Section I - INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Section III - COMMENTARY

Section IV - Obituaries

Obituaries

Stuart "Stu" E. Methven, 90, a former CIA Operations Officer and Chief of Station, died 21 November 2017.
He served in the US Army from 1945 to 1947 and then earned his Bachelor's degree at Amherst College. Later obtaining his master's degree from MIT.
In 1952 he began his career with CIA. Of his agency years, some of it is featured in his 2008 book Laughter in the Shadows, a CIA Memoir which captures the spirit of those formative years at CIA, and describes his training in the clandestine arts and assignments in Jakarta, Tokyo, Laos, Vietnam, West Germany, and Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), where his station became center stage for a large covert operation that involved the Soviets and Cubans. Several of his dangerous missions which involved coups d'etat and civil wars ended with his being evacuated. Though many of these operations ended as typical US quagmires, his career is the stuff of movies.
He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nicole Lermusieau Methven, two daughters and two sons, and other family.
Memorial services were held in Brussels, Belgium. Burial services will be held in the spring of 2018 in Hopkinton, NH. [Read More:  The Concord Monitor/legacy/29Nov2017]

Jerome Daniel Moskowitz, 93, former NSA Chief of Station and Engineer, died 20 November 2017 in Salisbury, MD.
Jerry had a 35 year career in senior positions with the National Security Agency. He worked in R/D and was a highly regarded engineer responsible for a variety of important projects. He was also effective in obtaining funding and in completing projects.
In his early NSA career he was involved in creating special miniaturized vacuum tubes and later served as the first NSA chief of station at the ADF facility in Denver when it opened in the early 70s. Jerry had been responsible for staffing the ADF before being deployed there.
When his tour at the ADF ended he returned as the chief of all NSA satellite programs. He retired in 1980 as an Electronic Engineer.
Many comments regarding his death recount how exceptional he was as a boss, colleague, and friend.
In retirement, the Moskowitzes were involved in several non profit organizations including Habitat for Humanity.
He is survived by his wife Martha Mendelsohn Moskowitz, nine children, and other family.

Francis J. Duggan, 79, Advocate for Victims' Families of 1988 Airplane Disaster Over Lockerbie, a lawyer and federal official who spent years as a pro bono advocate on behalf of families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, died of lung cancer on 1 November 2017 in Alexandria, VA.

On 21 Dec.1988, a bomb exploded killing all 259 people aboard Flight 103, plus 11 people on the ground, when the disabled aircraft crashed into the town of Lockerbie. The victims came from more than 20 countries.

In 1989, Mr. Duggan was named to the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism, which examined the causes of the bombing. He was the commission's liaison to the victims' families and continued to act as their pro bono advocate until his death. He eventually was named president of Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, an organization composed mostly of victims' families.  [Read more:  Schudel/washingtonpost/3December2017]

Allan Jackson English Jr, Col USA(Ret), 92, a former NSA Officer, died 24 November 2017 in Annapolis, MD.
Allan grew up in Pulaski, TN, where his father founded and operated a canning factory during the Great Depression. He attended Sewanee Military Academy, and later entered the Army Air Corps and Aviation Cadet Program before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point where he graduated in 1949. He later received his MS from George Washington University in International Affairs.
Allan served in the Korean War from 1950-51, in the 17th Infantry of the 7th Division, as a platoon leader and Company Commander. His Regiment was on the Yalu River in November 1950 when the Chinese entered the war, cutting off the Regiment. Allan was wounded in the ensuing skirmishes that eventually led to the Regiment's safe evacuation. In the fall of 1951, Allan served in the Central Highlands of Korea where he was wounded a second time.
After the war, he served as an Aide to the Commandant at West Point, in Germany as a Company Commander, and had stateside tours as a Battalion, Brigade and Group Commander. He also had tours in Vietnam, at the Pentagon and the National War College, and ended his active duty at the NSA, retiring as a Colonel in 1979 with 30 years of service.
He was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and two awards of the Purple Heart.
In retirement he worked as a real estate investor and entrepreneur. He founded the West Point Society of Annapolis, was an active member of the US Naval Academy Foundation, and sponsor of many USNA Midshipmen, who became and remain an important part of his extended family.
He is survived by a daughter and other family.

Peter J. Kessler, 75, aka "PJK" "udorn" who served with Special Operations Forces (then Special Air Warfare Center) detached personnel in Udorn AB Thailand, during the "secret war" in Laos, died 6 November 2017 in Pensacola, FL of complications of COPD and peneumonia.
He was born in Bronx, NY, and served in the US Air Force assisting CIA and special forces air operations in Laos from 1955-1974 during that secret war.
In retirement, Kessler was a longtime AFIO member and actively supported the Weekly Notes by sending useful intel-related news items for consideration. He was also an active member of the Air Commando Association and other military and veteran associations.
His wife predeceased him. His brother, Eric, took care of him as ill health lessened his ability to serve the nation. No obituary is expected.

Grant Hayao Ichikawa, 98, a former senior CIA and Military Intelligence Officer, who with his family was interned in a US camp for enemy aliens during WWII, died 2 December 2017 in Vienna, VA.

He was born in Suisun, CA, near San Francisco, and grew up in a primitive, four-room farmhouse, which had a Japanese-style bath attached, wood stove, and only cold water.
In May 1941 he was graduated from the University of California-Berkeley in accounting. On 19 February 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which saw Japanese-American citizens as potential enemy aliens and had them evacuated from their homes to relocation camps, an experience Ichikawa continued to find painful for all his days. Ichikawa and his family were sent to the Gila River Relocation Center. At that camp he volunteered for the Military Intelligence Service and was sent to Fort Snelling (MN) and Fort Savage (MN) where he was trained to be an Infantry soldier and a linguist. His group was placed on a luxurious troop ship which took them to Australia in 1944 to a base just outside Brisbane which housed the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service ATIS. Because his Japanese was not good, he was assigned to the Interrogation Section.
In 1945 the ATIS moved to Manila on a Liberty ship. He became a commissioned officer in 1945, and served in the 38th Division rounding up Japanese prisoners, stragglers, before the war ended shortly after the dropping of the A-bombs. After Japan surrendered, ATIS was transferred to Tokyo and he was assigned to the US Strategic Bomb Survey Unit which included scientists, mathematicians, and physicists. They conducted post-bomb surveys, traveling to Hiroshima first and then Nagasaki. He was reassigned to ATIS's Language Training Section, Assignment Section, handling all linguists, testing, and assigning them to units all over Japan, Korea, and Okinawa.
He left military service in 1947, but was recalled in 1950 to serve in Korea but was asked to serve in Hokkaido, Japan, and reported to the Sapporo Counter Intelligence Corps. He was convinced that the CIA spotted him and played a role in his being sent to CIC for vetting purposes. His new job was to interrogate Japanese repatriates from Sakhalin, because many of them were given espionage missions. He uncovered a number of them.
CIA liked his work and he began working as an employee for CIA in 1953, remaining in Japan for two years before becoming Acting Base Chief just prior to returning to Langley for training. After a year of training his new post put him in Tokyo collecting intelligence on the Japanese progress in various fields. After another foreign tour he returned stateside in 1961.
During the 1960s, he spent time in Indonesia in two significant tours as CIA kept an eye on the pro-Communist president Sukarno and the various coups, communist plots, and then muslim counter-demonstrations which swept the countries -- Java, Borneo, Sumatra, West Irian, Bali, many islands -- making up modern Indonesia. While on assignment in Djakarta, he met with William Colby, who later to became CIA Director, and took him to meet principal and high level agents assisting America. He was impressed by Colby's nonchalance and expectation of no special treatment.
In 1968 he returned to headquarters as head of the Korean Desk, supporting the station in Seoul. He then served in Saigon, Vietnam, working with the police and intelligence service. He departed that country a few years later, in defeat, on one of the final helicopters. Quoted in a Library of Congress 2003 audio interview, Ichikawa said: "I began to wonder thinking of the fifty thousand odd US Army soldiers who died in Vietnam. Here we are just giving up. Leaving like a dog with his tail behind his legs. It depressed me to think that we were leaving Vietnam like this, like a coward. I just wondered 'Why were we in Vietnam in the first place?' If we were going to fight a war, let's fight to win." Depressed and dispirited, he retired from CIA at age 56. He received medals for his heroism and service in Indonesia and Vietnam.
In retirement he helped many Japanese-Americans and their associations, particularly the Japanese American Veterans Association JAVA. He expended must of his time helping indigenous assets settle in the US after retirement. 

Section V - Events

AFIO EDUCATIONAL EVENTS IN COMING TWO MONTHS....

Tuesday, 12 December 2017, noon - MacDill AFB, FL - The Florida Suncoast Chapter event features Juan Rivera, Operations Officer CIA.

Juan R. Rivera is the featured end-of-year speaker at this Suncoast Chapter event. Rivera was a Senior Operations Officer in CIA up to his retirement on 31 December 2006. During his career he served mostly in Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. He had permanent tours of duty in Venezuela, Guatemala, and Dominican Republic, and travelled frequently between CIA Headquarters and these overseas assignments. He also has nearly two decades of experience working against major drug trafficking organizations operating in these areas. From the summer of 2002 until his retirement he served as CIA's liaison and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) representative to the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL. Mr. Rivera served in the US Army from 1966 to 1969 and, as an infantryman, fought in the Vietnam War where he was wounded twice during separate combat actions.
Location: Surf's Edge Club, MacDill AFB
Fee: $20. Seating is limited.
TO ATTEND: If interested in attending, contact Chapter secretary Michael Shapiro at michaels@suncoastafio.org ASAP.

Other Upcoming Events from Advertisers, Corporate Sponsors, and Others

Friday, 8 December 2017, 1-4pm - Washington, DC - James Rosen: High Hand - at the International Spy Museum

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

Tuesday, 12 December 2017, 7 pm - McLean, VA - Professor Hassan Abbas discusses "The Taliban Revival: Violence and Extremism on the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier" at the Westminster Institute

Hassan Abbas, Professor of International Security Studies and Chair of the Department of Regional and Analytical Studies at National Defense University's College of International Security Affairs (CISA), discusses The Taliban Revival: Violence and Extremism on the Afghan-Pakistan Frontier. Aside from his expertise on Pakistan and Afghanistan, he also travels frequently to Iraq for research work on Hashd al-Shaabi (also known as Popular Mobilization Forces/Shia Militias). Along with addressing the main topic of the Taliban revival, he will compare and contrast Taliban and Hashd.
When: Reception at 7pm; presentation 7:30 to 8:45pm.
Where: Westminster Institute, 6729 Curran St, McLean, VA 22101
Register here.

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

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