85 Years Ago — FDR signs Neutrality Act (August 31 1935)

Posted on August 31, 2020 by L

“Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that upon the outbreak or during the progress of war between, or among, two or more foreign states, the president shall proclaim such fact, and it shall thereafter be unlawful to export arms, ammunition, or implements of war from any place in the United States, or possessions of the United States, to any port of such belligerent states, or to any neutral port for transshipment to, or for the use of, a belligerent country.”

Neutrality Act (August 31, 1935)

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

President Dwight Eisenhower — Farewell Address (January 20, 1961)

FDR signs Neutrality Act — August 31, 1935

August 31 2020 — On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act, which reached his desk in the form of a congressional joint resolution. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Five Years Ago — Frederick Forsyth : “I worked for MI6 for More Than 20 Years.” (August 30 2015)

Posted on August 30, 2020 by L

It is 55, 60 years later. There have been memoirs written, highly secret minutes have been published. There’s no East Germany, no Stasi, no KGB, no Soviet Union, so where’s the harm?”

Frederick Forsyth — August 2015

“A journalist should never join the Establishment, no matter how tempting the blandishments. It is our job to hold power to account, not join it. In a world that increasingly obsesses over the gods of power, money, and fame, a journalist and a writer must remain detached, like a bird on a rail, watching, noting, probing, commenting, but never joining. In short, an outsider.”

Frederick Forsyth — The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue  

 “The Jackal was perfectly aware that in 1963 General de Gaulle was not only the President of France; he was also the most closely and skillfully guarded figure in the Western world. To assassinate him, as was later proved, was considerably more difficult than to kill President John F. Kennedy of the United States. Although the English killer did not know it, French security experts who had through American courtesy been given an opportunity to study the precautions taken to guard the life of President Kennedy had returned somewhat disdainful of those precautions as exercised by the American Secret Service. The French experts rejection of the American methods was later justified when in November 1963 John Kennedy was killed in Dallas by a half-crazed and security-slack amateur while Charles de Gaulle lived on, to retire in peace and eventually to die in his own home.”

 Frederick Forsyth — The Day of the Jackal    

The best-selling novelist worked as spy for more than two decades after being recruited by Secret Intelligence Service in 1968

August 30 2020 — On August 30 2015, Frederick Forsyth — The Day of the Jackal author — revealed he had worked for MI6 for more than 20 years. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Four Years Ago — UN to Probe Whether SEC-GEN Hammarskjold Was Assassinated

Posted on August 29, 2020 by L

“Seeking a complete understanding of the circumstances is our solemn duty to my illustrious and distinguished predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, to the other members of the party accompanying him, and to their families.”

UN Secretary General  Ban Ki-moon

“I continue to have a strong feeling that Hammarskjold’s death was not an accident.”

Richard Goldstone [*]

“It will be necessary to find some way of pulling Hammarskjold up short.”

UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (September 13  1961)

“Hammarskjöld was at the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

US President Harry Truman (September 19  1961)

“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)

U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold

August 28 2016 — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to propose reopening an inquiry into allegations that former U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was assassinated by a South African paramilitary organization supported by the CIA and British intelligence as well as Belgian mercenaries. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This Day — Remembering CIA Ranya Abdelsayed (April 28 1979 – August 28 2013) [2020]

Posted on August 28, 2020 by L

“Each of the 111 stars carved into the marble wall behind me is an expression of love, respect, and eternal devotion.  Together, they silently testify to nearly seven decades of valor and dedication, virtue and sacrifice, all on behalf of our Republic.”

Director John O. Brennan — CIA Annual Memorial Ceremony (May 19, 2014)

“Dear Molly, Could you tell us how many stars on the Memorial Wall are known to represent women? Regards, Intel Today”

Question to CIA Molly Hale (Tweet – February 4 2019)

“I have no doubt Abdelsayed’s death was linked to the stresses of a dangerous assignment tracking Taliban members and other targets.”

Former CIA Director John Brennan (May 2019)

“There’s been an erosion of understanding in CIA leadership for at least two decades about what the wall is for and who is it that we’re commemorating. Now we have a suicide star on the wall. That’s not what the wall is for.”

Retired CIA historian Nicholas Dujmovic (May 2019)

The Memorial Wall is a memorial at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia. It honors CIA employees who died in the line of service. There are 133 stars carved into the white Alabama marble wall. Eleven represent women.

August 28 2020 — The daughter of Egyptian immigrants, Ranya Abdelsayed (04/28/1979) joined the CIA in 2006. On August 28 2013, while serving in Afghanistan, she committed suicide.  Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading →

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Lockerbie Appeal 2020 — Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies — PART I : The Secret Docs [UPDATE : Prediction & POLL]

Posted on August 27, 2020 by L

“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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On This Day — Lord Louis Mountbatten Killed by IRA (August 27 1979) [2020]

Posted on August 27, 2020 by L

“The IRA claim responsibility for the execution of Lord Louis Mountbatten. This operation is one of the discriminate ways we can bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country. (…) The death of Mountbatten and the tributes paid to him will be seen in sharp contrast to the apathy of the British government and the English people to the deaths of over three hundred British soldiers, and the deaths of Irish men, women, and children at the hands of their forces.”

IRA Official Statement (August 27 1979)

August 27 2020 — Forty years ago — on August 27 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas, and two others were assassinated by a bomb set by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, hidden aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Lockerbie Appeal 2020 — Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies [PART I — The Secret Docs]

Posted on August 26, 2020 by L

“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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35 Years Ago — French government Denies Knowledge of Attack on Rainbow Warrior (August 26 1985)

Posted on August 26, 2020 by L

“The truth is cruel.. Agents of the DGSE sank this boat [Rainbow Warrior]. They acted on orders.”

French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius  (September 22 1985)

“Governments lie. They do it all the time. And, much as we’d like to believe otherwise, the US government is no exception. There were times when we may have believed otherwise. But after Vietnam and Watergate, we know better.”

Ted Koppel : “The USS Vincennes: Public War, Secret War.” (ABC News – July 1, 1992)

August 26 2020 — On August 26 1985, the French government denied any knowledge of the attack on Rainbow Warrior. A month later, the French Prime Minister confessed the role of the DGSE, the French Foreign Intelligence agency. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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James Bond Legend Turns 90 Years Old — Happy Birthday Sean Connery! (25 August 1930)

Posted on August 25, 2020 by L

“I admit I’m being paid well, but it’s no more than I deserve. After all, I’ve been screwed more times than a hooker.”

Sean Connery

“You eckshpect me to talk?”

“No, Mr Bond, I expect you to DIE!”

Goldfinger (1964)

“More than anything else, I’d like to be an old man with a good face, like Hitchcock or Picasso.”

Sean Connery

“Fleming found he had a love for espionage, and combined with his support for all things British, provided purpose to his life. But after WWII ended, he found himself at loose ends, and took a job with a newspaper. He hated the drudgery that went with the position, and often found himself daydreaming while admiring a picture of Jamaica near his desk. After several vacations to the island, he decided to move there permanently and, drawing on his family’s income, built a home for himself. He called it ‘Goldeneye.’ Fleming told friends he had always wanted to write a spy novel…and now with time on his hands, he did exactly that.”

Ian Fleming: The Man Behind the Most Famous Spy — CIA Website (May 2018)

August 25 2020 — Sean Connery, the sexiest man on earth and the only real James Bond in many people’s eyes, has said a lot of things over the years. Here are 15 memorable quotes from the legendary Scotsman. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This Day — France Becomes 5th Thermo-Nuclear Power [Canopus Test] (August 24 1968) [2020]

Posted on August 24, 2020 by L

“I returned to civilization shortly after that and went to Cornell to teach, and my first impression was a very strange one. (…) I sat in a restaurant in New York, for example, and I looked out at the buildings and I began to think, you know, about how much the radius of the Hiroshima bomb damage was and so forth. (…) I would see people building a bridge, or they’d be making a new road, and I thought, they’re crazy, they just don’t understand, they don’t understand. Why are they making new things? It’s so useless.”

Richard Feynman — Physics Nobel Prize (1965)

August 24 2020 — Canopus (also known as “Opération Canopus” in French) was the code name for France’s first two-stage thermonuclear test, conducted on August 24, 1968, at Fangataufa atoll. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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