On This Day — US 1918 Sedition Act Repealed (March 3 1921) [2020]

“In addition to conventional spying, however, the Espionage Act has also been used to prosecute those who delivered confidential governmental information not to foreign governments, but to the press. Whistleblowers charged with violating the Espionage Act include Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, WikiLeaks contributor Chelsea Manning, and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Now there are threats that it may be used against the groups that publish that information.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation (June 14 2017)

On June 15 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act into law. The Espionage Act was further modified by the Sedition Act of 1918 but those amendments were ultimately overturned on March 3 1921. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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Crypto AG — The Missing Piece of the Snowden Puzzle

“An attack in Karachi, Pakistan, during which another NSA employee Gary C. Durrell was shot in March 1995  is believed to be related to Crypto AG.”

MINERVA — A History

Crypto AG salesman Werner Graf

March 2 2020 — Why has the Washington Post decided not to tell their readers that the Minerva Files contain disturbing information about a series of suspicious deaths? Could it be that the Post acted under instructions from the CIA? Let us therefore pull this thread, and see where it leads. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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OSS Society : “Don’t believe the BS from The Good Shepherd.” [Joke]

“Don’t believe the BS from ‘The Good Shepherd.’ Donovan recruited lots of first- and second-generation Americans like himself. He said no country in the world had more citizens with knowledge of other countries. The best example are the OSS Operational Groups, predecessors to SF.”

The OSS Society — Tweet (February 25 2020)

Sunday March 1 2020 — Thank God, It is Sunday! There is no doubt that the recent tweet from the Office of Strategic Service [OSS] Society is a about a very serious issue: the diversity of the CIA workforce. I promise to (seriously) discus this topic soon. But we have been a bit too serious in recent weeks, and it is time to return to our tradition of Sunday jokes, parodies and animal spy stories. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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On This Day — Stern Gang Bombs Cairo-Haifa Train (February 29 1948)

“In the ever-controversial history of Palestine, a special place is reserved for Avraham Stern. The leader of the eponymous “gang” – its Hebrew name meant “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” – was shot and killed in February 1942 after masterminding a wave of terrorist attacks on British targets with the goal of securing Jewish independence in the holy land.”

Ian Black — The Guardian (April 23 2014)

February 29 2020 — On February 29 1948, the Stern Gang bombed the Cairo-Haifa train north of Rehovot, killing 28 British soldiers and wounding 35. On March 31 1948, the group mined the same train near Binyamina, killing 40 civilians and wounding 60. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Remembering Olof Palme (January 30 1927 – February 28 1986) [2020]

“This is an open wound in Swedish society. It is extremely important that this is solved.”

Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven (May 2018)

“The Anti Apartheid Conference in Stockholm, it is suggested by our Swedish Sources in Uppsala, would present the ideal opportunity to take the necessary action against Mr. Palme and it would be possible to ensure that the action be attributed to other groups.”

South Africa Military Intelligence Report (October 15 1985)

“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 (John le Carré ) — Olof Palme Award acceptance speech (January 30 2020)

February 28 2019 — The murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme on February  28 1986 shocked Sweden and had a great impact across Scandinavia. If we can solve today the mystery of the 1961 murder of UN Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld, then surely we must be able to identify the killers of Prime Minister Olof Palme. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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Crypto AG — Was Boris Hagelin Jr. Murdered by the CIA? [UPDATE – BND Boss : “The number of deaths surrounding Crypto AG is disproportionately high.”]

“My son Boris Jr., who met a tragic death in 1970, had an inventive mind, and his contributions when the post-war CX-type was  designed  were  very  important.”

The Story of Hagelin-Cryptos — Boris Hagelin (1981)

“Even the vice president of the BND assumed that Boris Hagelin Jr. was not the victim of an accident. It was an intelligence murder.”

Intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom [1]

The Hagelin family in 1962. In front: Boris Hagelin, his wife Annie and their daughters. Back, from left to right: Boris Jr., Karl Wilhelm and Carl. Courtesy from Sixten Svensson [Copyright]

February 14 2020 — A decade ago, I argued that Crypto AG had rigged the equipment used by diplomats around the world allowing US Intelligence Agencies to decode in real-time their messages. This week,  Swiss public broadcaster SRF Rundschau, German public broadcaster ZDF and the Washington Post have confirmed many details of the story after gaining access to a classified, comprehensive CIA history of the operation codenamed “Thesaurus” and later “Rubicon”. There are many issues to discuss. I will address them one at the time. In this post, I will review the suspicious circumstances regarding the death of Boris Hagelin Jr. just a few months after the Swiss Company was sold to the CIA. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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On This Day — Allen Dulles Becomes First Civilian Director of Central Intelligence (February 26 1953) [2020]

“President Dwight Eisenhower, named Allen Dulles CIA Director. Dulles’ forte was overthrowing governments and he was quite good at it. With coups in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954) under his belt, Dulles was riding high in the late Fifties and moved Cuba to the top of his to-do list.”

Former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern

“I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind.”

President John F. Kennedy (ca. April 20 1961) [1]

February 26 2020 — Allen Welsh Dulles was an American diplomat and lawyer who became the fifth, but first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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The CIA Book of Honor — Star 121 : Mark S. Rausenberger (November 7, 1967 – May 23, 2016)

“There are now 125 stars on our Memorial Wall, each representing a life that is dear to us, and will be for all time. We remain forever devoted to them, as they were to us. And we will strive to make them proud of us, as we are of them.”

CIA Director Mike Pompeo — May 22 2017

“During the time I wrote this diary, I was a Sergeant and a Medic in the U.S. Army. My main function in the military was as a Medic and a Treatment NCO. This is a multi task job. I was certified to suture, do inor surgeries, dispense medication, triage patients, and a lttle bit of everything else. I worked the medical side of the house as well as leading and supervising other medics.”

A Somalia Journal — Mark S. Rausenberger (1995)

On May 22 2017, the Central Intelligence Agency held its 30th annual memorial ceremony. The ceremony began in 1987 and is attended each year by hundreds of employees, retirees, and family members of those who died in service with the CIA. Eight stars were added to the Memorial Wall in 2017, bringing — at the time — to total number to 125.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Dag Hammarskjöld — US, UK and South Africa still withholding crucial information [UPDATE : Will the UN finally investigate Crypto AG?]

“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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Book Review — The Coldest Warrior [Dr Frank Olson]

“The most efficient accident, in simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface.”

CIA assassination manual (1953)

“In other words, the Memorandum of Understanding, in your judgment, gave authority to the CIA to make decisions to give immunity to individuals who happened to work for the CIA for all kinds of crimes, including murder.”

Question from Senator Bella Abzug to CIA general counsel Lawrence Houston (1975)

“He was letting them know that he was marching to a different drummer and you couldn’t do it back then. He was a man who was profoundly, profoundly distressed about what he was learning… And he was dangerous. Back then, if you thought somebody was detrimental to the cold war, you had no problem dealing with them.”

American journalist Seymour Hersh

February 23 2020 — In his new book, acclaimed espionage author Paul Vidich tells the story of a CIA officer tasked to investigate a cold case from the 50s: the mysterious death of Dr. Charles Wilson, an Army bio-weapons scientist. Does the plot ring a bell? Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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