On this Day — Mata Hari Is Executed (October 15 1917) [2020]

“I had long since lost any illusion of being loved for who I was and now accepted, with clean conscience, flowers, flattery, and money that fed my ego and my false identity.”

Mata Hari

October 15 2020 — Margaretha Geertruida “Margreet” MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan. She was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. On October 15 1917, she was executed by firing squad in France. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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The Spying Game — Is ‘No Rules’ the New Rule? [2020 — POLL]

“Although no one had written them down, they were the precepts we all understood… By the time they got to Moscow, everyone knew these rules. They were dead simple and full of common sense…”

Tony Mendez  — The Master of Disguise

October 14 2020 — American and Russian intelligence services have long held a gentlemen’s agreement — often referred to as Moscow rules — that limited how they engaged with each other. Under these rules, they agreed not to attack each other physically and not to engage in certain types of activities. In the light of recent events (from Salisbury to Havana), one can only wonder if the spooks are still playing the old game by these rules? Several former CIA officers/agents kindly offered to explain their view on this important issue.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Three Years Ago — CIA Director Pompeo Delivers Opening Keynote at 2017 Conference on Ethos and Profession of Intelligence

“The truth is, CIA has always had a bias for quick, decisive action. It’s a tradition that goes back to World War II and our predecessors in the OSS. As former CIA Director William Casey put it, in the OSS, you didn’t wait six months for a feasibility study to prove that an idea could work. You gambled that it might work.”

Mike Pompeo — CIA Director

 

October 13 2017 — The following text is the transcript of the speech delivered by Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo at the Conference on the Ethos and Profession of Intelligence at George Washington University on October 4, 2017. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Spy Quotes — Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo [#9]

“If a society crosses a certain line in its division and hatred, then it is a real possibility to see a phenomenon like a civil war.”

Tamir Pardo — Former Mossad chief

tamir-pardo

Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo

October 13 2020 — Tamir Pardo (born 1953) is the former Director of the Mossad, taking over the role from Meir Dagan on 1st January 2011. He was succeeded by Yossi Cohen on 5 January 2016. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today. Continue reading →

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On This Day — The Brighton Bombing (October 12 1984) [Understanding the Lockerbie Solution]

“Mrs. Thatcher will now realise that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it. Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.”

IRA Statement (October 13 1984)

 

Margaret Thatcher and husband Denis leave the Grand Hotel following the bombing.

October 12 2020 — On October 12 1984, Patrick Magee made an audacious attempt to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet by exploding a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference. The Prime Minister was unharmed but five people were killed in the attack and many more injured. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Spy Quotes — US President Harry S. Truman [#8]

“I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency. (…) There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”

President Harry S. Truman (December 22 1963)

 

October 12 2020 — On January 22 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed the directive establishing the National Intelligence Authority and the Central Intelligence Group. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading →

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On This day — Einstein Letter to Franklin Roosevelt (October 11 1939) [Manhattan Project]

“I made one great mistake in my life — when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made but there was some justification — the danger that the Germans would make them.”

Albert Einstein

 

Einstein and Szilard re-enact discussion of letter to FDR for 1946 documentary Atomic Power

October 11 2020 — On October 11 1939, Alexander Sachs, Wall Street economist and longtime friend and unofficial advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, met with the President to discuss a letter written by Albert Einstein the previous August.  Einstein had written to inform Roosevelt that recent research on fission chain reactions utilizing uranium made it probable that large amounts of power could be produced by a chain reaction and that, by harnessing this power, the construction of “extremely powerful bombs” was conceivable.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Spy Quotes — Dr Richards J. Heuer [#7]

“Do You Really Need More Information? The US Intelligence Community invests heavily in improved intelligence collection systems while managers of analysis lament the comparatively small sums devoted to enhancing analytical resources, improving analytical methods, or gaining better understanding of the cognitive processes involved in making analytical judgments.”

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis — Richards J. Heuer

October 11 2020 — Accurate intelligence judgments do not solely rely on the abundance and accuracy of the information. Indeed it has long been known that rigorous analysis of the information is at least as important as the gathered material in order to reach accurate intelligence estimates. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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Lockerbie Appeal 2020 — Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies — PART I : The Secret Docs [UPDATE : The appeal court’s written opinion]

“Our argument is that public interest immunity [PII] certificate is not everlasting, it has been 31 years since the bombing and the UK Government represented by the Advocate General should justify why it is still asserting PII and denying full disclosure of this information to our team. We are disappointed that the Scottish Government, the UK Government, the United States and other foreign governments have refused consent to disclose matters which at this time remain redacted in papers disclosed to us.”

Appeal lawyer Aamer Anwar on behalf of the family of the late Al-Megrahi (August 2020)

“Sadly we have had to work for 6 years with no support from the Libyan authorities despite promises to back the case and now on the eve of the hearing, there is total silence.”

Aamer Anwar (August 25 2020)

Good Friends! Alex Salmond and Aamer Anwar…

August 26 2020 — Amer Anwar — the lawyer for Megrahi’s family — is repeating all the old mistakes that brought us this spectacular miscarriage of justice, including a grandiose press release, that is rid with nonsensical, erroneous, illogical, and counter-productive statements. I expect that the judges will unanimously uphold the guilty verdict. In the end, this appeal will do more harm than good. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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One Year Ago — Dag Hammarskjöld Inquiry : US, UK and South Africa still withholding crucial information

“Information of the type requested is the missing link that makes the present picture incomplete, and its conspicuous absence from the record means that conclusions about the cause of the crash cannot yet be reached. South Africa, the UK and the US must be almost certain to hold important undisclosed information.”

Tanzanian lawyer Mohamed Chande Othman — UN Report (October 8 2019)

Dag Hammarskjold

October 10 2019 — In a report released on Monday (October 7 2019) by current secretary-general António Guterres, Tanzanian lawyer Mohamed Chande Othman wrote that he will need more time to finish his review of the case because US, Britain and SA  are not responding to his questions.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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