Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

U.S. Lawmaker Investigates Whether Russia Behind Snowden's Leaks. The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday he is investigating whether former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had help from Russia in stealing and revealing U.S. government secrets.

"I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands - the loving arms - of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence," U.S. Representative Mike Rogers told the NBC program Meet the Press, referring to the Russian intelligence agency that is a successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

Snowden last year fled the United States to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he was granted at least a year of asylum. U.S. officials want Snowden returned to the United States for prosecution. His disclosures of large numbers of stolen U.S. secret documents sparked a debate around the world about the reach of U.S. electronic surveillance.

Rogers did not provide specific evidence to back his suggestions of Russian involvement in Snowden's activities, but said: "Some of the things we're finding we would call clues that certainly would indicate to me that he had some help." [Read more: Reuters/19January2014]

Ex-CIA No. 2 Says NSA Surveillance System Could Have Thwarted 9/11 Attacks. Former Deputy Director of the CIA, Mike Morell, has reportedly argued that the gruesome 9/11 attacks could have been prevented had the current NSA surveillance system been in place that time.

The Ex-CIA No. 2 pointed two elements of the NSA's mass surveillance programmes, namely the agency's ability to query the database and its sharing of the information with the FBI.

According to CNET, Morell acknowledged that there were privacy abuses connected with the NSA program, but insisted that such cases were very few when the employees looked into the data inappropriately and those guilty were fired too. [Read more: ANI/20January2014]

Vast Majority of Military Pension Cuts Remain in Omnibus Spending Bill. The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill introduced Monday evening leaves the vast majority of pension cuts to military retirees intact, only exempting disabled veterans from the controversial provision included in last month's budget deal.

The spending bill amends a section of the bipartisan budget agreement that hit the military with reduced retirement pay, while also leaving generous benefits for civilian federal retirees untouched.

The new spending bill, negotiated by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) and Chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.), would only restore retirement benefits for 17.5 percent of military retirees.

Title X of the bill exempts veterans who receive Chapter 61 retirement. Chapter 61 applies to combat veterans who are disabled as a result of their service. The spouses of deceased veterans will also be exempt, according to section 10001 of the legislation.

However, the bill keeps in place the one percent decrease in the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for all other military retirees. [Read more: Harrington/WashingtonFreeBeacon/14January2014]

Congress to Intelligence Community: Show Me The Money. A bipartisan group of members of congress is asking the White House to declassify the so-called black budget, the budget that funds intelligence operations and make public the amount of money spent on by each agency involved.

There are 16 agencies that are involved in intelligence for the U.S., and the budget for doing so cannot be found anywhere in the 1,500-page appropriations bill that congress will vote on this week. Rather, their budgets are considered classified, kept secret from Americans and even from most members of congress.

But several lawmakers want to change that. [Read more: Levinson/DailyCaller/14January2014]

Turkish Intelligence Service Trucks Reveal Secrets. Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which has bloomed as a parallel Foreign Ministry under Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule after years of keeping a low public profile, was again caught transporting weapons to Syrian opposition forces. After saving a suspicious truck from the prosecutors and gendarmerie on Jan. 1, when the government called it "a state secret," MIT this time hit the headlines with seven semis reported to be laden with weapons. Security forces were able to search some of the trucks in an operation on Jan. 19 that was launched after a tip was received and the government was slow in intervening. Nevertheless, the local governor did not allow a detailed search on "state secret" grounds and the trucks were released.

According to information Al-Monitor obtained from security sources, on Jan. 19 at 7:15 a.m., the prosecutor of Adana Anti-Terror Court instructed the Adana Provincial Gendarmerie Command to stop and search three semis.

Around noon, a security detail of 200 personnel stopped the semis with plates 06 DY 0393, 06 EY 2115 and 06 FC 9193 and an Audi A3 car accompanying them at Adana Sirkeli Motorway entry point. Eight drivers and other personnel in the trucks were detained. It was also discovered that there were two MIT officials in the Audi escort vehicle.

After explosives-detecting dogs gave appropriate signals, the prosecutor allowed steel containers in the trucks to be opened. In six metal crates, concealed among medical supplies, were mortar shells, rockets and various other ammunition. While the trucks were being moved to nearby Seyhan Town Gendarmerie Command for a detailed search, the trucks were blocked by MIT personnel from their Adana regional office. [Read more: Taştekin/AlMonitor/20January2014]

Wife of Intelligence Officer Sentenced to Prison in China: MIB. The Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) yesterday confirmed that the wife a Taiwanese intelligence officer has been sentenced to a five-year prison term on espionage charges in China.

The MIB's comment confirmed a local media report yesterday that said MIB Lieutenant Colonel Yu Chan-hao's (余展豪) wife Lin Ling-hui (林綾繪) has been arrested and detained since August 2012 when she made a trip to the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

She has been sentenced to a five years of imprisonment for her involvement in espionage activities in China, according to a report made by the Chinese-language online news provider Storm Media (風傳媒) yesterday.

The report quoted sources as saying that Lin's family complained that Lin's China tour was made to conduct a secret MIB mission. The bureau, however, did not offer any help to rescue her following her arrest, her family said.

Asked to comment, the MIB yesterday confirmed Lin's arrest. However, it refuted the allegation that the woman was sent by the MIB on a mission. [Read more: Yeh/ChinaPost/17January2014]

GAO to Issue Report on Intelligence Contractors. The Government Accountability Office will issue a long-awaited report on intelligence community contractors in the next few weeks, a congressional official said.

The GAO report is an unclassified version of a classified assessment that was completed last year. According to a statement of work obtained by Secrecy News in 2012, the GAO project was to address the following issues:

"(1) To what extent do civilian intelligence agencies rely on and strategically review their reliance on contractors to perform critical professional and management support services? (2) To what extent do these agencies have policies and guidance that address the use of contractors for these services? (3) What steps have these agencies taken to manage the risks associated with using contractors for these services? (4) To what extent have these agencies addressed challenges with retaining federal personnel?"

The new contractor study is not the only GAO activity related to intelligence; it is one of "several, maybe half a dozen" GAO projects that are underway. [Read more: Aftergood/SecrecyNews/21January2014]

Rwandans Detained Over Killing of Country's Exiled Spy Chief. Four Rwandans, including a senior military official, are being held in Mozambique in connection with the killing of a former Rwandan spy chief in Johannesburg and await extradition to South Africa, according to Mozambique police.

The Rwandans were detained a week ago, Mozambique police spokesman Joao Machava said on Wednesday.

The body of Patrick Karegeya, the exiled former head of Rwandan intelligence, was found in a plush Johannesburg hotel on 1 January. Machava gave no details as to where the four suspects had been detained but it is believed that the Mozambican police were acting on a tipoff from their South African counterparts.

One of the suspects is Francis Gakwerere, a senior official in the Rwandan armed forces, Machava said. Gakwerere's name was on a list of seven people claimed in a blog run by Rwandan dissidents to belong to a hit squad sent to South Africa to eliminate Karegeya. [Read more: AP/15January2013]

Canada's Border Agency Enlisting Informants, Prompts Internal Review. Canada's border agency is enlisting confidential informants, prompting internal concerns about privacy and the risk to sensitive institutions such as churches, schools and Parliament, newly disclosed documents show.

The Canada Border Services Agency uses confidential human sources willing to provide valuable details about the suspicious movement of people or goods, say briefing notes prepared by the agency for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney.

Following a positive initial evaluation, an informant receives an assurance of confidentiality from a certified Confidential Human Source officer and is registered within the border agency as a "CHS program participant," say the notes, obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

An intelligence expert and an opposition MP said Wednesday the program is problematic because the border agency doesn't have a dedicated watchdog like the ones that oversee the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. [Read more: Bronskill/CanadianPress/15January2014]

Congress Moves to Keep Drone Warfare in Hands of CIA Instead of Pentagon. Members of Congress have decided that the Obama administration should not go through with its plan to shift drone operations from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the Department of Defense (DOD). To make their position clear, lawmakers included language in a classified annex of the new federal budget that restricts funding for the transition and places other limits as well.

The administration wanted the Pentagon to take over drone missions so that the CIA could refocus on intelligence gathering. President Barack Obama also felt that the change would lend more transparency to such missions by pulling them from the highly secretive intelligence agency.

But lawmakers objected to the switch, fearing the Defense Department would have trouble duplicating the CIA success in killing terrorists while minimizing civilian casualties, according to The Washington Post.

The Pentagon has been conducting its own drone strikes, sometimes resulting in high-profile failures. [Read more: Brinkerhoff/AllGov/21January2014]

Croatia Supreme Court OKs Ex-Spy Chief's Extradition to Germany. Croatia's Supreme Court has ruled that a communist-era intelligence chief can be extradited to Germany, where he is wanted over the killing of a Yugoslav dissident in the 1980s, the court said on Tuesday.

Josip Perkovic was arrested on New Year's Day as the Balkan state acted to resolve an extradition dispute that had overshadowed its accession to the European Union last July. A Zagreb court ruled on January 8 he should be extradited to Germany.

"The Supreme Court has dismissed as unfounded the appeal by Josip Perkovic against his extradition," it said on its website.

Perkovic can still appeal to the Constitutional Court and demand that his extradition be delayed. [Read more: Reuters/21January2014]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

The Americans Creator Is A Real-Life Former CIA Spy. In 1990, as part of the security clearance process that would allow him to become a member of the Central Intelligence Agency, Joe Weisberg took a polygraph exam.

"They asked, 'Are you joining the CIA in order to gain expertise on espionage so that you can write about it later?' " he recalls.

"I paused for a second, as that had never occurred to me. It really hadn't. I wanted to be a spy, but I was a writer, so when he said that, one little part of me was like, 'That's not a bad idea.' "

Twenty years later, Weisberg, 48, is putting his four years of CIA experience to use as the creator and showrunner of FX's Cold War espionage series The Americans. [Read more: Rubin/Men'sJournal/18January2014]

11,000 Declassified Cables from Berlin Wall Tell Dramatic Tales of Escape. The 1 a.m., eyes-only cable shot into the heat and tension that enveloped the Berlin Wall in August 1962.

Three West Berlin groups had finished tunneling from a lumberyard next to a railroad freight station in the U.S. sector, under the wall and into communist East Berlin. They hoped to bring out up to 90 people. About 6 feet of digging remained to break through the ground next to a large parking lot.

CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr and a German cameraman had taken three rolls of film inside the tunnel after agreeing to pay the groups 5,000 deutsch marks for the television rights. The money would help fund the escape. Mr. Schorr planned to film the main event for a television documentary to air later that month.

But word of the undertaking had spread to State Department officials in Berlin and touched off a series of alarmed cables trying to head off an escape they believed to be doomed.

"Urgent consideration should be given to steps to alert East Germans involved to high probability that secrecy broken and they [are] walking into trap," Secretary of State Dean Rusk wrote in the early hours of Aug. 7, 1962. [Read more: Fenno/WashingtonTimes/19January2014]

Encrypted Blackphone Goes to War with Snoopers. It's a fully encrypted smartphone that aims to foil snooping governments, industry rivals and hackers.

It's also a sleek, attractive device that fits in your pocket and can impress friends and colleagues, according to its makers.

The Blackphone is set to be released next month by the secure communications firm Silent Circle and the small Spanish-based manufacturer Geeksphone, amid a fever pitch of concern over revelations about vast US surveillance of data and telephony.

But Silent Circle chief executive Mike Janke said his company was working on the handset even before last year's revelations about the wide-ranging US National Security Agency programs, leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden.

"We did this because there was a problem that was not being solved: secure communications," Janke told AFP in an interview in the Silent Circle offices overlooking the Potomac River just outside Washington. [Read more: Lever/AFP/19January2014]

Unearthed: The Only Existing Audio of 'Posh' Cambridge Spy Guy Burgess. Guy Burgess was, at various times and often simultaneously, a radio producer for the BBC, an informer for MI5, a propagandist for MI6, a diplomat for the FBI and a spy for the KGB. In the book which I wrote with City University colleague Jeff Hulbert last year, When Reporters Cross the Line, we said that Guy Burgess set something of a gold standard for conflicts of interest.

During the research for our Burgess chapter we found all sorts of facts about the man and his extraordinary life. We knew what he looked like from stills and one piece of silent newsreel. We knew how tall he was, what he weighed, the various ailments he collected because of his prodigious drinking and who he slept with. We even found out that he smelt like a combination of the previous night's alcohol and that morning's chewed garlic cloves.

But nowhere could we find exactly what he sounded like. The BBC sound archive produced no trace of a recording of their former employee. We had a hunch that somewhere in the many radio programmes Burgess had produced he probably had appeared on the air at some point, but maybe nobody wrote it down.

All we could find was a reference in, of all places the FBI files in Washington, to Burgess having made a sound recording in 1951, just before he defected to Russia, in which he told his favourite anecdote. He had talked about the day back in September 1938 when he met Winston Churchill and they shared their mutual despair at the Munich agreement which Chamberlain had just signed with Hitler. The files had a transcript of what Burgess had said about this meeting into a friend's tape-recorder in New York the day before he got on the boat back to Britain and then on to Russia. [Read more: Purvis/TheConversation/17January2014]

'Black Widows' Tied to Decade of Terror in Russia. The search for three women suspected of planning terrorist attacks at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics has raised one of Russia's most feared specters - the female suicide bombers known as "black widows." For more than a decade, women have committed many of Russia's worst terror attacks, downing airliners, blowing up subway cars and killing people going to a rock concert.

The term "black widow" refers to the belief that these women took the desperate step of becoming suicide bombers in order to avenge husbands or male relatives killed in Russia's long fight against Islamic militants in the Caucasus region. Russian police leaflets circulating in the Olympic host city of Sochi say that one of the women suspected of planning an attack at the Winter Olympics is the widow of a militant. But there have been cases where the bombers' husbands were alive at the time of their attacks, and one failed bomber said it was shame and a lack of money that drove her to terrorism.

One of the earliest attacks to draw attention to female terrorists was the 2002 mass hostage-taking at a Moscow theater by Chechen militants - 19 of the 41 attackers were women. The crisis ended with Russian forces pumping narcotic gas into the theater, killing all the attackers and at least 118 of the approximately 850 hostages. Police footage after the raid showed some of the women dead in theater seats with explosives attached to their bodies.

In 2003, two women blew themselves up at the entrance gate to a Moscow outdoor rock concert, killing 14 people. [Read more: Heintz/AP/21January2014]

Ex-CIA Officer Welcomes Obama Speech. President Barack Obama's speech Friday morning about how to change the way the National Security Agency collects data brought a smile to at least one old spook I know who I would not exactly call a flaming liberal.

"It was a good speech," said Gene Poteat, a retired senior CIA scientific intelligence officer and now president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). "I didn't expect it to be as good as it was."

The speech, said Poteat, "was great" because it "did several things that were critical. He cited that from the Civil War to the present, intelligence has been critical to our national security. Then he completely defended the intelligence community, including the NSA, and he especially gave praise for dedicated people who work in the intelligence community. It was long overdue."

I met Poteat last year at a monthly AFIO lunch at MacDill Air Force Base. To say that he is a genius is a bit of an understatement, as his bio attests. [Read more: Altman/TampaTribune/20January2014]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Bob Gates Doesn't Know Much About History. Readers of Foreign Policy might be dimly aware that former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates published a memoir this week. Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War offers lots of grimy details about Gates' time serving both George W. Bush's and Barack Obama's administrations (there's also some good stuff in there about a few foreign leaders). In both the excerpts and Gate's publicity interviews this past week, he has expressed his central thesis loud and clear: The crafting of American foreign policy has changed, and not for the better. When Gates first came to Washington, politics was kept segmented from policy. During his term as secretary of defense, however, Gates found himself increasingly disgusted with the ways that partisan politics and blinkered strategic thinking affected policymaking.

As many observers have pointed out, it's a bit rich for Gates to decry the role that politics plays in policymaking in a tell-all memoir published before his last boss has left office. It seems likely that the principal debate inside the Beltway will be about the ethics of Gates writing his tell-all so soon after leaving office. This would be a shame, however, because it would elide the bigger flaw in Gate's worldview: his appalling understanding of the history of American foreign policy. 

The kerfuffle over Gate's memoir started as I was knee-deep into Lynne Olson's Those Angry Days, an absorbing chronicle of the fierce debates between isolationists and internationalists between the start of World War II and the Pearl Harbor attack. Through the fog of history, that period is now seen as a hotly contested battle between the forces of reason, who correctly perceived the rising threat of fascism, and the forces of ignorance, who saw no reason to get involved in overseas wars.

As Olson illuminates, the truth is far seamier. [Read more: Drezner/ForeignPolicy/16January2014]

Senate Intelligence Report Takes GOP Tirades About Benghazi Head-On. The Senate intelligence committee made headlines this week by reporting that the 2012 attack in Benghazi was preventable. But frankly, we knew that. The deeper message of the bipartisan report was that Republicans in Congress wasted a year arguing about what turned out to be mostly phony issues.

The Republican Party's Benghazi obsession was the weird backdrop for foreign-policy debate through much of last year. Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) used it as a pretext for blocking administration nominations. Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) used the issue to impugn the integrity and independence of a review conducted by retired Adm. Mike Mullen and former ambassador Thomas Pickering. 

Driving the Republican jihad was a claim, first reported in October 2012 by Fox News, that CIA personnel had wanted to respond more quickly to the Benghazi attack but were ordered to "stand down," perhaps by political higher-ups. Although this claim was promptly rebutted by CIA officials, it was repeated by Fox News at least 85 times, according to a review by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. This barrage fueled Republican charges that the Democrats were engaging in a coverup.

The Senate intelligence report addressed this inflammatory charge head-on. [Read more: Ignatius/WashingtonPost/17January2014]

The Hidden Face of Russian Security. In early January, FBI director James Comey said the US has benefited from improved ties with Russia's security services as Russia prepares to host next month's Winter Olympics. According to Comey, there is now regular contact between the FBI and the FSB, Russia's counterintelligence agency, and coordination has been growing since last year's Boston Marathon bombing. Yet with the US about to send more than two hundred athletes to Sochi, concerns about terrorism continue to mount. The appearance this past weekend of a video on the website of a militant Islamic group called Ansar Al Sunna has caused particular alarm. In the fifty-minute video, two Russian-speaking men claimed responsibility for the two December suicide bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd, and warned that Sochi was their next target.

The US State Department, which has issued a travel warning for Americans planning to attend the games, had no comment on the new video, but lawmakers in Washington have reacted strongly. Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CNN Sunday that he would not go to Sochi and would not send his family there. More significantly, Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers now say that the FSB, Russia's main security agency, has not been cooperating with the US. "They're not giving us the full story - what are the threat streams, who do we need to worry about," Rogers said on CNN. "Are those groups...still plotting?"

In fact, careful scrutiny of both the recent Volgograd attacks and the Boston bombings provides further evidence of what some security experts have long observed: the Russian government's dismal record in fighting terrorism makes it far from a reliable partner. [Read more: Knight/NYRBlog/21January2014]

Section IV - Jobs, Obituaries and Coming Events

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

Part-Time Membership Coordinator Sought for National Cryptologic Museum Foundation

The NCMF has an opening for a membership coordinator to work Thursdays and Fridays from 0930-1600. This is a paid position and proficiency in Windows 8, Excel, and Microsoft Word is required. The office is located in the museum, a unique attraction that is visited by tourists, students, and researchers from around the world and you will find working here a rewarding experience. It is a busy job, both educational and fun, and there are frequent opportunities for you to meet the public and interact with the museum staff, receptionists and docents. Knowledge of and interest in the Intelligence Community is a plus. The position's main duties focus around the Foundation's membership activities. It requires accurate data entry of membership dues and information, learning the membership renewal process and the preparation of membership cards and donation letters. Morning trips to the Ft. Meade Post Office for mail are also required. Preparation of a weekly bank deposit and communication with the NCMF Webmaster and the New Museum Project satellite office are additional job duties. The Foundation sponsors Quarterly Programs and participates in the Eagle Alliance Golf Benefit in June and the bi-annual NSA Center for Cryptologic History Symposium in October. We also sponsor receptions for the Hall of Honor Ceremony and Museum Exhibit Openings and arrange for promotional displays at reunions, seminars and conferences. These are all interesting, informative and fun events that require your participation. In addition, the staff works together to cover vacations, illness, or family emergencies, and you may occasionally be asked to change your days to accommodate the office schedule. We encourage you to make an appointment to stop by and discuss the position. Please contact Mary Faletto, NCMF Administrator, at 301-688-5436 or by email at cryptmf@aol.com.

Obituaries

The Whistle-Blower Who Freed Dreyfus. Georges Picquart died 100 years ago this Saturday. To which the response from most quarters is likely to be "Georges who?" Even in his native France, his centenary is passing largely unremarked. Yet in the days of Queen Victoria and Theodore Roosevelt, Picquart was a figure of global controversy, revered and reviled in equal measure as the world's most famous whistle-blower.

Unlike his 21st-century counterparts Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, Picquart was neither a disaffected nor a junior figure in the organization he was to expose. On the contrary: In October 1894 he was a brilliant, rising army officer. One of his steppingstones to advancement had been a professorship at the �cole Sup�rieure de Guerre, and one of the officer-cadets he had taught there was a Jewish artillery captain, Alfred Dreyfus.

Picquart, like many of his contemporaries, was casually anti-Semitic. It came as no surprise to him when Dreyfus - the only Jew on the general staff - was suspected of passing secret intelligence to the Germans. It was Picquart who provided a sample of Dreyfus's handwriting to the investigators. And when expert analysis seemed to confirm Dreyfus's guilt, it was Picquart who met his unsuspecting former pupil in the Ministry of War so he could be quietly bundled off to prison.

In December, Picquart attended Dreyfus's court-martial as an official observer. For reasons of national security it was held behind closed doors. When told that a file of intelligence evidence existed, conclusively proving Dreyfus's guilt, Picquart supported the decision to show it in secret to the judges.

The file clinched the conviction. [Read more: Harris/NYTimes/17January2014]

Lt-Cdr Steven Mackenzie - The Spy Who Smuggled de Gaulle's Intelligence Chief Out of Occupied France in a Breton Trawler. Lieutenant-Commander Steven Mackenzie, who has died aged 95, played a notable part in the covert operations of the Inshore Patrol Flotilla for the Secret Intelligence Service and SOE; he subsequently served with MI6 in Europe, the Far East and Latin America.

In March 1942, at Falmouth, Mackenzie took command of Le Dinan, usually known by its registration number, N51, a 65ft Concarneau fishing trawler, with Lewis guns mounted amidships and a crew of eight. The mission (code-named "Marie Louise") was to extricate Colonel R�my and bring him and his wife and children back to England under the noses of the Gestapo who were hunting them.

R�my was the field name of Col Gilbert Renault, head of the Confr�rie de Notre Dame, which was to become one of the most important of all the Free French intelligence networks in enemy-occupied France.

At a secluded anchorage at New Grimsby in the Scilly Isles, the hull, bulwarks, deckhouse and masts of N51 forsook their naval grey and were repainted in shades of green and brown. A registration number, a Breton name and French flags on either bow were added. Stun guns, pistols and grenades were put aboard, and revolver and small arms practice shoots were held on the shore.

After several failed attempts, the party sailed in June 1942. [Read more: TheTelegraph/14January2014]

Otis G. Pike, 92, Dies; Long Island Congressman Took on CIA. Otis G. Pike, a longtime congressman from New York who spearheaded an inquiry in the 1970s into accusations that the intelligence establishment had abused its power, died on Monday in Vero Beach, Fla. He was 92.

His daughter, Lois Pike Eyre, said he had entered a hospice a week ago.

Over 18 years in the House of Representatives as a Democrat from a heavily Republican district on Long Island, Mr. Pike styled himself an uninhibited, independent thinker, lashing out, for example, against military profligacy.

In 1975, he became chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which began examining suspicions that the Central Intelligence Agency had had its hand in coups in Chile and other countries and was spying on American citizens. The inquiry paralleled one in the Senate; they were the first in which Congress looked into allegations of abuse by the CIA.

Mr. Pike maintained that the security agencies were inept bureaucracies that left the country vulnerable. "If an attack were to be launched on America in the very near future," he said in late 1975, "it is my belief that America would not know that the attack was about to be launched." [Read more: Kleinfield/NYTimes/21January2014]

Hiroo Onoda, World's 'Last Ninja', Dead at 91. The world may have lost its last ninja Friday.

Hiroo Onoda, the World War II Japanese intelligence officer who died Thursday at age 91, drew from ninja-like military training to survive nearly thirty years fighting a long terminated war, according to ninja historian John Man.

"Other people would dispute this, but I'd say he's the last of the ninja," Man told TIME last year. Man devoted a chapter of his book Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior to Onoda.

The intelligence officer was a graduate of the elite Nakano Spy School, which Man described as something of a modern ninja training ground. The school taught officers stealth tactics and values like integrity and - above all - completing the mission, which aligned with the basic tenets of the centuries-old traditional ninja practice. [Read more: Rayman/Time/17January2014]

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

MANY more International Spy Museum Events in 2014 with full details are listed on the AFIO Website at www.afio.com.

Thursday, 23 January 2014, 6:30 p.m. - Washington, DC - American Spies: Espionage Against the United States from the Cold War to the Present, at the International Spy Museum

Join Michael Sulick, former chief of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, as he discusses his latest book, the second volume in his comprehensive history of spying in the United States. American Spies tracks great espionage cases from the KGB�s placement of "illegals" like Rudolf Abel in the 1950s all the way through the impact of WikiLeaks today. Some of the stories are familiar, such as those of Robert Hanssen and Jonathan Pollard, and others less so - meet Paul Raphael Hall, a one-time signalman aboard the USS Benfold who shared classified movements of the destroyer with terrorist contacts. For more than forty cases, Sulick describes how they reflect the issues of the day and the motivations that drove these individuals to spy, how they gained access, the secrets they betrayed, their tradecraft, their exposure and punishment, and the damage they ultimately inflicted on America's national security.
Tickets: $10. Register or for More information at www.spymuseum.org.

26 January 2014, 6:30 pm - McLean, VA - The NMIA/NMIF Winter Social in Honor of Dr. Forrest Frank

The National Military Intelligence Association and its Foundation hold this tribute dinner in recognition of Dr. Forrest Frank, for years of service to the Intelligence Community. Frank served in US Navy intelligence; over 30 years as a corporate consultant to the IC; as an officer of NMIA, NMIF, and NMIA's DC Chapter; and was instrumental in the formation of the Foundation's Scholarship Program.
They expect 50 to 100 current/former IC professionals and significant others. The McLean Hilton is known for outstanding food and impeccable service - just like NMIA! Come enjoy what promises to be an exceptional night and an opportunity to recognize an individual who has excelled in his efforts for the Intelligence Community.
Click here to make dinner reservations.

30 January 2014, 7:30pm - Santa Monica, CA - The AFIO LA Chapter joins with the Los Angeles World Affairs Council to hear former DCI Robert Gates

Robert Gates, former SecDef and D/CIA, will address offer his views on Afghanistan today, and will talk about his tenure as the only defense secretary who served under a Democratic and a Republican president. He faced challenges in dealing with Congress and the Pentagon bureaucracy, and said his goal was to transform the Pentagon from a "department organized to plan for war into one that could wage war."
Gates served as defense secretary under Presidents Bush and Obama from 2006 to 2011, presiding over the surge of US forces in Iraq, and redistributing some defense spending from conventional warfare to a greater emphasis on special forces. The event includes dinner. Fee: $95.
Location: Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica CA 9040.
REGISTER NOW: contact Vince at AFIO LA Chapter at afio_la@yahoo.com

01 February 2014 - Orange Park, FL - The AFIO North Florida Chapter hosts meeting featuring AFIO National President, Gene Poteat

We have moved the date of our February 2014 meeting from the 8th to the 1st to accommodate a very special guest speaker and his tight travel schedule in Florida. AFIO President S. Eugene Poteat, LLD, will do us the honor of a visit on that occasion, so we hope you will be able to attend. Gene is a retired CIA Senior Scientific Intelligence Officer. He was educated as an Electrical Engineer and physicist, and holds masters degrees in National Security and Intelligence Studies from the Institute of World Politics graduate school in Washington, where he now lectures on technology, intelligence and national security. He began his career with the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey and Cape Canaveral, Florida. His early CIA career included work on the U-2 and SR-71 class of airplanes and various space systems. His CIA assignments included the Directorate of Science and Technology, the National Reconnaissance Office, Technical Director of the Navy's Special Programs Office and Executive Director of the Intelligence Research and Development Council. He served abroad in London, Scandinavia, and the Middle East. He frequently writes and speaks on intelligence and national security topics.
Event location: The Country Club of Orange Park. Please RSVP to qbegonia@comcast.net Cost will be $16 each, pay the Country Club at the luncheon.

Wednesday, 05 February 2014, 5pm - Las Vegas, NV - Travis Pullen, DOE, speaks on "Comic Books with Intelligence and the Military from WWII to Present" at the AFIO Las Vegas Chapter

Our featured speaker for the evening will be: Travis M. Pullen, Sr. Intelligence Research Specialist, US Department of Energy, on "The Ultimate Crossover: The Intersection of Comic Books with Intelligence and the Military, from WWII to the Present."

Did You Know: that the creator of the lie detector wrote comic books, and wrote his invention into the stories?; that the Army has had a standing contract to have a comic periodical written for its personnel for the last 60 years?; that after the failure of imagination cited by Congress regarding the September 11 attacks, one of the people the government turned to for insight on future terrorist attacks was a comic book writer?

These out-of-the-ordinary stories and more are part of a presentation that demonstrates how comics have touched upon major moments in American history, and how the realms of the American military, nuclear weapons, and the intelligence community have been involved and portrayed in comics. Learn how the people who made comic books participated in and influenced World War II and how the war impacted the comic industry. Discover the surprising interactions between the intelligence community and the world of comics over several decades. Observe the two-way street of interaction as these unlikely companions impact each other, and be amazed as we uncover the cultural significance of comics in a modern context, such that you will never look at them as "kiddie mags" again!

Pullen holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with a focus on International Affairs. He is a 20-year IC veteran and life-long comic collector and recent blog author.
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. at 5871 Fitzgerald Blvd., Nellis AFB, NV 89191 Phone: 702-644-2582.
(Guest names must be submitted along with their birth date by 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 22, 2014)
Consider arriving early to join us at 5 p.m. in the "Robin's Roost" bar area for liaison and beverages.
Questions or to register: email Mary Bentley at mary.bentley@doe.gov or call 702-295-0417. We look forward to seeing you!

Wednesday, 05 February 2014, 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. - Washington, DC - Dinner with a Spy - Spies in Love: Jonna and Tony Mendez, a CIA Romance, at Poste Restaurant

What happens when two spycrafty people connect? Tony Mendez has become famous for his rescue of American diplomats from Tehran during the Iranian Hostage Crisis as depicted in ARGO, but he�s not the only spy named Mendez. Both Tony and Jonna Mendez are former CIA chiefs of disguise. This married couple will share their powerful stories of developing disguises and performing identity transformation for officers and agents around the world, and how they managed to balance personal lives with demanding careers. Jonna Mendez, who left the government in 1993 earning the CIA�s Intelligence Commendation Medal, used her disguise skills to go up against the Soviet KGB, the East German Stasi, and the Cuban DGI. Tony Mendez retired from CIA after 25 years earning the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit, the Intelligence Star, and two Certificates of Distinction. At this special pre-Valentine�s Day event, you will be one of only 7 guests at Poste for a three-course dinner where you�ll talk with them about their extraordinary disguise exploits and the evolution of their spy romance.
Tickets: $450. Ticket includes hors d�oeuvres and three-course dinner with wines. To make a reservation call 202-654-0932 or e-mail at lhicken@spymuseum.org.

Wednesdays, 05 February - 26 February 2014 - 10:15 a.m. - Washington, DC - Spy Seminar Series: Inside the Minds of Traitors, Dictators, and Terrorists, at the International Spy Museum (in collaboration with the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program)

Human intelligence (HUMINT) is concerned with helping policymakers better understand how our adversaries think. In this fascinating morning course, experts who have spent years examining the dark side of human psychology - delving into the minds and motives of traitors, dictators, and terrorists―share their insights and discuss implications for national security in the 21st century.

05 February 2014 - What Makes Traitors Tick?
He was the psychiatrist for notorious spy Robert Hanssen and interviewed him extensively in prison. David L. Charney knows better than anyone how Hanssen thought and even felt immediately after his long-term espionage was discovered. Did he feel remorse, did he worry about his family, did he care? The answers may surprise you. Charney has worked with a number of high-profile spies and has focused extensively on the psychology and motivation of traitors.

12 February 2014 - Does the Evil Mind Exist?
What makes a person choose evil as a way of life? Stanton Samenow, a noted forensic scientist and author of The Criminal Personality and Inside the Criminal Mind, has closely encountered truly villainous people -- both notorious and unknown. If anyone can answer whether there are truly evil people, he can. Samenow was the prosecution's mental health witness in the trial of the younger of the DC snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, and he participated in the longest in-depth clinical research and treatment study of offenders conducted in North America.

19 February 2014 - Dictators and Their Disciples in a Dangerous World
Today�s international security environment is much less stable than that of the Cold War. Rogue leaders of outlaw nations with access to weapons of mass destruction pose threats unknown in the past. It is crucial to understand what drives these leaders. Jerrold Post has devoted his career to this effort. He is director of the political psychology program at The George Washington University, and was founding director of the CIA�s Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. He played the lead role in developing the "Camp David profiles" of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat for President Jimmy Carter, and testified before Congress on the political personality of Saddam Hussein. He also initiated the U.S. government program in understanding the psychology of terrorism. Dr. Post�s latest books are Leaders and their Followers in a Dangerous World and The Mind of the Terrorist.

26 February 2014 - Can a Terrorist�s Brain be Rebooted?
What sets someone on a terrorist trajectory and, more importantly, what could divert him (or her)? Anne Speckhard, author of Talking to Terrorists, is a research psychologist who has interviewed more than 400 terrorists, their family members, hostages, and close associates worldwide. She has conducted psychological autopsies on more than half of the 112 Chechen suicide terrorists as well as dozens of Palestinian suicide terrorists to understand the motivations for and psychological underpinnings of terrorism. She also helped design the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq for more than 20,000 detainees held by the U.S. Department of Defense. Drawing on this expertise, she can suggest whether the terrorist mindset can be changed.

To Register for Spy Museum Seminar Series for all four days: $120. Register or for more information at www.spymuseum.org

Friday, 7 February 2014, 6:30pm - Washington, DC - "Counterintelligence after Snowden" by William M. Nolte, former ODNI, lecture at Institute of World Politics

William M. Nolte, Former Director of Education and Training, Office of the Director of National Intelligence presents this lecture as the annual Brian Kelley Memorial Lecture to be held at The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036.
William M. Nolte is the former director of education and training in the office of the Director of National Intelligence and chancellor of the National Intelligence University. He is a former Deputy Assistant Director of Central Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency. He was Director of Training, Chief of Legislative Affairs and Senior Intelligence Advisor at the National Security Agency. He also served as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia during the Gulf War. He has taught at several Washington area universities, is on the board of CIA's Studies in Intelligence, and directed the Intelligence Fellows Program. He holds a B.A. from La Salle University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
RSVP Required. Do so to kbridges@iwp.edu and wait for confirmation email.

8 February 2014, 11:30 - Melbourne, FL - AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter hears from Gene Poteat, former CIA DS&T, President of AFIO National, on "Special Ops to Analysis and High Tech Reconnaissance."

AFIO National president Gene Poteat who will address members and guests on the topic Changing Face of American Intelligence: From OSS Special Operations, to Analysis and High Tech Reconnaissance, Back to Special Operations. As this promises to be a sellout event, interested parties should reserve early.
Location: Indian River Colony Club, Melbourne, FL. Contact Chapter Secretary Don Wickstrand, donwickstrand@comcast.net, for reservations and details or send reservations to: Bobbie Keith 1024 Osprey Drive Melbourne, FL 32940 or call 321-777-5561.

11 February 2014 - MacDill AFB, FL - The AFIO Suncoast chapter welcomes AFIO President Gene Poteat

AFIO National President Gene Poteat is honoring us with a return visit and presentation on "Changing Face of American Intelligence: From OSS Special Operations, to Analysis and High Tech Reconnaissance, Back to Special Operations. Stay tuned!
Questions or reservations to Michael F. Shapiro at mfshapiro@att.net

20 February 2014, 12:30 - 2 pm - Los Angeles, CA - AFIO-Los Angeles meets to hear Hugh Wilford on "The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East"

Our guest speaker will be Hugh Wilford discussing his latest book: America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East.
Author bio: Hugh Wilford is a professor of history at California State University, Long Beach, and the author/editor of five books, including The Mighty Wurlitzer (Harvard University Press, 2008). He lives with his family in Long Beach, California.
RSVP your attendance by 2/14/2014: afio_la@yahoo.com

12 March 2014 - Laurel, MD - The National Cryptologic Museum Foundation hosts the Spring Program featuring Jim Ohlsen of NSA's Office of Counterintelligence

The guest speaker is Jim Ohlson. Jim is a retired FBI Special Agent with over 28 years of service to the FBI, primarily in the counterintelligence and counterterrorism programs. Early in his career he studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute and then put the language to use in the Bureau's New York Field Office. He spent over 14 years in the New York Office working counterterrorism, counterintelligence and directing FBI support to the National Foreign Intelligence programs for the U.S. Intelligence Community. Following that assignment Jim was awarded the DCI's National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. Jim retired from FBI Headquarters as the Security Program Manager. In 13 years since leaving the FBI, he has worked with the Center for Public Justice, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive [NCIX]; and, since 2004, with NSA's Office of Counterintelligence. Prior to his years in the FBI, Jim served in the U.S. Army, to include a tour in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division.
Registrations information to be provided here when available. Visit the NCMF website to explore upcoming programs. When fee announced, make check payable to NCMF and send to PO Box 1682, Fort George G Meade, MD 20755-3682. Questions? Contact Mary J. Faletto, Senior Administrator, National Cryptologic Museum Foundation, Office: 301-688-5436 Cell: 443-250-8621. E-mail: cryptmf@aol.com

Friday, 14 March 2014, 6:30pm - 9:30pm - Washington, DC - Spy School Workshop: Inside Surveillance 101 with Eric O'Neill, at the International Spy Museum

Spring into surveillance! As a young operative in the FBI, Eric O'Neill was used to conducting surveillance; he was even put into the position of spying on his boss. The boss was Robert Hanssen, who was under suspicion of working for Russia, and O'Neill was up to the challenge. Now he'll share his expertise with you. O'Neill has conducted many outdoor surveillance exercises for the Museum, and he's ready to take those with the right skills up a notch. You'll be trailing the "Rabbit" through a complicated urban setting with red herrings and false leads. O'Neill will rate your clandestine prowess while you spy on secret meetings and operational acts and see if you can uncover the spy skullduggery that's afoot while you are on foot. There is no guarantee that your "Rabbit" won't escape!
Tickets: $94. Space is limited to only 10 participants - advance registration required! Call Laura Hicken at 202-654-0932 to register.

25-27 March 2014 - Oxford, MS - Five Eyes Analytic Workshop at the University of Mississippi's Center for Intelligence and Security Studies

The University of Mississippi's Center for Intelligence and Security Studies is pleased to host the Five Eyes Analytic Workshop at the Oxford, MS campus on March 25-27, 2014. We invite you to attend and/or present; information is available at our event website:
http://5eyes.olemiss.edu/spring2014
code: 5eyesreg
The workshop's theme is "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds," based on the 2012 document published by the National Intelligence Council; DIA originally selected this theme for the cancelled November 2013 workshop. You may view the NIC publication at: http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-intelligence-council-global-trends
At this time, we'd like to invite proposals for presentations, which must be submitted at http://5eyes.olemiss.edu/propose. We'd like to include, on the March 2014 agenda, any presenters from the November 2013 schedule who wish to attend the upcoming workshop. Please indicate your proposal's initial acceptance to the November Five Eyes on the online submittal form. Proposals are due by January 21, 2013.
If you have any questions, please contact Carl Julius Jensen, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies: Legal Studies, at carlj@olemiss.edu, (662) 915-1886, or Melissa Anne Graves, Associate Director, Center for Intelligence and Security Studies, magraves@olemiss.edu, (662) 915-1474. Feel free to share this call for proposals with your colleagues.

 Friday, 28 March 2014, 6 - 7:30 pm - Washington, DC - IWP Professor and AFIO President, Gene Poteat, speaks on The Changing Face of American Intelligence: From OSS Special Operations, to Analysis and High Tech Reconnaissance, back to Special Operations

The CIA has responded to changing national security needs. The early CIA, staffed by former OSS men with Special Ops expertise, succeed in countering the Communist subversion of Italy, Greece and Turkey. Political interference however, led to the disastrous Bay of Pigs fiasco. Special Ops were replaced by analysts who sought to inform policymakers on all they needed to know. But without HUMINT, analysts failed to answer the most critical intelligence question of the time, the "bomber and missile gap." Eisenhower answered the question with high tech reconnaissance, beginning with the U-2 and Corona satellites, which also helped in the Berlin and Cuban Missile crises. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by challenges of global Islamic terrorism, American intelligence has returned to an updated version of Special Ops, i.e., integration of HUMINT, analysis, high-tech weapons, such as the Predator, all working hand-in-glove with Special Forces based in Florida.
Location: The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036.
RSVP Required. Do so to sdwyer@iwp.edu.

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

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