Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

CIA Closes Office That Declassifies Historical Materials. The budget ax has fallen on a CIA office that focused on declassifying historical materials, a move scholars say will mean fewer public disclosures about long-buried intelligence secrets and scandals.

The Historical Collections Division, which has declassified documents on top Soviet spies, a secret CIA airline in the Vietnam War, the Cuban missile crisis and other major operations, has been disbanded. The office that handles Freedom of Information Act requests will take over the work.

CIA officials said they closed the Historical Collections Division to accommodate federal budget cuts that the White House and Congress proposed last year to create pressure for a deficit reduction deal. No deal materialized, so across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester were imposed.

"As a result of sequestration, elements of one program office were moved into a larger unit to create efficiencies, but CIA will continue to perform this important work," said Edward Price, a CIA spokesman.

He said the agency remained committed to the "public interest mission" of declassifying significant historical documents.

But outside experts criticized the CIA for shutting down an office that academics, lawyers and historians use. [Read more: Dilanian/LATimes/21August2013]

Defense Intelligence Agency Recognizes National Intelligence University Dean for Excellence. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Deputy Director David Shedd presented Dr. Vance R. Skarstedt today with the Civilian Achievement Medal for his extraordinary performance as the National Intelligence University (NIU) Dean of the College of Strategic Intelligence. The medal, presented on behalf of DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn during the NIU Convocation, commends outstanding accomplishments and service to the agency.

"Dr. Skarstedt personifies the values of teamwork, integrity, excellence and service that have been instrumental in the success of the National Intelligence University," said NIU President Dr. David Ellison. "He not only increased the quality and quantity of the faculty, but established programs that are more relevant, accessible and career-spanning."

Ending a legacy that goes beyond the classroom, Dr. Skarstedt concluded his tour at NIU last month and will continue in his civil service as the DIA Chair of the Marine Corps University at Quantico, Va. He joined the former National Defense Intelligence College in the summer of 2007 as dean at a time when the school was about to embark on its most demanding moments in history - moments that would transform the college forever into National Intelligence University. [Read more: NIU/26August2013]

U.S. Spy Agency Edges Into the Light After Snowden Revelations. There was a time when the U.S. National Security Agency was so secretive that government officials dared not speak its name in public. NSA, the joke went, stood for "No Such Agency."

That same agency this month held an on-the-record conference call with reporters, issued a lengthy press release to rebut a newspaper story, and posted documents on a newly launched open website - icontherecord.tumblr.com (which stands for intelligence community on the record).

The steps were taken under pressure as President Barack Obama's administration tries to calm a public storm over disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the surveillance agency and its British counterpart scoop up far more Internet and phone data than previously known.

The NSA's moves out of the shadows were meant to show that it operates lawfully and fixes mistakes when they are detected, but not everyone is convinced that it is a fundamental shift toward more openness at the intelligence agencies.

Some steps toward openness were unprecedented. [Read more: Zakaria/Reuters/25August2013]

Britain Operates Secret Monitoring Station in Middle East. Britain runs a secret monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept large numbers of telephone calls, emails and internet traffic that it shares with intelligence agencies in the United States, the Independent newspaper reported on Friday.

The station is part of a 1 billion pound ($1.56 billion) global eavesdropping project run by Britain to intercept digital communications, the paper said, citing leaked documents from former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.

Snowden's leaks have sparked a global surveillance scandal that has pitted U.S. President Barack Obama against the Kremlin and prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron's advisers to demand the return of secrets from the Guardian newspaper.

The London-based Independent, which did not say how it obtained the information from the Snowden documents, said the British had tapped into the underwater fibre-optic cables which pass through the Middle East.

Britain's foreign ministry and a spokesman for Britain's eavesdropping agency GCHQ declined comment. Data gleaned from the monitoring station, whose exact location the Independent said it would not reveal, is then passed onto GCHQ in Cheltenham, England, and shared with the U.S. National Security Agency. [Read more: Pitas/Reuters/23August2013]

U.S. Spy Agency Bugged U.N. Headquarters: Germany's Spiegel. The U.S. National Security Agency has bugged the United Nations' New York headquarters, Germany's Der Spiegel weekly said on Sunday in a report on U.S. spying that could further strain relations between Washington and its allies.

Citing secret U.S. documents obtained by fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel said the files showed how the United States systematically spied on other states and institutions.

Der Spiegel said the European Union and the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), were among those targeted by U.S. intelligence agents.

In the summer of 2012, NSA experts succeeded in getting into the U.N. video conferencing system and cracking its coding system, according one of the documents cited by Der Spiegel. [Read more: Reuters/25August2013]

Pentagon Weighs Firing Thousands Under 2014 Spending Cuts. The Defense Department may have to fire at least 6,272 civilian employees if automatic cuts known as sequestration slice $52 billion from its fiscal 2014 budget, according to a Pentagon planning document.

Additional budget analysis is "likely to produce further reductions" as the services focus on shrinking their contract labor forces, according to a Pentagon "execution plan" obtained by Bloomberg News. The job cuts, although less than 1 percent of the non-uniformed workforce, would mark an escalation from the unpaid leave mandated under sequestration in the current fiscal year.

The services should expect a $475 billion budget after sequestration cuts for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, almost 10 percent less than the pending $526.6 billion request, according to the document dated Aug. 1. Sequestration would result in 16 percent reductions in the Pentagon's procurement and research spending and 12 percent cuts in operations, maintenance and military construction.

For the most part, major weapons programs aren't being targeted for extensive reductions, according to the plan, which was a presentation by Pentagon budget and cost-assessment officials for generals and admirals who oversee force structure and resources for their respective services. [Read more: Cappacio/Bloomberg/23August2013]

Russians Inspect Missile Defense Base in California. Russian officials this week carried out a secret inspection of the U.S. strategic missile defense base in California as part of the New START arms treaty, according to Obama administration officials.

The inspection of five missile defense interceptors is allowed under the 2010 arms accord. The treaty requires cuts of U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads to 1,550.

A defense official said the visit was a treaty verification visit hosted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

A State Department official declined to comment on the inspection but confirmed it was related to New START. "Implementation activities under New START are confidential," the official said.

However, Thomas Moore, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee professional staff member, said the inspection of the base was a controversial part of U.S. and Russian arms talks leading up to New START that was ratified by the Senate in December 2010. [Read more: Gertz/FreeBeacon/22August2013]

Flier Busted For Iranian Uranium Export Scheme. A foreigner who agreed to sell undercover Homeland Security agents 1000 tons of yellowcake uranium for shipment to Iran was arrested yesterday when he flew into the United States with uranium samples hidden inside the soles of shoes in his luggage, The Smoking Gun has learned.

A 15-month sting operation concluded Wednesday afternoon with the arrest of Patrick Campbell inside a terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Campbell, 33, traveled to New York from Paris on an Air France flight. It is unclear where Campbell is being held, or when he will make an appearance in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

In communications with an undercover agent, Campbell said he was affiliated with a Sierra Leone firm that mined and exported uranium, chromite, gold, and diamonds from the western Africa nation.

Campbell was arrested for knowingly brokering material that was destined for Iran in violation of the Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transaction Regulations, according to a felony complaint filed today. When taken into custody, Campbell had a connecting ticket to Miami, where he had arranged to meet with an undercover agent. [Read more: TheSmokingGun/22August2013]

Turkish Intelligence Agency Forms New Center, Gathers Units. Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MİT) has entered a new phase with the opening of the Joint Intelligence Coordination Center (MİKM), placing all intelligence-gathering units under the MİKM roof, according to daily Milliyet.

The center, headed by MİT chief Hakan Fidan, will have units in 37 cities, with six major and 31 minor administrations located in a variety of places including Istanbul, Diyarbakır, and Siirt. The major units, located in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Van, Hatay, Gaziantep and Şanlırufa, will be working around the clock whereas the remaining 31 will have weekly sessions.

All valuable information gathered by local units will be transferred to a pool of intelligence, which will be sent to Ankara for evaluation, where MİKM officials will have a chance to go over all information put in by local sources. Each local unit will be headed by the governor and the deputy governor of the city. [Hurriyet/22August2013]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

CIA: UFO Sightings in 50s, 60s Were of Spy Planes. A recently declassified CIA report on the development of the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes said the high-flying jets were mistaken for UFOs more than half the time in the late 1950s and 1960s during Project Blue Book, a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base operation that investigated reports of UFOs.

Not everyone is convinced, however, of the explanation.

"There's no question that a lot of the sightings that take place are in fact our own aircraft, secret military projects or whatever it happens to be," said David P. MacDonald, a Cincinnati area resident and executive director emeritus of the Mutual UFO Network. "Whether or not 50 percent can be attributed to one or two aircraft, I don't know if I could go along with that or not just because of the diversity of what people were seeing."

Blue Book investigated 12,618 UFO reports, and 701 of those remain unidentified, according to the Air Force.

Project Sign and Project Grudge preceded Blue Book in the late 1940s and early 1950s. [Read more: Barber/DaytonDailyNews/26August2013]

Simple Invisibility Cloaks Hide Toys, Pets, People. Making something invisible does not require complex materials and techniques. Well-placed mirrors or lenses can cloak fish, cats and even people, two new studies show.

Since 2006, physicists have engineered intricate materials that can steer light waves around an object to render it invisible. But such cloaks can manipulate only a narrow range of wavelengths, a far cry from the full spectrum seen by people.

John Howell, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York, realized that plenty of simple, off-the-shelf materials can also steer light. During Thanksgiving break last year, Howell and his 14-year-old son Benjamin designed three devices that hide life-size objects from sight. One uses L-shaped water tanks, another a network of lenses and the third a set of mirrors; all of them function on the principles of reflection and refraction that students learn in high school physics. The Howells reported June 10 at arXiv.org that they cloaked chairs, toy helicopters and people, though the cloaks worked only when viewed from one direction.

The work, Howell says, "doesn't discount the beautiful stuff other people have done, but it shows that there are simple ways of doing it too." [Read more: Grant/ScienceNews/14July2013]

A Spymaster's Son, Bangor Man Seeks Traces of his CIA Dad. When he was young, Richard Bissell III knew almost nothing about his late father's work, and for very good reason.

Richard Bissell Jr. was one of the most influential spies in American history.

Among the earliest recruits to the CIA, Bissell worked for the spy agency in Washington D.C. during the Cold War years of the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. At his zenith, the Yale University-trained economist was an assistant to CIA Director Allen Dulles as deputy director for plans, the heart of the CIA.

Some of the agency's most successful and most nefarious spy operations bear Bissell's imprimatur. He plotted with gangsters to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro, toppled Latin American governments, directed U-2 spy plane flights over the Soviet Union, and, his son believes, helped turn a desolate expanse of Nevada into Area 51.

Books describe Bissell's father as brilliant, adventurous, energetic, tenacious and gutsy, but also petulant, ruthless, deceitful and contemptuous.

For most of his life, and in the 19 years since his father died, the 71-year-old retired Eastern Maine Medical Center nurse has tried to better understand his enigmatic and taciturn dad. [Read more: Sambides/BDN/25August2013]

Educators Prepare the Next Generation of Law Enforcement, CIA. The University of Phoenix Valley Campus is helping build the next generation of law enforcement officers. The school is working with local and state agencies to help people explore the field in a different kind of way.

Lucero Rivera has big dreams of pursuing a career in criminal justice.

"I've always wanted to be in that field since high school," Rivera said, "My ultimate goal is to be a special agent in the FBI."

Rivera is a student at the University of Phoenix where she learns directly from law enforcement professionals about her passion.

The school is hosting its annual career fair, an event filled with exhibits and demonstrations from the Bakersfield k-9 unit and its bomb squad. The fair also gives people interested in the field a chance to network with officers.

The workshop is not only educating people about the field of criminal justice, it's also bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community.

"Anytime you have the opportunity to have dialogue and give and take and it also allows local law enforcement to hear from the community, said Lyle Martin, Assistant Police Chief for City of Bakersfield

Worldwide Counterterrorism Center is also offering people a look inside the CIA. [Read more: ABC/25August2013]

Sugar Cube Sculptor Brendan Jamison's Berlin Spy Mission. The murky world of espionage seems a million miles away from the sparkling white sugar sculptures of artist Brendan Jamison.

The "cubist" who has built an international reputation for intricate sugar cube carvings has taken on a new project - one based at Berlin's Devil's Mountain.

For the last year, he has been immersed in the world of Teufelsberg (Devil's Mountain) and the old spy station codenamed T.H.E. Hill.

It was used by the Americans and British during the Cold War years to pick up conversations from the Russians and East Germans on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

"In 2009, I was watching a documentary by Matt Frei on the reunification of Germany and there was a 30-second throwaway comment about the abandoned spy station," Brendan explained.

"I was hooked and I made many trips to Berlin to try and find it. On the internet, I was contacted by former intelligence officers who had worked at Teufelsberg and were now retired.

"They are having a 50th anniversary reunion in Berlin in September and I am launching my exhibition to tie in with it." [Read more: McCann/BBC/26August2013]

Now, You Can Follow Government Intelligence Agencies Back. If surveillance from government intelligence agencies has you concerned, now you can at least follow them back - if only on Tumblr.

On Wednesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence started a Tumblr blog about the work of the nation's intelligence community, called IC On The Record.

Created in response to President Obama's move to both defend the country's intelligence-gathering practices and to create a "hub for further transparency," the site includes official statements, declassified documents, testimony, interviews and fact sheets. The office represents 17 different intelligence agencies, including the N.S.A., the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and military intelligence units.

So far, the site's most prominent release has been an 85-page ruling by the former chief judge of the FISA court, Judge John D. Bates, who "sharply rebuked the National Security Agency in 2001 for repeatedly misleading the court that oversees its surveillance on domestic soil," as reported in The New York Times.

But its appearance on a blogging platform that is more commonly used by 20-somethings to share GIFs and other snippets of pop culture (or for pornography) surprised many. [Read more: O'Leary/NYTimes/22August2013]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Surveillance: An American Success Story. It's fine for Democrats and Republicans to target potential voters based on what they buy, whether they attend a church or a synagogue, or whether they subscribe to hunting magazines or contribute to the Sierra Club. It seems to be fine for Gmail to read our email messages to target us with ads tailored to whether we are about to get married, vote for a certain candidate, or purchase a house.

But what's not fine, according to many in the media and politicians on the extreme left and extreme right, is for the government to store telephone numbers in case a warrant is needed at some point in the future to uncover the identity of a terrorist plotting to kill thousands of Americans.

Never mind that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the practice of obtaining telephone call records without a warrant. Never mind that a warrant must be obtained for the FBI to listen to a call. Never mind that no actual abuse has been found.

To be sure, errors - which the National Security Agency (NSA) has itself uncovered - occur, just as newspapers make errors that they correct daily. But no one has been able to cite a case of the government actually "spying on innocent Americans," a breathless term used freely by the media and critics to imply improper intent.

Instead, critics have pointed to the 'potential' for abuse. [Read more: Kessler/Politico/23August2013]

US Uses Foreign Companies for Cyber Defense. There may as well be an Israeli Flag flown over the Department of Homeland Security. The Department has just announced that it will integrate IBM software into its Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program a day after IBM's announcement that it has acquired the Israeli cyber defense powerhouse company, Trusteer.

The acquisition and the announcement by DHS may go under the radar, but sends a big message to the United States and the world about the quality of American made cyberdefense. That message is: US cyber security firms aren't cutting it.

This CDM program, which includes up to 6 billion in contracts to a wide range of companies, works to fight and defend against cyber threats in both the government and civilian sectors. The programs DHS will use from IBM will help transform the nation's security networks from an antiquated system to a system that focuses on combatting attacks in real-time. 

Trusteer, an Israel company, currently serves as the main cyber security provider to 7 of the top ten American banks and nine of the top ten UK firms. It specializes in defending against financial fraud and advanced security threats, two things that both Israel and the US experience all too often.

But how does a nation of 7.8 million people with the world's 49th largest GDP which experiences 100,000 cyber-attacks a day out produce a country of 313 million with the world's largest GDP where the National Nuclear Security Administration faces up to 10 million Cyber-attacks daily? [Read more: Scarpitta/WashingtonTimes/22August2013]

CIA Wrestles With Analytics Challenges. While there is a lot of controversy these days about the amount of data that the National Security Agency and other intelligence groups are collecting, analyzing all that data in ways that make it actionable is still a major challenge, regardless of how omnipotent an organization is perceived to be.

Speaking at the recent Security Innovation Network Summit in New York, Dawn Meyerriecks, deputy director for the directorate of science and technology at the Central Intelligence Agency, says that ingesting all of the data the agency requires remains a major challenge. And even once it is collected, analyzing it all in real-time is next to impossible.

"To watch all the video that currently moves across the Internet in one minute would take five years to watch," says Meyerriecks. "And we can't ingest all that data at scale."

As a result, the CIA is concentrating its research and development investments on analytics applications and systems that would enable the agency to more easily analyze data where it resides as opposed to trying to store it in one central data warehouse, Meyerriecks says. [Read more: Vizard/CIOInsight/23August2013]

Section IV - Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY more International Spy Museum Events in 2013 and some for 2014 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.

Wednesdays, 04 September - 25 September 2013, 10:15 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. - Washington, DC - James Bond: Fact Into Fiction (and Back) 4-Session Daytime Course, at the International Spy Museum.

No one has introduced more people to the secret realm of espionage than James Bond. The man we know as 007 has been the face of clandestine operations for more than half a century, giving readers and movie audiences glimpses of a hidden world few are able to imagine.
Bond and his onscreen exploits represent fiction informed by some truth - some of it drawn from author Ian Fleming's own experiences in covert operations as a WWII British naval intelligence officer. In books and onscreen, the ablest agent of British secret intelligence service MI6 faces threats - from Cold War cliffhangers in the Caribbean to mass-media manipulation in the 1990s - that seemed fantastic at the time, but occasionally foreshadowed future headlines.
In Bond's flamboyant adventures, he deploys techniques and technologies that genuine spies use - or perhaps will, should fact catch up with cinematic imagination. His onscreen gadgets are said to have inspired innovations in disguise and communications technologies by real intelligence agency technical services units.

In this series, experts and former intelligence officers explore the intersecting powers of James Bond in fiction and fact, presented in conjunction with the International Spy Museum's continuing exhibition Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains. They place Bond and his nemeses in historical context, exploring how the evildoers and their plots have changed to reflect their times. (The series price includes a ticket to tour Exquisitely Evil.)

Sept. 4 - Bond Begins: A Cold War Spy
When Ian Fleming created James Bond in 1953, he drew on his own espionage career with British naval intelligence during WW II. Explore the roots of Fleming and Bond with Alexis Albion, PhD, an intelligence historian who served as a guest co-curator of Exquisitely Evil and is a former 9/11 Commission staff member. Learn how the Bond of Fleming's novels evolved to become the superspy universally known for impeccable taste, wit, and physical prowess. Dr. Albion is joined by Burton Gerber, a former CIA Clandestine Service officer and station chief in critical Cold War hotspots, who uncovers the realities of operating behind the Iron Curtain.

Sept. 11 - Bond After the Fall
Bond's fictional world changed after the fall of Communism - just as the collapse of the Soviet Union brought the Western intelligence community a range of challenges, from the absence of a major adversary to slashed funding. Hear from the Museum's Executive Director Peter Earnest, a former CIA Clandestine Service officer, on the transition from the Cold War to the post-Soviet era, and how Bond's adventures mirror the real-world issues and villains of the late-20th century. Jack Platt, another former Clandestine Service officer, provides firsthand observations of the fall of the Soviet Union, the decline of the Russian economy and way of life, and the growth of syndicated crime and corruption in that country.

Sept. 18 - 21st-Century Bond
The museum's historian and Exquisitely Evil co-curator Mark Stout, PhD, a former CIA intelligence analyst, brings you up to speed on the latest Bond villains and their connections to reality. How does Skyfall's Raoul Silva reflect Julian Assange of Wikileaks? How has radicalism and terrorism altered both Bond plotlines and our approach to intelligence? Cindy Storer, a former CIA officer in the Counterterrorism Center, adds perspective on how the intelligence business has changed in response to terrorism.

Sept. 25 - Bond's Women: More Than Meets the Eye
The museum's Adult Programs Director Amanda Ohlke explores the role of women in Bond's universe, from beautiful-but-deadly villains like Elektra King to Judi Dench's steely take on spy boss M. Former CIA officer Melissa Mahle discusses what it was like to undertake an espionage career in the shadow of the femme fatale. Did the Bond girl mystique help or hinder her career? She shares how she took control of the stereotypes and turned them upside down.

Tickets: $120. Obtain yours now via phone: 202.633.3030; or online at www.SmithsonianAssociates.org. Internet Quick Tix code for the program: 1M2-675.
Includes admission to Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Bond films. See over 100 film artifacts from the archives of EON Productions, the Bond film producers.

Friday, 6 September 2013, 9 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. - Washington, DC - Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood: A New American Strategy, a One-Day Conference by Westminster Institute

Recent events in Egypt, Syria, Benghazi, Mali, and Nigeria demonstrate that U.S. policy in the Middle East and Africa is failing - neither is it making Americans safer nor is it helping to bring about regional peace and democracy. The U.S. government built its strategy on the belief that supporting "non-violent" Islamists, notably the Muslim Brotherhood, would weaken the violent Islamists - Al Qaeda and all affiliated movements. With the violence throughout the region signaling a clear failure of this strategy, the United States must radically reassess its strategic approach. This conference brings together leading experts on Islamist ideology, terrorism, and the Middle East, to lay out a new U.S. strategy which will increase domestic security at home, undermine al Qaeda, and stabilize the region.
SPEAKERS: Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo on "Religion's Role in the Battlefield Since 9/11"; Tawfik Hamid on " The Psychology and Ideology of Islamist Extremism"; J. Michael Waller PhD on " The Muslim Brotherhood and the Mobilizational Power of Ideology"; Stephen Ulph on "The Importance of Muslim Reformers"; Robert R. Reilly on "Information Operations: Successes and Failures"; Walid Phares on " A New U.S. Response to Upheaval in the Middle East"; Diana West on "Countering Subversion: Lessons from History"; Katharine C. Gorka on "The OIC's Political Warfare"; and Sebastian Gorka PhD on "A New American Strategy."
Location: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, Room HVC 201
To Register for this event please click here. For questions about the event, contact Katie Gorka, The Westminster Institute, kcg@westminster-institute.org or call 703-288-2885.

Saturday, 07 September 2013, 11:30 am - Williamsburg, VA - The Norman Forde Hampton Roads Chapter presents Larry Wortzel on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission

The AFIO Hampton Roads Chapter presents Dr. Larry Wortzel, who spent much of his thirty-two-year military career in the Asia-Pacific region, including two tours of duty as a military attaché in China. He will be discussing his new book The Dragon Extends its Reach, a clear and sobering picture of the PLA's modernization effort as it expands into space and cyberspace, and as it integrates operations in the traditional domains of war. The event will be held at the Center Street Grill, 5101 Center Street, Williamsburg, VA 23188. See PDF of this announcement with more information about speaker and location.
Please RSVP to Clayton Farrington at mclaytonfarrington@gmail.com

Tuesday, 10 September 2013, noon - Washington, DC - "Cyber War Will Not take Place," at the International Spy Museum with author Thomas Rid.

Is cyber war really coming? Scholar Thomas Rid of the Department of War Studies at Kings College London argues that the focus on war distracts from the real challenge of cyberspace: non-violent confrontation that may rival or even replace violence in surprising ways. In this provocative talk, the author will trace the most significant hacks and attacks and explore some key questions: What are cyber weapons? How have they changed the meaning of violence? How likely and how dangerous is crowd-sourced subversive activity? Why has there never been a lethal cyber-attack against a country's critical infrastructure? How serious is the threat of cyber-espionage? And who is most vulnerable in the cyber realm?
Join this British author for an informal chat and book signing. Tickets: Free! No registration required. For more information visit www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 11:30 - 1:30 - Scottsdale, AZ - AFIO Arizona Chapter features LTG Zahner on Future Instability & Threat Analysis - Solving a "Big Data" Problem

Guest Speaker: Lieutenant General (ret.) RICHARD P. ZAHNER speaks on Future Instability & Threat Analysis - Solving a "Big Data" Problem.
Synopsis: The Intelligence Community has just achieved an Initial Operating Capability for its next-generation analytic platform, one that leverages "CLOUD" technology to support the entire National Intelligence Program Information Technology needs.
While GOOGLE, AMAZON, APPLE and a host of other recently created US technology giants have shown the power of "CLOUD" in commerce:
Does CLOUD hold the same promise for the intelligence discipline? Does vastly greater volumes of data, derived from an extensive range of sources and delivered within seconds solve the problems of intelligence prediction that have bedeviled the IC and policy leadership? What does the impact of a post-WikiLeaks/Snowden environment have on creation and retention of "ig Data" across the IC? Is CLOUD central to the future of intelligence or momentary fad or distraction? The talk will NOT delve into the complexities of CLOUD computing, but will assess the impacts of this IT revolution on existing and emergent analytic frameworks and national strategy and decision-making.
L ocation: McCormick Ranch Golf Course, 7505 McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale AZ 85258 ~ Phone 480.948.0260
RSVP September 9, 2011 (no later please)
As always, for reservations or questions, please email Simone: simone@afioaz.org or simone@4smartphone.net. To call, please leave a message on 602.570.6016. If you are going to bring a guest, please send me their full names and with a note if they are paying or you, the member will be paying.

Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 6 p.m. - Las Vegas, NV - The AFIO Las Vegas Chapter hears Col James Harvey, USAF on "Silent Shield"

Our featured speaker for the evening will be: COL James P. Harvey, USAF
Topic: SILENT SHIELD: AFSOC's Direct Support Operators. As a result of a hostile fire incident during Operation JUST CAUSE, AFSOC and AIA established a program called SILENT SHIELD. This program uses a special group of airborne cryptologic linguists (called Direct Support Operators) to provide a direct threat warning "shield" around special operations aircraft. Over the decades, the SILENT SHIELD mission has grown into a joint, special operations capability featuring airborne cryptologic linguists and their language skills as a weapon and extending the shield around ground and maritime special operations forces. During operations ENDURING and IRAQI FREEDOM, these intelligence professionals even became a "go no-go" criteria for many critical special operations ground missions.
In November 1991, Knife 01 crashed in Afghanistan with one of these special operations intelligence professionals on board. The DSO's actions in the air and on the ground saved the lives of the crew and several Afghan civilians.
Presenter: Col J.P. Harvey is an AFSOC plank-holder, was an MH-60G pilot from 1987-1991, and commanded the 25th Intelligence Squadron (SILENT SHIELD) from 2006-2008.
Colonel James P. Harvey is the Air Force Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency's representative to the Commander, USAF Warfare Center, Nellis AFB, Nevada, and serves as the Center's Director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. The USAFWC is responsible for assuring combat air, space, and information operations forces are trained and equipped to conduct integrated combat operations. As the A2, Colonel Harvey integrates ISR across the Center's air, space and cyberspace advanced testing, tactics development and training efforts.
Colonel Harvey was commissioned in May 1986 and following Undergraduate Helicopter Training, he served as a pilot in the 55th Special Operations Squadron. Following this assignment, he instructed at the Air Force Academy as a Course Director and Assistant Professor. Colonel Harvey then attended the Intelligence Officers Course, completed as the Honor Graduate, and has held numerous joint, interagency and Air Force positions leading to his current post.
at Nellis Air Force Base Officers' Club
(Guest names must be submitted along with their birth date to me by 4:00 p.m., Monday, August 19, 2013
Please join us at 5 p.m. in the "Robin's Roost" bar area for liaison and beverages.

Place: The Officers' Club at Nellis Air Force Base. All guests must use the MAIN GATE, located at the intersection of Craig Road and Las Vegas Blvd. Address: 5871 Fitzgerald Blvd., Nellis AFB, NV 89191 Phone: 702-644-2582.

Nellis Air Force Base Access:
If you have provided your name, date of birth and either a drivers' license number or a social security number, your name will be at the guarded main gate at the entrance of Nellis Air Force Base. If not, please provide this information to me by Monday August 19, 2013, or you will not be admitted on base. If you currently have adequate base access, you do not need to provide this information.

RSVP to Mary Bentley (mary.bentley@doe.gov) or call her at 702-295-0417, if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you!

Wednesday, 11 September 2013, noon - Washington, DC - "Global Terrorism, Espionage and Cybersecurity" (a Monthly Update), at the International Spy Museum featuring David Major.

Presented in partnership with the CI Centre, these monthly briefings will provide you with the opportunity to be the first to learn of the most current worldwide happenings in the field of intelligence and terrorism. Drawn from the Centre's SPYPEDIA�, a comprehensive online subscription database of espionage information, each of these updates covers important events and information which may not be reported by mainstream media outlets. Such as: espionage penetrations and arrests, cyber espionage reporting, and terrorist events. Briefings led by CI Centre founder David Major will include trend analysis and coverage of new emerging issues of value to the intelligence and security professional and individuals with an interest in national security matters. Major will also highlight and review, as appropriate, new books and reports to keep you current with breaking developments in the national security arena.
Tickets: Free! No registration required. For more information visit www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 11 September 2013, 7 pm - 10 pm - Washington, DC - "Dinner with a Spy," An Evening with Malcolm Nance.

He's been undercover in terrorist hotspots, passed hostile border crossings in disguise, submitted to waterboarding, and now he's prepared to dine with you. Malcolm W. Nance is a counterterrorism and terrorism intelligence expert with wide-ranging field and combat experience. A frequent guest commentator on breaking news, he's the author of The Terrorist Recognition Handbook among other books. Drawing on his experience as a 20-year veteran of the US intelligence community's Combating Terrorist program, he's been a consultant for the US government on special operations, homeland security, and intelligence. As a master Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) instructor, he can handle any tricky situation including testifying before the US Congress. You will be one of only 20 guests at Poste for a three-course dinner where you'll talk with him about his extraordinary experiences and thoughts on today's intelligence issues.
Tickets: $225. Please call 202.654.0932 or email lhicken@spymuseum.org to register and provide any special dietary needs.
Ticket includes hors d'oeuvres and three-course dinner with wines. Registration required, space is limited! For more information visit www.spymuseum.org.
Location: Poste, 555 8th St NE, Washington, DC 20002

Monday, 16 September 2013, 5:30 - 8 pm - New York, NY - "Putin's Russia" featuring KGB Maj Gen Oleg D. Kalugin, addressing AFIO NY Metro Chapter

Gen. Kalugin was one of the youngest generals in the history of the KGB, and his intelligence career spanned the better part of the Cold War. As deputy resident at the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC, he oversaw Moscow's spy network in the United States, and as head of KGB foreign counter-intelligence, he directed several Soviet covert actions against the West. In his memoirs, Spymaster, KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin (Ret.) provided an unparalleled look at the inner workings of Moscow's famed spy agency. Join Kalugin to hear firsthand of his assessment of how Russia and its intelligence organs have fared under Russian president Vladimir Putin, including the death of Russian intelligence defector Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, up to the present quandary dealing with the Edward Snowden leaker affair.
Location:  Society of Illustrators Building  128 East 63rd Street (between Park Ave and Lexington Avenue). 
Times:  Registration starts at 5:30 PM with 6 PM meeting start. 
Fee: $50/pp - advanced registration required at afiometro@gmail.com or call 646-717-3776.

17 September 2013, 11:30am - 2 pm - McLean, VA - DIAA Forum hears MajGen Michael Ennis speaks on "Intelligence Contributions to DIA and the IC by the USMLM to the Group of Soviet Forces, Germany"

MajGen Michael E. Ennis, USMC (ret) will speak on "Intelligence Contributions to DIA and the Intelligence Community by the U.S. Military Liaison Mission to the Group of Soviet Forces Germany."
The Military Liaison Missions arose from reciprocal agreements formed between the Western allied nations (the US, the UK and France) and the USSR shortly after the end of the Second World War. These agreements established liaison offices in each other's sectors in Germany staffed with military personnel. While the initial purpose of the Missions was to address post-war logistical issues between the four occupying powers, the presence of allied liaison missions inside the Soviet sector (East Germany) provided a rare opportunity to monitor Soviet military activity behind the Iron Curtain. The intelligence collected by the members of these small but unique organizations was a major contribution to DIA's understanding of Soviet military capabilities throughout the Cold War (1946-1990).
MajGen Ennis was one of the few Marine officers selected for the Army's Russian Foreign Area Officer program where he became a Russian linguist and a specialist on the Soviet Union. This led to an assignment as a translator on the Washington-Moscow Hotline (MOLINK) and then to Potsdam, East Germany where he spent nearly four years conducting clandestine reconnaissance and intelligence operations in communist East Germany in the 1980s as part of the US Military Liaison Mission. General Ennis later served as the Assistant Naval Attache in Moscow, the Director of Human Intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Community Human Intelligence.
He is a native of Minnesota and a graduate of Concordia College with BA degrees in French and International Relations. He also holds an MA degree in Government and National Security Studies from Georgetown University.
This forum will follow a modified Chatham House rule. You may use the information, but with the exception of speaker's name and subject, you may make no attribution. Everything will be off 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. Pay at the door with a check for $29.00 per person, payable to DIAA, Inc. Checks are preferred, but will accept cash; however credit card payments are discouraged
Make reservations by 16 September 2013 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 lunch selection.

Thursday, 19 September 2013, 11:30 am - Colorado Springs, CO - The Rocky Mountain Chapter presents Mark Pfoff, Detective El Paso County Sheriff's Office

The Rocky Mountain Chapter presents Mark Pfoff, Detective, El Paso County Sheriff's Office will talk on a case he has been working since 2006 regarding an Online Predator that is finally coming to a close. This event will take place on 19 Sep 2013 at 11:30am. To be held at The Inn at Palmer Divide, 443 S. Highway 105 Palmer Lake, CO, Exit 161 westbound off I-25, West on Highway 105. Please RSVP to Tom VanWormer at robsmom@pcisys.net

Saturday, 21 September 2013 - Kennebunk, ME - The AFIO Maine Chapter hears Robert Wallace on "Who's Really Spying On You?"

The chapter opens its fall programs with Robert W. Wallace addressing "WHO IS REALLY SPYING ON YOU?" Is individual freedom being undermined by a government constituted to preserve liberty? The speaker describes the post WWII development of surveillance tools and communications technology and the implications of the 'big data' phenomena for intelligence capabilities, national policy, and individual behavior.
Bob Wallace�s 32-year career with CIA (1971-2003) included assignments as operations officer, station chief, resource manager, and director of clandestine technical programs. Between 1991 and 2003 he held senior positions including Director of CIA�s Office of Technical Services (OTS). After his retirement in 2004 he founded ArtemusConsulting Group, a network of intelligence professionals which offers management counsel and strategic planning.
He is author of SPYCRAFT: the Secret History of the CIA�s Spytechs from Communism to al-Qaeda, contributor to Vaults, Mirrors & Masks: Rediscovering U.S. Counterintelligence and co-author of The Official CIA Manual of Deception and Trickery. His presentations include such diverse groups as The Smithsonian, National Archives, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the International Spy Museum and, of course, AFIO/ME.
Because of the increasing interest in and attendance at our meetings, beginning September 21 our meetings will be held at the Kennebunk High School main auditorium located at 89 Fletcher Street (Route 35), Kennebunk. The building is 1 � miles north from US Route 1 (Junction of Rte 35 & 1) and � mile south from Maine Turnpike Exit 25. The auditorium is at the south end of the building through the door marked #3. Park along Fletcher St in front of the building or behind the south side of the building. The meeting is open to the public. For information call 207-967-4298.

Thursday, 26 September 2013, 6:30 pm - Washington, DC - "Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden's Final Plot Against America," at the International Spy Museum

Six months after the 9/11 attacks, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly initiated a straightforward, yet audacious, antiterrorist plan to be implemented in the Big Apple, dispatching a vast network of undercover officers and informants to track suspected terrorists. In Enemies Within, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman for Associated Press reveal the effectiveness of the domestic spying plan. Based on hundreds of previously unpublished New York Police Department internal memos and exclusive interviews with intelligence sources, including 25-year FBI veteran Don Borelli who assisted with the book, they found that many of those strategies aren't even close to being useful, functional, or successful. As Assistant Special Agent in Charge in the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Borelli was responsible for top investigations and counterterrorism missions that spanned the globe. Join Apuzzo and Borelli for an unbridled look at the breathtaking race to avert a second devastating terrorist attack on American soil.
Join the co-author and contributor for an informal chat and book signing.
Tickets: Free! No registration required. For more information visit www.spymuseum.org.

Tuesday, 01 October 2013, 6 pm - Washington, DC - "Witness to History: The Investigation of Robert Hanssen," at the International Spy Museum

International Spy Museum events In 1979, FBI special agent Robert Hanssen volunteered to spy for Soviet Military Intelligence (GRU). To enrich his lifestyle and that of his family, the counterintelligence expert shared US intelligence community secrets, the identities of dozens of secret intelligence agents working for the US around the world, caused deaths of Russians aiding the US, and leaked the existence of an FBI eavesdropping tunnel under the Russian Embassy in DC. Hanssen remained anonymous to his Soviet handlers and to the US government for over 20 years. Building the case against Hanssen was a joint effort between the FBI, CIA, Department of State, and the Justice Department. Hanssen's arrest and conviction led to a full security review of the FBI. Panelists for this inside look at the case include: Mike Rochford, (ret.) FBI Section Chief, Russian Overseas Espionage and David Wise, Author of Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America. 
Light hors d'oeuvres at 6:00PM. Panel begins at 6:45pm. Free! Registration required, space is limited! For more information visit www.spymuseum.org.

10 - 11 October 2013 - Charleston, SC - The Citadel - The Military College of South Carolina presents the Southeast Region Security & Intelligence Conference with the theme: "Securing Our Intelligence & Protecting Our Ports" 

Keeping with the tradition of The Citadel's historic role in defending the country, the Criminal Justice Department and the School of Humanities is pleased to announce the next chapter in Homeland Security. The Citadel will hold its first conference dedicated to Homeland Security and Intelligence. The conference will feature professionals and academics from various disciplines and agencies related to homeland security and intelligence. Keynote speakers include: Letitia Long, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; Robert Cardillo, Deputy Director for Intelligence Integration, Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Stu Shea, Chief Operating Officer, SAIC, and many other senior officials and experts. http://www.citadel.edu/root/criminaljustice-sersi-conference
Conference Registration: https://foundation.citadel.edu/sersi

16 October 2013 - Laurel, Maryland - "Safeguarding Intelligence" - Theme of the National Cryptological Museum Foundation's Annual Membership Meeting

Details on the speakers, agenda and other events will be provided as soon as they become available.

The Meeting will be held at the Kossiakoff Center, JHU/APL, 11100 John Hopkins Rd, Laurel, MD 20723, 240-228-7574

The fee for NCMF members is $20 and for non members $50 which includes one year membership in the NCMF.  The fee includes breakfast, lunch and refreshments at the morning break.  There will also be A.M and P.M. shuttle service to and from the parking lot.

You can register securely online here on the donation page, or you can download and complete the Registration form and mail to the NCMF at PO Box 1682, Ft. George G. Meade, MD 20755.  Call 301-688-5436 for assistance or send an email to cryptmf@aol.com

17-18 October 2013 - Laurel, MD - "Technological Change and Cryptology: Meeting the Historical Challenges" is theme at the Biennial Cryptologic History Symposium

The Two Day Cryptographic History Event of the Year - "Technological Change and Cryptology: Meeting the Historical Challenges" - NSA's 2013 Cryptologic History Symposium, 17-18 October 2013 Laurel, Maryland

The Center for Cryptologic History hosts a biennial international symposium in October during odd-numbered years. The speakers and audience are a mix of outside scholars, current practitioners, retired veterans, and interested members of the public. Past symposia have had presenters from over a dozen countries.
The theme for the 2013 symposium, to be held on October 17-18 at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory's Kossiakoff Conference Center (just west of Laurel, Maryland) is "Technological Change and Cryptology: Meeting the Historical Challenges." The conference will include sessions on "A Tribute to Alan Turing," a "Roundtable on Cyber History," "Bletchley Park," "COMINT and the Civil War," "The Cryptologic Legacy of the Great War Era," "SIGINT and the Vietnam War Era," and "A Technological Advantage: Historical Perspectives on Cryptologic Research and Development."
In all there will be 21 separate sessions and over 70 presentations. Speakers will include scholars such as David Kahn and cryptologic pioneers such as Whitfield Diffie.
All symposium sessions are unclassified and open to the registered public. A complete agenda and registration information will be available here at the website or by contacting the Center for Cryptologic History at 301-688-2336 or via email at history@nsa.gov.

Note also that the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation has an excellent program the day before - 16 October - at the same venue described above.

Thursday, 17 October 2013, 6:30 pm - Washington, DC - "Hezbollah's Reach Around the World" at the International Spy Museum

"We will not take rejection or humiliation." - Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah

Hezbollah - Lebanon's "Party of God" - is much more than a political party. It's an Islamic Shia religious and social movement, Lebanon's largest militia, a close ally of Iran, and a terrorist organization. But Hezbollah's reach is not limited to Lebanon; it extends far beyond that country's borders with worldwide financial and logistical networks supporting its covert criminal and terrorist operations worldwide from the Middle East to Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. And what is the extent of Hezbollah's role in Iran's shadow war with Israel and the West, including plots targeting civilians around the world? Explore Hezbollah's footprint and future goals with expert commentators: Matthew Levitt, Senior Fellow and Director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, author of Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God, and a former FBI counterterrorism analyst as well as former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the US Department of the Treasury; and Reuel Marc Gerecht, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, author of The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East, and a former Middle East specialist in the CIA's Clandestine Service.
In collaboration with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy.
Tickets: $15. To register or for more information visit www.spymuseum.org

2 November 2013 - Indialantic, FL - AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter Hears from FBI Sr Resident Agent Russell Hayes

The AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter will host Russell Hayes, Supervisory Senior Resident Agent, Brevard Resident Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, a sub-office of the FBI Tampa Division. Mr. Hayes also heads the Brevard (County) Joint Terrorism Task Force and will address a variety of topical issues. The meeting will take place at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club, Indialantic, FL, and the Meet and Greet will begin at 1130. For information and reservations, please contact Bobbie Keith, 321.777.5561 or bobbie6769@juno.com.

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

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