Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

US to Launch Secret Spy Satellite. A powerful Atlas 5 rocket is being readied for launch Tuesday afternoon (March 25) to place a clandestine payload into space, possibly headed for geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) above the Earth.

The United Launch Alliance-operated vehicle is capable of delivering 7,800 pounds (3,538 kilograms) directly into this type of orbit used by eavesdropping intelligence spacecraft.

Liftoff from Complex 41 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is planned for 2:48 p.m. EDT Tuesday (1848 GMT). The day's launch period extends to 3:35 p.m. EDT.

There is a 40 percent chance of acceptable weather due to cloud cover. [Read more: SpaceflightNow/24March2014]

Afghan Spy Agency Alleges Foreign Intelligence Service Behind Deadly Hotel Attack. Afghanistan's spy agency alleges that a foreign intelligence service, and not the Taliban or the Haqqani militant group, was behind the attack on a Kabul hotel last week that killed nine people, including four foreigners.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement that the nation's intelligence agency made the assertion at a meeting of top security officials Sunday. It did not specify which country was purportedly responsible for the attack, but Kabul routinely accuses Pakistan of sending militants across the border to wage attacks.

The agency also said neither the Taliban nor the Haqqani group was even aware the attack was in the offing. [Read more: AP/23March2014]

U.S. Scurries to Shore up Spying on Russia. U.S. military satellites spied Russian troops amassing within striking distance of Crimea last month. But intelligence analysts were surprised because they hadn't intercepted any telltale communications where Russian leaders, military commanders or soldiers discussed plans to invade.

America's vaunted global surveillance is a vital tool for U.S. intelligence services, especially as an early-warning system and as a way to corroborate other evidence. In Crimea, though, U.S. intelligence officials are concluding that Russian planners might have gotten a jump on the West by evading U.S. eavesdropping. 

"Even though there was a warning, we didn't have the information to be able to say exactly what was going to happen," a senior U.S. official says.

To close the information gap, U.S. spy agencies and the military are rushing to expand satellite coverage and communications-interception efforts across Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states. U.S. officials hope the "surge" in assets and analysts will improve tracking of the Russian military and tip off the U.S. to any possible intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin before he acts on them.

The U.S. moves will happen quickly. "We have gone into crisis-response mode," a senior official says. [Read more: WallStreetJournal/24March2014]

Marymount University Introduces Intelligence Studies Concentration. Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia will now offer students in the Masters of Forensic and Legal Psychology program the option of selecting an Intelligence Studies concentration in partial fulfillment of degree requirements. Assistant Professor Dr. William Costanza, a retired CIA operations officer who designed the concentration, noted that "the basic philosophy is to provide students with the skill sets that will make graduates more competitive for intelligence community jobs as well as more productive earlier in their careers once hired."

The Intelligence Studies concentration includes five courses: The Intelligence Community: Theory, Practice and Challenges; Intelligence Analysis I and II, Counterintelligence and the choice of an elective. Currently the concentration offers two electives, Contemporary Terrorism and the U.S. Response; or Human Considerations in Cyber Security. Several more electives will be added in the coming years. The concentration will also require students to complete an intel-related internship with a government agency or private sector company.

To ensure that the coursework meets the needs of the intelligence community, Marymount established an outside Advisory Group of current and former senior-level intelligence community officials to oversee and guide course development. The Advisory Group members include individuals with professional experience at CIA, Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Naval Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency and private sector companies that support the Intelligence Community. The Advisory Group will also mentor students and help identify internship opportunities.

The Intelligence Studies concentration will be introduced in the Fall 2014 semester. [MarymountUniversity/March2014]

House Intel Leaders Unveil Surveillance Reforms. House Intelligence leaders on Tuesday unveiled a plan to curtail the NSA's ability to collect phone call data in bulk, but the effort differs from proposals from other top lawmakers and the White House.

Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said their End Bulk Collection Act will ensure the federal government doesn't retain logs about calls made within the United States. The bill would also ban bulk collection of "electronic communications records" according to Rogers.

"Basically, what we're doing, is we're listening to the American people," Ruppersberger said at a news conference announcing the measure.

However, the duo's plan appears to have some significant differences with the approach advocated by other members of Congress and the Obama administration, which is working on its own proposal. [Read more: Romm/Politico/25March2014]

Orange 'Shares Data With French Intelligence Agency'. France's stance as a victim of spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA) is increasingly losing credibility, according to further investigations by French newspaper Le Monde, which claimed this week that Orange has been giving data to France's main intelligence agency for years.

According to the newspaper, Canada's secret services suspect that French intelligence services may be behind an email spying operation that was aimed at Iran's nuclear program but also ensnared other targets in Canada, Spain, Greece, Norway, the C�te d'Ivoire and Algeria.

Meanwhile, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden and an investigation by Le Monde, France's largest telco Orange has allegedly been sharing its data for years with France's main intelligence agency, the Direction G�n�rale de la S�curit� Ext�rieure, or DGSE.

The DGSE has a close cooperation with "a French telecommunications operator", said the Le Monde report, citing a leaked internal document from the UK's GCHQ, the equivalent of the NSA. [Read more: Morris/ZDNet/21March2014]

Bermuda Says National Intelligence Agency Needed. The Island needs its own National Intelligence Agency to take on organised crime and "prolific priority offenders", according to the independent National Security and Defence Review released on Friday.

And the Department of Corrections has issues requiring "urgent improvement", including "breaches of the facilities' perimeters, the infiltration of drugs and other contraband into the facilities and ongoing gang rivalries and activity within the facilities".

The review was tabled in the House of Assembly by National Security Minister Michael Dunkley.

It was created by a committee under former Cabinet Secretary Leo Mills, commissioned in May of last year by Governor George Fergusson. [Read more: Bell/TheRoyalGazette/21March2014]

CSIS Tracking 80 Canadians Who Came Home After Going Abroad for 'Terrorist Purposes'. Intelligence officials are aware of about 80 Canadians who have returned home after going overseas for "terrorist purposes," according to speaking notes prepared for the director of the nation's spy agency.

The document obtained by Postmedia News does not offer explicit information about their activities, though it makes it clear that not all were involved in combat. While some individuals may have engaged in paramilitary activities, others are believed to have studied in extremist Islamic schools or provided logistical or fundraising support. Others never achieved their goals and simply returned home.

The so-called "foreign fighter" phenomenon has become a growing concern for the intelligence community, stoking fears that individuals could return to Canada more radicalized than when they left.

"Most troubling, if they participate in a foreign conflict or train with a terrorist group, they might return with certain operational skills that can be deployed themselves or taught to fellow Canadian extremists," the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in its annual report released earlier this year. [Read more: Quan/Canada.com/23March2014]

Marines Celebrate 10th Graduating Class of Military Intelligence Basic Officer Course With Students From Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, and Kenya. 25 Students representing the countries of Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, and Kenya graduated from the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Course - Africa which was hosted in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, March 19th 2014.

The semi-annual, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa-led event is considered the flagship course of intelligence training engagement for U.S. Africa Command on the continent.

Over the first half of the course, the students underwent extensive education and training on the fundamentals of intelligence to include: intelligence preparation of the environment (IPOE), collections management, collections operations, patrol debriefing, map-reading skills, and the integration of intelligence into the military planning process. Over the second half of the course, students focused on the application of intelligence operations in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations. The students eagerly absorbed the course material, understood its applicability and expressed a desire for more. Formal material was presented by U.S. Africa Command Regional Joint Intelligence Training Facility, Canadian Combined Joint Operations Command, and partner-nation instructors, reinforced by the experiences and anecdotes of the Marine officer-in-charge. These brought intelligence concepts from theory into real-world application. [Read more: Moeykens/Marines.mil/25March2014]

NASIC Names New Commander. A military intelligence agency that provides highly sought after intelligence analysis from the White House to ground troops in Afghanistan will have a new leader.

Air Force Col. Leah Lauderback will take command of the National Air and Space Center later this year. The intelligence agency monitors air, space and cyber threats to national security. NASIC has about 3,000 military and civilian personnel and a budget of more than $330 million at Wright-Patterson.

Lauderback said in a statement she was "incredibly excited about the opportunity to lead and work with such a tremendous group of people. I grew up in Dayton as my father worked at the Foreign Technology Division for many years, so it feels like coming home."

The Foreign Technology Division was a predecessor to NASIC. [Read more: Barber/DaytonDailyNews/26March2014]

Regulator Signs Memorandum With Financial Intelligence Unit. The Malta Financial Services Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) to facilitate on-site inspections relating to the prevention of money laundering and funding of terrorism.

The basis for cooperation between the MFSA and the FIAU in the prevention of money laundering and funding of terrorism is their common supervisory function in respect of persons and entities providing financial services which are required to be licensed, authorised, enrolled, recognised or registered by the MFSA.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act provides for cooperation between the FIAU and supervisory authorities, such as the MFSA, in the supervision of anti-money laundering and the combating of the financing of terrorism. The primary purpose of this MoU is to further enhance cooperation between the parties, including the rendering of assistance to each other and the exchange of information.

The FIAU is a government agency set up by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and is responsible for the collection, collation, processing, analysis and dissemination of information with a view to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. [Read more: MaltaToday/26March2014]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

How to Thwart a Gunman at 29,000 Feet, by the Only Pilot Who Ever Did. With the world's attention focused on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a retired El Al pilot, a veteran of five armed hijacking attempts and plots, including one movie-worthy standoff at 29,000 feet, splashed some local brandy into his afternoon tea.

"When you don't know, you just don't know," Uri Bar-Lev said of the fate of the airliner, speaking two weeks after it dropped off the radar.

Then, while he was folding the Hebrew paper, which was splayed open to the MH370 story of the day, came an endearingly familiar routine, the ritual dance performed by so many Israelis of Bar-Lev's 1948 generation: Why do you want to hear this story? What's so special about it? It's been told before. Haven't you read it? Why would people want to hear it now?

The Times of Israel mentioned the missing plane and hinted at his heroics. We said there might be a lesson to be learned or simply a tale worth re-telling. He waved his hand dismissively, but, fresh from Pilates and in a rush to finish his chores before setting off for Chile the next day to visit a newborn grandson, the 83-year-old pilot agreed to deliver the abridged version of events. [Read more: Ginsburg/TimesofIsrael/24March2014]

U.S. Eyes Russian Spies Infiltrating Ukraine. In the run-up to Russia's paramilitary invasion of Crimea, U.S. intelligence saw Vladimir Putin's saboteurs and mercenaries coming, and not stopping at Crimea either.

During the last week of February, a summary of U.S. intelligence reporting said there was a very low chance that the ordinary Russian troops doing military exercises on Ukraine's border were going to invade the country, according to a description of the document by a senior American official. But the intel report did predict accurately that Russian special operations forces would do all they could to reunite Crimea with Russia - and cause trouble in eastern and southern Ukraine. 

Russia's activities in Crimea have been widely described in the west as an invasion. But while some Russian military forces did cross into Ukrainian territory, the Moscow government still claims that all of its military forces in Crimea are abiding by the terms of its agreement with Ukraine. 

This, U.S. officials believe, is because Russia is invading Ukraine with its Spetsnaz - the special operations units and battalions attached to both the military and the country's intelligence agencies. [Read more: Lake/TheDailyBeast/21March2014]

Scientists Reconstruct Faces From DNA Samples. Sometime in the future, technicians will go over the scene of the crime. They'll uncover some DNA evidence and take it to the lab. And when the cops need to get a picture of the suspect, they won't have to ask eyewitnesses to give descriptions to a sketch artist - they'll just ask the technicians to get a mugshot from the DNA.

That, at least, is the potential of new research being published today in PLOS Genetics. In that paper, a team of scientists describe how they were able to produce crude 3D models of faces extrapolated from a person's DNA.

"We show that facial variation with regard to sex, ancestry, and genes can be systematically studied with our methods, allowing us to lay the foundation for predictive modeling of faces," the researchers wrote in their paper. "Such predictive modeling could be forensically useful; for example, DNA left at crime scenes could be tested and faces predicted in order to help to narrow the pool of potential suspects."

To arrive at their facial reconstructions from DNA, the researchers looked at the genes that seem to correlate with facial structures, the facial structures of the people with those genes, and then asked people outside of their research group to characterize facial structures along different axes. All of these factors were then used to develop statistical models to approximate a facial structure from DNA. [Read more: Knapp/Forbes/20March2014]

It's Bordering on a Bonanza: Lucrative Security Industry Shows Off Gadgetry at an Expo Where Even the Humble Cactus is More Than it Appears. It is where the countries of the world come together to find new ways to keep themselves apart. And as the US ends its military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, a security industry grown fat on the wars of the past decade is looking elsewhere for sustenance.

At last week's eighth annual Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona, representatives from 14 countries were treated to an array of technological gadgets from almost 100 firms.

Among the items on show at the two-day event, which was aimed squarely at law enforcement agencies and professionals, were unmanned drones small enough to be carried in a rucksack, robots that can crawl into smuggling tunnels and defuse booby traps, and a camera hidden inside a fake cactus. One Arizona firm has created a fabric that can short-circuit a Taser hit. Its stun-proof shirts cost between $110 (�67) and $130 each.

Many of the Expo stalls were assigned to traditional firearms manufacturers such as Beretta, Glock and Heckler & Koch. Perhaps the most spectacular exhibit was the Jeep Grand Cherokee that once belonged to the security minister of Michoacan, a Mexican state ridden by drug wars. In 2010, the jeep, which was armoured by the American firm TPS Global, was attacked by drug cartel members armed with guns and grenades. A TPS representative told the Los Angeles Times the vehicle sustained 14 minutes of continuous fire, yet the minister came away all but unscathed. [Read more: Walker/TheIndependent/23March2014]

Former WW2 Intelligence Officer Now 90 Must Return to UK From Canada to Claim Her Full Pension. After 13 years of living in Canada, Ann Puckridge, 90, is being forced to leave her family and friends and return to England.

Mrs. Puckridge moved to Calgary in 2001 to be with her daughter Diane, and grandchildren Kirsty, 11, and Andrew, nine, who had moved there a few years earlier.

However due to the Government's policy on pensions for those who live abroad in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada she is now unable to financially support herself and must return home and live a ten hour flight away from her immediate family.

Along with the 560,000 other expatriates her state pension was frozen when she emigrated.

Having served as an intelligence officer in the Women's Royal Navy in the Second World War and making mandatory National Insurance contributions throughout her teaching career in Gloucestershire she would receive �110.15 per week had she stayed in Britain. [Read more: Wilson/StroudNews/19March2014]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Stopping the Next Snowden. How do we stop the next Edward Snowden? The answer may be as simple as this: Use the right tool for the job. The story is often told of how, during the height of the U.S./Soviet space race, NASA discovered that conventional ink pens would not work in a zero-gravity environment. And so, in a triumph of American technological know-how (and at a tremendous cost to taxpayers, technicians devised a solution in the form of the Fisher AG-7 anti-gravity space pen—a writing utensil that relied on pressurized nitrogen to expel ink. American astronauts could now write in space. But the story of how the American government's technological wizardry and taxpayer largesse created the perfect pen is, disappointingly, a myth. In truth, NASA bagged its own efforts to devise a space pen after costs began mounting; the agency was instead approached by an inventor named Paul Fisher who had, on his own, invented a suitable, cheap space pen. NASA bought a few hundred. When faced with the same problem of how to get a pen to work in space, Soviet cosmonauts devised a far less complicated answer—they simply used pencils. What the episode speaks to is Americans' cultural preference for complex, often expensive technological solutions and how the search for those solutions deflects us from what might be far easier fixes.

The goal was simply to give astronauts something to write with while in space. Something like, say, a pencil? A recent Washington Post article identified several high-tech solutions being proposed to the U.S. government to deal with the problem of insider spying. These solutions include programs that record key strokes, identify when files have been moved from one location to another or highlight deviations in an employee's online behavior. These are all well-intentioned efforts, but as in the story of the space pen, they may be based on misstating the problem. While controlling access to classified information is unquestionably necessary and has achieved some success (either through background screening or technical oversight), the fundamental cause of insider spying isn't so much that the spy does it because he can as much as because he wants to. It's a subjective problem of psychology, not just an objective one of technology. Motivation precedes opportunity. [Read more: Irvin and Charney/Politico/25March2014]

Red-Handed: South Korean Intelligence. In recent years the sentences of a number of South Koreans, wrongly accused three decades ago of spying for the North, have been reversed. The acquittals serve as a heartening reminder of how far the now-democratic South has come since its former military dictatorship tortured political enemies and fabricated evidence to frame them. Last month five defendants in the infamous "Burim" case of 1981- in which students were convicted of convening a seditious book club to support the North Korean regime - were cleared of all charges. This month the court cleared a Korean-Japanese man accused in 1982 of espionage for the North.

Since then, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) has changed name (in 1999, for the second time) and shed its thuggishness. Yet its zeal in catching pro-North agitators appears undimmed. The number of new cases charged under the South's National Security Law, which prohibits South Koreans from contact with the North or praising its gangster regime, almost doubled between 2008 and 2011- from 46 to 90 cases - while former conservative president Lee Myung-bak was in office. In his term, 31 North Korean spies were arrested (compared to 14 under the late liberal president Roh Moo-hyun). According to Oh Changik of Citizens' Solidarity for Human Rights, a Korean lobby, eight people have been put under investigation for spying since Park Geun-hye, the current president, took office in February 2013 (the ministry of justice would not give The Economist official figures, on the basis that their publication could harm "major national interests"). All eight, says Mr. Oh, entered the South as North Korean defectors. Some say the spike in arrests reveals increased espionage from the North, as relations have soured. In 2010 the length of routine detentions and interrogations for North Korean arrivals was doubled, from a 90-day maximum to six months.

But the South's efforts have been complicated by a series of intelligence mishaps. [Read more: TheEconomist/21March2014]

What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, I went to live and report for The New York Times in Afghanistan. I would spend most of the next 12 years there, following the overthrow of the Taliban, feeling the excitement of the freedom and prosperity that was promised in its wake and then watching the gradual dissolution of that hope. A new Constitution and two rounds of elections did not improve the lives of ordinary Afghans; the Taliban regrouped and found increasing numbers of supporters for their guerrilla actions; by 2006, as they mounted an ambitious offensive to retake southern Afghanistan and unleashed more than a hundred suicide bombers, it was clear that a deadly and determined opponent was growing in strength, not losing it. As I toured the bomb sites and battlegrounds of the Taliban resurgence, Afghans kept telling me the same thing: The organizers of the insurgency were in Pakistan, specifically in the western district of Quetta. Police investigators were finding that many of the bombers, too, were coming from Pakistan.

In December 2006, I flew to Quetta, where I met with several Pakistani reporters and a photographer. Together we found families who were grappling with the realization that their sons had blown themselves up in Afghanistan. Some were not even sure whether to believe the news, relayed in anonymous phone calls or secondhand through someone in the community. All of them were scared to say how their sons died and who recruited them, fearing trouble from members of the ISI, Pakistan's main intelligence service.

After our first day of reporting in Quetta, we noticed that an intelligence agent on a motorbike was following us, and everyone we interviewed was visited afterward by ISI agents. We visited a neighborhood called Pashtunabad, "town of the Pashtuns," a close-knit community of narrow alleys inhabited largely by Afghan refugees who over the years spread up the hillside, building one-story houses from mud and straw. The people are working class: laborers, bus drivers and shopkeepers. The neighborhood is also home to several members of the Taliban, who live in larger houses behind high walls, often next to the mosques and madrasas they run.

The small, untidy entrance on the street to one of those madrasas, the Jamiya Islamiya, conceals the size of the establishment. Inside, a brick-and-concrete building three stories high surrounds a courtyard, and classrooms can accommodate 280 students. At least three of the suicide bombers we were tracing had been students here, and there were reports of more. Senior figures from Pakistani religious parties and provincial-government officials were frequent visitors, and Taliban members would often visit under the cover of darkness in fleets of S.U.V.s. [Read more: Gall/NYTimes/19March2014]

NSA Program is Vital: Column. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Khalid al-Mihdhar stepped on to American Airlines Flight 77, the flight he would later crash into the Pentagon. Al-Mihdhar might have been in prison, instead of on that flight, if the government knew he had called an al-Qaeda safehouse in Yemen from inside the U.S. seven times before the attacks. The failure to spot phone calls by al-Mihdhar and others led the Intelligence community to begin collecting large volumes of call data records, specifically the number dialed and the date and duration of the call, to determine whether suspected terrorists had contacts inside the United States.

Since last summer, a great deal has been written about the program's scope, capabilities and legality - much of it wrong. The fact is that the program is legal. It was authorized by Congress and found constitutional many times over. No review of the program revealed an intentional misuse of its authority.

We recognize that the Intelligence community must have the confidence of the American people to do its life-saving work. Over the past nine months, we have studied ways to reform the program while maintaining its effectiveness. We have identified an approach that will end the government's collection of bulk telephone metadata, maintains significant capabilities to identify potential threats to the United States and impose no new burdens on private industry.

Our bipartisan proposal authorizes the government to obtain only the metadata it uses to guard against terrorists and other foreign bad actors. We would allow the government to obtain records of individual numbers for which there is a reasonable and articulable suspicion of an association with international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activity, plus the records of numbers connected with those suspect numbers. [Read more: Rogers&Ruppersberger/USAToday/25March2014]

Section IV - Obituaries

John Thomas Harris. John Thomas Harris, 75, of Ocean Pines, MD, formerly of Burke, VA died March 21st, 2014. He will always be remembered as a devoted father, husband, and friend. Born in Memphis, TN, he had a distinguished career with the CIA where he was an Executive with the Senior Intelligence Service and was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal. John retired to Ocean Pines where he was an active volunteer with the Children's House by the Sea and the OP Fire Dept. He was a member of the Optimist Club, Camera Club, Community Association, and was an avid golfer. John was an accomplished photographer winning awards such as the 2013 Harbor Day Photo Contest. He is survived by his wife Diane of Ocean Pines, son Alex and his wife Katie, daughter Deirdre and her husband Pierre. A celebration of John's life will be held on April 4th in Ocean Pines, MD. [ColonialFuneralHomeofLeesburg/21March2014]

Section V - Coming 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.

 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 - EVENT HAS SOLD OUT. No more admittances. Will have C-SPAN Coverage available online here.

AFIO President Gene Poteat discusses the CIA's rapidly changing and effective responses to a variety of different 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. EVENT HAS SOLD OUT. No more admittances. Will have C-SPAN Coverage available online here.

7 April 2014, 5:30 - 8 pm - New York, NY - Master of Disguise CIA Officer Tony Mendez, of the ARGO Operation which inspired the film, to speak on his unusual tradecraft techniques.

Speaker: Tony Mendez, 25 year distinguished CIA career. Awarded CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit in 1980 for exfiltrating six Americans from Iran, subject of the Oscar-winning movie ARGO, awarded "Trailblazer Medallion"
Topic: His book Master of Disguise - A classic story about life in the CIA. Iran was only one of several places where this master of disguise was successful.
Location: Society of Illustrators building 128 East 63rd St, New York City
Time: Registration 5:30 PM Meeting Start 6:00 PM
Cost: $50/person Cash or check, payable at the door only.
Register: Registrations required - afiometro@gmail.com or 646-717-3776

Tuesday, 8 April 2014, 11:30am - 2pm - Tampa, FL - The AFIO Florida Suncoast Chapter hears Col Michael Hill on USSOCOM's History and Background

Colonel Michael S. Hill is the Deputy Director, Communications Systems, J6/CIO, for Headquarters United States Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, FL. He is responsible for developing USSOCOM's Information Technology (IT) strategy as well as executing the Command's C4 acquisition program. He is also responsible for operating and maintaining USSOCOM's global network providing support to more than 56,000 special operations personnel.
COL Hill will brief us on USSOCOM history and background, strategic context, the commander's priorities, and how the J6 Communications Systems Directorate provides support in achieving the Commander's Vision and the SOCOM Mission. He will close with the challenges facing USSOCOM and its current priorities.
The meeting will be held at the Surf's Edge Club at MacDill AFB, with the program beginning at noon. Advance reservations are required by Wednesday, April 2, and the luncheon cost is $20. Please contact the Chapter Secretary, Michael Shapiro at michaels@suncoastafio.org for further information or to make reservations.

8 April 2014, 4:30pm - Washington, DC - Dr. Nowaczyk discusses "Poland's Smolensk Crash: A Status Report" at the Institute of World Politics

As the fourth anniversary of the Smolensk Plane Crash--which killed the Polish president and 95 other members of Poland's political and military elite in suspicious circumstances--approaches, Dr. Kazimierz Nowaczyk will deliver a lecture on the current state of our knowledge about the circumstances of the air disaster.
Dr. Kazimierz Nowaczyk will present the results of studies by experts from several countries-including the US, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Russia-who collaborated over the last three years with the Polish Parliamentary Committee to Investigate the Crash of the presidential Tupolev-154M in Smolensk, Russia on April 10, 2010. Dr. Nowaczyk's presentation will focus on the official Russian report, issued by the Interstate Aviation Committee (Russian MAK), which was put in charge of investigating the crash by an executive decision of the National Investigation Committee headed by Vladimir Putin himself.
The analysis will concentrate on the actions of the Russian air traffic controllers, the recorded data of the final seconds of the flight, and the immediate activities of the rescue services and official forces responsible for securing the crash site.
Dr. Kazimierz Nowaczyk received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Gdańsk, Poland. In the early 1990s, he began working for the Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. His scientific research has focused on fluorescence and phosphorescence of biological systems, image processing, and statistical data analysis. In 2011, he began cooperating with the Polish Parliamentary Committee for the Investigation of the 2010 Smolensk Air Disaster. He coordinates the research of a group of experts from many countries who investigate the causes of the Smolensk Crash
Location: The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036
REGISTER HERE. Parking map is here.

Tuesday, 08 April 2014, 6 p.m. - Washington, DC - "Witness to History: DarkMarket and the FBI Agent who Became Master Splynter" (How an online agent exposed an exclusive cyber club for crooks) at the International Spy Museum

Selling stolen personal credit and identity information online is not a recent phenomenon, in 2005 DarkMarket was created to be a one-stop shop for illicit data. The online site became a hub for underground criminal enterprise, with over 2,500 registered members at its peak. In 2008, Agent J. Keith Mularkski of the FBI's Cyber Initiative & Resource Fusion Unit creatively masked his true identity joined DarkMarket under the handle Master Splyntr and remained undetected for two years. His ingenious efforts were responsible for preventing millions in financial loss and resulted in 60 worldwide arrests. Hear directly from Mularski how he learned to log on and think like a crook to catch criminals and hear from the experts how cyber security adapts to current threats and trends in the marketplace.
Presented in collaboration with the National Law Enforcement Museum. Sponsored by Target.
Tickets: Free! For more information visit www.spymuseum.org.

Wednesday, 09 April 2014, noon - Washington, DC - Global Terrorism, Espionage and Cybersecurity Monthly Update at the International Spy Museum.

Join David Major, retired FBI agent and former director of Counterintelligence, Intelligence and Security Programs, for a briefing on the hottest intelligence and security issues, breaches, and penetrations. Presented in partnership with The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies (CI Centre), these updates will cover worldwide events such as breaking espionage cases and arrest reports, cyber espionage incidents, and terrorist activity. Find out Snowden's current status and what could happen next with this case. Major uses his expertise to analyze trends and highlight emerging issues of interest to both intelligence and national security professionals and the public. Cases are drawn from the CI Centre's SPYPEDIA�, the most comprehensive source of espionage information in the world, containing events and information that may not be reported by mainstream media outlets. Major will also highlight and review the latest books and reports to keep you current on what is hitting think tank desks.
Tickets: Free! No registration required.

Wednesday, 9 April 2014, 6 pm - Las Vegas, NV - Gaetano Benza talks of Operation Fortitude/D-Day at AFIO Las Vegas Chapter Meeting.

The AFIO Roger E. McCarthy, Las Vegas Chapter hosts Mr. Gaetano Benza. On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, World War II and the Normandy invasion began with the overnight parachute and glider landings of massive attacks and naval bombardment; and U.S. Army Private, Gaetano Benza was there! With a few weeks of new tactics and training leading up to the invasion, the Allied forces conducted a deception operation, Operation Fortitude, aimed at misleading the Germans with respect to the date and place of invasion.

In the early morning, amphibious landing on five beaches, (code names) June, Gold, Omaha, Utah and Sword began and during the evening the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed. Only ten days of each month were suitable for launching this operation and a day near full moon was needed both for illumination during the hours of darkness and for spring tides. All landings had to be scheduled for low tide entry.

Operation Neptune, which was the assault phase, began on D-day, June 6, 1944 and ended on June 30, 1944. By this time, the Allied Forces had established a firm foothold in Normandy. The Supreme Allied Commander was General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Deputy Supreme Commander was Arthur Teddy. Also present was General Bernard Montgomery, 21st Army Group and Ground Forces Commander in Chief; Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Air Commander in Chief; Bertram Ramsay, Naval Commander in Chief; and General Omar Bradley, U.S. First Army.

Presenter: Mr. Gaetano Benza was born in New York, New York on March 7, 1925. After his military career, he worked for many years as a barber at Nellis AFB where patrons were regaled with stories of his past.

Location: The Officers' Club at Nellis AFB, at intersection Craig Rd & Las Vegas Blvd. All guests must use the MAIN GATE. Address: 5871 Fitzgerald Blvd., Nellis AFB, NV 9191; 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 Tuesday, April 1, 2014, or you will not be admitted on base. If you currently have adequate base access, you do not need to provide this information.

QUESTIONS / REGISTRATIONS?: Email Mary Bentley at mary.bentley@doe.gov or call 702-295-0417. (Guest names must be submitted along with their birth date by 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 1, 2014). Please join us at 5 p.m. in the "Robin's Roost" bar area for liaison and beverages.

Wednesday, 09 April 2014, 7 - 10 p.m. - Washington, DC - Dinner with a Spy: An Evening with Sandy Grimes, at Poste.

Dine with a woman who helped identify Aldrich Ames -- the infamous CIA officer turned traitor.
Aldrich Ames could not have been more wrong when he considered Sandy Grimes a dumb broad. As a former CIA officer in the Agency's Clandestine Service, she and her fellow co-worker Jeanne Vertefeuille used determination and hard work to identify him as a KGB mole inside CIA. He was not only a co-worker and long-time acquaintance but someone they saw frequently in the hallways of CIA Headquarters. The women were finally able to tell the inside story of the unmasking of the CIA's most notorious mole in their remarkable book Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed which was the basis for the recent ABC Television mini-series The Assets. At this gathering, International Spy Museum executive director, Peter Earnest, who was once Ames' immediate supervisor, will lead a discussion with Grimes about how she and Vertefeuille pursued Ames until his capture. You will be one of only 7 guests at Poste for this three-course dinner.
Tickets: $450. To register please contact lhicken@spymuseum.org.

Friday, 18 April 2014, noon - San Diego, CA - AFIO San Diego Chapter to hold meeting on Domestic Cyber Threats.

We will have a very engaging, DOD offensive cyber expert as a speaker on domestic cyber threats. Please let me know if you have any questions, and if you plan (at least tentatively) on attending.
Replies to Alex Carrillo, AFIO San Diego Chapter President, alexander.carrillo@hotmail.com or call (858) 531-7433.
Exact location TBD.

Wednesday, 23 April 2014, 6:30 - 9:30pm - Washington, DC - Spy School Workshop: Surveillance 101 with Eric O'Neil, 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.

REGISTRATION HAS OPENED

AFIO 2014 Intelligence Symposium

Agenda and Registration Now Available Online
All speakers are confirmed.

1 - 3 May 2014

GEOINT, HUMINT, SIGINT: Expanding Capabilities; Growing Challenges and Risks

Day One at the new headquarters of the
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Agenda is <here.
The Agenda was updated on 26 March 2014
There will be occasional updates so check again every ten days.

Be an early registrant....to get best hotel rooms and seating...
To apply quickly and securely online, do so .

For an application form to mail or print, download this 1-page PDF here

You will hear/meet...

• Letitia Long, NGA Director; turned GEOINT into crucial player in most intelligence and CT operations;
• Michael Sulick, former Director, CIA's National Clandestine Service, Intelligence Historian;
• John J. Hamre, President CSIS, former Deputy Secretary of Defense;
• Michael Warner, Historian, DoD and CIA;
• James Hughes, CIA Mideast Expert;
• Paul R. Pillar, former senior CIA analyst, on Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform
• Kai Bird, Mideast Expert, author of The CIA in Beirut;
• Stewart Baker, former NSA & DHS legal expert on privacy and intel issues;
• John Bennett, former Director, CIA's National Clandestine Service;
• Spike Bowman, former NSA, NCIX/DNI, FBI, privacy and intel legal issues;
• David Ignatius, author, journalist Washington Post; the media view of privacy sensitivities;
• John Sano, former Deputy Director, National Clandestine Service, CIA;
• David Major, former FBI/National Security Council; Eyes-open expert on dangers the U.S. faces.
and banquet speaker: • Dr. John M. Poindexter, ADM, USN(Ret), visionary, brave lightning rod, and heralded pioneer in digital, real-time security who showed how to connect-the-dots; a leader in protecting privacy in a data-driven society; the architect of Big Data systems that sent terrorists running for cover and to their lawyers and front groups to circumvent the new capabilities.

Day One of the Event [at NGA] is open to U.S. citizens only. Days Two and Three are open to all members, subscribers, and guests.
All three days will be conducted at UNCLASSIFIED level.

Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1960 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, VA 22102, Phone: 1-888-233-9527

Use the following link: http://tinyurl.com/ko6ppau to enter a hotel reservation at the discounted $109/nite rate.

If there is any difficulty getting the AFIO $109/night rate, at the hotel ask for Kristina Dorough at 703-738-3114 M - F 7am - 5pm EST
We do NOT recommend calling the national reservation lines but suggest calling the hotel at the above number to get the special event rate.

Saturday, 10 May 2014, noon - 2 - Indian Harbor Beach, FL - The AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter hosts Dick Kerr discussing Robert Gates' book: Duty.

CIA veteran Dick Kerr will discuss Robert Gates' book Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War. The meeting will convene at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club, 100 Datura Drive, Indian Harbor Beach, FL. For information and reservations, please contact Barbara Keith, bobbie6769@juno.com, or 321 777 5561.

Wednesday, 14 May 2014, 6 - 9 pm - Scottsdale, AZ - AFIO AZ Chapter's 2nd Annual James Bond 007 Black Tie Event

AFIO's Arizona Chapter's scholarship fundraiser helps support the students of the defense and security studies at ASU.
Attire: Black Tie Optional
EVENT: Shaken not Stirred Martini Bar, Sit down dinner with hosts at each table representing the CIA Clandestine Service, FBI, Military Intelligence, and Law Enforcement Intelligence who will share war stories and answer questions; Bond Girls; live entertainment and dancing; Aston Martin (minus Machine Guns); Charitable fundraising auction of intelligence & spy paraphernalia; related art objects.
Tickets: $62.50 per person; $125 per couple until April 30
$75 per person; $150 per couple May 1 to May 11.
RSVP: 0072014@afioaz.org. Send check to: AFIO AZ 8614 E Appaloosa Trail, Scottsdale, AZ 85258. Select Chicken Provencal or Poached Salmon, and indicate full name of each guest.

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

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