AFIO Weekly Intelligence Notes #15-17 dated 11 April 2017

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CONTENTS

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

Section III - COMMENTARY

Section IV - Careers and Obituaries

Careers

Obituaries

Section V - Events

Upcoming AFIO Events

Other Upcoming Events

For Additional AFIO and other Events two+ months or more... Calendar of Events 

WIN CREDITS FOR THIS ISSUE: The WIN editors thank the following special contributors:  pjk, mh, 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.
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Just released - AFIO's 2017 edition of...

Intelligence as a Career BookletIntelligence as a Career - with updated listings of colleges teaching intelligence courses, and Q&As on needed foreign languages, as well as the courses, grades, extracurricular activities, and behavioral characteristics and life experiences sought by modern US intelligence agencies.

AFIO's popular 56-page booklet reaches high school and college students considering careers in the US Intelligence Community. This is the fourth edition.
The publication is also popular with University Career Guidance Centers, professors and academic departments specializing in national security, and parents assisting children or grandchildren in choosing meaningful, public service careers.
This booklet is provided at no cost as a public service - online and in print - from the generosity of AFIO board, donors, and members. 20,000 printed copies of each edition are distributed. Many more are accessed online.
We thank all members and donors for their support which has made this possible.

2017 edition of Careers Booklet in PDF Format available here.

Also now online as a public service from the generosity of our members and donors is the entire 788-page AFIO's Guide to the Study of Intelligence, Peter Oleson, Editor, with a foreword by Dr. Robert M. Gates.
It can be accessed here.
If you wish, instead, to own a printed, bound copy, those are available here (AFIO) and here (Amazon).

     

AFIO National Spring Luncheon
Friday, 12 May 2017
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Register here while space remains.

New York Times Washington Correspondent
David Sanger on
"Terrorism, Secret Wars, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Use of American Power"

and
Author Eva Dillon on
"Living Life Undercover in a CIA Family"
and join AFIO as we welcome and thank Marina, the granddaughter of Gen Polyakov
present with us at this special event.

David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, speaks on "Terrorism, Secret Wars, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Use of American Power." His address starts at 1 p.m.

The 11 a.m. speaker is Eva Dillon, author and magazine publisher, on Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War. It is an engaging true-life memoir, of her CIA father, Paul Dillon, and the GRU officer who became a CIA agent whom her father handled - the highest ranking, longest serving asset the US had during the Cold War. It is also a memoir about both families growing up unknowingly as the children of spies.

"A beautifully written, profoundly moving account of one of the most important U.S Intelligence sources ever run inside the Soviet Union. A cliff-hanger from beginning to end, Dillon's account is filled with espionage tradecraft and family drama - essential reading for intelligence professionals, memoir enthusiasts, and anyone fascinated by how spying really works." -- Peter Earnest, Executive Director, International Spy Museum

Event location is the Crowne Plaza (soon to be renamed DoubleTree-Hilton), Tysons Corner, VA,
at 1960 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA 22102.

Registration is here. Do so quickly to assure seating.

"Codebreaking and the Battle of Midway" with Author/Historian Elliot Carlson
National Cryptologic Museum's Schorreck Lecture
Thursday, 25 May 2017 10 am - 11:30 am
Fort Meade, MD

2017 Henry F. Schorreck Lecture Speaker Series features Elliot Carlson, author of the celebrated biography of CMDR Joseph Rochefort (cryptologic hero of the Battle of Midway) - Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway. Carlson's talk will be "Codebreaking and the Battle of Midway: When Cryptanalysis Came of Age." More about Carlson's book here.

On 3-7 June 1942, the US defeated Japan in the Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive battles in world history. The battle regained the initiative in the Pacific for the US after its setback at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 while placing Japan on the strategic defensive from which it never fully recovered. On the 75th Anniversary of this US naval victory, Carlson discusses the pivotal role that intelligence played in it. In particular, the breaking of JN-25, the Japanese Imperial Fleet's operational code, by codebreakers at Station Hypo in Hawaii led by CMDR Joseph Rochefort USN.
Carlson holds degrees from Stanford University (MA) and the University of Oregon (BS).
He lives with his wife in Silver Spring, MD.

RSVP: Advanced registration required since this popular NCM Schorreck Lecture Series always has a full house. To not lose a spot, email history@nsa.gov and/or gjnedve@nsa.gov and provide the number of seats you will need. They will confirm your reservations and answer any questions.
Event location: National Cryptologic Museum: 9900 Colony Seven Rd, Fort Meade, MD. Directions here.
Plenty of convenient, free parking.

HOLD THE DATE: AFIO's 2017 National Intelligence Symposium

"Succeeding in the Open ' The Future of GEOINT "

will be at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
and elsewhere (TBA),
Thursday & Friday, 28 to 29 September 2017.
Hotel: DoubleTree-Hilton, Tysons Corner, VA

Tentative Agenda: ' Opening Remarks by AFIO President; ' NGA Overview and Q&A; ' Video Presentation; ' 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.

Arrive Wednesday evening, 27 September to overnight at the hotel to be ready early Thursday, 28 September, for coach service to NGA for all day conference including visit to their new museum. Welcome by NGA Director Robert Cardillo. Friday activities TBA. 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. Details, event registration and hotel room registration links to be sent to all current members in coming weeks. Early phone-only room registrations can be made at 1-877-865-1877 at $119/nite.

Book of the Week

Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight
by Henry Hemming
(PublicAffairs, May 2017)

Order here.

Spying is the art of knowing who to trust-and who to betray Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history, rumored to be the real-life inspiration for the James Bond character "M." He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain during World War II, in spite of his own history inside this movement. He was also truly eccentric--a thrice-married jazz aficionado who kept a menagerie of exotic pets--and almost totally unqualified for espionage.
Yet he had a gift for turning practically anyone -- bankers, secretaries, lawyers, booksellers -- into a fearless secret agent. Knight's work revolutionized British intelligence, pioneering the use of female agents, among other accomplishments. During the 1920s and '30s, Knight used this ability to infiltrate and render innocuous the British Fascist movement, under the leadership of first William Joyce (later Lord Haw-Haw) and then Oswald Mosley. Knight had for some years been attracted to fascism himself and might have tipped off his old friend Joyce that he was about to be apprehended before Joyce fled to Germany in August 1939. Hemming writes far more briefly about Knight's less successful postwar effort, including his recruitment of John le Carré to identify communist infiltrations of British institutions.

The book may be ordered here.

All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power
by Thomas Wright
(Yale Univ Press, May 2017)

Order here.

A look at the future of great power competition in an age of globalization and what the US can do in response. Two decades after the Cold War the great power competition is back and the liberal order is in jeopardy. Russia and China are increasingly revisionist in their regions. The Middle East is unraveling. And many Americans question why the US ought to lead at immense cost in lives and treasure, as we drift beyond $20 trillion debt. What will great power competition look like in the decades ahead? Will the liberal world order survive? What impact will geopolitics have on globalization? And, what strategy should the US pursue to succeed in an increasingly competitive world? Wright explains how major powers will compete fiercely even as they try to avoid war with each other. He outlines his new American strategy -- Responsible Competition -- to navigate these challenges and strengthen the liberal order. If that's what we really want.

The book may be ordered here.

Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Former Director of NSA and CIA Speaks on the Importance of Espionage for Democracy.  American espionage is not only compatible with but essential to democracy, former director of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden told an audience of more than 200 people in Robertson Hall April 6.

"When people are frightened they begin to gnaw on their neighbors' rights, privacies, and liberties - and when they get really scared, they don't mind gnawing on their own rights, privacies, and liberties," Hayden said. "That's why successful espionage is not just about the defense of American security but about the defense of American liberty."

As director of the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and CIA director from 2006 to 2009, Hayden was at the forefront of many post-9/11 intelligence programs, including targeted killing and the NSA's Section 215 telephone-metadata program.

"Free peoples have always had to decide where they want to tuck their bed, between security on one side and liberty on the other, privacy over here and safety over here," Hayden said, in regard to what he sees as an unavoidable tradeoff between the two values.  [Read More:  Malamut/princeton/7April2017]

Pakistan Sentences Former Indian Naval Officer to Death Over Spying Claims.  Pakistan's army on Monday sentenced a former Indian naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, to be executed on charges of espionage and sabotage, just over a year after he was detained. The news threatens to bring diplomatic relations between the rival countries to a new low.

India's Ministry of External Affairs summoned Pakistan's head envoy to New Delhi and said Jadhav's "so-called trial" was "clearly absurd," and that India would consider his execution an act of "premeditated murder."

Jadhav was arrested March 3, 2016, in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, near its border with Iran. Pakistan has long accused India of fomenting rebellion in the already unstable province. Jadhav was allegedly traveling using the alias Hussein Mubarak Patel.

India has acknowledged that Jadhav was formerly in its navy and that he had business interests in Iran. But Delhi vehemently denies that he had any connection to government or intelligence agencies. Islamabad says its own intelligence found enough to give him the maximum sentence.  [Read More:  Bearak/washingtonpost/10April2017]

480th ISRG Fills Training Gap.  The transition from technical school to duty station created issues within the intelligence community that couldn't be addressed with on-the-job training alone.

To combat this, the analytic foundations initiative was developed. This initiative was written and is taught by a core group of civilian and military analysts with a wide range of experience in the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group at Fort Gordon, Georgia.

According to Master Sgt. Troy Adamo, a 480th ISRG flight chief, this program will eliminate the skill gap between newly assigned intelligence Airmen and operational intelligence Airmen.

"It is designed to teach the analysts to continually ask questions, figure out what they know and what they don't know and expects them to accurately communicate the intelligence picture as they understand it," said Adamo.  [Read More:  Cannady/af/7April2017]

Norway Raises Threat Level After Bomb Find, Russian Arrested.  The domestic intelligence agency PST said an attack was now "probable" rather than "possible", because of the risk of a copycat attack after recent assaults in Stockholm, Saint Petersburg, London, Berlin and Nice.

The new threat level will be in place for two months.

"It's not clear whether the 17-year-old young man intended to commit a terrorist attack," PST chief Benedicte Bj'rnland told reporters.

The teen's lawyer, Aase Karine Sigmond, said her client rejected the allegations, as well as claims in the media that he was an Islamic State (Isis) sympathiser.  [Read More:  AFP/thelocal/10April2017]

Head of Romanian Orthodox Church to Earn More Than a Secret Service Director.  The head of the Romanian Orthodox Church will have a gross salary of RON 14,500 (EUR 3,200), according to the new pay law draft. This will be similar to the wage of a minister.

By comparison, the heads of the Secret Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) will have gross wages of RON 10,730 (EUR 2,370) each, similar to state secretaries, sources from PSD told News.ro.

The president of the Competition Council, as well as the Ombudsman and the president of the Court of Auditors will have gross salaries of RON 14,500 (EUR 3,200). The head of the Permanent Electoral Authority and the presidential advisors will get the same wage, according to the pay bill. The deputy presidents of the Court of Auditors and the Competition Council will receive wages of RON 13,500 (EUR 3,000) per month.

These wage levels are included in the draft of the new unitary pay law in the public administration sector. According to the draft bill, the President will have the highest salary in the public sector, namely RON 17,400 (EUR 3,850) gross per month.  [Read More:  romania-insider/10April2017]

Kuwait Asks PH to Deport Arrested IS Member.  The Kuwaiti government has asked the Philippine government for assistance to speed up the deportation of Hussein Al-Dhafiri, one of  two arrested alleged members of the Islamic State (IS).

Al-Dhafiri, together with Syrian female Rahaf Zina, was arrested last March 25 by agents of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Taguig.

Al-Dhafiri is allegedly involved in explosives manufacturing and possibly on operational planning against Kuwait, while, Rahaf is the widow of the slain Abu Jandal Al-Kuwaiti, who is the number two military commander of the IS operating in Syria.

In a one-page letter received by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Embassy explained that the IS member will "stand trial in the State of Kuwait for his involvement in" the terrorist group.  [Read More:  Torres-Tupas/inquirer/10April2017]

Sanford Program Puts Military Officers in the Duke Classroom.  His first day as a Duke Fellow, COL Wes MacMullen took a seat in a Sanford School classroom, and after a few moments of silence had a nervous thought.

"I suddenly realized that probably half of the students there thought I was the teacher," said MacMullen, a fellow in the Sanford School's Counterterrorism and Public Policy Fellowship Program.

He wasn't, but if you drop a veteran officer with more than two decades of military experience into a classroom of civilian undergraduates and graduate students, you're going to get some surprises. For the past five years, the fellowship program has been a year-long academic home for FBI, Army and Navy officers. The results have overturned expectations of fellows, faculty and student alike and benefited both the military and Duke.

Directed by Visiting Associate Professor of the Practice Tim Nichols, the program includes four Army officers and one Navy officer this year. They take core courses on national security decision-making and strategic intelligence taught by Nichols and conduct a year-long research project, but they are otherwise free to set their curriculum.  Most focus on public policy courses or Fuqua School leadership classes, but Nichols said some branch out into the humanities, engineering, and other areas at Duke.  [Read More:  Mock/duke/10April2017]

"Risk Avoidance" Leads to Over-Classification.  When government officials consider whether to classify national security information, they should not aim for perfect security, according to new guidance from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Instead, classifiers should seek to limit unnecessary vulnerabilities, while keeping broader mission objectives in view.

"A Risk Avoidance strategy - eliminating risk entirely - is not an acceptable basis for agency [classification] guides because it encourages over-classification, restricts information sharing, [and] hinders the optimal use of intelligence information in support of national security and foreign policy goals," the ODNI document said.

Rather, "All agencies should reflect in their classification decisions a Risk Management strategy - mitigating the likelihood and severity of risk - in protecting classified information over which they have [classification authority], including clear descriptions in their classification policies of how the strategy is used when making classification determinations." See Principles of Classification Management for the Intelligence Community, ODNI, March 2017.

This risk management/risk avoidance dichotomy in classification policy has been batted around for a while. It was previously discussed at length in in the thoughtful but not very consequential 1994 report of the Joint Security Commission on Redefining Security in the post-cold war era.  [Read More:  Aftergood/fas/10April2017]


Section II - CONTEXT & PRECEDENCE

There's Now a Spy-Themed Bar in London Where You Have to Crack Codes to Get Cocktails.  Bar-goers will have to test out their detective skills for themselves using cipher machines, inspired by Alan Turing and Sherlock Holmes.

Wannabe detectives will receive an agent name once they turn up at the underground bunker, based in Chelsea, London.

Each cocktail will be unique to visitors, and will be crafted once you've used World War II cipher machines and puzzles to reveal all to the mixologist - after the information's been transmitted via radio.

Mixologists will work out your ideal drink based on your personality, tastes and desires. These traits are then translated into a very fancy cocktail.  [Read More:  Murray-Morris/metro/17March2017]

NSA Cyber-Defense Chief:  "I Have Never Been More Busy".  The man responsible for leading the National Security Agency's defensive mission says his team is fielding more calls than ever from agencies across the government.

Dangerous, highly capable hackers and a desire by agencies to adopt cloud technology have increased the workload for Information Assurance chief Paul Pitelli and his office, which he says is "sort of like the Geek Squad for defense" in government.

Pitelli is a career professional who has served in the NSA for more than 20 years as the secretive spy agency transformed into what it is today - a highly sophisticated technology behemoth with an array of federal responsibilities, including both signals intelligence and protecting sensitive government systems. With the recent retirement of former Information Assurance Directorate head Curtis Dukes, a renown computer scientist and intelligence community icon, Pitelli took on an increased role in an ever important effort to ensure that the Defense Department and broader government aren't hacked.

"We'll get a wide range of calls from 'Hey we're trying to set up a whole new [information technology] environment' - and that could be the White House calling," Pitelli said.  [Read More:  Bing/cyberscoop/7April2017]

Blog: A Founding Father of the CIA Served His Nation for More Than Six Decades.  Former ambassador Hugh Montgomery enlisted in the Army at age 18 and was wounded while serving as a paratrooper - he jumped into Normandy on D-Day with the 82nd Airborne. He subsequently joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA's predecessor. The office was established in 1942, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. Maj. Gen. William Donovan, considered the father of American centralized intelligence, led the organization. "Because of his very close relationship with President Roosevelt, he was able to do things with 13,000 people that we couldn't do with 13 million these days," Montgomery said.

In the weeks before he died, Montgomery recalled that Donovan, nicknamed "Wild Bill," also enjoyed support from Gen. George Marshall, who served as Army chief of staff under Roosevelt and "who came to appreciate the intelligence products he was getting from the OSS analytical branch," Montgomery said.

The OSS was a small but capable organization. "It was able to create all kinds of irregular warfare activities in Europe and the Middle East and everywhere else, but again, simply because Donovan had a blank check from President Roosevelt," Montgomery reported.

When Roosevelt died in April 1945, Gen. Donovan sent a message to the OSS staff members saying the president's death likely would mark the end of the organization because "I have more enemies in Washington than I do in all of Europe," Montgomery recalled. President Harry S. Truman "didn't waste very much time in, simply with an executive order, abolishing OSS. And that was the end of that," he added.  [Read More:  Seffers/afcea/7April2017]

How His Majesty's Secret Service Spied on His Majesty.  On the first weekend of December 1936, Thomas Robertson, a 27-year-old MI5 intelligence officer, was posted at dead of night to the deeply unglamorous undergrowth of Green Park, central London. Tar, as he was known to friends and family was, on the orders of the Home Secretary, to find the telephone junction box that served Buckingham Palace and place a wiretap on the royal phones.

Shivering in the cold, with his headphones on, the Scottish spy listened in on a private call between Edward VIII and his brother Bertie, the future George VI. Thus he became the first person beyond the immediate Windsor family to learn that the King intended to abdicate, to choose the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and so precipitate a crisis that would threaten to sink the monarchy.

Robertson's eavesdropping was the culmination of "the most controversial surveillance operation in British history", according to Prof Rory Cormac of Nottingham University, one of two intelligence experts who feature in Spying on the Royals, a two-part Channel 4 documentary that starts tonight.

"It has remained a state secret for the past 80 years, with successive British governments, right up to the days of Princess Diana, always denying that they would ever, ever spy on the Royal family."  [Read More:  Stanford/afr/2April2017]

Snowden Documents Reveal Scope of Secrets Exposed to China in 2001 Spy Plane Incident.  When China boldly seized a US underwater drone in the South China Sea last December and initially refused to give it back, the incident ignited a weeklong political standoff and conjured memories of a similar event more than 15 years ago.

In April 2001, just months before the 9/11 attacks gripped the nation, a US Navy spy plane flying a routine reconnaissance mission over the South China Sea was struck by a People's Liberation Army fighter jet that veered aggressively close. The mid-air collision killed the Chinese pilot, crippled the Navy plane, and forced it to make an emergency landing at a Chinese airfield, touching off a tense international showdown for nearly two weeks while China refused to release the two-dozen American crew members and damaged aircraft.

The sea drone captured in December was a research vessel, not a spy craft, according to the Pentagon, so its seizure didn't risk compromising secret military technology. That wasn't the case with the spy plane, which carried a trove of surveillance equipment and classified signals intelligence data.

For more than a decade, US officials have refused to say what secrets China might have gleaned from the plane. Two years after the incident, journalists saw a redacted US military report, which revealed that although crew members had jettisoned documents out an emergency hatch as they flew over the sea and had managed to destroy some signals-collection equipment before the plane fell into the hands of the Chinese, it was "highly probable" China had still obtained classified information from the plane. Attempts by journalists and academics to learn more over the years have been unsuccessful.  [Read More:  Zetter/theintercept/10April2017]

Want to Buy an Old CIA Rendition Jet?  For $27.5 million you can own a valuable memento of a dark period of recent American history. The jet above is currently for sale in Dallas, Texas. The Boeing 737 business jet seats up to 16 passengers and includes one queen and two single beds, a lounge bar, and three built-in 42-inch TV screens. The jet's listing does not mention, however, that in its former career, it was part of the Central Intelligence Agency's extraordinary rendition program, transporting "high-value" terrorism detainees around the globe to "black sites" where they faced "enhanced" interrogation techniques.

The jet's history can be pieced together from news clippings, human rights reports, and Federal Aviation Administration documents. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported on a specially modified 737 with the tail number N313P, which had been observed flying between the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. The paper linked the jet back to the CIA through a series of front companies around Washington, DC. One of those companies was Premier Executive Transport Services, which had taken ownership of the new plane in May 2002. The Washington Post found that the names of 325 people ostensibly affiliated with this shadowy company could be traced back to five Beltway-area P.O. boxes. When reporters searched for some of those names in public databases, what little they could turn up was a bit spooky: "Although most names were attached to dates of birth in the 1940s, '50s or '60s, all were given Social Security numbers between 1998 and 2003."

During its time with CIA-linked companies, N313P flew all around the world, landing in spots like Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya, Uzbekistan, and Guantanamo Bay. In September 2003, it touched down at a remote airport in Poland. As the Tribune later suggested, this trip may have had something to do with the Polish intelligence complex in Stare Kiejkuty, which the European Court of Human Rights later found housed a secret CIA site. Before the release of the Senate intelligence committee's 2014 report on the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program, the Washington Post reported that American intelligence officers had probably abused and tortured detainees at the black site at Stare Kiejkuty. N313P landed near Stare Kiejkuty at least once.

In 2004, the aircraft carried the "shackled and hooded" Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who was held in Guantanamo from 2004 until 2009. A few days later, the jet is also believed to have transported Khaled al-Masri, a Lebanese-born German citizen who was held in an American-run prison in Afghanistan for five months. Al-Masri, who claims he was shackled, drugged, and beaten in captivity, was released after his captors told him they'd gotten the wrong man.  [Read More:  Tinoco/motherjones/5April2017]

Tearline Is a Wiki-Style App for American Spies.  In intelligence parlance, a tear line is a mark on a sensitive document where all the information below that line has been cleared for release - the not-so-secretive background info. Now Tearline is the name of an app for intelligence officers to talk about unclassified reports.

Released last week in collaboration with the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, the app is available only for people with government credentials. Anyone can download it, but once it's on your phone you can't do much with it - unless you're a spy.

Think of Tearline as a gathering place for all the background information that gives context to the classified top-level government reports.

The app serves almost as a wiki for intelligence workers and relies on collaboration and user engagement. As Wired explained, the layout of the app was created by design firm IDEO and lets users post reports from around the web with text, graphs, photographs, videos and comments. The app description calls it an "NGA intranet."  [Read More:  Lekach/mashable/6April2017]

Louis de Wohl: The Astrologer Who Helped Foil Hitler.  It was the summer of 1941 and a British astrologer named Louis de Wohl was becoming wildly popular among Americans with his increasingly accurate predictions in his stargazer column, Stars Foretell. As de Wohl's reader numbers escalated to meteoric heights, real world consequences ensued. In August 1941, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted its long-standing ban against astrologers and aired an exclusive interview with the man being heralded as "The Modern Nostradamus." Just a few weeks later, for the first time in US history, an astrologer was filmed for a US newsreel, the TV news of the day. "Pathé News released the newsreels' seminal plunge into prophecy with a nation-wide audience of 39,000,000 sitting as judge jury and witness," declared a press release issued by de Wohl's manager. Except it was a facade; it was all fake news.

De Wohl's newspaper column was part of an elaborate black propaganda campaign to organize American public opinion in favor of Britain, and to ultimately get the US to enter the war. In reality, de Wohl worked for British Intelligence (MI5). His so-called manager was none other than the legendary spymaster Sir William Stephenson, a man whom Winston Churchill famously called Intrepid. The average American had no idea.

War was raging across Europe and in de Wohl's syndicated astrology column emphasis was always on the Nazi threat. "Hitler's chief jackal is moving into the house of violence," he predicted, "Seer Sees Plot to Kill Hitler." Then, in June 1941, one of de Wohl's more detailed predictions seemed to come true. "A strong collaborator of Hitler who is neither German nor a Nazi will go violently insane," he foretold. "He will be in South or Central America, probably near the Caribbean Sea." Three days later, US newswires proclaimed that the Vichy High Commissioner of the French West Indies, Admiral Georges Robert, had gone insane and had to be restrained by staff. The New York Post reported that newspaper editors across America "besieged de Wohl with requests for exclusive stories." The astrologer possessed a mysterious ability to know the unknowable, and millions of Americans wanted to know more.

The way it worked behind the facade was masterful. The British spy agency first fed information to de Wohl, which he would write up in his column. In turn, MI5 would then feed the bogus information to the US press. Unable to fact-check details with the Third Reich, the American press would report the news as real, which it was not. For example, the Vichy High Commissioner of the French West Indies never went insane.  [Read More:  Jacobsen/thedailybeast/9April2017]

The New Documentary 'Risk' Goes Deep Inside the World of Julian Assange - Here's the Trailer.  Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras is following up her Oscar-winning look at NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Citizenfour, with a movie about another globally controversial figure: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

Made over six years, including through the 2016 presidential election, Poitras' movie Risk examines Assange with up-close access and the headline-grabbing leaks his site is responsible for. But it's also being touted as a "geopolitical thriller," as the documentary touches on Poitras' own experiences with government surveillance (Poitras has been monitored by the US government since making her 2006 movie My Country, My Country).

WikiLeaks was constantly in the news through the presidential election, as the site leaked emails from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign. It's still unclear what (if any) relationship the site and Assange's leaks had with Russia, which the US intelligence community says was behind hacking in the election.

Risk first premiered at 2016's Cannes Film Festival in May, but with WikiLeaks' involvement in the election and some other new developments, Poitras updated the film to spotlight the latest developments.  [Read More:  Guerrasio/businessinsider/10April2017]


Section III - COMMENTARY

What Intelligence Officials Really Mean When They Talk About 'Unmasking'.  Surveillance law has dominated headlines over the past few weeks. As a result, many Americans are, for the first time, encountering specialized terminology about electronic surveillance and trying to make sense of an intelligence community legal framework that can seem arcane.

First, there were revelations regarding calls between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the United States. Then, President Trump accused former president Barack Obama of having wiretapped him at Trump Tower. The White House further alleged Obama may have done so through a British intelligence ally in violation of the long-standing Five Eyes security agreement. Almost immediately after the directors of the FBI and National Security Agency put those allegations to rest in congressional testimony, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) announced that communications of Trump and his associates may have been incidentally collected in foreign intelligence intercepts. Revelations that the White House itself was Nunes's source of the information has resulted in his temporarily recusing himself from his committee's Russia investigation.

Now news coverage and commentary are full of suggestions that Obama's national security adviser Susan E. Rice requested the "unmasking" of names of Trump transition officials whose information had been incidentally collected in intelligence reports. According to media reports, Rice may have made a single request or dozens, but no public information currently suggests wrongdoing by Rice or the intelligence agencies.

Making sense of the accusations and calls for surveillance reform requires some understanding of how intelligence collection works. Yet it has only grown more difficult to discern the signal amid all the noise. Here are some basics.  [Read More:  Doss, Hennessey/washingtonpost/7April2017]

Trump's Acrimony With US Intelligence Agencies Is Far From Over. There have been conflicts between presidents, presidential candidates, and US intelligence agencies, but Americans have arguably never seen the kind of ongoing acrimony between Donald Trump and intelligence professionals.

There's no real question as to who threw the first punch. As a candidate, Trump said he wouldn't trust the information he receives from American intelligence officials. "I won't use them because they've made such bad decisions," the Republican said before the election. When agencies provided Trump with proof of Russian interference in the election, he not only rejected their findings; he publicly mocked the CIA.

The tensions continued for months, prompting the Washington Post's Michael Gerson, a former George W. Bush speechwriter, to describe Trump's criticisms as "an insanely dangerous antic that materially undermines American security." Michael Hayden, a former director of the NSA and CIA, had a related piece, raising practical concerns about the deteriorating relationship between the amateur president and the intelligence community.

It didn't help matters when the White House reportedly leaked sensitive information to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) last week, as part of a clumsy scheme to bolster one of Trump's conspiracy theories.  [Read More:  Benen/msnbc/3April2017]

Why the Trump-Russia Investigation May Continue for Years.  President Donald Trump wants the issue of Russian influence in the 2016 election to vanish. He has called it "a hoax" in his tweets. But it's not. It's real - and might take years to resolve.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been on the case since July. Its chief, James B. Comey, is creating a headquarters task force to coordinate the work of at least three field offices to find the facts. The federal investigators, and platoons of the nation's best journalists, have a long battle ahead.

Comey made clear to the House Intelligence Committee that this is a spy-catching case, involving Russian intelligence and suspected American agents of influence. It takes time to solve such mysteries. The FBI spent two decades uncovering a Russian mole in its own ranks.

And this investigation is more complex than Watergate, a domestic case of political espionage that took more than two years before it felled President Nixon. It's more intricate than the Iran-Contra imbroglio, when the Reagan administration sold weapons to Tehran and slipped the profits to Central American rebels, and which took six years to conclude in court.  [Read More:  Weiner/reuters/6April2017]

Yes: Assange Willfully Set Out to Destroy the West, Should Face Punishment.  The United States may soon have the opportunity to request the extradition of WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange to its shores, which would allow criminal proceedings against him to finally begin.

Given his focused mission to cause momentous damage to the United States by disclosing secret and highly classified information, prosecution would be totally justified.

Let's put this in context.

I am a strong supporter of exposing government corruption and wrongdoing. I also believe whistleblowers are the appropriate mechanism of last resort for accomplishing that goal.  [Read More:  Hoekstra/tucson/10April2017]


Section IV - Careers and Obituaries

Careers

Mercyhurst University (Erie, Pennsylvania) seeks new Dean of the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Sciences.

Mercyhurst University (Erie, Pennsylvania) has begun a search for its next Dean of the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Sciences. Named after Erie, PA native Tom Ridge, 43rd governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and first Secretary of Homeland Security, the Ridge College of Intelligence Studies & Applied Sciences brings together complementary academic disciplines that stress critical thinking, data analysis and collaborative decision-making.
The Ridge College consists of eight undergraduate departments and four graduate departments. The over 800 undergraduate and 210 graduate students are taught by 34 full-time dedicated and student-centered faculty. As a community that believes strongly in applied and active learning, most faculty are themselves successful practitioners as well as academics. While there are other disciplines housed in the college, Intelligence Studies is the largest department at Mercyhurst and one of the most well-known in the country. And, they are very focused on the applied (vs. theoretical) aspect, so they are particularly interested in potential "non-traditional" candidates, i.e. military, government, the intelligence agencies, NGO, etc.
Position profile is available here.
APPLICATION PROCEDURES: To ensure full consideration, applications are due by April 21st, 2017. Candidates should e-mail, as Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat attachments, the following: 1) a cover letter that addresses the position responsibilities and qualifications listed above; 2) a current resume or CV; and 3) the contact information for three professional references to MercyhurstDean@rhperry.com.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Matthew J. Kilcoyne, Managing Partner, 202 253-9846, or Roger H. Martin, PhD, Senior Consultant, 914 777-1644, both of R. H. Perry & Associates, 2607 31st St NW, Washington, DC 20008. www.rhperry.com

FireEye Cybersecurity Openings in Reston, Alexandria, and Arlington. FireEye has invented a purpose-built, virtual machine-based security platform that provides real-time threat protection to governments worldwide against the next generation of cyber attacks. These highly sophisticated cyberattacks easily circumvent traditional signature-based defenses, such as next-generation firewalls, IPS, anti-virus, and gateways. The FireEye Threat Prevention Platform provides real-time, dynamic threat protection without the use of signatures to protect an organization across the primary threat vectors, including Web, email, and files and across the different stages of an attack life cycle. The core of the FireEye platform is a virtual execution engine, complemented by dynamic threat intelligence, to identify and block cyber attacks in real time. FireEye has over 1,100 customers across more than 40 countries, including over 100 of the Fortune 500.

RESTON, VA Openings:
Strategic Account Manager - Intel Community, Experience: 3 to 10 years; requires a deep understanding of the market and technologies that FireEye sells, including our business/industry, our competitors and the ability to use this knowledge to plan for the future. The successful SAM drives a superior customer experience by delivering technology solutions tailored to customer needs and...
Principal Support Engineer, Named Accounts, Experience 10 to 20 years; Serve as first contact for technical support issues and work through the resolution. Lead escalation response. Drive elimination of any customer or internal bottlenecks impeding problem resolution. Develop ongoing relationship with customer and become their advocate. Provide proactive guidance and encourage adoption and...
Senior Security Analyst - FaaS, Experience Open; On a daily basis, you'll find the most malicious attacker activity the Internet has to offer Let you scour systems and analyze tons of network traffic looking for attacker presence Be Challenged to evolve how we detect and respond to attackers by authoring new and innovative Indicators of Compromise...
Senior Systems Engineer - Federal Sales, Experience 5 to 20 years; Possess a comprehensive understanding of Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) organizational mission. Be able to map FireEye technology to meet the business drivers of US Federal customers. Provide technical leadership with pre sales assistance for sales opportunities to customers and partners. Refine...
FaaS Threat Engagement Manager, Experience 7 to 20 years; Manage all client related aspects of short and long term managed service engagements Provide operational oversight of service delivery and ensure deliverables are timely and of high quality Identify/implement improvements to business processes, methodologies, and client communication m...

ARLINGTON, VA Opening:
Penetration Tester (TS/SCI), Experience 6 to 20 years; Perform network vulnerability assessments and penetration testing as requested; testing may also include application assessments, threat analysis, wireless network assessments and social engineering Develop comprehensive and accurate reports and presentations for both technical and executive audiences Effectively communicat...

OTHER FIREEYE OPENINGS IN Reston/Arlington VA:
Job Title: Technical Director, Cyber Engineering (TS/SCI)
Job Title: Senior Information Security Consultant
Job Title: Associate Security Consultant
Job Title: Senior Solutions Architect - Cybersecurity Integrations
Job Title: Incident Response Consultant
Job Title: Software Architect
Job Title: Senior Staff Software Engineer
Job Title: Penetration Tester - Red Team

To explore any of the current FireEye jobs in this area explore the listings here.

Obituaries

Ambassador Hugh Montgomery, 93, former CIA officer. Scholar, teacher, soldier, spy, linguist, diplomat, husband and father, Ambassador Montgomery was all of these things. He spent close to 70 years serving his country all over the world. He started at Harvard University in 1941 but left when WWII erupted. He joined the 82nd Airborne Division. His facility for languages caught the eye of the OSS and he finished the war undertaking clandestine missions behind enemy lines. He helped liberate the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. After the war, he finished his Harvard education, earning a PhD in Romance Languages. He then taught at Harvard for a few years before joining the CIA where he remained for his entire career except for brief interludes working at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and a stint as Ambassador to the UN. He retired at the age of 90 and spent his few remaining years mentoring young Intelligence Officers.  More about Montgomery's interest in a proposed museum concept of the OSS Society (where he served as Chairman) can be found here. [Read More:  washingtonpost/legacy/9April2017 and also here.]

Richard Santos, 77, former CIA Officer died of Alzheimer's disease in autumn of 2016. Dick's family crafted a website in honor of his journey through Alzheimer's disease, expressed through paintings he created in the final eight weeks of his life. Santos was a young poet who abandoned art for the more important mission of patriotic service to his country, and became a globe-trotting patriot who protected all he loved. "The Artful Warrior" website presents a photo of Dick in younger, healthier days. A man of many talents, embracing in the final weeks of life his "Picasso" phase.  [Read more:  artfulwarrior]

Bert Stubblebine, 87, former Director of INSCOM. Albert N. Stubblebine, Major General, U.S. Army (Retired) died 6 February 2017. Graduating in 1952 from the US Military Academy, "Bert" as he was known to friends, was commissioned an Armor officer and later transferred to the Intelligence Corps. His first intelligence assignments included positions at the Army Imagery Interpretation Center. Later he joined the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and then became the G-2 of the 25th Infantry Division. After returning to CONUS, he was noted for developing and implementing the echelons above corps portion of the Army Intelligence architecture and for conceiving of the first application of Critical Node Targeting on the electronic battlefield.

After graduating from the National War College, Stubblebine commanded the Army Imagery Intelligence Center at Ft. Holabird, then served as Executive to the Deputy Director of DIA and later as Commander of the 902nd MI Group. From 1977 to 1979, MG Stubblebine was the commandant of the US Army Intelligence Center and School at Ft. Huachuca where he was responsible for the design and development of the first Army Intelligence architecture.  He then took command of the US Army Electronics Research and Development Command and was responsible for the development and acquisition of numerous electronic intelligence systems. In 1981, he took command of the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) and assumed global responsibilities for multi-discipline and all-source intelligence and security operations.

Throughout his life, Bert Stubblebine was known as a forward and innovative thinker. Some of his endeavors were consider very controversial.  Among MG Stubblebine's efforts at INSCOM was establishment of an advanced human technology task force that successfully explored psychic functioning including, remote viewing, psychokinesis and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP).  Noting that the Soviet Union had surprised us several times, to his subordinate unit commanders, Stubblebine's admonition was that they not reject reports just because they didn't believe the event possible. Widely misunderstood, that program was exploited in the comical book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and George Clooney movie of the same name. 

MG Stubblebine held a Master of Science degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University. Upon retiring from the Army, Stubblebine joined BDM corporation as the Vice President for Intelligence Systems and then served as a consultant with ERIM and Space Applications Corporations. In 1990 he was inducted in the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. He died on his 87th birthday. [AFIO thanks JBA for his notice and crafting of this obituary].

Section V - Events

AFIO EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

Thursday, 20 April 2017, 6:30 PM - Michigan - The AFIO Michigan Chapter hosts SSA David A. Fluitt, FBI, discussing counterintelligence and counterproliferation issues.

The AFIO "Johnny Micheal Spann" Memorial Chapter hosts David A. Fluitt Counterintelligence Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) with the Detroit FBI and also serves as the counterintelligence and counterproliferation Program Coordinator within the state of Michigan. Speaker: David Fluitt, Counterintelligence Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) with the Detroit FBI Location: Contact us for information on meeting location Send inquiries to afio.secretary@afiomichigan.org or visit their website at www.afiomichigan.org.

22 April 2017, 2 pm - Kennebunk, ME - The AFIO Maine Chapter hosts CIA Operations Officer/COS - Gerry Gossens - on "Peace in the Middle East?"

The next meeting of AFIO's Maine Chapter features Gerry Gossens, a veteran CIA clandestine operative, who will review chances of peace in the Middle East. He is a former CIA station chief in six different countries, and will discuss current geopolitical landscapes from Iraq to the Congo. Gerry Gossens graduated from the US Naval Academy and was commissioned by the US Air Force. He went on to become a pilot and intelligence officer in the Strategic Air Command. Next he was recruited by the CIA for clandestine service and served in Beirut, the Congo, Tunisia, Guinea, South Africa, Zambia, and Paris. Later in civilian life he was involved in politics and served two terms each in the Senate and House of Representatives in Vermont.
No registration required. The chapter meeting is open to the public and begins at 2 p.m. at the Program Center of the Brick Store Museum, 4 Dane St. in Kennebunk. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.

Monday, 1 May 2017, 6 pm - New York, NY - The NY Metro Chapter Meeting features Dr. Robert Jervis on "Can We Do Intelligence Analysis Better? A View From A Complex Systems and 'Black Swan' Expert."

Robert Jervis, PhD is Stevenson Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, and was the recipient of the 1990 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for "Ideas Improving World Order." He is an expert on the complexities of systems, politics, intelligence, and human nature and competing values. The ideal speaker for the chapter (and the country) at this time. So you will not want to miss this presentation.
Jervis held appointments at the University of California at Los Angeles and Harvard University. In 2000-2001, he served as President of the American Political Science Association. Professor Jervis is co-editor of the "Cornell Studies in Security Affairs," a series published by Cornell University Press, and a member of numerous editorial review boards for scholarly journals. His publications include Perception and Misperception in International Politics, The Meaning of the Nuclear Revolution, System Effects: Complexity in Political and Social Life, American Foreign Policy in a New Era, and Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Fall of the Shah and Iraqi WMD, and several edited volumes and numerous articles in scholarly journals.
Location: Society of Illustrators, 128 E 63rd St, New York, NY 10065.
COST: $50/person. Payment at the door only. Cash or check. Full dinner, cash bar.
REGISTRATION strongly suggested, not required. Phone Jerry Goodwin 646-717-3776 or Email afiometro@gmail.com.

Saturday, 6 May 2017, 11 am - 3 pm - Orange Park, FL - The North Florida AFIO Chapter hosts former CIA Officer Dr. Edward Mickolus on "Coercive Intelligence, including EIT."

On May 6 our presenter will be one of our own. Compatriot Edward F. Mickolus, PhD who will be speaking on "Coercive Intelligence, including EIT (Enhanced Interrogation Techniques)."
Mickolus received his A.B. at Georgetown University, and Ph.D. at Yale. He served 33 years at the CIA in analysis, operations, management, recruiting and public affairs. His 31 books include a series of multi-volume chronologies and biographies on international terrorism; including many articles and reviews in journals and newspapers. He served as editor of CIA's internal publication, "What's New at CIA" from 1994-2005. For the last seven years, he has been a senior instructor for SAIC and its spinoff Leidos. Inc. He currently serves teaches at the University of North Florida.
AGENDA: 11-noon Social Hour; noon-12:05 Call to Order, Pledge, Invocation; 12:05-12:15 Intro of guests & new members; 12:15-1 Lunch; 1:00-1:15 break; 1:15-2 presentation by Dr. Edward F. Mickolus, CIA (Ret.); 2-3 Chapter business.
RSVP to Ken Meyer kemeyer123@att.net or call at 904-777-2050. Cost: $24 per person; pay Club at the luncheon. Family and guests, especially potential members, are all cordially invited.

Friday, 12 May 2017 - Tysons Corner, VA - AFIO National Spring Luncheon features NYTimes Washington Correspondent David Sanger on "Terrorism, Secret Wars, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Use of American Power," and Author Eva Dillon on "Living Life Undercover in a CIA Family"

David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for the New York Times, speaks on "Terrorism, Secret Wars, Nuclear Proliferation, and the Use of American Power." His address starts at 1 p.m.
The 11 a.m. speaker is Eva Dillon, author and magazine publisher, on Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War and join AFIO as we welcome and thank Marina, the granddaughter of Gen Polyakov present with us at this special event. Dillon's book is an engaging true-life memoir, of her CIA father and the Soviet double agent he handled - the highest ranking, longest serving asset the US had during the Cold War. It is also a memoir about both families growing up unknowingly as the children of spies.
"A beautifully written, profoundly moving account of one of the most important U.S Intelligence sources ever run inside the Soviet Union. A cliff-hanger from beginning to end, Dillon's account is filled with espionage tradecraft and family drama - essential reading for intelligence professionals, memoir enthusiasts, and anyone fascinated by how spying really works." -- Peter Earnest, Executive Director, International Spy Museum
Event location the Crowne Plaza (soon to be renamed DoubleTree-Hilton), Tysons Corner, VA, at 1960 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, VA 22102.
Registration is here. Do so now to assure seating.

13 May 2017, 11:30 am - Patrick AFB, FL - AFIO Satellite Florida Chapter meets. Speaker TBA

The Florida Satellite Chapter of AFIO meets for a social hour at 11:30 to 12:15 - and then enjoys lunch at 12:15 pm onwards. A speaker TBA. Greet old, new members and guests (limited cash bar - honor system). Where: The Tides, 1001 N. Hwy A1A, BLDG #967, Patrick AFB, FL 32925 For more information visit their website here. RSVP here.

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

Tentative Agenda: ' Opening Remarks by AFIO President; ' NGA Overview and Q&A; ' Video Presentation; ' 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.
Arrive Wednesday evening, 27 September to overnight at the hotel to be ready early Thursday, 28 September, for coach service to NGA for all day conference including visit to their new museum. Welcome by NGA Director Robert Cardillo. Friday activities TBA. 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. Details, event registration and hotel room registration links to be sent to all current members in coming weeks. Early phone-only room registrations can be made at 1-877-865-1877 at $119/nite.

Other Upcoming Events

Thursday, 13 April 2017, noon - 2 pm - AVM Peter Alan Clement CSC, Head Australian Defence Staff on Australian Contribution to the Fight Against Terrorism

The Washington Sub-Branch of the Returned & Services League of Australia luncheon at the Australian Embassy features AVM Peter Alan Clements CSC, Head Australian Defence Staff ' Washington, discussing the Gloster Meteor and the Australian contribution to the fight against terrorism.
Air Commodore Clements operational deployments include Chief of Staff of the National Command Headquarters for Operation SLIPPER in 2002 and air operations Battle Director of the Middle East area in the USAF CAOC (Al Udeid) in the first half of 2010. On promotion to Air Commodore in October of 2011 he was posted to Director General Force Structure Review. He was appointed as the Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy in December 2013 finishing in December 2016. For his achievements in this role he was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours List. He was promoted to Air Vice Marshal on 06 January 2017 and took up his current role as Head Australian Defence Staff on 13 January 2017.
Where: Amenities Room, Embassy of Australia, 1601 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
Charge - $15, including buffet lunch and sodas. Alcoholic beverages- $2 each. Attire: Business casual.
RSVP by noon on Wednesday, 12 April 2017 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 St). On street two hour metered parking also available.

Wednesday, 19 April 2017, 6:30pm - Washington, DC - "Three Minutes to Doomsday" - at the International Spy Museum

Imagine tangling with a spy who eventually succeeded in making the US defenseless against a nuclear attack. When former FBI agent Joe Navarro, an expert in analyzing body language, embarked on a routine assignment in August 1988 to interview "person of interest" Roderick James Ramsay regarding his association with a known traitor, he couldn't know that it would be the beginning of an all-consuming battle of wits at the highest level. In connection with his new book, Three Minutes to Doomsday, Navarro will share his personal memories of being pitted against Ramsay, an ex-soldier who possessed the second highest IQ ever recorded by the US Army. And Navarro had to contend with Ramsay's photographic memory, which allowed him to vacuum up vast amounts of top-secret information to be sold to the Soviet Union. The book will be available for sale and signing at the event. Tickets: $10. Register at www.spymuseum.org.

Saturday, 22 April 2017, 1-4pm - Washington, DC - Allan Topol: "The Italian Divide" - at the International Spy Museum

The Spy Museum's Spy Store is hosting a signing of the novel, The Italian Divide, by Allan Topol. The book follows former CIA Director Craig Page in his investigation into a murder of friend and sponsor, prominent Italian banker Frederico Castiglione. He suspects foul play. With the help of Elizabeth Crowder, CIA director Betty Richards, and director of EU Counter Terrorism Giuseppe, Craig discovers a complicated web of mysterious political and financial takeovers across Italy, all linked back to Craig's sworn enemy, Zhou Yun, and Roberto Parelli. Allan is the author of ten novels of international intrigue. Two of them, Spy Dance and Enemy of My Enemy, were bestsellers, and many of his works appear in Japanese, Portuguese, and Hebrew editions. Event is free. More info at www.spymuseum.org.

Thursday, 4 May 2017, noon - 2 pm - CWO(4) James Stejskal USA Rtd., discusses Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956'1990 at the Australian Embassy

The Washington Sub-Branch of the Returned & Services League of Australia luncheon at the Australian Embassy features CWO (4) James Stejskal USA Rtd., discussing his new book: Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956'1990.
James Stejskal hails from the Great Plains of Nebraska. After a short stint at the University of Nebraska he enlisted in the US Army. First training as an airborne infantryman and serving with the 82nd Airborne, he then qualified for Special Forces and successfully completed the arduous "Q" Course to win his "Green Beret." He served with US Army Special Forces in many "interesting places" worldwide, including Germany, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa before retiring as a Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CWO4) after 23 years. But the adventure was only just starting... He then worked as a security consultant for a US NGO in central Africa during the Rwandan insurgency and second Congo War. In the last century, he was recruited by CIS and served as a senior case officer in Africa, Europe, and the Far East before retiring again. He is now a military historian
Where 'Amenities Room, Embassy of Australia, 1601 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
Charge - $15, including buffet lunch and sodas. Alcoholic beverages- $2 each. Attire: Business casual.
RSVP by noon on Wednesday, 26 April 2017 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 St). On street two hour metered parking also available.

Thursday, 4 May 2017, 7 pm - Washington, DC - 2017 Night of Heroes Gala - PenFed Foundation

You are cordially invited to join the PenFed Foundation, our partners and friends, Thursday, 4 May 2017, as we honor those who lead the way in supporting our military and veterans. All proceeds benefit the PenFed Foundation, helping members of the military secure the financial future they deserve.
Location: Trump' International Hotel, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC
VIP Sponsor Reception - 5:30 pm; General Reception - 6:00 pm; Dinner - 7:00 pm Black Tie
Please respond by 21 April 2017.
For more information and to RSVP online, do so here.

Thursday, 25 May 2017 10 am - 11:30 am - Fort Meade, MD - National Cryptologic Museum's Schorreck Lecture: "Codebreaking and the Battle of Midway" with Author/Historian Elliot Carlson

2017 Henry F. Schorreck Lecture Speaker Series features Elliot Carlson, author of the celebrated biography of CMDR Joseph Rochefort (cryptologic hero of the Battle of Midway) - Joe Rochefort's War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway. Carlson's talk will be "Codebreaking and the Battle of Midway: When Cryptanalysis Came of Age." More about Carlson's book is here.

On 3-7 June 1942, the US defeated Japan in the Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive battles in world history. The battle regained the initiative in the Pacific for the US after its setback at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 while placing Japan on the strategic defensive from which it never fully recovered. On the 75th Anniversary of this US naval victory, Carlson discusses the pivotal role that intelligence played in it. In particular, the breaking of JN-25, the Japanese Imperial Fleet's operational code, by codebreakers at Station Hypo in Hawaii led by CMDR Joseph Rochefort USN.
Carlson holds degrees from Stanford University (MA) and the University of Oregon (BS); he lives with his wife in Silver Spring, MD.

RSVP: Advanced registration required since this popular NCM Schorreck Lecture Series always has a full house. So, to not lose a spot, email history@nsa.gov and/or gjnedve@nsa.gov and provide the number of seats you will need. They will confirm your reservations and answer any questions.
Event location: National Cryptologic Museum: 9900 Colony Seven Rd, Fort Meade, MD. Directions here.

4 - 7 June 2017 - San Antonio, TX - USGIF GEOINT 2017 Symposium theme is: "Advancing Capabilities to Meet Emerging Threats"

The always impressive US Geospatial-Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is offering more than 25 training and professional development sessions at their GEOINT 2017 Symposium on "Advancing Capabilities to Meet Emerging Threats" being held in beautiful San Antonio, TX. Monday, June 5 through Wednesday, June 7 are a variety of training sessions running two hours each. Attendees receive 0.2 Continuing Education Units per qualified session. Expand your knowledge on a familiar topic or learn a new one in one of the hottest, most promising and useful fields in the Intelligence Community. Sessions include: Hacking for Defense: Solving National Security Problems; 3D Terrain Modeling; Analytics for Small Sat Systems; Recent Advances in Deep Learning Cognitive Social Media Analytics Framework; Open Geospatial Machine Learning; Cyber Attack and Defense Wargame with IT, Industrial, and GEOINT Context; And much more.
Location: Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX.
RSVP ASAP: Agenda and other information here.

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