leaders. In writing this book, Latell spoke with many high-level defectors from Cuba's powerful intelligence and security services; some had never told their stories on the record before. Latell also probed dispassionately into the CIA's most deplorable plots against Cuba, including previously obscure schemes to assassinate Castro and presents shocking new conclusions about what Castro actually knew of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Join the author for an informal chat and book signing.
Free! For further information or directions visit www.spymuseum.org

16 October 2012, 11:30 am - McLean, VA - DIA Forum hears Col Jore on "Mexico Looks to the Future."

The Defense Intelligence Forum meets at Pulcinella Restaurant to hear Col (ret) Jeffrey D. Jore, USA, will speak on "Mexico Looks to the Future." Specifically, Col Jore will provide a prospective on how Mexico views its relationship with the U.S. and some thoughts on the incoming government of newly elected Mexican President Pena Niete. As a Latin American Foreign Area Officer, Jeff Jore has spent over 30 years studying our relationships with Hispanic countries and is a recognized expert on Latin America. In addition to serving as Defense Attach� (DATT) to Mexico, Jeff Jore has served as DATT to Surinam, Army DATT to Spain and Argentina and Ass't Army DATT to Guatemala. Additionally, he was an exchange officer with the Venezuelan Army. Col Jore also served as the Director, Foreign Intelligence (DAMI-FI), Army Staff, G-2. He is member of Defense Attach� Hall of Fame and currently serving as the SIO in the Latin American Division of the Office of Attach� Operations, DCHC, DIA.
Event is on the record.
Location: Pulcinella Restaurant, 6852 Old Dominion Drive, Mclean, VA. Pay at the door with a check for $29.00 payable to DIAA, Inc Registration starts at 11:30AM, lunch at 12:00 PM. Make reservations by 15 October 2012 by email to diforum@diaalumni.org. Include names, telephone numbers, and email addresses. For each attendee, choose among choose among chicken cacciatore, tilapia puttanesca, Lasagna, sausage with peppers, or fettuccini with portabella for your luncheon selection. Checks are preferred, but will accept cash; however, credit card payments are discouraged.

Tuesday, 16 October 2012 - Annapolis, MD The US Naval Institute and US Naval Academy co-host "The History and Future Challenges of Cyber Power."
The symposium will be held at the Alumni Hall on the Academy Yard in Annapolis, Maryland. Gen James Cartwright, USMC (Ret.), Former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will begin the session as the morning keynote. The program will include a luncheon keynote address by Kevin Mitnick and two panels:
Combating Cyber Warfare: The Evolution of Alliances Between the Public and Private Sectors
Forging the Links for Cyber Operations: Command, Control, and Policy
The keynote speakers and panelists will include renowned active-duty and civilian experts and leaders in the field ranging from preeminent historians to those on the cutting edge of cyber power in the armed forces, government, the private sector, and academia.
To register or for additional information visit http://www.usnihistoryconference.org.

Wednesday, 17 October 2012, 6:30 – 8:30 pm - Washington, DC - "Minute-by-Minute: The Role of Intelligence in the Cuban Missile Crisis: A Hands-on Simulation" at the International Spy Museum. Event features AFIO President Gene Poteat.

For two weeks in October 1962, the world held its breath while President Kennedy and Premier Khruschev navigated one of the most intense showdowns of the Cold War. Marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, this hands-on workshop offers participants an insider view into this pivotal event in history. Experience the drama surrounding the Soviet attempt to secretly place ballistic missiles in Cuba. Learn how raw intelligence, analysis, and back channel exchanges enabled, or in some cases hindered, Kennedy as he sought to avert a nuclear war. Step into the shoes of a CIA analyst in October 1962 through a simulation using declassified U-2 photographs and documents to make recommendations to President Kennedy at various stages of the crisis. Following the simulation, Eugene Poteat, a retired senior CIA Scientific Intelligence Officer will speak about overhead reconnaissance and its role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and his personal experience during this tense time. Tickets: $15. To register visit www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 17 October 2012, 0915 - 1500 - Laurel, MD - The Annual NCMF General Membership Meeting

HOLD DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR: The event takes place at the JHU/APL Kossiakoff Center in Laurel, Maryland.
Registration and breakfast are from 0800-0900. The morning session will open with outgoing NCMF President, Mr. Eugene Becker, who will introduce the new NCMF President, Mr. Richard Schaeffer, to the membership. At 0915, NSA Deputy Director, Mr. Chris Inglis, will give the opening remarks. The remainder of the morning will feature DIA Director, Lt Gen Michael Flynn, who has been invited to be keynote speaker and Mr. Patrick Weadon, who will give an update on the National Cryptologic Museum. Lunch will be served from 1200-1300.
The afternoon session will be held from 1300-1500 and features Joel Brenner, author of America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime and Warfare who has been invited to speak on the cyber security threat to the civilian sector. The afternoon also features a panel of SCE senior commanders, chaired by Billy Bingham, Brig Gen, Ret., discussing cyber and how it pertains to their overall mission. Rod Isler, Maj Gen, Ret., will close the program with an update on the New Museum Project. Program agenda is at www.cryptologicfoundation.org. Fee: $20pp NCMF members; $40pp nonmembers.
Registration: email or mail your name, name of any guests, telephone #, to cryptmf@aol.com. Credit cards accepted are Amex, MasterCard, Visa. If you have questions, email cryptmf@aol.com   

23 October 2012 - San Francisco, CA - The AFIO Jim Quesada Chapter hosts CIA Officer Richard Holm.

Richard Holm, former CIA, will be speaking about his newly published autobiography, The Craft We Chose: My Life in the CIA. The disucssion will be followed by a book signing. The meeting will be held at the World Affairs Council, 312 Sutter Street, SF from 2:15PM - 4:00PM. RSVP is mandatory. E-mail RSVP to Mariko Kawaguchi at afiosf@aol.com and mail a check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, P.O. Box 117578, Burlingame, CA 94011. Members and students: $15; non-members $20.

25-27 October 2012 - Gregynog Hall, Wales , UK - The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Fifty Year Retrospective Assessment - A Cambridge UK Intelligence Seminar!

Call for Papers.  Delegate registration. Places now available!  First come first served!

This autumn sees the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the quintessential Cold War crisis which Arthur Schleslinger, Jr. termed 'the most dangerous moment in human history'.  In order to mark this seminal event the Centre for Intelligence and International Security Studies (CIISS) at Aberystwyth University and the Cambridge Intelligence Group (seminar), University of Cambridge are hosting a major international conference at Gregynog Hall (http://www.wales.ac.uk/en/UniversityConferenceCentre/GregynogHall.aspx) in the idyllic setting of rural Wales.  The conference will seek to address the legacies and lessons of the  Cuban Missile Crisis by means of a number of papers and roundtable discussions.  The conference will feature contributions from a number of the most eminent international scholars of nuclear history, intelligence, espionage, political science and the Cold War.  The continuing relevance of the lessons of 1962 cannot be overstated and this  multidisciplinary conference will be of interest to intelligence professionals, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and policymakers.

Speakers include:

• Professor Christopher Andrew (University of Cambridge, official historian of MI5)
• Professor Len Scott (CIISS, Aberystwyth University)
• Dr. Michael S. Goodman (King's College London, Official Historian of the UK JIC)
• H. Keith Melton (Intelligence specialist)
• Professor Don Munton (University of Northern British Columbia)

Book now to avoid disappointment! (http://www.wales.ac.uk/en/UniversityConferenceCentre/GregynogHall.aspx)
Gold Pass CMC2012: Full-board and Conference Fee (including Conference Dinner and Wine receptions): �325 all inclusive
In order to be considered as a presenter please provide a 300 word abstract and your institutional affiliation to: David Gioe (dvg21@cam.ac.uk) Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, University of Cambridge.

Please return all booking forms to: Dr. Kris Stoddart (kds@aber.ac.uk) Centre for Intelligence and International Security Studies, Aberystwyth University
For further information please e-mail kds@aber.ac.uk or David Gioe, (dvg21@cam.ac.uk) Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, University of Cambridge

27 October 2012, 6 - 10 pm - Washington, DC - The OSS Society Donovan Award Dinner Honors Former SECDEF Robert M. Gates

The 2012 William J. Donovan Award Dinner is scheduled and honors former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Event location: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd St NW, Washington DC. Black Tie/Mess Dress. Registration and additional information is available here. Tickets $225 per person; Sponsorships range from $1000 to $25000. Review and complete the following PDF.

Saturday, 3 November 2012, noon - Indian Harbour Beach, FL - "Briefing Candidates and Presidents-Elect" the topic at the AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter meeting

Dennis Bowden, former CIA analyst and Managing Editor of the President’s Daily Brief will discuss "Mutual Introductions: Briefing Candidates and Presidents-Elect."
Where: At the Eau Gallie Yacht Club. For those who may not be familiar with the PDB, it is frequently described as the world’s smallest newspaper, a CIA product that is put together each night from all-source intelligence so that a CIA analyst can brief the president the following morning. CIA briefings are also available to candidates and presidents-elect. There are many anecdotes about the way in which individual presidents have received their PDBs, some of them quite amusing and others less so, and we hope that our speaker will share some of the better of these with us.
To register or for more information contact Donna Czarnecki, donnacz12@aol.com.

Seattle, Washington Area Members and Guests - CIA & Naval Museum Event to put on your calendars

Saturday, 03 November 2012, 11 am - 12:30 pm - Keyport, WA - An Underwater Ice Station Zebra, featuring Historian, CIA Officer David Waltrop. This is a no-cost CIA Historic Document Release Event at the Naval Undersea Museum.

The Trieste II Deep Sea Vehicle I (DSV-1), the U.S. Navy's most advanced deep sea submersible, surfaced about 350 miles northeast of the Hawaiian Islands in the pre-dawn hours of 26 April 1972 after having salvaged a mysterious item from 16,400 feet below the Pacific Ocean. Publically known as a nondescript "data package," the full story of this little known Cold War operation has remained hidden behind secrecy, rumor, and speculation. With access to sources from three agencies, An Underwater Ice Station Zebra reveals how the CIA and U.S. Navy undertook a dangerous mission, never before attempted, in the deepest undersea expedition of its time – twenty-eight months before CIA's better known salvage involving the Hughes Glomar Explorer. Presentation by David W. Waltrop, program manager in the CIA Historical Collections Division, who served previously as the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) deputy-chief historian, editor of NRO's quarterly publication, and curator of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
LOCATION: Naval Undersea Museum, 1 Garnett Way, Keyport, WA 98345 [for GPS or Google Maps use: Jenson Road, Poulsbo, WA 98345], Phone: (360) 396-4148. The Museum is located 28 miles from downtown Seattle.
REGISTRATION NOT REQUIRED. Just show up and enjoy this important presentation. For more information visit the Museum website at http://www.navalunderseamuseum.org/. There is no fee to attend.

Wednesday, 7 November 2012, 8-9 am - Tysons Corner, VA - SPYPEDIA's Global Terrorism Espionage and Cybersecurity is hosting FREE Monthly Briefings
(G-TEC Briefing)
Location: Microsoft Store, Tysons Corner Center Mall, Level 2, Parking Area: P5, Tysons Corner, Virginia.
To Register: 703 642-7450 or email contact@cicentre.com
Seating is limited; Reservations required.

Friday, 9 November 2012, 9:30 am - 5:30 pm (reception to follow) - Washington, DC - FAS hosts 2012 Symposium on Preventing Catastrophic Threats and Awards Ceremony

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) hosts this important 2012 Symposium at the National Press Club Ballroom, 429 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20045
The next President of the United States and his national security team will need to make urgent decisions about protecting the nation from catastrophic attacks. To advise the next administration, just three days after the election, FAS will host a symposium featuring distinguished experts on policy and technological aspects of conventional, nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, bio-technology, nuclear safety, electricity generation, distribution, and storage, and cyber security. At the symposium, these experts will present their recommendations for preventing and reducing risks from catastrophic threats.
The event will also feature an awards ceremony luncheon to honor outstanding people who have made a distinctive contribution to national security. Dr. John Ahearne will be honored with the 2012 Richard L. Garwin Award, Dr. Sidney Drell will be honored with the 2012 Public Service Award and Dr. Stanford Ovshinsky will be honored with the 2012 Hans Bethe Award. Dr. Drell will share the honor of the Public Service Award with Dr. Henry Kissinger, Senator Sam Nunn, Dr. William J. Perry, and Mr. George P. Shultz.
Sponsorship Opportunities: Please contact Katie Colten at kcolten@fas.org or 202-454-4694 for more information, or visit www.fas.org

Monday, 3 December 2012, 5:30 pm - 8 pm - New York, NY - AFIO New York Chapter Meeting Features ESPIONAGE IN GOTHAM

Speaker: Bob Wallace - CIA 32 years, retired. Author Topic: "Two Centuries of Espionage in Gotham" (based on new book: Spy Sites in New York City). Book reveals NYC as a city of mystery, adventure and intrigue - a hub of espionage - nearly 200 sites where spies lived, plotted and operated. Location: "Society of Illustrators" 128 East 63rd Street (between Park & Lexington).
5:30 PM Registration 6:00 PM Meeting Start. Cost: $45/person. Cash or check at the door only. Buffet dinner and cash bar. Reservations: Strongly suggested, not required. 646-717-3776 or email: afiometro@gmail.com

Friday, 7 December 2012, 09:30 am - 2 pm - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO WINTER Luncheon - Film Screening on DCI William Colby; Presentation on The Internal IC Hunt and Unmasking of CIA Traitor Aldrich Ames

Place on your calendar. A very special day. In the a.m. we will have an introduction and screening of Carl Colby's [Jedburgh Films] acclaimed - controversial to some - documentary: THE MAN NOBODY KNEW: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. Please note: Event is starting one hour earlier than usual. Film and Q&A starts at 10 am, concludes at noon. 3 course luncheon. 1 p.m. speaker will be Sandy Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille, two former CIA officials [26 yrs and 38 yrs, respectively] - the principals behind the dogged search and unmasking of the spy in their midst, described in their just released book: Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed. Registration will open October 1. Link will be provided here.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012, 8:30 am - 4 pm - Washington, DC - Jamestown Foundation 6th Annual Terrorism Conference

The conference theme of the Jamestown Foundation's 6th Annual Terrorism Conference is "The Periphery and the Core: the Evolution of AQ and Its Affiliates."
Location: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Root Room, 1779 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC
The conference will feature the following speakers: Bruce Riedel, Bruce Hoffman, David Kilcullen, and Former CIA Director Michael Hayden.
**More details and registration information to follow** Website: www.jamestown.org
Phone: 202-483-8888. Jamestown Foundation, 1111 16th St NW Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036.

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

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