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.]
If you are having difficulties with the links or viewing this newsletter when it arrives by email, members may view the latest edition each week at this link. You will need your LOGIN NAME and your PASSWORD.

Books of the Week

Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations
by Ronen Bergman
(Random House, Jan 2018)

"Hands down the best book I've read on intelligence, Israel, and, for that matter, the Middle East. I lived many of the events Ronen Bergman recounts from the inside, but only now do I have a full picture of what really went on. Impeccably sourced and astoundingly well reported, this page-turning book is indispensable for understanding Israel's fight for survival, with a revelation on every page." -- Robert Baer, former CIA, author See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism

"Absolutely revelatory, Bergman's history of Israel's targeted killings leaves few secrets in the closet. Reading this book is like devouring a John le Carré spy thriller with endnotes, but Bergman also grapples with the hard questions and ultimately writes a tragic story of endless tactical victories leading to a strategic dead end. Anyone who cares about the fate of Israel and Palestine must devour this formidable history." -- Kai Bird, author The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

"The most impressive book I have seen on the subject and the first one written using real research rather than a fictional narrative. At its center is the inevitable clash between the right of a democracy to defend itself -- the measures we've been obliged to take in order to protect citizens of the State of Israel -- and other values and rights. Bergman's ability to reach sources inside Western intelligence communities is amazing (and, I must say, also a little disturbing). With so many different participants in the events recounted here, there's always the danger of having a Rashomon effect -- each individual having his own distinct point of view -- but Bergman has done some impressive reporting and cross-checking to re-create these secret historical events in the best possible way." -- Tamir Pardo, chief of the Mossad, 2011–2016

Book may be ordered here.

Breaking Cover: My Secret Life in the CIA and What It Taught Me about What's Worth Fighting For
by Michele Rigby Assad
(Tyndale Momentum, Feb 2018)

The CIA is looking for walking contradictions. Recruiters seek people who can keep a secret, yet pull classified information out of others; who love their country, but are willing to leave it behind to head into dangerous places; who live double lives, but can be trusted with some of the nation's most highly sensitive tasks. Michele Rigby Assad was one of those. As a CIA officer, Michele soon found that working undercover was all-encompassing. The threats were real. The mission, perilous. Trained as a counterterrorism expert, Michele spent over a decade in the agency -- a woman leading some of the most highly skilled operatives, serving in treacherous areas of the Middle East. Deep inside, Michele wondered: Could she really do this job? Or had she misunderstood what she thought was God's calling on her life? Did she have what it would take to survive? The answer came when she faced a life-or-death choice.

Book may be ordered here.

CIA Employee Activity Association (Gift Shop)
A source for special, unusual gifts which make lasting memories

Are you getting ready for Christmas or other end of year holidays? Beat the crowds and turn up with some fascinating gifts your recipients will proudly display and keep. Where? Right here on the EAA store website. Many new items have been added. To find those new items -- the 70th Anniversary Snowflake ornament you see above, for example -- click here on "What's New" or on the tool bar when viewing the webpage.
We're sure your family and friends will be happy with the unique gifts you can get nowhere else. If you don't find exactly what you're looking for, more items are being stocked in coming weeks.

Don't delay. If you see something you like, buy now because many of these are available only in small quantities and often when an item sells out, it's gone forever. If it is something you or they would really like, buy two.
All current AFIO members have the opportunity to join the CIA Employee Activity Association. If you have not already done so, login and read the requirements and modest one-time fee.

First notice...first luncheon of 2018 ...for your calendar Friday, 9 February 2018 Tysons, VA

Toni Hiley, CIA Museum Director Center for the Study of Intelligence
and
Steve Coll, author/journalist on his reviewer-praised forthcoming book debuting at event
	DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016

Early registration here.

Last minute shopping?

Holiday Gifts for intelligence officers, colleagues, and others

New 2018 CIA-Art Wall Calendars and Day Planners
are now available through the International Spy Museum Bookshop.

To quickly order or learn more about the 2018 CIA wall calendars or day planners use this link.

The mastermind behind the calendar and day planner project is a private citizen who runs CIA-ART.com. He worked with the curator of the CIA Museum, as he conceived and developed a collection of fine art depicting declassified missions. He arranged for independent, private artists and funded the project through private individuals and corporations willing to commission the artwor which tells the history of daring CIA missions. The final works of art were donated to CIA Headquarters where they are on permanent display.

Based on those works of art, Mr. Kirzinger created these large, nicely-printed CIA-themed wall calendars and day planners providing the background of the operations, and also filled with other images and explanations of historic documents and the outcomes of the operations.
Inspiration to have on your wall or desk top. And ideal gifts to send colleagues, friends, and others.

To order or learn more about the 2018 CIA wall calendars and day planners use this link.

To learn more about the creation of the calendars and day planners visit...www.cia-art.com

AFIO's Guide to the Study of Intelligence AFIO's 788-page Guide to the Study of Intelligence. Peter C. Oleson, Editor, also makes a good gift.
View authors and table of contents here.

Perfect for professors, students, those considering careers in intelligence, and current/former officers seeking to see what changes are taking place across a wide spectrum of intelligence disciplines.

AFIO's Guide to the Study of Intelligence helps instructors teach about the large variety of subjects that make up the field of intelligence. This includes secondary school teachers of American History, Civics, or current events and undergraduate and graduate professors of History, Political Science, International Relations, Security Studies, and related topics, especially those with no or limited professional experience in the field. Even those who are former practitioners are likely to have only a limited knowledge of the very broad field of intelligence, as most spend their careers in one or two agencies at most and may have focused only on collection or analysis of intelligence or support to those activities.

For a printed, bound copy, it is $95 which includes Fedex shipping to a CONUS (US-based) address.
To order for shipment to a US-based CONUS address, use this online form,

To order multiple copies or for purchases going to AK, HI, other US territories, or other countries call our office at 703-790-0320 or send email to afio@afio.com to hear of shipment fees.

Order the Guide from the AFIO's store at this link.

...ORDER HERE from AFIO.

The Guide is also available directly from Amazon at this link.

AFIO's Updated 2017 Intelligence Community Mousepads have arrived.
Made in USA. Click image for larger view.

These 2017 mousepads have full color seals of all 18 members of the US Intelligence Community on this 8" round, slick surface, nonskid, rubber-backed mouse pad with a darker navy background, brighter, updated seals. Also used, by some, as swanky coasters. Price still only $20.00 for 2 pads [includes shipping to US address. Foreign shipments - we will contact you with quote.] Order NEW MOUSEPADS here.

Also available in the AFIO store are:

A SPY'S LONDON by Roy Berkeley. Foreword by Rupert Allason (author Nigel West)

and

CIA INSIDER'S DICTIONARY of US and Foreign Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Tradecraft.

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

China Is Spying on the West Using LinkedIn, Intelligence Agency Claims. China has denied using LinkedIn to infiltrate political and business circles in Germany, following claims from a German intelligence service that 10,000 of its citizens were targeted by Chinese spies.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), a German intelligence agency, made the allegations Sunday, suggesting that China was using fake profiles to connect with high-profile politicians and business leaders. The claims followed similar allegations of cyber espionage being undertaken by Russian spy agencies.

"Chinese intelligence services are active on networks like LinkedIn and have been trying for a while to extract information and find intelligence sources in this way," said a spokesperson for the BfV.

"The infections are difficult to detect, since network connections between service providers and their customers aren't suspicious. This gives the attacker an even better disguise than before." [Read More: Cuthbertson/newsweek/11Dec2017]

Australia's Foreign Spy Agency Launches New Agent Recruitment Campaign. TEACHERS, tradies and customer-service workers are at the centre of a new drive to find Australia's next James Bond.

Australia's overseas spy agency will today launch a recruitment campaign to attract the next generation of intelligence officers to serve in the nation's interests.

Applicants will be invited to take perhaps the most interesting job interview they are likely to face, which will identify "smart", "perceptive", "empathetic" individuals with the "human intelligence" to work for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said, for obvious reasons, most Australians were not aware of ASIS and its activities. [Read More: Harris/heraldsun/11Dec2017]

Zimbabwe Names Diplomat Isaac Moyo As Top Spy. Zimbabwe has named a former diplomat as the head of its intelligence agency, state-owned newspaper The Herald said on Saturday.

Isaac Moyo, who was serving as an ambassador to neighbouring South Africa and Lesotho, replaces retired army general Happyton Bonyongwe, the paper quoted chief secretary to the president, Misheck Sibanda, as saying.

No one was immediately available to comment in President Emmerson Mnangagwa's office. The Herald is a mouthpiece for the government.

Moyo takes over a domestic spy network, the Central Intelligence Organisation, that permeates every institution and section of society and has been used by former President Robert Mugabe to stay in power. [Read More: Reuters/timeslive/9Dec2017]

Slovenian Spies Stage "Secret" Strike to Demand Higher Wages. Workers from the Slovene Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA) have reportedly gone on strike, demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

The move has raised concerns about national security, since part of SOVA employees' role is to protect national security. However, the government says that SOVA is still carrying out its duties despite the strike.

Just like their work, Slovenian intelligence workers kept their strike secret, but details have gradually leaked to the media. As local weekly Reporter wrote, "Slovenian spies are on strike so secretly no one knows they are on strike". According to Reporter, the strike started on December 1 and is due to last until December 8.

Despite low profile of the strike, Slovenia's Public Administration Minister Boris Koprivnikar described it as "surprising and unique", and he stressed that Slovenia's spies are required by law to ensure the basic functioning of SOVA, AP reported. [Read More: intellinews/8Dec2017]

Ethiopia Used Israeli-Made Surveillance Technology to Spy on Journalists, Dissidents. Israel-based defense outfit Elbit Systems Ltd. provided the Ethiopian government with spyware software that was used to track journalists and dissidents, according to a report published Tuesday by The Citizen Lab, a laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

The report reveals a cyber campaign by Ethiopia targeting advocates of the Oromo ethnic group across 20 countries. The Ethiopian government was infecting the computers of its targets using a commercial spyware tool called PC Surveillance System (PSS), which is developed by a subsidiary of Elbit called Cyberbit Ltd.

The Oromo group represents around 35% of Ethiopia's population, according to a 2007 census. In November 2015 protests sparked following a government plan to expand the country's capital Addis Ababa into the Oromia region, causing the government to impose a state of emergency and leading to clashes resulting in hundreds of casualties. Though the plan was scrapped, it reignited some of the underlying demographic issues in Ethiopia. In August, Ethiopian government lifted the state of emergency. As sporadic clashes continue it announced a ban on protest rallies earlier this month.

The Toronto researchers discovered a digital fingerprint known as a logfile, which allowed them to follow Ethiopia's cyber campaign for more than a year. They have previously published reports in 2014 and 2015 about spyware attacks against Ethiopian journalists. [Read More: Kabir/calcalistech/6Dec2017]

Former Polish Intelligence Chief Detained. Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz said: "An investigation is being conducted into General [Piotr] Pytel. He is being charged in connection with illegal cooperation with the FSB," Russia's Federal Security Service.

But a lawyer for Pytel said the former Polish intelligence chief was being charged over contacts with FSB officers and not with cooperating with the Russian security service.

The FSB is Russia's principal security agency and the main successor agency to the KGB.

Relations between Moscow and Warsaw are tense while Russian intelligence services are widely seen in Poland as hostile to this country. [Read More: thenews/6Dec2017]

Security Service MI5 Hires New "Spook" to Help Plug Brexit Leaks. It might not have carried out an impact assessment on Brexit, but the UK Government believes it has a secret weapon in the battle to withdraw from the EU - a new spook.

MI5 is trying to recruit a new official to stop "sensitive information" from leaking during the Brexit negotiations and damaging the UK Government. The security service, which is the country's domestic counter-intelligence agency, advertised for the "high impact" role last month after a spate of unauthorised disclosures about the talks.

Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said: "This is utterly embarrassing. Brexit is clearly such a bad idea they've had to hire a spook to try to stop people finding out the terrible truth. Given how clueless the Cabinet seem, it's doubtful if there is any real information under wraps."

Prime Minister Theresa May endured a bruising few days last week amid continuing problems over the process of the UK leaving the European Union. [Read More: Hutcheon/heraldscotland/9Dec2017]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

GCHQ's Cybersecurity Accelerator Just Opened Its Door to Nine New Startups. Software designed to detect phishing emails, a platform to help developers write secure code, and a company which investigates cybercrime involving cryptocurrencies are just some of the ideas behind the startups that will join the second incarnation of GCHQ's cyber-accelerator.

Showcased at a launch event at the National Cyber Security Centre in London, the nine companies will spend nine months working alongside the UK intelligence agency and business experts in a scheme designed to help protect the UK from hackers and cybercrime.

It's the second intake of startups for the GCHQ cyber-accelerator in Cheltenham, which saw the number of applications to be a part of the scheme double compared with its first incarnation.

"There's a bunch of problems out there and we want solutions to them. That's what we hope we've got with the companies that we've selected for the accelerator," said Chris Ensor, NCSC deputy director for cyber skills and growth. [Read More: Palmer/zdnet/11Dec2017]

Not Just Somali Pirates, Cyber Attacks Too Hit Ships. Somali pirates are not the only threat faced by ships sailing the high seas. Large vessels out at sea are also becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks by sophisticated hackers sitting thousands of miles away.

After the collision between US Navy ship USS Fitzgerald and a cargo ship 60 miles off the coast of Japan in June this year, assessment by security and Intelligence agencies has revealed that control systems of ships were vulnerable to cyber attacks.

On November 22, the agencies warned of cyber intrusions or malicious attacks on the networked control system of ships with the clear objective to engineer collisions, inflict damage and control the operational system of targeted ships.

In the US Navy ship's case, suspicion was raised over the possibility of cyber goons hacking into the GPS system of the container ship to disrupt the navigation system, leading to the collision with USS Fitzgerald. [Read More: hellenicshippingnews/11Dec2017]

Two Brothers End NY National Guard Service Together in Joint Retirement. Two brothers who deployed to Iraq together in 2005 marked the end of their service in the New York Army National Guard during a joint retirement ceremony at the New York National Guard Headquarters.

Lt. Col. Joseph Claus, age 47, a Cropseyville, New York resident, will end his military service after 30 years on Dec. 15.

His brother, Master Sgt. Leonard Claus, age 50, from Grafton, New York, ended his military service on Nov. 15, after 33 years in uniform.

The two brothers were both awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by Col. David Martinez, the director of intelligence for the New York National Guard. [Read More: Durr/army/5Dec2017]

US Developing New Weapon Which Could Disable North Korean Missiles. With Kim Jong Un pushing aggressively to develop missiles that could hit the United States with nuclear warheads, pressure has been mounting on US officials to answer the threat. One effective countermeasure could lie in an obscure military lab in New Mexico.

It's called CHAMP, for Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project. James Fisher, spokesman for the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base, said it's a high-powered microwave weapon that can be delivered on an air-launched cruise missile, deployed from an American bomber.

Fisher says the cruise missile with a CHAMP system strapped to it would fly into enemy airspace at low altitude, and send out strong pulses of electromagnetic energy. The enemy's electronic command-and-control systems would be jammed. Analysts say the cruise missile it's deployed on could then be splashed down at sea.

The Air Force says CHAMP was not developed specifically to counter the North Korean threat. But retired Gen. David Deptula, who once headed US Air Force intelligence, said the applications could be effective against North Korea. [Read More: Ernst/kmov/7Dec2017]

How Drones Could Be Game-Changer in Somalia's Fight Against Al-Shabab. A former member of US military intelligence is helping fight one of the deadliest terror groups in Africa. He is also a pioneer in the US military's use of drones and is now using that expertise to help Somalia in its fight against the Al-Qaeda-linked terror group al-Shabab.

The threat of unpredictable violence is ever-present in Somalia. Al-Shabab's reach is vast and it is one of the most organized and dangerous of Africa's militant groups, reports CBS News correspondent Debora Patta.

Al-Shabab no longer controls the crumbling city of Mogadishu, but has still been able to wreak havoc with its relentless bombing campaigns. Their weapon of choice has been the vehicle bomb, like the one used with devastating effect on October 14 killing over 500 people in the capital.

CBS News has been told repeatedly that al-Shabab has eyes and ears everywhere. The group's members blend easily into local communities, and a seemingly quiet road may not look very menacing but can turn nasty in an instant. [Read More: cbsnews/8Dec2017]

On Pearl Harbor Day, Browse the Archives of the Agency it Helped Create. As Americans were waking up on this day 76 years ago, they were entering a new phase of the United States in the world. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the country set out on a trajectory that would bring it to drop an atomic weapon, become the global superpower, and firmly embed itself in the domestic affairs of foreign countries, often through the use of a new organization: the Central Intelligence Agency.

Materials in the CIA's CREST database, which contains declassified materials older than 25 years, date back to this early time, to the days when the CIA was still the Office of Strategic Services and includes multiple reports on the Agency's attempts to evaluate its mission and execution, including an early one, dated January 1949, from soon-to-be Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles.

You can read the rest of the file below or browse the rest of CREST and let us know what you find. [Read more: Lipton/muckrock/7December2017]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Has the FBI 'Become America's Secret Police,' Like the KGB? A Fox News legal commentator argued the FBI has become the new KGB, the Soviet-era secret police, during a segment of Hannity.

Are today's FBI and yesterday's KGB really interchangeable? Jarrett and Hannity said it wasn't hyperbole.

We checked with a range of experts in the history of both agencies, and even those who are no fans of past and present FBI practices say the comparison is wrongheaded. [Read More: Jacobson/politifact/8Dec2017]

The One North Korea Threat the World Has Forgotten About. North Korea maintains an extensive intelligence collection and security apparatus - as might be expected of a totalitarian regime such as the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang maintains two main agencies - one focused on external intelligence collection and clandestine operations and another focused on counterintelligence. There are also two smaller organizations dedicated solely to infiltrating South Korea. "North Korean intelligence and security services collect political, military, economic, and technical information through open-source, human intelligence, cyber, and signals intelligence capabilities," reads a Pentagon report to Congress about Pyongyang's expected capabilities in 2015. "North Korea's primary intelligence collection targets remain South Korea, the United States, and Japan."

North Korea's primary external intelligence agency is the Reconnaissance General Bureau - which seems to be modeled on the Soviet/Russian GRU military intelligence agency. "The Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB) is North Korea's primary foreign intelligence service, responsible for collection and clandestine operations," the Pentagon report reads. "The RGB is comprised of six bureaus with compartmented functions including operations, reconnaissance, technology and cyber, overseas intelligence, interKorean talks, and service support."

North Korea's internal security agency - though it might have some foreign intelligence functions too - is the Ministry of State Security. Not coincidentally, it shares the same name as the Soviet Union's Stalinist-era Ministry of State Security - Ministerstvo Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti in Russian - the MGB. Indeed, the North Korean agency was modeled on the Soviet-era organization. [Read More: Majumdar/nationalinterest/6Dec2017]

The Girl in the Swimming Pool. It began like a movie: July 8th 1961. An unusually warm evening at a grand country estate. A girl in the swimming pool. She pulls herself up out of the water. She's beautiful, and naked. A larky lad in the water has tossed her bathing costume into the bushes. And among the blas' weekend guests dressed for dinner and taking a stroll on the terrace one man reacts with more than nonchalant amusement as the girl hastily wraps a towel around her. She leaves with someone else the next day. But not before the man on the terrace has enquired after her name.

It was Christine Keeler. The house was Cliveden, country home of Lord Astor. The name of the fellow who threw away her swimsuit was Stephen Ward, to whom Bill Astor had rented a cottage on the estate for one pound a year. Ward was, formally, a society osteopath and basked in the dingy glow of reflected celebrity: his client list included Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, and, when in town, Averell Harriman, Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. The man in the dinner jacket so taken by the girl in the dripping towel was the Right Honorable John Profumo, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for War. The man the girl left with was another guest of Stephen Ward's, Yevgeny Ivanov.

Miss Keeler was a showgirl at Murray's cabaret club in Soho. Commander Ivanov was the Soviet naval attach' in London. "Showgirl" was a euphemism for call girl, "naval attach'" a euphemism for KGB intelligence officer.

It's hard to devise a precise contemporary parallel for "the Profumo affair" - imagine Donald Rumsfeld is having an affair with one of Mullah Omar's wives? - but in London it became the standard by which were measured all subsequent political sex scandals. They occur with depressing regularity but remarkable variety (straight, gay, three-in-a-bed, auto-erotic asphyxiation, toe-sucking while accoutred in the garb of Chelsea Football Club) and have prompted some cringe-making performances in the House of Commons - one thinks of the resignation statement in 1999 of Ron Davies, Secretary of State for Wales, after getting mugged in the shrubbery of Clapham Common during a comically inept nocturnal foray in search of some Rastafarian "rough trade". "We are what we are," said Mr Davies, echoing the First Act finale of La Cage Aux Folles before going on to enter more mitigating circumstances - unhappy childhood, abusive father - than his fellow Labour members were in the mood for. Jack Profumo was less maudlin. With the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan at his side, he rose from the government benches in Parliament and declared flatly: "There was no impropriety whatsoever in my relationship with Miss Keeler." [Read More: Steyn/steynonline/5Dec2017]

Much Ado About Nothing. On October 26, the National Archives was supposed to release the last of its remaining records on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The date was chiseled in a 1992 statute. Around 88 percent of the records had already been made public, but there were still 3,200 documents that had never been available and nearly 35,000 more that had only been released in redacted form.

As the date neared, Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC) declared, "It's time to let people know the truth." Jones believes (like a majority of Americans, according to polls) that accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had confederates and that important facts about that "awful afternoon" are still hidden away. Martha Wagner Murphy, chief of the special access and Freedom of Information Act staff at the National Archives, repeatedly cautioned that the documents would add only incremental information to what was already evident. But few in the general public and fewer still in the "research community," as Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theorists prefer to be known, were willing to believe her. After five decades, occasions for challenging the official verdict are few and far between. The community knew the disclosures could gin up interest, and the excitement reached all the way to the White House.

Donald Trump created much of the drama by tweeting his inclination to align with those calling for full disclosure: No more postponements, no more deletions, damn the Deep State, he seemed to be saying on October 21. At the eleventh hour he deferred to the US intelligence agencies and gave them an extra six months to make their cases for continuing to redact or withhold a tiny portion of the record. But documents were to be released as fast as they could be processed.

Murphy has been proven right; the pages released in five document dumps so far this year (there was a release on July 24 that attracted no fanfare) haven't told us anything of moment we didn't already know. The pseudo-drama surrounding the October date has only served to illustrate what H.L. Mencken once called "the virulence of the national appetite for bogus revelation." [Read More: Holland/weeklystandard/11Dec2017]

Thoughts on Erik Prince's Proposal to Privatize Intelligence Gathering. This week we learned, via the Intercept, of Erik Prince's proposal to provide the Trump Administration with a private intelligence outfit. According to the Intercept, "The Trump Administration is considering a set of proposals developed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a retired CIA officer - with assistance from Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal - to provide CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the White House with a global, private spy network that would circumvent official US intelligence agencies." The Intercept's sources indicate that "the plans have been pitched to the White House as a means of countering 'deep state' enemies in the intelligence community seeking to undermine Donald Trump's presidency."

It is far from clear whether Prince's proposal has any traction. CNN, for instance, quotes Administration officials as saying "the White House does not and would not support such a proposal". Still, given Prince's clout and resourcefulness, reports of other proposals recommending privatized intelligence operations, and the need to maintain healthy skepticism when it comes to representations made by this Administration, we ought not be hasty in looking past the proposal.

At this preliminary stage, a few scattershot thoughts come to mind. [Read More: Michaels/justsecurity/8Dec2017]

Section IV - Obituaries

Obituaries

End of an Era - Christine Keeler, Key Figure in 1960s British Sex-and-Spy Scandal, Dies at 75. Christine Keeler, a London showgirl whose simultaneous relationships with British war secretary John Profumo and a Soviet military attache produced the country's most notorious political scandal of the 1960s, died Dec. 4 at a hospital in Farnborough, England. She was 75.

Her son Seymour Platt announced the death on his Facebook page, noting that the cause was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The Profumo Affair, as it became known, has echoed through the years as one of the era's most lurid tabloid scandals, with hints of espionage, Cold War politics, class prejudice and sexual hypocrisy.

The case has stayed in the popular imagination in the form of theatrical plays, including a musical by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, a feature film and dozens of books - three of which were written by Ms. Keeler. [Read more: Schudel/washingtonpost/5December2017]

James Wilbur Bouic, 84, former NSA Cryptologic officer, died 9 December 2017. A former senior Cryptologic staff officer who retired in 1988 from Research and Engineering at the National Security Agency died of natural causes on December 9, 2017. Mr. Bouic, born in Washington, DC, attended DC public schools and the Edmond A.Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. An enlisted man in the Army Security Agency, Mr. Bouic was posted in Okinawa. After discharge, Mr. Bouic joined the Office of Communications at the CIA before moving to Maryland and joining the NSA. Bouic was a member of the Phoenix Society, and the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation. He enjoyed bird watching, beach going, and puzzles of all kinds. Survivors include his wife, Sharlie, and three daughters.

Section V - Events

AFIO EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

9 February 2018 - Tysons, VA - First AFIO luncheon of 2018 features Toni Hiley, CIA Museum Director, and Steve Coll, author/journalist, on The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Our first luncheon of 2018 ...for your calendar. Toni Hiley, CIA Museum Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence speaks in the morning. Followed by lunch, and then a presentation by Steve Coll, author/journalist, on his reviewer-praised forthcoming book debuting at event, DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016.
Times: 10 am badge pickup; Hiley speaks at 11; lunch at noon; Coll at 1; event closes at 2.

Early registration here.

Other Upcoming Events from Advertisers, Corporate Sponsors, and Others

Sunday, 17 December 2017, 1-4pm - Washington, DC - Curtis Harris: High Hand - at the International Spy Museum

Espionage, political machinations, oil, secretly funded high-tech weapons of intelligence, ghosts of the Cold War, murder, and poker. Who could want more in a summer read? James Rosen, Curtis Harris & James Ellenberger are the co-authors of High Hand and wrote under the single pseudonym Curtis J. James. Join the co-authors Curtis Harris for an in'store Spy Museum Store signing and join in the discussion on how spies, journalists, union leaders, and politicians and politicians intertwine to the extraordinary ways that advanced technology could be used in the pursuit of surveillance and interrogation. This is a high octane spy thriller! Event is free.
Visit www.spymuseum.org.

Disclaimers and Removal Instructions

Weekly Intelligence Notes (WINs) are commentaries on Intelligence and related national security matters, based on open media sources, selected, interpreted, edited and produced for non-profit educational uses by members and WIN subscribers.

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS: We do not wish to add clutter to inboxes. To discontinue receiving the WINs:

a) IF YOU ARE A MEMBER - click here: UNSUBSCRIBE and supply your full name and email address where you receive the WINs. Click SEND, you will be removed from list. If this link doesn't open a blank email, create one on your own and send to afio@afio.com with the words: REMOVE FROM WINs as the subject, and provide your full name and email address where you are currently receiving them.

b) IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER, and you received this message, someone forwarded this newsletter to you [contrary to AFIO policies]. Forward to afio@afio.com the entire WIN or message you received and we will remove the sender from our membership and distribution lists. The problem will be solved for both of us.

CONTENTS of this WIN [HTML version recipients - Click title to jump to story or section, Click Article Title to return to Contents. This feature does not work for Plaintext Edition or for some AOL recipients]. If you wish to change to HTML format, let us know at afio@afio.com. The HTML feature also does not work for those who access their e-mail using web mail...however NON-HTML recipients may view the latest edition each week in HTML at this link: https://www.afio.com/pages/currentwin.htm

WINs are protected by copyright laws and intellectual property laws, and may not be reproduced or re-sent without specific permission from the Producer. Opinions expressed in the WINs are solely those of the editor's) or author's) listed with each article. AFIO Members Support the AFIO Mission - sponsor new members! CHECK THE AFIO WEBSITE at www.afio.com for back issues of the WINs, information about AFIO, conference agenda and registrations materials, and membership applications and much more!

(c) 2000, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. Please note AFIO's new address: AFIO, 7600 Leesburg Pike, Suite 470 East, Falls Church, VA 22043-2004. Voice: (703) 790-0320; Fax: (703) 991-1278; Email: afio@afio.com

Click here to return to top.