Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Former CIA Directors Say Interrogation Program 'Saved Thousands of Lives'. Six former Directors and Deputy Directors of the CIA fired back at the Senate Intelligence Committee with a vehemence almost never seen in the intelligence world.

The former CIA leaders - including George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden - blasted the Senate report as "one-sided and marred with errors" and called it "a poorly done and partisan attack on the agency that has done the most to protect America after the 9/11 attacks."

Their 2,500-word rebuttal was posted as an op-ed on the Wall Street Journal website once the report was released. The former intel chiefs are also launching their own website to respond to the attacks on CIA's post-9/11 activities.

The former directors argue that the CIA interrogation program "saved thousands of lives" by helping lead to the capture of top al qaeda operatives and disrupting their plotting. [Read more: Karl/ABCNews/9December2014]

U.K. Security Experts Worried About Terrorist Attack Around Christmas. Counterterrorism officials in the U.S. and the United Kingdom have been quietly discussing an outright ban on hand-carried luggage aboard airplanes for weeks now in the wake of intelligence reports that suggest al-Qaida may be planning to target planes around Europe before the Christmas holidays.

The Express newspaper reported that U.K. officials have intelligence that suggests al-Qaida has been planning a high-profile attack on five commercial flights sometime before Christmas. U.S. officials confirmed to NPR that they had been aware of the threat but could not say how far the plot had progressed and whether revealing it publicly now makes it less likely.

The plot, the U.K. newspaper reports and U.S. officials confirm, is thought to involve the smuggling of bombs onto planes bound for major cities in Europe. The plan did not seem to include any U.S.-bound flights, U.S. officials told NPR.

In response, counterterrorism officials on both sides of the Atlantic have been discussing how to prevent the attacks. One remedy under consideration is to ban all carry-on baggage, though there is some question as to whether airlines would push back against such a draconian provision. [Read more: Temple-Raston/NPR/1December2014]

Mexico Intelligence Agency Investigates Rights Defenders. Mexico's intelligence agency is investigating and potentially filing reports that criminalize human rights defenders and lawyers who counsel the families of the disappeared Ayotzinapa students according to a new report released on Monday.

The lengthy report entitled: "Ficha Cisen a abogado de normalistas" written in the electronic investigative journal, Reporte Indigo, shows that Mexico's Center for Research and National Security (CISEN) - an equivalent to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has opened dossiers on human rights defenders from the Human Rights Center of the Mountain "Tlachinollan" calling them "dangerous to governance."

The report details that Vidulfo Rosales, lawyer and representative of the 43 families of the Ayotzinapa students as well as Tlachinollan's director, Abel Barrera are "elements" that pose a "threat" to the government and that the two participate in "subversive" activities.

The two have been vocal supporters of the families and have played the authorized voice on behalf of the families during meetings with the Interior Secretary, Attorney General and even the Mexico's president, Enrique Pe�a Nieto. [Read more: Telesur/8December2014]

Intelligence Agency Has a Cold Plan for Faster, Cheaper Supercomputing. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has awarded the initial contracts in a five-year program that could up the ante in the field of high-performance - and low power - computing.

IARPA, the Intelligence Community's research division, will work with IBM, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman in developing the first phase of its Cryogenic Computing Complexity, or C3, program, which aims to build a superconducting computer that can operate at exascale capacity - about 40 times faster than today's fastest supercomputers - while requiring much less power than today's machines..

For the intelligence community, exascale computing would be valuable in code-breaking and sifting through the big data generated by its cloud-based Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise. But should the C3 program realize a supercomputing breakthrough, the impact could be felt at many other agencies that deal with increasingly large data sets.

Supercomputer makers have made progress in recent years in increasing processing power while requiring relatively small amounts of energy, by designing low-power architectures and mixing graphical processors in with standard processors. But they still draw about 10 megawatts of power for 20 petaflops, or 20 quadrillion computations per second. Today's fastest supercomputer, China's Tianhe-2, has a theoretical peak of 55 petaflops. Getting to an exaflop, or a thousand petaflops, under the current model would result in some serious power and cooling requirements. [Read more: McCaney/DefenseSystems/4December2014]

Officials Fear Torture Report Could Spark Violence. Federal officials braced for possible violence at U.S. facilities around the world as senators prepared to release a report Tuesday detailing the CIA's torture of suspected terrorists in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

"There are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. "So the administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place at U.S. facilities around the globe."

The report's release by the Senate Intelligence Committee sparked a fierce debate in Congress.

Some lawmakers said it's important for the report to be released so the U.S. government will never again use torture as a method of interrogation. Others said it will inflame extremist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere and threaten the lives of U.S. diplomats, military members and other Americans overseas. [Read more: Kelly/USAToday/9December2014]

National Laboratory Scientist Develops Uncrackable Code for Nuclear Weapons. A scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been honored for developing what is being heralded as a hack-proof method for securing the nation's nuclear stockpile.

Engineer Mark Hart says his technique is deemed so secure that even the world's most sophisticated intelligence agencies won't be able to crack the process - now or ever. His proposal focuses on Intrinsic Use Control (UIC), "a concept that is capable of providing improved quantifiable safety and use control within a nuclear weapon," according to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Enhanced Surety Program has recognized Hart's work and recently honored him with the 2015 Surety Transformation Initiative Award. Hart's proposal was selected from a pool of seven submitted by nuclear-weapons design labs that also included Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. His proposal will receive $2 million in funding over three years.

Hart, who works in Lawrence Livermore's Defense Technologies Division, describes his innovative approach in a short video. [Read more: Johnson/CDW/1December2014]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

5 Questions on the Senate CIA Report. A Senate committee is releasing a report Tuesday on the Central Intelligence Agency's detention and interrogation program for foreign terrorism suspects. Here are questions and answers on the report. [Read more: WallStreetJournal/9December2014]

The First Bond Car Was Actually This Monster Bentley. James Bond is almost synonymous with Aston Martin, and his newest ride, the Aston Martin DB10, is a gorgeous one-off created specifically for the forthcoming movie Spectre. It calls to mind the glorious DB5 from Goldfinger, a car that is almost as iconic as 007 himself.

But before James Bond was the dashing and debonair secret agent on the silver screen, he was the tormented and brooding assassin of Ian Fleming's novels. And in those books, he drove a Bentley. In Fleming's first 007 novel, Casino Royale, published in 1953, Bond tooled around in a 1931 4.5 Litre Blower Bentley. It wasn't so sleek or sexy as the Astons that Bond would come to be known for, but it was among the finest cars of its day and just the thing for getting around in all due haste with style.

Bond was, in Casino Royale, something of a car nut and his beloved Bentley was "his only personal hobby." He bought it in 1933 and kept it in storage while serving in World War II. "Bond drove it hard and well and with an almost sensual pleasure."

Built by Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, one of the famous "Bentley Boys" who raced the cars at Le Mans, the supercharged, two-ton Blower was based on the brand's 24 Hours of Le Mans race car. [Read more: Golson/Wired/8December2014]

Former CIA Officer Known as 'Tie Guy' has a Collection of 1,700 Neckties. Ed Mickolus started his necktie collection 58 years ago, when he was 5 years old.

He just didn't know it at the time.

But when St. Johns County resident pondered the foundation for his collection, which has grown to 1,700, he said, "Well, I have my first tie, period."

It's a small red bow tie with a tartan pattern. It's rather charming, as you might expect of something designed for a boy still in his tender youth.

But charming doesn't exactly apply to most of the ties Mickolus owns. [Read more: Crumpler/FloridaTimesUnion/5December2014]

Dianne Feinstein: Profile of Senate Intelligence Committee Chair. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein is chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has spearheaded the report on US interrogation tactics.

Ms. Feinstein, elected to the Senate in 1992, is the first woman to hold the vaunted position overseeing 16 intelligence agencies.

The California native, born in 1933, attended Stanford University and began her career in politics in 1969 when she was elected to the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors.

Less than a decade later, she became mayor of San Francisco following the assassination of then-Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. [Read more: BBC/8December2014]

Saxby Chambliss - Boehner Friend, CIA Report Critic - Retiring After 20 Years. Retiring this month after two decades on Capitol Hill, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) would much rather talk about golfing with President Obama, his close friendship with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) or for leaving Washington exactly as he promised. But his last few days are likely to be dominated by the release of a report that he didn't entirely support.

Chambliss is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee that has just released its long-awaited, multimillion dollar report on the CIA's brutal interrogation program. The 6,300-page report includes new disclosures about secret detention facilities, or "black sites," that Obama ordered shut in 2009.

Chambliss was the only member of the intelligence panel to vote against launching the report several years ago, but he voted this year to release it. For the past several months, the committee's chairman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), has led tedious negotiations with the White House and CIA about redacting part of the report - a process that Chambliss dismissed as "a long complex process."

"I felt it was a bad mistake to regurgitate this," he said of the report. "It's a chapter that nobody is particularly proud of, except that you've got to remember that this program has been in place since right after 9/11. We were brutally and savagely attacked on our homeland and the CIA was charged with developing an interrogation program and that's not their line of work. It wasn't something that they're used to doing, but they did it under legal authorities they were given." [Read more: O'Keefe/WashingtonPost/9December2014]

Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Death and Horses in Ukraine. Khrushchev Remembers, an autobiographical overview of the USSR supremo's life, although a ripping good read that also offers a timely insider's view of the consolidation of Stalinist rule in Ukraine is, rather surprisingly, out of print.

Well, maybe not so surprisingly.

According to Victor Marchetti, the ex- Special Assistant to the Deputy Director of the CIA who penned the bombshell The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence back in 1974 (which was published with black bars showing the 168 redactions demanded by the CIA) and led to the establishment of the Church Committee, the publication of Khrushchev Remembers was a rather complicated put-up job orchestrated by the CIA and the KGB.

In 2001, Marchetti wrote: [Read more: Lee/InternationalPolicyDigest/7December2014]

Section III - COMMENTARY

CIA Won't Defend Its One-Time Torturers. There may have been bourbon punch and festive lights at the CIA's holiday party Friday night, but a frosty gloom hung in the air.

As everyone in the agency's Langley, Va., headquarters knew, the long-awaited "torture report" from the Senate Intelligence Committee's Democrats was set to drop early the next week, perhaps as soon as Monday morning. It seemed a rather awkward time for a party.

The CIA's response to the report will be muted. The agency will neither defend the so-called rendition, detention, and interrogation programs. Nor will the CIA disavow those controversial efforts entirely. According to current and former officials familiar with the higher-ups' thinking, CIA Director John Brennan is likely to keep his powder dry and essentially agree to disagree with the agency's critics. Even though some CIA employees remain convinced that brutal interrogations of suspected terrorists, including waterboarding, produced useful information that helped prevent terrorist attacks, the agency's leaders will take no position on whether that information could have been obtained through less coercive means.

Such a Jesuitical response will do absolutely nothing to satisfy critics of the program or its supporters - some of whom still go work at Langley every day. But it's the result of the precarious political position that Brennan finds himself in now. [Read more: Harris&Mak/TheDailyBeast/6December2014]

Today's CIA Critics Once Urged the Agency to do Anything to Fight al-Qaeda. The men and women of my former organization, the CIA, are accustomed to frequent and sudden reversals of direction from their political leaders. But the latest twists and turns are especially dramatic.

In one ear they hear the public, the media and members of Congress raising alarms about the terrorist threat from the Islamic State: Do something! Do it now! Why didn't you do something sooner? Politicians from both sides of the aisle are saying that the militant group is an enormous challenge and must be prevented from bringing its brutality to America's shores. The president assures us that the United States will "degrade and ultimately destroy" these terrorists, while the vice president doubles down and says we will follow the Islamic State to "the gates of hell."

But shouting in CIA officers' other ear are people such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) regarding the 500-page summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the agency's interrogation efforts, which is expected to be released next week. The report's leaked conclusion, which has been reported on widely, that the interrogation program brought no intelligence value is an egregious falsehood; it's a dishonest attempt to rewrite history. I'm bemused that the Senate could devote so many resources to studying the interrogation program and yet never once speak to any of the key people involved in it, including the guy who ran it (that would be me).

According to news accounts of the report, Feinstein and her supporters will say that the CIA violated American principles and hid the ugly truth from Congress, the White House and the public. When the report comes out, I expect that few of the critics who will echo Feinstein's charges will have read it - and far fewer will read or understand the minority response and the CIA's rebuttal. [Read more: Rodriguez/WashingtonPost/5December2014]

An Intelligence Committee Agenda. There are big changes coming to the congressional intelligence committees in the 114th Congress, with new leadership in both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Incoming chairmen will be defining their own agendas that set them apart from their predecessors and help the intelligence community (IC) confront evolving challenges. But the first priority for the new intelligence committees should be restoring the public's trust in their oversight of America's intelligence agencies. That trust is severely lacking today.

Because the general public cannot have access to national security secrets, we delegate oversight responsibilities to the courts and Congress - most prominently, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the two intelligence committees. There are other oversight bodies - the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board are the two that spring to mind - but these are stopgaps and secondary. The courts and Congress are supposed to serve as the primary check against intelligence overreach and abuse. For this reason, trust in these institutions is even more important than trust in the IC itself. It is one of the foundations upon which the rest of our intelligence activity depends.

In recent years and especially since the Snowden disclosures began in June 2013, we have seen an erosion of public trust in both the IC and in the oversight bodies. This is reflected in the commonly heard "rubber stamp" critique of the FISC. The same basic charge has been levied against the intelligence committees regarding their oversight of activities like drone strikes and surveillance.

This lack of trust threatens not just perceptions of the committees but also America's intelligence capabilities. [Read more: Erwin/JustSecurity/4December2014]

CIA Interrogations Saved Lives. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Central Intelligence Agency detention and interrogation of terrorists, prepared only by the Democratic majority staff, is a missed opportunity to deliver a serious and balanced study of an important public policy question. The committee has given us instead a one-sided study marred by errors of fact and interpretation - essentially a poorly done and partisan attack on the agency that has done the most to protect America after the 9/11 attacks.

Examining how the CIA handled these matters is an important subject of continuing relevance to a nation still at war. In no way would we claim that we did everything perfectly, especially in the emergency and often-chaotic circumstances we confronted in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. As in all wars, there were undoubtedly things in our program that should not have happened. When we learned of them, we reported such instances to the CIA inspector general or the Justice Department and sought to take corrective action.

The country and the CIA would have benefited from a more balanced study of these programs and a corresponding set of recommendations. The committee's report is not that study. It offers not a single recommendation.

Our view on this is shared by the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee's Republican minority, both of which are releasing rebuttals to the majority's report. Both critiques are clear-eyed, fact-based assessments that challenge the majority's contentions in a nonpartisan way.

What is wrong with the committee's report? [Read more: WallStreetJournal/9December2014]

A Blow to Bipartisanship. The House Intelligence Committee, a rare island of bipartisanship in recent years, may soon become a more confrontational arena with the retirement of its chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers.

Rogers is scheduled to be replaced by Rep. Devin Nunes, a conservative California Republican whose critical comments about Benghazi have made him a favorite with Fox News. House Speaker John Boehner announced the Nunes appointment two weeks ago in what appeared to be a concession to right-wing Republicans who want a more adversarial role for this key committee. 

A sign of what may lie ahead is that Nunes hasn't publicly endorsed the Intelligence Committee's report last month that cleared the CIA, the military and top Obama administration officials of wrongdoing in the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. This report by Rogers' committee was the latest debunking of the Benghazi issue, but it did little to convince conservative Republicans.

Sen. Rand Paul, for example, called the report "a C.Y.A. attempt designed to protect incompetent politicians and government agents." Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN: "I think the report is full of crap." [Read more: Ignatius/WashingtonPost/7December2014]

Section IV - Upcoming Events

AFIO EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

14 December 2014, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. - Euclid, OH - AFIO Ohio Chapter hosts Jim Frohlking discussing WWII Resistance Operations

Jim Frohlking was an Army Air Force fighter pilot during WWII. He flew 56 missions, including 6 over Omaha Beach on D-Day, in P-38's and P-51's. He was hit by flack on his 56th mission and bailed out over Holland into water. Jim was picked up by a Dutch fishing boat and delivered to the Dutch resistance, who eventually got him back to the Allied lines. His talk will be about his experiences with the resistance and return to the Allies.
Location: Through the courtesy of member Greg Moore and Notre Dame College we will have the Great Room on the 3rd floor of the Administration Building at Notre Dame College, 4545 College Rd., South Euclid, Ohio 44121. The Great Room is located at the east end of the 3rd floor and is clearly marked.
We will have a deli tray and coffee. RSVP to hp34063@yahoo.com by the 10th of December. We look forward to seeing everyone. - John

18 December 2014, 11:30 am - 2 pm - San Francisco, CA - AFIO San Francisco Chapter hosts Russell Berman, Sr Fellow Hoover Institution, on "Freedom or Terror: Europe Faces Jihad"

The AFIO James Quesada Chapter hosts Russell A. Berman, Senior Fellow at Hoover Institution, a member of the working group on Islamism and the International Order and author of Freedom or Terror: Europe Faces Jihad and Anti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem. 11:30AM no host cocktails; meeting starts at noon. United Irish Cultural Center, 2700 45th Avenue, SF (between Sloat/Wawona). RSVP required by 12/1/14 to Mariko Kawaguchi: e-mail afiosf@aol.com and mail check made out to "AFIO" to: Mariko Kawaguchi, P.O. Box 117578, Burlingame, CA 94011. Members and students: $25; non-member guests $35 (must be accompanied by member).

Friday, 16 January 2015, 4:30 pm - Washington, DC - "How to Prepare for a Foreign Intelligence Post: Preventing Mirror-Imaging" - a talk by James R. Hughes, President of AFIO National, at the Institute of World Politics

You are cordially invited to a lecture on the topic of "How to Prepare for a Foreign Intelligence Post: Preventing Mirror-Imaging" with James R. Hughes, incoming AFIO President, (his term begins January 2015)
James R. HUGHES is beginning his service as AFIO�s 17th President in January 2015. He had a career of US Government service, spanning 37 years in numerous foreign countries with a particular focus in the Middle East. He started in U.S. Military Intelligence in the late 1960s and then joined the CIA�s Clandestine Service. He served overseas as a Chief of Station several times, and at CIA Headquarters in a number of senior management positions, including as Chief of the Near East and South Asia Division, in the Directorate of Operations [today�s National Clandestine Service]. He was also named the Associate Deputy Director of Operations (ADDO) at the National Security Agency, 1998-99.
Following his retirement from the government in 2005, he joined EDS in Herndon, Virginia, as the Client Industry Executive for the U.S. Intelligence Community. After the HP acquisition of EDS, he continued to serve in a similar capacity until his retirement in 2012.
His parents were missionaries in Turkey in the 1950s, where Jim spent his formative years. He attended the prep schools of two of the most famous missionary-founded universities in the Middle East: Robert College in Istanbul and the American University-Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon. He is fluent in Arabic, and has extensive knowledge of, and appreciation for, the arts, geography, culture, and religions of that region.
He has been an AFIO member since 2005 and joined the board in 2009.
RSVP mandatory � Business attire � VIP reception to follow
This event is sponsored by IWP�s Office of Professional Affiliations and the Student Government Association.
Event location: The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036.
For Parking, consult this map.
RSVP: Contact sdwyer@iwp.edu with any questions.

Friday, 30 January 2015 - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO National's first luncheon of 2015 starts with the new Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) -- Robert T. Cardillo

Cardillo will discuss the expanded mission of NGA from Ebola relief activities to providing tools, advanced tech, sophisticated techniques, and specialized expertise to policymakers, warfighters, intelligence analysts, and first responders. Morning speaker TBA.
Timing: Check-in for badge pickup at 10:30 a.m.; TBA begins presentation at 11 a.m.; Lunch served at noon; NGA Director Cardillo begins his presentation at 1:05 pm. Event closes at 2 p.m.
Morning and Afternoon programs are On The Record.
The latest intelligence books, and many others, on display and for sale throughout event.

EVENT LOCATION: The Crowne Plaza, 1960 Chain Bridge Rd, Tysons Corner, VA Driving directions here or use this link: http://tinyurl.com/boey9vf

Other Upcoming Events

Friday, 12 December 2014, 9 am - Washington, DC - The 2014 Cato Institute Surveillance Conference

Never in human history have people been more connected than they are today ― nor have they been more thoroughly monitored. Over the past year, the disclosures spurred by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have drawn public attention to the stunning surveillance capabilities of the American intelligence community, and the unprecedented volume of data they collect from hundreds of millions of people around the world. But the growth of government surveillance is by no means restricted to spies: Even ordinary law enforcement agencies increasingly employ sophisticated tracking technologies, from face recognition software to "Stingray" devices that can locate suspects by sniffing out their cellular phone signals. Are these tools a vital weapon against criminals and terrorists ― or a threat to privacy and freedom? How should these tracking technologies be regulated by the Fourth Amendment and federal law? Can we reconcile the secrecy that spying demands with the transparency that democratic accountability requires?

This inaugural Cato Institute Surveillance Conference will explore these questions, guided by a diverse array of experts: top journalists and privacy advocates; lawyers and technologists; intelligence officials ... and those who�ve been targets of surveillance. And for the more practically minded, a special Crypto Reception, following the Conference, will teach attendees how to use privacy-enhancing technologies to secure their own communications.

Featuring , Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; Charlie Savage, Washington Correspondent, New York Times; John Napier Tye, Former Section Chief for Internet Freedom, State Department; Marcy Wheeler, Writer, Emptywheel.net; Laura Donohue, Director, Georgetown University Center on National Security & the Law; Alex Joel, Civil Liberties Officer, Office of the Director of National Intelligence; Jack Gillium, Associated Press; Faisal Gill, Attorney & Surveillance Target; Orin Kerr, Professor of Law, George Washington University; Harley Geiger, Advocacy Director and Senior Counsel, Center for Democracy & Technology; Chris Soghoian, Principal Technologist and Senior Policy Analyst, American Civil Liberties Union; Katherine Hawkins, National Security Fellow, Open the Government; Steve Aftergood, Director, Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists; Sharon Bradford Franklin, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board; Elizabeth "Liza" Goitein, Co-Director, Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice; Matthew Green, Research Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University; Kurt Opsahl, Deputy General Counsel, Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Julia Angwin, ProPublica; author of Dragnet Nation.

Wine, cheese, and a hands-on opportunity to learn about installing and using privacy-protecting technologies for encrypted email, encrypted chat, and anonymous web browsing. Presenters include: Amie Stepanovich, Senior Policy Counsel, Access; and Matthew Green, Research Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University.
Location: Cato Institute Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001

16 December 2014, 5 - 8 pm - Reston, VA - Course dates for taking Globalytica's online professional certificate course for intelligence analysts: Diagnostic Structured Analytic Techniques (DSAT)

Duration: Four 3-hour evening sessions―5:00-8:00PM EST
Platform: Courses are taught exclusively online using Globalytica�s avatar-based 3D virtual training world, TH!NK Live.
Globalytica, the thought leader in analytic techniques, presents its latest online professional certificate course: Diagnostic Structured Analytic Techniques (DSAT). This is course is designed for analysts interested learning techniques to help uncover information gaps and inform future research design.

The DSAT certificate course provides students with a set of analytic tools and techniques to help formulate and refine ideas about what has happened or is currently occurring. Students will:
� Learn to identify the dynamics at play in an issue or problem.
� Practice reframing issues to understand better how forces or elements might combine to generate different outcomes in the future.
**Register before November 21st to receive 50% off the regular course price.**
For more information and to register, visit http://www.globalytica.com/dsat/
Cindy Jensen | Marketing Associate | Pherson Associates, LLC
Instilling Rigor and Imagination in Analysis
1892 Preston White Dr. Suite 300, Reston, VA 20191 , phone: 703-390-9943 | fax: 703-390-9955 | email: cjensen@pherson.org

Saturday, 20 December 2014, 1-4pm - Washington DC - Book signing with Joe Goldberg, former CIA and author of Secret Wars: An Espionage Story.

Joe Goldberg, author of Secret Wars: An Espionage Story spent eight years working for CIA engaged in covert action as well as information collection and analysis. During his tenure he earned a Meritorious Unit Citation and three Performance Awards. A recipient of numerous prestigious awards over his thirty years of working in intelligence, Goldberg is a published author including his newest, Secret Wars: An Espionage Story and frequent speaker on intelligence subjects.
Secret Wars: An Espionage Story provides the long history of the CIA’s global fight against terrorism, the weapons have remained the same: the use of force and covert action. When terrorists funded by the Libyan government strike airports in Rome and Vienna in 1985, the CIA enlists top propaganda expert Mike Garnett to help recruit a high-ranking Libyan official, Foreign Minister Abdallah Mukhtar, to work for the CIA. As violence escalates between the US military and terrorists based in Libya, Garnett utilizes CIA assets in Hollywood to produce a propaganda video designed to convince Mukhtar he was betrayed by his own regime. Garnett’s plan works—but goes sideways when it motivates the Libyan official to do something Garnett didn’t even consider. Insightful, Secret Wars: An Espionage Story is a tale of deception, betrayal, and patriotism—and Garnett soon learns they’re not as black and white as they seem when he’s forced to reevaluate the true nature of the business of deception.
Tickets: Free! No registration required. Visit www.spymuseum.org

Wednesday, 07 January 2015, 12:00pm-7:00pm - Washington DC. - "Iran-Contra: Reagan’s Scandal and the Unchecked Abuse of Presidential Power" claims author Malcolm Byrne at International Spy Museum

Through exhaustive use of declassified documents, previously unavailable investigative materials, and wide-ranging interviews, Malcolm Byrne explores what made the Iran-Contra scandal possible and meticulously relates how it unfolded—including clarifying minor myths about cakes, keys, bibles, diversion memos, and shredding parties. Byrne, the Deputy Director and Research Director at the National Security Archive, demonstrates that the affair could not have occurred without awareness and approval at the top levels of the US government. He reveals an unmistakable pattern of dubious behavior—including potentially illegal conduct by the president, vice president, the secretaries of state and defense, the CIA director and others—that formed the true core of the scandal.
Tickets: Free! No registration required. Visitwww.spymuseum.org

8 January 2015 - Washington, DC - The Returned Services League/Australia hosts Cal Carnes, Ret. CI officer, talking about "The Insider Threat."

The Returned & Services League of Australia, Washington Sub-Branch, hosts Calland Carnes speaking on "The Insider Threat. "
Event location: Amenities Room, Embassy of Australia, 1601 Massachusetts Ave NW., Washington, DC 20036.
Charge - $15.00, including buffet lunch and sodas. Alcoholic beverages- $2.00 each. Attire: Business casual
RSVP by noon on January 7, 2015 to David Ward at 202-352-8550 or via e-mail to dmward1973@gmail.com
NOTE: Valid photo ID required
Parking: While there is no parking at the Embassy, paid off street parking is available behind and under the Airline Pilots Association- 17th and Mass, and at 15th and Mass (1240 15th street). On street two hour metered parking is also available.

Wednesday, 14 January 2015, noon - Washington DC - Global Terrorism, Espionage and Cybersecurity Monthly Update

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. Visit www.spymuseum.org

To attend click here and then submit the form on the page that opens, or email events@cato.org, fax (202) 371-0841, or call (202) 789-5229 by 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 11, 2014.

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