AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes

WIN CREDITS FOR THIS ISSUE: The WIN editors thank the following special contributors: pjk, mh, km, gh, mk, rd, fm, kc, jm, mr, jg, th and fwr. They have contributed one or more stories used in this issue.

The WIN editors attempt to include a wide range of articles and commentary in the Weekly Notes to inform and educate our readers. However, the views expressed in the articles are purely those of the authors, and in no way reflect support or endorsement from the WIN editors or the AFIO officers and staff. We welcome comments from the WIN readers on any and all articles and commentary.

CAVEATS: IMPORTANT: AFIO does not "vet" or endorse research inquiries, career announcements, 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, and should verify the source independently before supplying any resume, career data, or personal information.]
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The Homeland Security Professionals' Journal
September issue has been released online.
No charge to read this issue or earlier ones.
Click image above to begin.

CIA-Art, Inc. Gift idea...from International Spy Museum Shop

Filling up! Join many other members and special guests, including students, already registered for...
AFIO-NGA's 2017 National Intelligence Symposium

Do not miss hearing... Robert Cardillo, Director, NGA
James Clapper, former Director National Intelligence
Chris Inglis, Former Deputy Director, NSA
William Evanina, NCIX, Director, National Counterintelligence and Security Center
David Cohen, former CIA Deputy Director for Operations
Burton Gerber, former CIA Chief of Station, Moscow
Michael Sulick, former Director, National Clandestine Service
David Robarge, Chief Historian, CIA
James Hughes, former Chief, Near East and South Asia Division; Associate Deputy Director of Operations, NSA
Thomas Rid, Professor, Kings College London
Lauri Lepik, Estonian Ambassador-Designate

• Speakers and Venues

DAY ONE: "Succeeding in the Open - The Future of GEOINT" at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and

DAY TWO: "Active Measure - A Global Threat" at the Doubletree-Hilton

Thursday & Friday, 28 to 29 September 2017

Hotel: DoubleTree-Hilton, Tysons Corner, VA

Registration for SYMPOSIUM 2017 is underway. Register securely ONLINE now to ensure a place.

Arrive Wednesday evening, 27 September, to overnight at the hotel to be ready early Thursday, 28 September, for coach service to NGA Headquarters for all day conference including visit to their new museum. Tentative agenda here and will be updated frequently. Friday evening is our "Spies in Black Ties" banquet.
Hotel: DoubleTree-Hilton, Tysons Corner, VA [formerly the Crowne Plaza], at 1960 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA 22102.

Reserve overnight rooms at hotel now while the special group price is valid: Room registrations can be made at 1-800-HILTONS at $119/nite. [To make room reservations carefully follow the prompts dialing "1" twice - this is to get to reservations, and then to make a new reservation. You then are asked to enter your phone number followed by the pound sign. After that, you are placed into a queue in order to speak with a customer service rep. When they get on the line, they ask for the city [Tysons Corner, VA], the name of the hotel [DoubleTree-Hilton], and the group name for the special rate [AFIO $119/nite.]

Registration for SYMPOSIUM 2017 is underway. Register securely ONLINE now to ensure a place.
Or use this printable Registration Packet. Contains the formal invitation, tentative agenda, and off-line registration forms sent earlier to all current member. Complete and return by fax or US Mail.

Book of the Week.

The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of Darkness
by John Prados
(The New Press, Nov 2017)

"John Prados is a one-man truth commission who wants to know three things—what the United States really wanted, really feared and really did in the world since the birth of the CIA in 1947. The Ghosts of Langley, offers a deep look into that history. His purpose is not to attack or to defend but to confront what we know—and what we know, in Prados’s telling, is plenty." —Thomas Powers, author of The Man Who Kept Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA
"'Know thy enemy' is a mantra in the world of intelligence—which is why every CIA officer should read John Prados. The Ghosts of Langley is a relentless portrait of the Agency, crafted with vivid stories about its zealots, its ignored heroes and celebrated schemers. Prados has been writing about intelligence for three decades and now synthesizes his knowledge into a history not to be ignored." —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and executive director at the Center for Biography at CUNY Graduate Center, New York City

Drawing on newly declassified documents, historian Prados reviews CIA operations and discerns a disturbing continuum from the practice of covert actions from Iran in the 1950s, Chile and Vietnam in the 1970s, and Central America in the 1980s to the current secret wars in the Muslim world. Prados suggests that CIA has decoupled itself from government accountability, going rogue in a series of troubling and even criminal ventures that reach their tragic apotheosis with the secret overseas prisons and torture programs of the War on Terror.

One must ask: to what extent was CIA following White House expectations or orders (with Congress and the White House counting on full deniability if any schemes went awry)?

The book may be ordered here.

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Russia Jailed Senior Intelligence Officers for Helping CIA Nab Notorious Hackers. Two senior officers in the Russian intelligence services were charged with treason after they were found to have helped the United States catch two notorious Russian hackers, according to reports in the Russian media. Sergey Mikhailov was a career officer in the Federal Security Service - a descendant of the domestic section of the Soviet-era KGB - which is often referred to as Russia's equivalent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mikhailov had risen through the ranks of the FSB to eventually head the agency's Center for Information Security. Known in Russia as CIB, the Center is tasked with investigating electronic crime in the Russian Federation.

But in December 2016, Mikhailov and one of his trusted deputies in the CIB, Dmitry Dokuchaev, were suddenly removed from their posts and arrested. The arrests marked some of the highest-profile detentions of intelligence officers in Russia since the demise of the Soviet Union. Russian authorities refused to reveal the reasons for the arrests, but confirmed that the two men had been charged with treason. Reports soon surfaced in the Russian media, claiming that Mikhailov and Dokuchaev were arrested for their involvement in a Russian criminal hacker gang. Some Western media, including The New York Times, speculated that the two men may have been arrested for helping US intelligence investigate Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

But now a new report alleges that Mikhailov and Dokuchaev were charged with treason after helping the US Central Intelligence Agency catch two prolific Russian hackers. The report was aired on Russian television station TV Dozhd, also known as TV Rain, a privately owned channel based in Moscow, which broadcasts in Russia and several other former Soviet Republics. One of the hackers, Roman Seleznev, known in hacker circles as Track2, reached worldwide notoriety for defrauding major credit card companies of tens of millions of dollars. He was arrested in 2014 in the South Asian island country of Maldives and eventually extradited to the US to stand trial. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, which he is currently serving. The other hacker, Yevgeniy Nikulin, was arrested in the Czech Republic in 2016, pursuant to a US-issued international arrest warrant. He is now awaiting extradition to the US, where he is expected to be tried for hacking several high-profile companies, including DropBox and LinkedIn.

TV Dozhd said that Russian authorities are also suspecting the men of being members of hacker gangs, but that their main charges relate to their close cooperation with American intelligence agencies, reportedly in exchange for cash. [Read More: Fitsanakis/intelnews/25Aug2017]

The North Korean Spies Ukraine Caught Stealing Missile Plans. The images are a little grainy, but in the half-light of a dusty Ukrainian garage, you can sense the unbridled enthusiasm of the two North Korean spies who are photographing what they think are top-secret missile designs.

In a rare window into the opaque, deadly and secretive world of missile technology espionage, Ukrainian security services have given CNN surveillance footage and details of an elaborate sting operation they carried out to snare two North Korean spies in 2011.

The revelations are aimed at dispelling claims that a recent leap forward in Pyongyang's intercontinental missile technology may have been achieved by using designs stolen or originating from Ukraine.

The claims are made in a report released by analysts at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) on August 14 which says technology, possibly from Ukraine's Yuzhnoye Design Office in Dnipro, was used in recent North Korean missile tests. [Read More: Walsh/cnn/25Aug2017]

NGA, NRO to Explore Commercial GEOINT Offerings With New Tool. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Reconnaissance Office will compare their near term geospatial intelligence needs with commercial offerings through a new leaderboard, Space News reported Tuesday.

NGA and NRO established Commercial GEOINT Activity last year to jointly explore GEOINT capabilities in the private sector.

CGA directors implemented the Leaderboard tool in June to collect information from industry providers of GEOINT products.

Space News quoted Kevin Ayers, director of NGA's commercial GEOINT activity engagement division, as saying the Leaderboard will help CGA "rack and stack those companies so we can have a better sense of what is going to make the biggest difference for us." [Read More: Adams/executivegov/24Aug2017]

Decision Aug. 31 on US Extradition of Panama Ex-President. A federal judge said Wednesday he will decide Aug. 31 whether a former president of Panama should be extradited from the U.S. to his home country to face political espionage charges that he calls a vendetta by opponents.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres made the announcement at a hearing Wednesday for Ricardo Martinelli, Panama's president from 2009-2014.

Martinelli, 65, was arrested in June at his Miami-area home on Panama's extradition request and is being held without bail. He's accused in an October 2015 indictment in Panama of illegally monitoring telephone and other communications of at least 150 people using an extensive surveillance system. He's also charged with embezzlement of $13 million in public funds linked to the surveillance system, which operated from 2012 to 2014.

The former president has denied wrongdoing, and calls the charges an attempt at political payback. [Read More: Anderson/usnews/23Aug2017]

Alleged Yahoo Hacker Karim Baratov Pleads Not Guilty in U.S. Court, Lawyer Says. A lawyer of a Canadian man accused in a massive hack of Yahoo emails says his client has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him in a San Francisco courtroom on Wednesday.

Karim Baratov was arrested in Hamilton in March under the Extradition Act after U.S. authorities indicted him and three others for computer hacking, economic espionage and other crimes.

Baratov's U.S.-based lawyer, Andrew Mancilla, says his next court appearance will be Tuesday.

Last week, the 22-year-old decided to forgo his extradition hearing and face the charges in the United States in what his Canadian lawyer has called an effort to speed up the legal process. [Read More: thestar/23Aug2017]

Erdogan Expands Powers over Intelligence Agency. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tightened his grip on Turkey's National Intelligence Organization on Friday after issuing a decree that said the MIT, which was previously under the prime minister, would now report to the president.

The decree gave the Turkish intelligence agency the power to investigate the defense ministry and Turkish armed forces personnel.

The president would also need to approve any request made for the MIT head, currently Hakan Fidan, to act as a witness in court.

In an other emergency decree, Turkey has dismissed over 900 public sector officials in the latest wave of the purge that followed last year's failed coup. [Read More: Abdelrazek/aawsat/26Aug2017]

TSA Reviewing Cargo Screening, Concerned About Terror Vulnerabilities. The Transportation Security Administration is reviewing its screening procedures for cargo flown into and within the United States because of concerns that potential security vulnerabilities could be exploited by terrorists, a US official told CNN.

The review, which is examining screening for cargo carried by freight airlines and passenger planes, stems in part from a terror plot that was foiled in Australia last month, according to the official.

Investigations revealed that a senior ISIS commander shipped partially assembled components of a bomb on a commercial cargo plane from Turkey to Australia, according to Australian law enforcement.

Two men in Australia assembled the parts into a functional explosive device, police said. The plan was to place it on an Etihad Airways passenger plane on July 15 at an Australian airport and detonate it, according to police. [Read More: Marsh,Cohen/cnn/25Aug2017]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

At CIA, A Watchful Eye on Mike Pompeo, the President's Ardent Ally. As CIA director, Mike Pompeo has taken a special interest in an agency unit that is closely tied to the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, requiring the Counterintelligence Mission Center to report directly to him.

Officials at the center have, in turn, kept a watchful eye on Pompeo, who has repeatedly played down Russia's interference in the 2016 election and demonstrated a willingness to engage in political skirmishes for President Trump.

Current and former officials said that the arrangement has been a source of apprehension among the CIA's upper ranks and that they could not recall a time in the agency's history when a director faced a comparable conflict.

"Pompeo is in a delicate situation unlike any other director has faced, certainly in my memory," said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a CIA official for 23 years who served in Russia and held high-level positions at headquarters, "because of his duty to protect and provide the truth to an independent investigation while maintaining his role with the president." [Read More: Miller/washingtonpost/24Aug2017]

How Russian Spies Bugged the US State Department. Most US spy hunters work their entire careers tracking down undercover agents without ever personally playing a direct role in the physical arrest of a spy.

Robert David Booth, however, is the rare exception.

The retired State Department deputy director of the Division of Counterintelligence was able to investigate a spy and then actually help to plan and execute an arrest -- a rare thrill that Booth considers himself lucky to be a part of.

In early 1999, Booth and his colleagues learned that Russian spies were listening to classified conversations deep in the heart of Washington's State Department building -- inside a conference room in the same corridor as the Secretary of State's personal office. [Read More: Patterson/cnn/23Aug2017]

Book Review: Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935 - 1961. Against today's backdrop of collusion, tampered elections and cyber warfare, it may seem strange to be glorifying a Nobel- and Pulitzer-winning American for his efforts to spy for the Russians - but in many ways that's exactly what a new book on Ernest Hemingway claims to do.

Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy draws on background material from FBI and NKVD (Russia's embryonic KGB around the time of World War II) to reveal Hemingway as not just the familiar gun-toting, larger-than-life author of For Whom the Bell Tolls and liberator of the Ritz bar, but also as a man whose anti-fascism and disillusionment with US politics took him towards espionage on behalf of Communist Russia.

Author Nicholas Reynolds is as thorough as he can be with his sparse sources but his former lives as an officer in the Marine Corps and CIA, as well as military historian for the CIA Museum, allow him credible conjecture in painting a slightly refreshed portrait of one of the 20th century's most well-rounded figures.

What's clear is that Hemingway-the-spy wasn't much called upon. [Read More: Belfield/stuff/27Aug2017]

12 Amateur Spies Paved the Way to War Against the Nazis. Shortly past midnight, November 8, 1942, the largest amphibious assault the world had ever seen struck the North African coast.

A enormous armada had steamed undetected as far as 4,000 miles to a few miles off three main landing zones scattered along 1,200 miles of North Africa's Atlantic and Mediterranean seaboard. The nearly 900 warships and transports carried 107,000 soldiers - 82,600 of them U.S. Army troops, the rest British and Commonwealth soldiers.

They came there to stage U.S. entry into World War II, create a "second" front to draw off German pressure on the Eastern Front where the Soviet Red Army was caught up in a brutal life-or-death fight with the Nazis, and drive armored German and Italian armies out of North Africa. The ports and airbases of North Africa would serve as America's gateway and springboard to the conquest of Rome and Berlin. But the first step in defeating Hitler and Mussolini was liberating France. Except this time, nobody was proudly proclaiming, Lafayette, we are here!

Occupied France's Nazi overlords permitted the collaborationist government in Vichy to maintain a 125,000-man defense force in North Africa. They manned coastal batteries, more than 20 advanced warships and submarines, and some 500 aircraft in colonial Morocco and Algeria. Vichy put them there to stop the Allies, but nobody was sure which way the French troops would shoot, at the Nazis and their Vichy bootlickers or at their would-be liberators. [Read More: Wortman/thedailybeast/26Aug2017]

A Death Little Noticed After Remarkable Life. Ms. Jeannie Rousseau died this week at age 97 in Paris, France. She had been a remarkable girl, full of life and personality. She was also a gifted linguist speaking fluent German as well as her native French. She also had a powerful and productive memory, and was able to recall conversations in great detail.

When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, Jeannie language talents made her very much in demand. She went to work in the National Industrial Council as a translator for the Germans. She was tiny, petite and obviously harmless, and so the Nazis both liked her, trusted her and spoke openly around her.

She picked up a lot of information vital to the Allied war effort and finally found a way to start passing the information to London.

The Allies soon learned that Jeannie's information was spot on, and correct in every particular. [Read More: columbiadailyherald/26Aug2017]

Spies Like Us: A Conversation With John le Carr' and Ben Macintyre. Their subject is spying. Their obsessions are secrecy and betrayal. They are Englishmen of a certain background, old friends and admirers of each other's work. One writes novels; the other, nonfiction. They speak in practically perfect sentences.

Conversations between John le Carr' and Ben Macintyre are inevitably warm, interesting, witty, discursive, conspiratorial and gossipy, although their gossip is often espionage-related and more rarefied than yours or mine. They met for lunch recently, on a desultorily sunny weekday in a private dining room at a boutique hotel in Bristol. Le Carr', 85, had been driven from his home in Cornwall (he also lives in London) by his family's "outdoor man," responsible for yardwork and other outside-the-house tasks; Macintyre, 53, had come by train from Winchester, where he had been speaking at a literary festival.

As usual, they were in the midst of a flurry of projects, finishing things up and starting new ones. Le Carr', who over a 56-year career has virtually single-handedly elevated spy novels from genre fiction into works of high literature, has a new book, "A Legacy of Spies," coming out in September. Thrillingly for his admirers, it is a coda of sorts to "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" (1963), the third of his two dozen novels and the one that for many readers serves as the gateway drug to full-blown le Carr' addiction.

Macintyre, meanwhile, is a longtime columnist for The Times of London and the author of 11 elegant, authoritative and dryly humorous nonfiction works, focusing most recently on 20th-century British espionage. He has a deep appreciation for the amusing and the absurd. His most recent book is "Rogue Heroes," about the origins of the British special forces unit; he is working on a new one, about a Cold War spy case. [Read More: Lyall/nytimes/25Aug2017]

How Do You Feel About...Spies? Canada's electronic spies want to know what you think.

Not in any creepy intercept-your-text-message or stalk-your-social-media-accounts way - at least not in this instance.

The Communications Security Establishment, Canada's cyber-defence and espionage agency, commissioned the first public polling in the agency's 70-year history this year.

The idea was to establish a baseline about how Canadians feel about the formerly shadowy and secretive agency, which was thrust into the spotlight after the revelations of U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013. [Read More: Boutilier/thestar/25Aug2017]

Defense Intelligence Agency's 2018 Summer Internship Program. Applications are now available for the Defense Intelligence Agency 2018 Summer Internship Program. This program provides current college students and recent graduates with the opportunity to gain practical work experience through research, report writing, briefing development and delivery, policy writing and intelligence analysis. Interns will gain valuable on-the-job experience while providing support to DIA's mission. They are also exposed to the broader intelligence community through field trips, information sessions, and panel discussions. Interns will be appointed for a 10- to 12-week period from June through August 2018.

DIA provides military intelligence to warfighters, defense policymakers, and force planners in the Department of Defense and IC in support of U.S. military planning, operations, and acquisition. We plan, manage, and execute intelligence operations during peacetime, crisis, and war.

The Summer Internship Program is open to current students enrolled in full-time undergraduate and graduate degree-seeking programs at accredited institutions. [Read More: DIA Public Affairs/dia/23Aug2017]

An Eclipse, Soviet Scientists and a Deeply Suspicious CIA. The request appeared reasonable enough. The Soviet Union wanted to send a relatively small team of scientists to an island in the Pacific administered by New Zealand ahead of an upcoming eclipse to conduct some harmless experiments.

But it was 1956 and in those early days of the Cold War, anything the Soviets wanted to do -- especially involving space -- was met with deep suspicion by American intelligence.

"The CIA was particularly paranoid certainly about anything that might have a positive benefits for the Soviets. This is a time period where we're in a zero-sum world where anything that's good for them is bad for us and vice versa," intelligence historian Vince Houghton told Code and Dagger. "Even if we had no idea what was going on, if they said, 'Hey we'd really like to do this,' we're like, 'Well, why? Why would you want to do that?' So I think certainly in the 1950s people were focused on that."

True to form, the CIA tasked an analyst with trying to figure out what the Soviets might really be up to. The result was a nine-page report, now declassified, that concluded the usual scientific data would be valuable to the Soviets on its own, but the trip to Atafu Island could also be a cover for a "feeler" mission to later spy on U.S. nuclear testing or help prepare the Soviets for a nuclear war. If the team was allowed to go, the analyst said, they should be under near-constant watch for any national security shenanigans. [Read More: Ferran/codeanddagger/21Aug2017]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Senators Want Spies to Disclose More About Secret Zero-Day Policy. The Senate Intelligence Committee hopes to learn more about how American spies handle the disclosure of software vulnerabilities continuously discovered by federal agencies and occasionally used as weak points to hack into computer networks, according to the recently released 2018 Intelligence Authorization Act. While the law calls for greater transparency, former senior U.S. officials say it begs the wrong questions.

The specific provision, which is just one part of the Senate committee's annual legislative agenda, comes in the aftermath of multiple leaks of classified information; providing in some cases the computer code behind a toolbox of outdated NSA and CIA hacking capabilities. These exposures have already led to the adoption of several different, U.S. government-linked hacking tools by cyber criminals and foreign spy powers. The proliferation of this code was responsible for a recent, global outbreak of ransomware that subsequently caused millions of dollars in business losses.

The central framework that guides each agency's decision of whether or not to inform a technology vendor of a discovered software vulnerability is guided by a process known as the Vulnerabilities Equities Process, or VEP. Although there's risk involved, there are cases when a spy agency may choose to keep a vulnerability hidden - thereby allowing for a software flaw to continue - because it allows them to collect intelligence on a specific target. These incidents are voluntarily submitted into the VEP as part of a formal process that includes a review board consisting of senior government officials from multiple federal agencies, like the Commerce Department and FBI.

While the VEP is an increasingly important rubric used to review the impact of certain digital espionage operations, the framework remains largely shrouded in secrecy. For example, the exact guidelines established by the VEP are unclear to the public as are the conversations between affected parties and the government. [Read More: Bing/cyberscoop/24Aug2017]

Even Wikileaks Haters Shouldn't Want It Labeled a "Hostile Intelligence Agency". It used to be easy to cheer on WikiLeaks. But since 2010, many (myself included) have watched with dismay as WikiLeaks slid from the outlet courageous enough to host Chelsea Manning's data dump to a murky melange of bad-faith propagandizing and newsworthy disclosures. At a time when WikiLeaks and its founder are willing to help push "Pizzagate," and unable to tweet about sunglasses sans conspiracy-think, it's not unfair to view Julian Assange as being motivated as much by his various axes to grind as he is by a zeal for transparency. But even the harshest WikiLeaks critics should resist the Senate's attempt to brand the website a "non-state hostile intelligence service" in the 2018 intelligence authorization bill.

Ron Wyden isn't a friend of WikiLeaks. In May, the Oregon senator's office tweeted that it was an "established fact" that 'Trump actively encouraged Russians & WikiLeaks to attack our democracy," and pointed out, with suspicion, President Donald Trump's praise for WikiLeaks during the campaign. Like his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden embraced the tough language on Russian meddling that had been folded into the nation's spy budget, but unlike them he voted against the reauthorization bill because of this sentence: "It is the sense of Congress that WikiLeaks and the senior leadership of WikiLeaks resemble a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors and should be treated as such a service by the United States."

So, what's a "non-state hostile intelligence service"? That's a great question, given that an "intelligence service" is a spy agency, and spy agencies are the tools of governments, and therefore not stateless. That's exactly why Wyden, despite his opposition to WikiLeaks and determination to investigate Russian electoral interference, came to its defense: Official resolutions are risky when no one's really sure what's being resolved. Perhaps the hostile agency language would be purely symbolic, but if the clause somehow proved to have some teeth, plenty of publishers not so easily written off as tools of foreign meddling could be at risk.

The Hill reports that Wyden objected to the "use of the novel phrase" to label WikiLeaks because the ambiguous term "may have legal, constitutional, and policy implications, particularly should it be applied to journalists inquiring about secrets," adding that the notion the "U.S. government has some unstated course of action against 'non-state hostile intelligence services' is equally troubling." When CIA Director Mike Pompeo used the "non-state hostile intelligence service" phrase to describe WikiLeaks in a think tank address in April, the words were equally unclear, and nothing has changed four months later - except the possibility that the language would become government policy. That's significant and should worry you whether you hate WikiLeaks or not. [Read More: Biddle/theintercept/25Aug2017]

Donald Trump, Russia and Why the President Would Make a Terrible Spy. It was the summer of 2008, and I was in Wayne, New Jersey, standing in a Hooters parking lot with Captain Oleg Kulikov, a New York - based Russian spymaster. For three years, I'd been working for Moscow, trying to prove my worth. I wanted to become a key asset for the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. In return, I wanted a hefty paycheck and thought I'd done enough to earn it. But Kulikov was dithering - and he could see I was upset.

What he didn't know: I was actually a double agent, working for the FBI. My mission was to make the Russians believe I was a spy. Which meant I had to show Kulikov that I was tired of his games and willing to walk away.

I've thought of this moment several times since Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Many have speculated that Trump is actually a Russian asset - perhaps a longtime one. His ties to ex-Soviet oligarchs are certainly troubling; some allege he's allowed the Russian mob to launder big money through his properties (the Kremlin reportedly has extensive links to organized crime). His remarks about Moscow are equally troubling. He has defended the Kremlin's killing of dissidents ("Do you think our country is so innocent?") and dismissed claims by his own intelligence services that Russian-backed hackers carried out a plot to undermine his opponent - and American democracy - in November.

Today, as a special counsel and others investigate ties between the president's campaign and Moscow, Trump has dismissed these probes as "fake news" and a "witch hunt." Nothing could be further from the truth. [Read More: Jamali/newsweek/23Aug2017]

Section IV - Jobs and Obituaries

Jobs

Security Analyst - FaaS Location: Reston, VA
The Company: FireEye is the intelligence-led security company. Working as a seamless, scalable extension of customer security operations, FireEye offers a single platform that blends innovative security technologies, nation-state grade threat intelligence, and world-renowned Mandiant consulting. With this approach, FireEye eliminates the complexity and burden of cyber security for organizations struggling to prepare for, prevent, and respond to cyber attacks. FireEye has over 5,600 customers across 67 countries, including more than 40 percent of the Forbes Global 2000. The Role: You are fanatical about security. No really...you will do whatever it takes to keep the bad guys out. You have a strong understanding of network and host based attacker methodologies. Analyzing forensic data, picking apart malware, and responding to security incidents excites you! You thrive and enjoy working in a fast paced environment, surrounded by brilliant and like-minded people. You walk into the office everyday with a passion to learn more. You derive great satisfaction from delighting customers, have strong attention to detail, exude excellence and have more drive than an exotic Italian sports car. As a FaaS Security Analyst you will be focused on host and network analysis, diving deep into host systems and packets hunting for attackers or remnants of their activity. Alongside your wicked smart team members, you'll be entrusted to deliver high impact and value services to some of the most recognized brands in the world, protecting them from threats that actually matter to their business...24x7. Responsibilities: Full details here.

Obituaries

Sherman Edwin Ulmer, 79, a former CIA Operations Officer, died 22 August 2017 in McLean, VA. Ed retired from CIA after a long career. He loved jigsaw and crossword puzzles, international travel, golf and a dry martini. He is survived by his loving wife of 54 years, Mary; a daughter, son, and other family. [Read More: The Washington Post/legacy/25Aug2017]

Section V - Events

AFIO EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

Saturday, 9 September 2017, 11:30am - Patrick AFB, FL - The AFIO Florida Satellite Chapter Hears from Dr. Scott Tilley on "Big Data."

The Florida Satellite Chapter hosts Dr. Scott Tilley on "Big Data, the Era of Yottabytes and Developments in Machine Learning." This talk describes the current big data landscape, provides an overview of some of the tools available to manage massive datasets, and discusses some of the possible impacts of big data and predictive analytics on businesses and society at large in the coming years.
Location: The Tides Collocated Club, Patrick Air Force Base, 1001 North Highway, A1A S Atlantic Ave, Patrick AFB, FL 32925.
To Attend: Prepaid reservations are required which must be received by 5 September 2017. To reserve, contact FSC Chapter President at afiofsc@afio.com. Menu Choices are: Sole stuffed with crab meat (F) or sliced flank steak (B).

Wednesday, 13 September 2017 - New York, NY - The NY Metro Chapter Meeting features Carol Rollie Flynn, former CIA Officer, speaking on "Ethics in Intelligence."

Note new date. A 30-year veteran of CIA, Carol Rollie Flynn held a number of senior executive positions at the Agency including: Associate Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center; Executive Director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center; Chief of Station in major posts in Southeast Asia and Latin America; and Director of CIA's Leadership Academy. Ms. Flynn is currently Managing Principal at Singa Consulting, a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an adjunct Professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy and School of Foreign Service/Security Studies Program.
Location: Society of Illustrators, 128 E 63rd St (between Park and Lexington), New York, NY 10065.
Timing: Registration starts at 5:30 pm, Speaker presentation starts at 6 pm.
Fee: $50/person. Payment at the door only. Cash or check. Full dinner, cash bar.
RSVP: Strongly recommended that you RSVP to insure space at event. Call or Email Chapter President Jerry Goodwin at afiometro@gmail.com or 646-717-3776.

21 September 2017, 11 am - 4 pm - Riverside, CA - AFIO Los Angeles Chapter Tours Drone Pilot Training Program in special visit to March Air Base

Tour includes: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Division (1hr); MQ-9 Reaper (1 hr); Lunch at The Backstreet Caf' 1.30 P.M. (approx); Security Forces Weapons Demonstration (1 hr); C-17 Globemaster III (1 hr); Departure Time 4 PM (approx)
No spaces remain. Event has sold out.
LOCATION: March Air Base 655 M St. Riverside, California, 92518-5000
Questions? Contact Vincent Autiero, President, AFIO-Los Angeles Chapter, 5651 W Manchester Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Email him at AFIO_LA@yahoo.com. If you haven't yet joined this active chapter, visit AFIO and then visit their webpage: www.afio.org
P.S. The event is scheduled September 21, 2017, for those of you planning to attend the annual AFIO national symposium at NGA headquarters, you will find that there is no conflict with the dates that the symposium is occurring and our visit to March Air Base.

28 - 29 September 2017 - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO's 2017 National Intelligence Symposium

"Succeeding in the Open―The Future of GEOINT" at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and "Active Measures―A Global Threat" at the Doubletree-Hilton are the themes for the AFIO-NGA 2017 National Intelligence Symposium being held at NGA and DoubleTree-Hilton, Tysons Corner, VA

Tentative Agenda: THURSDAY: • Opening Remarks by Jim Hughes, AFIO President; • NGA Overview and Q&A; • Video Presentation • Robert Cardillo, D/NGA, (invited) NGA Leadership Remarks (D/NGA or DD) - Includes GEOINT Strategy and Functional Management; • Lunch (with museum tours, NGA store, and group photo). Presentations/Panels on: • KH 8 Declassification; • Pathfinder (unclassified research to solve intel problems); • Commercial GEOINT Activity; and • the Small Satellite Revolution.
FRIDAY: • "Active Measures - A Global Threat" - Includes agitprop, kompromat, fake news, political spin, hacks and ransomware, and other methods to harm US businesses, citizens, and cohesiveness. • Chris Inglis, Professor in Cyber Security Studies, US Naval Academy's Center for Cyber Security Studies. He is the former Deputy Director of NSA. • William "Bill" Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC), the 5th National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX). As the NCIX, he serves as the head of Counterintelligence (CI) for the US Government and as the principal CI and security advisor to the Director of National Intelligence. • Thomas Rid, PhD, Professor of Security Studies at King's College London. Rid is an expert on "Attributing Cyber Attacks" explaining and improving the identification of network breaches and the perpetrators. • Luncheon keynote presentation by James Clapper, former DNI. ' Champagne Reception and Banquet featuring keynote presentation by former CIA Deputy Director for Operations David Cohen.

Arrive Wednesday evening, 27 September, to overnight at the hotel to be ready early Thursday, 28 September, for coach service to NGA Headquarters for all day conference including visit to their new museum. Chapter breakfast workshop meeting is Friday morning at the hotel starting at 7:30 a.m. Tentative agenda here and will be updated frequently. Friday evening is our "Spies in Black Ties" banquet.
Hotel: DoubleTree-Hilton, Tysons Corner, VA [formerly the Crowne Plaza], at 1960 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA 22102.

Reserve overnight rooms at hotel now while the special group price is valid: Room registrations can be made at 1-800-HILTONS at $119/nite. [To make room reservations carefully follow the prompts dialing "1" twice - this is to get to reservations, and then to make a new reservation. You then are asked to enter your phone number followed by the pound sign. After that, you are placed into a queue in order to speak with a customer service rep. When they get on the line, they ask for the city [Tysons Corner, VA], the name of the hotel [DoubleTree-Hilton], and the group name for the special rate [AFIO $119/nite.]

Registration for SYMPOSIUM 2017 has just opened. Register securely ONLINE now to ensure a place.
Or use this printable Registration Packet. Contains the formal invitation, tentative agenda, and off-line registration forms sent earlier to all current member. Complete and return by fax or US Mail.

Other Upcoming Events

Monday, 11 September 2017, noon - Washington, DC - Foxtrot in Kandahar: A Memoir of a CIA Officer in Afghanistan at the Inception of America's Longest War - at the International Spy Museum.

An ancient desert crossroads, and as of fall of 2001, ground zero for the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in southern Afghanistan. Progress has been made in the North, but with no "Southern Alliance" for the US to support, a new strategy is called for. Veteran CIA officer Duane Evans is dispatched to Pakistan to "get something going in the South." Join Evans as he shares some of the highlights of his unexpected journey from the pristine halls of Langley to the badlands of southern Afghanistan. As told in his new memoir Foxtrot in Kandahar, Evans was on the front lines in Pakistan, first as part of the advanced element of CIA's Echo team supporting Hamid Karzai, and finally as leader of the under-resourced and often overlooked Foxtrot team. He'll also comment on the opportunities lost in the years since his time in Afghanistan. The book will be available for sale and signing at the event. Event is free. Visit www.spymuseum.org.

Monday, 18 September 2017, 6:30pm - Washington, DC - Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, PhD on Ancient Espionage: The Greeks and the Great Game - at the International Spy Museum

Espionage is called the second oldest profession. Intrigue, trickery, and guile have always been powerful weapons. Spies have shaped the destiny of nations since the beginning of time-some inspired by patriotism, some driven by fear, others fired by greed, or a combination of motives. The Greeks excelled at deception: the story of the Trojan Horse is still with us today, but they also shone at intelligence gathering, ambush, and surprise attacks. This evening, Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, author of Ambush: Surprise Attack in Ancient Greek Warfare and Espionage in the Ancient World will transport you to the earliest days of espionage history. Discover how the first spy masters and military deceivers operated, their tradecraft, and their successes and failures in Greek warfare. Co-sponsored by the National Hellenic Society. Tickets for the general public: $20 per person; Members: $16. Visit www.spymuseum.org.

19 September 2017, 11:30am - 2pm - McLean, VA - The Defense Intelligence Forum (DIAA) hosts LTG Bob Noonan, USA(Ret) on "Reminiscences of a Career Intelligence and Corporate Officer."

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Bob Noonan will discuss the " Reminiscences of a Career Intelligence Officer and Corporate Officer" at this Defense Intelligence Forum. General Noonan is the chief security officer of Booz Allen's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) military intelligence account. His work supports DIA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the armed services, and combatant commands.
Location: Pulcinella Restaurant, 6852 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, VA. Parking: Pulcinella has a large parking lot. You can park also in the Staybridge Hotel lot, diagonally across the street in the southwest corner of Old Dominion Drive and Beverly Road.
Fee: Pay $30 at door with check payable to DIAA, Inc. Checks are preferred, but will accept cash; however, credit card payments are discouraged. Registration starts at 11:30AM, lunch at noon.
RSVP: Make reservations by 19 September 2017 by email to diforum@diaalumni.org. Include names, telephone numbers, and email addresses. For each attendee, choose among chicken parmesan, trout lemone, lasagna, grill sausages with sweet peppers, fettuccini with portobella, manicotti with spinach and ricotta, or cannelloni alla bolognese for your luncheon selection. Please send your luncheon selection with your reservation to reduce the wait time for your food!!!

25 September 2017 - Bethesda, MD - HOLD THE DATE for the PenFed Foundation Military Heroes Golf Classic.

Join the PenFed Foundation for the 14th Annual Military Heroes Golf Classic on 25 September 2017, at the world-renowned Congressional Country Club, host to five major championships, three US Opens and a PGA Championship, in Bethesda, MD. As you enjoy a round of golf, know that your support will help the Foundation meet the unmet needs of our Military, Veterans, and their families. Their grants help ensure that those who have bravely served our country will not struggle to pay necessary bills, purchase a home, or get the treatment and support they need. Their 2017 Sponsorship Opportunities are now available. Download the sponsorship packet here. If you are interested in securing a sponsorship or participating in the tournament,* please call 703-838-1302 or visit PenFedFoundation.org.

Wednesday, 27 September - 18 October 2017, 10:15am - Washington, DC - Great Escapes or How Spies, Hostages, and Assets Survive and Get Out Alive: Four Sessions - at the International Spy Museum

Escape rooms are popular, but what if your life depended on the result? This series shares tales and tactics of escapes, rescues, and evasions from the 1970s until today. Explore ingenuous rescue and escape plans with people who developed them and used them as well as experts familiar with these life or death operations. You'll discover how intelligence services bring back assets from abroad in a hot or Cold War and learn about the 21st century approach to training people in self escape and how to survive a rescue. Tickets for the general public: $130, tickets for Spy Museum Inner Circle Members: $80. Tickets must be purchased through the Smithsonian. To register: 202.633.3030 or www.SmithsonianAssociates.org.

Friday, 29 September 2017, noon-3pm - Washington, DC - Josh Dean: The Taking of K-129 - at the International Spy Museum

Come to the Spy Museum Store for an in-store book signing of The Taking of K-129 by author Josh Dean. The Taking of K-129 is a true-life tale of espionage and engineering set at the height of the Cold War-a mix between The Hunt for Red October and Argo-about how the CIA, the US Navy, and America's most eccentric mogul spent six years and nearly a billion dollars to steal the nuclear-armed Soviet submarine K-129 after it had sunk to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean; all while the Russians were watching. Event is free. Visit www.spymuseum.org.

18 October 2017, 9 am - 3 pm - Laurel, MD - NCMF General Meeting & Symposium: "How Cyber has Changed the World Around Us."

Registration is now open for the 2017 NCMF General Membership Meeting & Annual Symposium - "How Cyber Has Changed the World Around Us" - on 18 October from 0900 to 1500 hours in Laurel, MD. Guest speakers include Dr. Mary Aiken, renowned Irish forensic cyberpsychologist and author of The Cyber Effect, as well as Mr. Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, award-winning writer and recent author of The Spy Who Couldn't Spell. The program will also feature a panel discussion on the impact of cyber on future social, political, and economic climates, featuring experts from the field, such as Mr. Robert B. Dix, Dr. Mike Warner, and Professor Bill Nolte. Registration is $25 for NCMF members and $50 for guests (includes complimentary one-year NCMF membership). Deadline to register is 13 October. And remember - this year our program precedes the 2017 CCH Symposium on Cryptologic History. Please note registration for the CCH Symposium is separate (see below listing). Click HERE to go directly to NCMF program ticket purchase. Additional details at www.cryptologicfoundation.org.
Event location: The Kossiakoff Center, Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory.

19 - 20 October 2017 - Laurel, MD - 16th NSA/CSS Center for Cryptologic History Symposium: "Milestones, Memories, and Momentum."

Registration is now open for the 2017 CCH Symposium on Cryptologic History, 19-20 October 2017 (with additional events at the NCM on 21 October). The theme for this year's Symposium is "Milestones, Memories, and Momentum." There are many milestones to mark in 2017: the 160th anniversary of the first attempt to span the Atlantic with a telegraph cable, 100 years since both the entry of the United States into World War I and the Russian October Revolution, and 75 years after the World War II battles of Coral Sea and Midway. The Symposium will take place just a few months before the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and during the 25th year after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

View the preliminary program details via the PDF link on the Event Calendar Page. Registration deadline is 13 October. Learn more via the event calendar. To purchase your tickets now do so here.
Location: Kossiakoff Conference Center, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland.

21 October 2017 - Washington, DC - The OSS Society Holds the Donovan Awards Dinner honoring Dr. Michael G. Vickers

Invitations will be mailed shortly to The OSS Society's 2017 William J. Donovan Awards Dinner honoring Dr. Michael G. Vickers. The event, by invitation only, takes place at The Ritz Carlton Hotel, Washington, DC.

Wednesday, 29 November 2017, 6 - 10pm - Washington, DC - The Honorable William H. Webster Distinguished Service Award Dinner by the International Spy Museum

On November 29, 2017, the first annual "The Honorable William H. Webster Distinguished Service Award Dinner" takes place at The Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC. This International Spy Museum event honors an individual who has served the nation in the field of National Security with integrity and distinction. The Museum's award is named for Judge William H. Webster, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the only individual to have held both offices), a man whose reputation for probity and forthrightness is the standard by which all others are measured. Before serving the intelligence community, Judge Webster was a distinguished jurist of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Since retirement from public office, Webster has practiced law at the Washington DC office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy where he specializes in arbitration, mediation, and internal investigation. He is currently the Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council and a founding member of the International Spy Museum Advisory Board of Directors. Judge Webster has a long record of distinguished service to our country; the International Spy Museum is pleased to name this award in his honor.
EVENT DETAILS DATE AND TIME: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 from 6 to 10 PM
LOCATION: The Ritz-Carlton, 1150 22nd Street, NW Washington, DC 20037
ATTIRE: Cocktail
ATTENDEES: Approximately 500 guests will attend this inspirational evening of cocktails, dinner, and an award ceremony.
EVENT SCHEDULE: VIP Reception 6 - 7 PM; Cocktail Reception 6:30 - 7:30 PM; Dinner/Awards 7:30 - 9 PM; After-Glow 9 - 10 PM
Sponsorship benefits and opportunities or to attend this event, email: Rebecca Diamond (Vice President of Development & Membership) at: rdiamond@spymuseum.org, or call: 202.654.0954, or use this online link.

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