Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Suspected Russian Spyware Turla Targets Europe, United States. A sophisticated piece of spyware has been quietly infecting hundreds of government computers across Europe and the United States in one of the most complex cyber espionage programs uncovered to date.

Several security researchers and Western intelligence officers say they believe the malware, widely known as Turla, is the work of the Russian government and linked to the same software used to launch a massive breach on the U.S. military uncovered in 2008.

It was also linked to a previously known, massive global cyber spying operation dubbed Red October targeting diplomatic, military and nuclear research networks.

Those assessments were based on analysis of tactics employed by hackers, along with technical indicators and the victims they targeted. [Read more: Apps&Finkle/Reuters/7March2014]

Federal Intelligence Analyst Fired Over Contacts With Russians. An intelligence analyst who fought money laundering for the Canadian government was fired after socializing with Russian diplomats.

The case of Irina Koulatchenko - a 36-year-old who came to Canada as a Russian refugee via Cuba - is laid out in a court ruling released this week, as part of her ongoing bid to appeal her case.

In the fall 2010, the Kyrgyzstan-born woman was hired by Canada's financial-intelligence agency, which is known as FINTRAC. She worked there for nearly 18 months as she awaited Top Secret clearance, but then a Canadian Security Intelligence Service probe recommended she not be trusted to do that job - or, effectively, any job in Ottawa's bureaucracy.

Her lawyer, Chris Rootham, said Wednesday that his client is now in a "similar line of work" in France. [Read more: TheGlobe&Mail/5March2014]

For Spy Agencies, Another Trim in Latest Obama Budget. The Obama administration's 2015 budget request for all U.S. spy agencies is $3.9 billion less than last year, reflecting the latest round of war-weary funding cuts to national security.

President Barack Obama's $58.9 billion spending request for 2015 reflects a 6% drop from the 2014 request of $62.8 billion, the director of national intelligence and the Pentagon said Thursday.

Total spy agency spending was $67.6 billion in 2013, the first year in which spy agencies were squeezed by across-the-board spending cuts mandated by Congress. Intelligence officials argued at the time that the lower spending level would damage U.S. intelligence capabilities.

As part of reforms implemented after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, intelligence leaders now disclose total military and non-military spending but they don't provide any further details. In the decade that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks, spy agency budgets roughly doubled, but that trend has begun to recede in recent years. [Read more: Gorman/WallStreetJournal/7March2014]

Kenyan National Intelligence Service Cancels Recruitment. The recruitment of new National Intelligence Services officers has been cancelled, according to a paid up advertisement appearing in Friday newspapers. 

The service first advertised for the positions of graduate trainees on February 7. It said that a dynamic organisation in the public sector "wishes to recruit trainees" for the cadres of Diploma Trainees and Graduate Trainees. 

It is not yet clear what led to the revocation. 

The Diploma Trainee applicants were supposed to be between the age of 20 and 30 years, and have a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination mean grade of C. In addition, they were required to be holders of a college diploma "earned over at least 18 months of study in a recognised institution". [Read more: StandardMedia/7March2014]

Intelligence Service: Norwegians Abroad Pose Risk of Being Involved in Terror Attacks. Norway's intelligence service says the threat of a terrorist attack in the country is growing and that Norwegians involved with al-Qaida-linked groups abroad could pose a threat in other nations.

In the 2013 shopping mall assault by terrorists in Nairobi, Kenya, which killed nearly 70 people, one of the gunmen was identified as Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, a Norwegian citizen who had returned to his native Somalia in 2010.

In its annual terror assessment report on Tuesday, Norway's intelligence agency didn't identify the countries where Norwegians present a potential terrorist threat, except to say it isn't Syria. [Read more: AP/4March2014]

'Iran Ordered Lockerbie Bombing', Claims Ex-Intelligence Officer. Iran ordered the Lockerbie bombing in revenge for the accidental shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet by a US navy ship, according to a former Iranian intelligence officer who defected to Germany.

An al-Jazeera documentary, Lockerbie: What Really Happened?, claims the attack was carried out on Tehran's behalf by the Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

It also says that the bomb was planted on Pan Am flight 103 at Heathrow Airport, not at Malta as suggested during the trial that convicted Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

Megrahi, the only person convicted in relation to the attack, was jailed for life over the deaths of 270 people in the plane and on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. However he was released by the Scottish Government after eight years on compassionate grounds because he had terminal cancer. [Read more: Johnston/TheIndependent/11March2014]

Who Flew? FBI to Check Thumbprints of Impostor Passengers. The FBI is expected to analyze thumbprints of two men who used false passports to board the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared en route to China and see if they can find a match in their massive database, NBC News has learned.

Airport security took the prints from two men who boarded Flight 370 to Beijing at the Kuala Lumpur airport on March 8 using passports stolen from an Italian and an Austrian tourist. The plane, which had 239 passengers and crew aboard, went missing after take-off and is now the subject of a multi-nation hunt.

The FBI is currently waiting to receive the prints from Malaysia officials. U.S. officials say they are not leaning toward or away from terrorism as a motive for the two men, but are attempting to piece together as complete a travel itinerary as possible. Malaysian officials have already circulated photos of the two men who boarded the plane to foreign intelligence agencies.

Intelligence sources told NBC News that it appears the two men - described loosely as "Mediterranean looking" - began their journey in Qatar and at some point then made their way to Thailand. They used an Iranian middleman to purchase tickets for them in Thailand for the circuitous route from Kuala Lumpur through China to Europe. [Read more: Esposito/NBCNews/10March2014]

U.S. Intelligence Officials to Monitor Federal Employees With Security Clearances. U.S. intelligence officials are planning a sweeping system of electronic monitoring that would tap into government, financial and other databases to scan the behavior of many of the 5 million federal employees with secret clearances, current and former officials told The Associated Press.

The system is intended to identify rogue agents, corrupt officials and leakers, and draws on a Defense Department model under development for more than a decade, according to officials and documents reviewed by the AP.

Intelligence officials have long wanted a computerized system that could continuously monitor employees, in part to prevent cases similar to former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden. His disclosures bared secretive U.S. surveillance operations.

An administration review of the government's security clearance process due this month is expected to support continuous monitoring as part of a package of comprehensive changes. [Read more: Braun/AP/10March2014]

Australia's Intelligence Watchdog Backs Reform of Surveillance Regime. The intelligence watchdog, the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, has backed reform of Australia's surveillance regime to ensure the legal framework better balances the dual objectives of privacy and national security.

The IGIS - the independent statutory authority which polices the intelligence community - has used a submission to a new Senate inquiry into online surveillance by Australia's security services to call for reform of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to ensure the law properly protects national security, consumer privacy and recognises the need public accountability.

The watchdog says it agrees with a key recommendation by the federal parliament's joint committee on intelligence and security in May 2013. That inquiry recommended the insertion of an objectives clause into telecommunications legislation which makes explicit the dual objectives of the regime - namely "to protect the privacy of communications" and "to enable interception and access to communications in order to investigate serious crime and threats to national security".

The IGIS has used the opportunity of the new Senate inquiry to endorse that broad direction, adding its voice to the views of legal experts and other bodies charged with oversight of the intelligence and police services. [Read more: Murphy/TheGuardian/11March2014]

Military Spy Chief: Have to Assume Russia Knows U.S. Secrets. In the world of military strategy, every contingency must be examined, especially the worst-case scenario.

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, made that clear when he told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast Friday how U.S. officials must plan for the possibility that Vladimir Putin's Russia has access to American battle plans and other secrets possibly taken by classified leaker Edward Snowden.

"If I'm concerned about anything, I'm concerned about defense capabilities that he may have stolen from where he worked, and does that knowledge then get into the hands of our adversaries - in this case, of course, Russia," Flynn said of the former National Security Agency contractor who fled to Moscow to seek asylum.

A hero to some and traitor to others, Snowden last year disclosed details of the vast U.S. surveillance network put in place after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including how the government keeps records on billions of phone calls for possible use in terrorism investigations.

Flynn said he worried about what else Snowden knows, and how Russia - where Snowden lives now - may have access to the documents. He cited intelligence capabilities, operational capabilities, technology and weapons systems as potential subjects of so far unpublicized information Snowden - and Russia - may have. [Read more: Cohen/CNN/10March2014]

Yemen - Veteran Security Chief Removed After 34 Years in Office. President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadion removed General Ghaleb Al-Qamish from the head of the Political Security Apparatus on Friday. Al-Qamish was dismissed from the intelligence body after 34 years in office.

Hadi appointed Jalal al-Rowishan, the former deputy public relations chief of the National Security Bureau, another intelligence office, to replace Al-Qamish.

Al-Qamish had been running the intelligence service in the north of Yemen since 1980. In 1992, two years after the unification of the country, then-President Ali Abdulla Saleh established the Political Security Apparatus and appointed Al-Qamish to head the organization.

As commander of the Military Police in 1978, Al-Qamish gained fame for his part in foiling an attempted military coup against Saleh led by Nasserites, according to Abdulsalam Mohamed, director of Abaad Strategic Studies Center.

After more than three decades in intelligence Al-Qamish has considerable experience behind him. Mohamed described him as "Yemen's black box. He has information about the Americans, Saudis and Al-Qaeda and all other major files."

But the challenges that Al-Qamish has faced in recent years, and which his replacement will continue to face, are enormous. [Read more: Saeed/YemenTimes/11March2014]

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

U.S. Spy Agencies Adopt New IT Approach. The CIA's decision to use Amazon's cloud is part of a broader IT shake-up to make the spy business more efficient.

The move is being overseen by Al Tarasiuk, who serves as the CIO of the Intelligence Community, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). That office, created in 2005, leads integration efforts among the government's 17 intelligence agencies.

In the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress increased funding for intelligence. But that may have worked against IT integration efforts. By 2012, it was clear Congress was pulling back on its spending.

"It was a big crisis that we had to take advantage of," said Tarasiuk.

What emerged was a plan among the intelligence agencies to move to common IT architectures - shared services including use of cloud and improved data sharing. [Read more: Thibodeau/ComputerWorld/7March2014]

Behind Clash Between CIA and Congress, a Secret Report on Interrogations. It was early December when the Central Intelligence Agency began to suspect it had suffered what it regarded as an embarrassing computer breach.

Investigators for the Senate Intelligence Committee, working in the basement of a CIA facility in Northern Virginia, had obtained an internal agency review summarizing thousands of documents related to the agency's detention and interrogation program. Parts of the CIA report cast a particularly harsh light on the program, the same program the agency was in the midst of defending in a prolonged dispute with the intelligence committee.

What the CIA did next opened a new and even more rancorous chapter in the struggle over how the history of the interrogation program will be written. Agency officials began scouring the digital logs of the computer network used by the Senate staff members to try to learn how and where they got the report. Their search not only raised constitutional questions about the propriety of an intelligence agency investigating its congressional overseers, but has also resulted in two parallel inquiries by the Justice Department - one into the CIA and one into the committee. 

Each side accuses the other of spying on it, with the Justice Department now playing the uneasy role of arbitrator in the bitter dispute. "It's always been a dicey proposition to be investigating Congress," said W. George Jameson, a CIA lawyer for decades. "You don't do it lightly." [Read more: Mazzetti/NYTimes/7March2014]

Naval Espionage: Stopping a Dangerous Insider Threat. As a sailor with a top secret clearance, a sensitive job on a submarine, and 20 years of service in the Navy, Robert Hoffman possessed a tremendous amount of knowledge about the U.S. nuclear fleet and its operations - knowledge he was willing to sell to the Russians.

"It's almost impossible to say why someone would become a spy," said Special Agent James Dougherty, who investigated the case from our Norfolk Division, but Hoffman represents a classic example of the insider threat. "When a U.S. citizen with classified information threatens to betray his country," Dougherty explained, "the resulting damage to national security and loss of American lives can be catastrophic."

Investigators speculate that Hoffman may have blamed his divorce on the Navy, along with his failure to gain promotion. The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) became concerned in 2011 when, nearing retirement, Hoffman told friends he was going on a "man-cation" to Belarus to see Russian women he had previously met when he was stationed in Bahrain - even though he knew the women would not be there.

"He had some sort of motivation to travel to Belarus that didn't seem logical," said Dougherty. In addition, Hoffman ignored the requirement to alert military security officers that he would be traveling out of the country, and he failed to adhere to other security rules of reporting any suspicious incidents while overseas. However, Hoffman did post items on social media channels saying he met the president of Belarus. "All of that added to our suspicion," Dougherty noted. [Read more: FBI/7March2014]

Five Ways China Spies. Every time a fleeing or exiled Chinese official or public intellectual issues a warning about Chinese spies, the statements attain an immediate significance. When ousted Beijing University professor and Cato Institute visiting fellow Xia Yeliang made such remarks on February 27, press the world over picked up his remarks. Dr. Xia said, "Every year among those top universities there are some visiting scholars, and among them I can definitely say there are some people who are actually spies...They don't do any research - probably they just do some surveys for their boss."

One of the reasons such remarks garner attention is that a mystique surrounds Chinese intelligence. The Chinese have not faced the same exposure that the Russians faced when Westerners helped defectors like Oleg Gordievsky, Vasili Mitrokhin, and Sergei Tretyakov write about the Soviet KGB and its successors. The shroud of mystery has meant Western observers treat Chinese intelligence as a kind of inscrutable beast, operating in fundamentally different ways than their Western and Russian counterparts. However, security services worldwide have uncovered a wide-ranging and familiar set of operational methods used by Chinese intelligence.

One of the reasons Chinese intelligence operations do not seem to make sense to observers is that they mistake intelligence for the theft of secrets. Intelligence does not mean the acquisition of "classified" or "secret" information. Intelligence is the acquisition and processing of information that assists in formulating policy and guiding action. Classification has nothing to do with it; Beijing's concerns do. China's concerns in the United States go beyond U.S. policy, including overseas Chinese populations, democracy activists, counterintelligence, and scientific expertise. And, as will become clear below, the Chinese seem to be very comfortable with merely secondhand access to sensitive information.

Here are five important and unmistakably familiar ways that China collects foreign intelligence. [Read more: Mattis/NationalInterest/6March2014]

Section III - COMMENTARY

Putin Hasn't Lost Touch With 'His' Reality. Welcome to KGB Russia. On Christmas Day 1979, U.S. intelligence detected waves of Soviet military aircraft flying into Afghanistan. The next day, President Carter received a memo from his national security advisor outlining possible responses to a wide scale Soviet intervention. On the night of December 27, Soviet KGB troops dressed in Afghan uniforms attacked the palace where Afghan President Amin was hiding, executed him, and occupied strategic locations throughout Kabul in a forty-five minute operation. A radio broadcast, purporting to be from Kabul but actually coming from Uzbekistan, announced that Amin's execution had been ordered by the Afghan Peoples' Revolutionary Council and that a new government headed by Soviet-loyalist Babrak Karmal had been formed. Soviet ground forces and paratroopers invaded the same evening, and, within five weeks, five divisions were in place. So began the Soviet Afghanistan war. (Paul Gregory, The Soviet Quagmire).

Vladimir Putin, then an ambitious 27-year-old foreign intelligence officer of the KGB, cut his teeth on the KGB Afghanistan invasion. In his fourteen years as Russia's supreme leader, he has used the classic KGB dirty tricks of provokatsia, desinformatsia, and maskirovka to bomb Chechnya back to the stone age while installing a puppet regime, intimidate and keep in line Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Central Asia, and any independence-minded flash points of the former Soviet empire. Ukraine, his latest victim, is, in Putin's world, the beneficiary of munificent Russian humanitarian assistance necessitated by manipulation of the sinister Americans applying techniques on the Ukrainian people perfected on lab rats.

Putin's unchanging KGB script dates back to Stalin's annihilations and deportation of whole nationalities in the 1930s and State Security head, Ivan Serov's, razing of Eastern Europe. The model remains the same: Armored trucks and troops arrive out of nowhere, invited by some shadowy local organization. They take control of strategic facilities and communications, and announce a new regime elected by popular acclaim and cheered on by grateful residents organized by KGB operatives.

The world clearly understands that Russian forces have launched an illegitimate and disguised invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of international treaties bearing their own signature. They have installed a puppet government, and have gone about securing control of foreign territory, the limits of which remain to be determined. [Read more: Gregory/Forbes/7March2014]

Rock Bottom: The Relationship Between the CIA and Its Senate Overseers Has Never Been Worse. Since the two congressional committees that oversee U.S. intelligence agencies were established almost four decades ago, a set of unspoken agreements, rather than hard-and-fast rules and laws, has governed how members of Congress and their staff obtain access to information about some of the nation's most highly classified national security programs. But now, in a rare public feud between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA over its interrogation of suspected terrorists, each side accuses the other of violating those agreements, and the system of checks and balances that binds the two sides together has been strained more than in any period in recent memory.

"This might well be the most acrimonious public moment between the CIA and a Senate committee since the time of the post-Watergate Church Committee investigations nearly 40 years ago," said former Justice Department lawyer Dan Metcalfe, referring to one of two congressional investigations of domestic spying and other abuses by the CIA, led by Sen. Frank Church (D-Id.), that gave birth to the committees and the modern system of intelligence oversight. In his earlier role as director of the Office of Information and Privacy, Metcalfe guided all federal agencies on sensitive and classified disclosure issues from 1981 to 2007. In that period, he said, he could not recall a time when CIA-congressional relations plunged to such caustic depths.

In interviews, ten current and former congressional staff members and U.S. government officials painted the same grim picture: the relationship between the CIA and its Senate overseers has been poisoned amid dueling accusations over one of the darkest chapters in the spy agency's history. [Read more: Harris&Hudson/ForeignPolicy/10March2014]

Selling a Mossad Book: Is it Fact or Fiction? Back in my CIA days we sometimes used to describe our opponents in the KGB as "ten feet tall." It was, in truth, a tribute to their tradecraft and ability to operate in largely hostile environments. Soviet case officers were sent overseas meticulously trained in both the local culture and language, remained in a country for as long as they continued to be effective, and would engage in hours long "runs" to detect and eventually evade surveillance before making their meetings with their agents. They also drank heavily. We Americans, meanwhile, normally did two or three year tours, were frequently language deficient, and often spent a good deal of our time worrying about where we would be going next rather than concentrating on the job at hand. We also drank heavily. In a sense, the KGB and CIA officers were products of the cultures that had created them, the Soviets exhibiting caution and patience because they knew they were in for the long haul while the Americans were more focused on getting their ticket punched for promotion so they could buy a new Oldsmobile when they eventually returned home to Reston.

Alas, neither the drone happy CIA nor the KGB's successor organization the SRV are what they once were. The Russians sent a bunch of amateurs to the US in the Anna Chapman spy operation while CIA has bungled its way through a series of misadventures, including but not limited to the Abu Omar snatch in Milan in 2003, the deaths of 7 officers by a triple agent suicide bomber in Khost Afghanistan in 2009, and the Raymond Davis killing of two Pakistanis in Lahore in 2011.

To be sure, intelligence agencies derive much of their mystique and elan from review by peers but even more from the popular perception of their derring-do and effectiveness. The British service, MI-6, is indeed one of the world's finest but where would it be without the legend of James Bond? In truth the Bond books are pretty much a joke in terms of the espionage activity they describe, not to mention some of the ridiculous movies they have spawned, but much of the world will always regard Her Majesty's Secret Service with awe because of them.

These days perhaps no intelligence agency benefits more from a media enhanced reputation than Israel's external service Mossad. A new Mossad book has just come out, by the same authors who wrote the old Mossad book, and the inevitable spin has begun. [Read more: Giraldi/AntiWar/11March2014]

Section IV - Obituaries and Coming Events

Obituaries

Roger Hilsman, Foreign Policy Adviser to JFK, Dies at 94. Roger Hilsman, a commando raider during World War II who later served a tumultuous stint as State Department intelligence chief during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the early stages of the Vietnam War in the Kennedy administration, died Feb. 23 at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 94.

He had complications from several strokes, said his son Hoyt Hilsman.

Dr. Hilsman, who was the son of an Army colonel, was a West Point graduate who served during World War II with a fabled Army commando unit in Japanese-occupied Burma known as Merrill's Marauders.

After being wounded in battle, he transferred to the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime precursor of the CIA, and in 1945 took part in a parachute rescue mission to liberate a Japanese POW camp in the Chinese region of Manchuria. One of the prisoners in the camp was his own father, who had been seized by Japanese forces three years earlier in the Philippines.

When he reached his father to free him from captivity, Dr. Hilsman wrote in his 1990 book, American Guerrilla, his father remarked, "Son, what took you so long?"

Dr. Hilsman continued to serve in the Army while attached to the OSS and CIA for several years before receiving a doctorate in international relations from Yale University in 1951. He worked with NATO in Europe, then resigned from the Army to join the Center of International Studies at Princeton University.

He came to Washington in 1956 to work for the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress, where he became friendly with then-Sen. John F. Kennedy (D-Mass.). After Kennedy was elected president in 1960, Dr. Hilsman joined the State Department as director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and became a key figure in planning foreign policy.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962, Dr. Hilsman communicated with Soviet officials and briefed congressional leaders on developments in the tense Cold War standoff. [Read more: Schudel/WashingtonPost/8March2014]

Stefan Baluk. Stefan Baluk, who has died aged 100, was one of the last survivors of the elite SOE agents of Poland's Home Army, and survived capture by both Nazi and Soviet occupiers.

On the night of April 9 1944, Baluk was flown from Brindisi, in the liberated heel of Italy, and dropped into Poland. In Warsaw he found bunkers and checkpoints everywhere and, as a spy, he could not make contact with any members of his family.

He began working with the Armia Krajowa (AK), the Home Army. Moving stealthily around the city he took photographs of German military installations. On August 1, the Home Army gave the signal for the start of the Warsaw uprising. Baluk's specialty was making forged documents for the resistance fighters.

Communications were a problem. Fighters in one part of the city lacked the correct radio crystals to maintain contact with their comrades in another. On one occasion, he and his unit volunteered to deliver crystals to a commando group. This involved crossing railway lines which were under water and heavily guarded. It was dark, but a sentry heard the splashing and opened fire. Baluk said afterwards that they were only able to get away because an aircraft came over and the sentry engaged it.

As the net around them was drawn tighter, the resistance fighters took to the sewers. [Read more: TheTelegraph/6March2014]

Coming Educational Events

EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

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

Wednesday, 12 March 2014, 11:30am - 1:30pm - Scottsdale, AZ - FBI Analyst/former CIA Officer Matt Perez discusses "Differences and Similarities in Intelligence Work between FBI and CIA."

Mathias J. Perez, Intelligence Analyst, FBI Phoenix Division, will discuss "The differences and similarities in intelligence work between the FBI & CIA"
Matt Perez is an intelligence analyst for the Phoenix Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During his seven years with the FBI, Matt has worked as a manager and leader of analysts, as a line analyst embedded in a squad, and as a collection manager.
Prior to joining the Bureau, Matt served as the chief of China leadership political analysis at the Central Intelligence Agency. He has also worked as an all source analyst at the National Counterterrorism Center. Matt earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Arizona, and he is a US Army veteran.
Event location: McCormick Ranch Golf Course, 7505 McCormick Parkway, Scottsdale AZ 85258 - Phone 480.948.0260
RSVP no later than 72 hours ahead of time. No Shows who have not cancelled 48 hours prior will be charged. Fee is $20/pp ($22/pp nonmembers). For reservations or questions, contact Simone at simone@afioaz.org or simone@4smartphone.net. To call, please leave a message on 602.570.6016.

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

The guest speaker is Jim Ohlson. Jim is a retired FBI Special Agent with over 28 years of service to the FBI, primarily in the counterintelligence and counterterrorism programs.
On 20 February 2001, Mr. Ohlson's phone began to ring early in the morning and continued without letup throughout the day. He was stunned to learn that Robert Hanssen, a co-worker he had formed close ties with during assignments in D.C. and New York, was under arrest for espionage. The media frenzy that followed the Robert Hanssen spy case can be used to judge its impact. No modern spy has been the focus of so much attention as fast as Robert Hanssen. By 2003, five books had been published and numerous articles written and by 2007 several films had been produced.
Jim Ohlson had come to know Bob Hanssen fairly well over the years and felt the books and movies had done a mixed job at solving the essential mystery. To explain why, it will be helpful to address a series of questions: Who is Bob Hanssen? What made him a good FBI agent? What made him a good KGB agent? What was the damage? Why did he do it? Where is he now?
Early in his career he studied Arabic at the Defense Language Institute and then put the language to use in the Bureau's New York Field Office. He spent over 14 years in the New York Office working counterterrorism, counterintelligence and directing FBI support to the National Foreign Intelligence programs for the U.S. Intelligence Community. Following that assignment Jim was awarded the DCI's National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. Jim retired from FBI Headquarters as the Security Program Manager. In 13 years since leaving the FBI, he has worked with the Center for Public Justice, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive [NCIX]; and, since 2004, with NSA's Office of Counterintelligence. Prior to his years in the FBI, Jim served in the U.S. Army, to include a tour in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division.
Event Location: L-3 Communications located at 2720 Technology Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701, Tel 301-575-3200. Lunch will be served 1200-1300.
To join us for this exciting program mail your registration fee in the enclosed envelope or register online at www.cryptologicfoundation.org. The fees are $20 for members and $50 for guests (includes a guest membership). Deadline for registration is 07 March 2014.
If you wish to register by sending a check via U.S. mail, do so by making it payable to NCMF and send to PO Box 1682, Fort George G Meade, MD 20755-3682. Questions? Contact Mary J. Faletto, Senior Administrator, National Cryptologic Museum Foundation, Office: 301-688-5436 Cell: 443-250-8621. E-mail: cryptmf@aol.com

Thursday, 13 March 2014, Noon-2 pm - Washington DC - The Returned & Services League of Australia meets to hear The Hon Kim Beazley AC Ambassador of Australia.

Topic: Possible Future Directions in Australia's Defence Force.
Where - 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.
RSVP  by noon on Wednesday March 12, 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.

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

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

19 March - 21 May 2014 - Washington, DC - Frontiers: A Ten Week Program in American Strategy and Statecraft at the Institute of World Politics.

Frontiers consists of ten-weekly luncheons featuring a panel of experts on each session's topic including Cyber and Corporate Statecraft, Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Counter-radicalization and more. Frontiers is an intensive ten-week program in American strategy and statecraft that reflects the unique curriculum offered at The Institute of World Politics (IWP) based on statecraft, strategy, political philosophy, and applied ethics. The program will emphasize the concept of integrated strategy, which attempts to address foreign policy and national security challenges by applying and integrating different instruments of statecraft such as military, traditional and public diplomacy, strategic communications, intelligence, counterintelligence, and economic strategy - within the rule of law.

Schedule: Click here for the schedule for the Spring 2014 Frontiers program. 

Application: Click here to apply for Frontiers Spring 2014 (March 19-May 21).

Tuition: The cost of this program is $3,000.  Once you have been accepted to the program, please mail your check to: The Institute of World Politics, Attn: Tania Mastrapa, 1521 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 

Contact: Dr. Tania C. Mastrapa at mastrapa@iwp.edu

Thursday, 20 March 2014 - Colorado Springs, CO - AFIO Rocky Mountain Chapter luncheon features Inspector John San Agustin of El Paso County Sheriff's Office

Inspector John San Agustin of the El Paso County Sheriff�s Office discusses the Jon Benet Ramsey case. That case has been in the news in December 2013 and again in January 2014. John Agustin and Ollie Gray, partners in an investigation with full access to the Ramsey�s files, will demonstrate their findings and evidence, which may surprise you. The Chapter meets at its new venue: the Falcon Room of the Air Force Academy, Falcon Club, starting at 11:30 am. Price: $12.00 payable at the door. Please RSVP to Tom VanWormer at robsmom@pcisys.net.

Friday, 21 March 2014, 10:30am - 2pm - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO's first 2014 luncheon features John Rizzo, former Acting General Counsel, CIA - the most influential Career Lawyer in CIA history, and Philip Mudd, Former DD/National Security, FBI and Former DD/Counterterrorist Center, CIA.

John Rizzo, former Acting General Counsel, CIA, author of: Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA, makes his presentation to our members at 1 p.m. "Rizzo rose to become the most influential career lawyer in CIA history ...involved in proxy wars in Central America in the 1970s to recent drone strikes in Pakistan." "Practicing law at CIA was unlike any other attorney job in the government. Few federal statutes were meant to apply to the Agency's activities..." Company Man is "an atlas to navigate the dark, murky morality that governs the business of intelligence." -- The Washington Post, Dina Temple-Raston, 10 January 2014

Morning speaker, 11 am, is Philip Mudd, Former Deputy Director of National Security, FBI, and Former Deputy Director, Counterterrorist Center, CIA, author of TAKEDOWN: Inside the Hunt for Al Qaida. Philip Mudd, a career CIA officer, become second-in-charge of counterterrorism analysis in the Counterterrorist Center. He was promoted to the position of Deputy Director of the Center in 2003 and served there until 2005, when FBI Director Mueller appointed him as the first-ever deputy director of the National Security Branch in 2005.  He later became the FBI's Senior Intelligence Adviser and then resigned from government service in March 2010.

<Register Here while space remains.

EVENT LOCATION: The Crowne Plaza, 1960 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA 22102. Driving directions here or use this link: http://tinyurl.com/boey9vf

Friday, 21 March 2014, 12.30 - 2pm - Los Angeles, CA - The AFIO L.A. Chapter hosts speaker on "The U-2 Incident: A Son's Perspective."

Francis Gary Powers, Jr will be our guest speaker discussing "The U-2 Incident, A Son's Perspective." Powers, Jr., was born five years after his father was shotdown over the Soviet Union. The downing was an incident that triggered much embarrassment for the Eisenhower Administration. Powers Jr. is founder of The Cold War Museum located in Vint Hill Farms, Virginia.
Event location: LAPD ARTC, 5651 W Manchester Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90045.
Please RSVP for attendance: afio_LA@yahoo.com.

Tuesday, 25 March 2014, 4:30 pm - Washington, DC - Michael Sulick speaks on "American Spies: Espionage against the United States from the Cold War to the Present"

Michael J. Sulick, Former Director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service; Former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence, speaks on his new book on Espionage from the Cold War to the Present.
Location: The Institute of World Politics, 1521 16th St NW, Washington, DC.
To Register, contact sdwyer@iwp.edu. To attend, you MUST have a reply email indicating you are registered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spring into surveillance!
As a young operative in the FBI, Eric O'Neill was used to conducting surveillance; he was even put into the position of spying on his boss. The boss was Robert Hanssen, who was under suspicion of working for Russia, and O'Neill was up to the challenge. Now he'll share his expertise with you. O'Neill has conducted many outdoor surveillance exercises for the Museum, and he's ready to take those with the right skills up a notch. You'll be trailing the "Rabbit" through a complicated urban setting with red herrings and false leads. O'Neill will rate your clandestine prowess while you spy on secret meetings and operational acts and see if you can uncover the spy skullduggery that's afoot while you are on foot. There is no guarantee that your "Rabbit" won't escape!
Tickets: $94. Space is limited to only 10 participants -- advance registration required! Call Laura Hicken at 202.654.0932 to register.

REGISTRATION HAS OPENED

AFIO 2014 Intelligence Symposium

Tentative Agenda and Registration Now Available Online

1 - 3 May 2014

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

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

Tentative Agenda is <here.
The Agenda was updated on 11 March 2014
There will be occasional updates so check again every ten days.

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

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

You will hear/meet NGA Director Letitia Long, as well as the following speakers (confirmed or invited):
Michael Sulick, former Director, CIA's National Clandestine Service; Michael Warner, Historian, DoD and CIA; James Hughes, CIA Mideast Expert; Kai Bird, author on CIA in Beirut; Keith Alexander, Director, NSA; Stewart Baker, former NSA & DHS; John Bennett, former Deputy Director, CIA's National Clandestine Service; Spike Bowman, former NSA, NCIX/DNI, FBI; David Major, former FBI/National Security Council; David Ignatius, journlist Washington Post; John Sano, former Deputy Director National Clandestine Service, CIA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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