On This Day — Lockerbie Key Witness Dies (October 29 2016) [2020]

Posted on October 29, 2020 by L

“I personally hope that Tony is in a better place and that he is now at peace because he must have led a tortured life knowing that he had jailed an innocent man for money.”

George Thomson — Lockerbie Investigator

“Al-Megrahi was released from prison in 2009 and sent back to Libya on compassionate grounds because of advancing cancer. Public outrage was sparked. Al-Megrahi lived with his cancer for a few years (…) One cannot help but wonder whether the outrage over his release might be tempered if those angry individuals were to seriously examine the suspicious eyewitness testimony that led to Al-Megrahi’s conviction in the first place. My examination has led me to seriously wonder: Is the Lockerbie bomber still out here?”

Professor Elizabeth F. Loftus — Memory (2013)

“Tony Gauci didn’t mention shirts in his first statement, and is adamant that he did not sell any shirts when first specifically questioned about shirts.However, at that time he did sell Slalom shirts to the police. Some months later he recalled selling shirts to the man. This pattern in the statements is consistent with post-event information becoming incorporated into the memory (a process known as memory distortion). For this reason I regard the first statement made prior to questioning about the shirts to be more likely to reflect Tony Gauci’s original memory for the event because there is no possibility for it to be influenced by the subsequent questioning.”

Professor Tim Valentine — Email to INTEL TODAY

tony-gauci

October 29 2020 — Tony Gauci (6 April 1944 – 29 October 2016) was one of the many proprietors of Mary’s House, a clothes shop in Tower Road, Sliema, Malta. Gauci was the most important witness at the Lockerbie trial. In 2007, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC Ref 23:19) found that US$2 million had been paid to Tony Gauci and US$1 million to Paul Gauci under the US Department of Justice “Rewards for Justice” programme. Many experts believe that Tony Gauci’s memory was not reliable.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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HistoCrypt 2021 [September 2021 — Amsterdam, Netherlands]

Posted on October 28, 2020 by L

“A cryptographic system should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge.”

Auguste Kerckhoffs

“Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random.” — Donald Knuth

October 28 2020 — The International Conference on Historical Cryptology (HistoCrypt 2021) invites submissions of papers to its annual conference on historical cryptology. The conference will be held in September 20-22, 2021 at Trippenhuis, the Headquarter of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

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On This Day — Hemingway Wins Nobel Prize (October 28 1954) [2020]

Posted on October 28, 2020 by L

“Hemingway may have said ‘yes’ to the Soviet recruitment pitch, but unless there is some additional trove of material in the NKVD archives that argues otherwise, it is clear Hemingway was never a productive Soviet agent.”

CIA website — Intelligence in Literature and Media

American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) working at a portable table while on a big game hunt in Kenya, September 1952. (Photo by Earl Theisen/Getty Images)

October 28 2020 — On October 28 1954, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Ernest Miller Hemingway “for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”

Hemingway was aware of his long surveillance by J Edgar Hoover’s FBI, who were suspicious of his links with Cuba, and it has been argued that this surveillance may have pushed him to the brink. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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HAVANA SYNDROME — Where is the US National Academy of Sciences Report?

Posted on October 27, 2020 by L

“It’s been extremely frustrating to me and my colleagues, in some ways disheartening, and certainly surprising.”

David Relman — Committee Chair

October 27 2020 — Last spring, the US State Department requested the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a full review of the Havana Syndrome. The committee submitted its report to the State Department in early August. So far, the report has not been released to lawmakers. Why on Earth not? I can tell you this much. The National Academy of Sciences Committee has taken very seriously the hypothesis suggested by this blogger. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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5G — Will European Countries Ban Huawei? [UPDATE — Italian Government Vetoes Huawei 5G Deal]

Posted on October 27, 2020 by L

“Perhaps, the most puzzling part of the [Belgian Intelligence Services] report is what it does not mention. Although most countries are extremely concerned about China investments in their Telecom infrastructure, the Belgian report is silent on this issue. Why, on earth, why?”

Intel Today (November 30 2018)

“The UK needs to take decision on the extent to which we are going to be comfortable with Chinese ownership of these technologies.”

MI6 chief Alex Younger (December 3 2018)

“Given the massive cybersecurity and national security risks, the only responsible decision is for Berlin to follow the Australian, New Zealand, and U.S. lead and ban Chinese providers from the German 5G network. In doing so, Europe’s strongest economy would send a crucial signal to the rest of the European Union members that are grappling with the same decision.”

Thorsten Benner — Director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin (December 9 2018)

“Huawei shares with the Chinese state intimate and extensive knowledge of the foreign telecommunications systems it is involved with.”

General Michael Hayden — Former head of the U.S. National Security Agency

“If China would resort to putting Canadians to death to defend its corporate national champion, what might it do if the Chinese Communist Party had unfettered access to Canada’s vital communications networks?”

Richard Fadden — Head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency from 2009 to 2013 (January 20 2019)

December 5 2018 — The United States, Australia and New Zealand have already blocked Huawei from building their new 5G networks on security grounds. On December 5, Britain’s BT Group said it would rip Huawei equipment from its core telecom network. Canada is also likely to ban Huawei and  it is reported that Japan is expected to ban government use of products made by Huawei and ZTE over cyber-security concerns.

So, why on earth has Europe been silent on this critical issue for so long? What are they waiting for? I am afraid that it will all depend on Germany’s decision.

UPDATE — On March 26 2019,  the European Commission has recommended a set of operational steps and measures to ensure a high level of cyber-security of 5G networks across the EU.

The Commission does not call for a European ban on global market leader Huawei, leaving it to EU countries to decide on national security grounds. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Spy Quotes — John Le Carré : “And how would I like to be remembered?” (30 January 2020)

Posted on October 27, 2020 by L

“Reading and thinking about Palme makes you wonder who you are. And who you might have been, but weren’t. And where your moral courage went when it was needed. You ask yourself what power drove him – golden boy, aristocratic family, brilliant scion of the best schools and the best cavalry regiment – to embrace from the outset of his career the cause of the exploited, the deprived, the undervalued and the unheard?”

 David Cornwell — Olof Palme Award acceptance speech (January 30 2020)

 

October 27 2020 — David John Moore Cornwell — also known by the pen name John le Carré — won the 2019 Olof Palme Prize. Here is the text of his acceptance speech. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This Day — Operation Autumn Leaves (Germany — October 26 1988) [2020]

Posted on October 26, 2020 by L

“Having considered the evidence concerning these matters and the submission of counsel we accept that there is a great deal of suspicion as to the actings of Abu Talb and his circle, but there is no evidence to indicate that they had either the means or the intention to destroy a civil aircraft in December 1988.”

The Lockerbie Verdict — § 81

 

October 26 2020 — On this date in 1988, the German police arrested seventeen men at Neuss in operation “Autumn Leaves” (Herbstlaub). The bomb-maker of this terrorist cell had prepared several IEDs, including one hidden inside a Toshiba radio-cassette, which — according to various authors — has never been recovered.

Some journalists — such as the late Private Eye’s Paul Foot — and several PA 103 relatives — including Dr Jim Swire — believe that it is too stark a coincidence for a Toshiba cassette radio IED to have downed Pan Am 103 just eight weeks after the arrest of the PFLP-GC cell in Frankfurt.

Here is a timeline of this operation which I compiled ten years ago to mark the 20th anniversary of the Lockerbie tragedy. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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RUMINT — DCIA Gina Haspel to Step Down After Election [Biography]

Posted on October 26, 2020 by L

“I wrote a letter to the CIA on my manual college typewriter. I mailed it to CIA with my résumé. I didn’t have an address. So I just put: CIA. Washington, D.C. And here I am.”

DCIA Gina Haspel — Auburn University (April 18 2018)

OCTOBER 26 2020 — According to rumors, CIA Director Gina Haspel (64) intends to step down and  retire after the 2020 US election. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Spy Quotes — “Journalists for Hire : How the CIA Buys the News”

Posted on October 26, 2020 by L

“I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years and I was educated to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public. The truth will come out one day, the truth won’t die.”

Dr. Udo Ulfkotte — German Journalist and Whistleblower

 

October 26 2020 — In 2014, German journalist Udo Ulfkotte, former director of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, author of the book “Gekaufte Journalisten”, (Journalists for Hire), denounced European media who write lies under pressure from the CIA. An English translation is now available. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This Day — James Bond “Die Another Day” Premiere in London (November 18 2002) How Jamaica inspired James Bond [UPDATE : “My Name is Bond. Jane Bond.”]

Posted on October 25, 2020 by L

“I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, and ‘James Bond’ was much better than something more interesting, like ‘Peregrine Carruthers.’ Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure — an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department.”

Ian Fleming

 

In 1943, Ian Fleming flew to Jamaica to track down rumors of a secret submarine base near Nassau. It was there that he picked up a book on birds — written by one James Bond. Ten years later, when Fleming decided to channel his time in intelligence into fiction, he pilfered the name “James Bond” for his new hero in “Casino Royale.”

November 18 2019 — Die Another Day is a 2002 British-American spy film, the twentieth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as the fourth and final film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film follows Bond as he leads a mission to North Korea, during which he is betrayed and, after seemingly killing a rogue North Korean colonel, is captured and imprisoned. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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