Den of Spies — Belgium Counterintelligence Chief Accused of Spying for Russia [UPDATE]

Posted on February 16, 2020 by L

“If Clement Vandenborre is proved to have worked for Russia, it would be the biggest spy scandal since Herman Simm, an Estonian defence ministry official, was convicted of Russian espionage in Tallinn in 2009.”

Andrew Rettman — EU Observer (February 15 2019)

Général Claude Vande Voorde — Service général du renseignement et de la sécurité

February 15 2019 — Clement Vandenborre, the head of the counterintelligence department within Belgium’s General Information and Security Service (GISS / ADIV) is accused of spying for Russia.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Crypto AG — Was Boris Hagelin Jr. Murdered by the CIA?

Posted on February 15, 2020 by L

“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]

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 Media Group 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 — The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (February 14 1929) [2020]

Posted on February 14, 2020 by L

“Since February 14, 1929, when seven men were gunned down inside a Clark Street garage, the mastermind behind the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre has remained a mystery, though suspicions usually point to Al Capone. Now a new biographer has uncovered fresh information implicating a different suspect—a forgotten Chicago felon with a simple and timeless motive: revenge.”

Jonathan Eig — Chicago Magazine (April 2000)

“All I ever did was sell beer and whiskey to our best people. All I ever did was supply a demand that was pretty popular. Why, the very guys that make my trade good are the ones that yell the loudest about me. Some of the leading judges use the stuff.”

Chicago gangster Al Capone

February 14 2020 — On Valentine’s day in 1929, the streets of Chicago ran with blood as the gangs of Al Capone and Bugs Moran battled to the death. This era had its very own language. Do you know what a “Chicago typewriter” is? And what is a “blond alibi” anyway? Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Disinformation — A Quick Note about Facts & Truth

Posted on February 13, 2020 by L

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right.”

George Orwell — Nineteen Eighty-Four

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

Aldous Huxley

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”

Mark Twain

February 13 2020 — Many years ago, a former high ranking officer of the US Intelligence Community told me — seriously — that the FBI and the CIA have never let “stupid facts” interfere with “their truths”. The Lockerbie Case and the Iraqi WMDs fiasco are certainly cases in point. I will keep on repeating this until my last day: Facts matter; Truth never dies. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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75 Years Ago – U.S. Air Force Carpet Bombs Dresden (February 13-15 1945)

Posted on February 13, 2020 by L

“We don’t carpet bomb civilians.”

Former CIA Director John McLaughlin (February 9 2017)

“Dresden is the largest unbombed city the enemy has got. The intention of the attack is (…) to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.”

RAF Memo (January 1945)

“The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is… One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I’m in.”

Kurt Vonnegut — About Dresden and his famous novel Slaughterhouse-Five

February 13 2020 — From February 13 to February 15 1945, during the final months of World War II (1939-45), Allied forces bombed the historic city of Dresden, located in Eastern Germany. I regard the bombing of Dresden as a war crime. I understand that one may disagree with me on this issue. Anyone is entitled to his own opinion. However, I expect everyone to acknowledge the facts because no one is entitled to his own facts. Just because you are a former CIA Director does not allow you to ignore History and to make your own “In-facts”.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Remembering Irish Human Rights Lawyer Patrick Finucane (March 21 1949 – February 12 1989) [2020]

Posted on February 12, 2020 by L

“After a seven-month legal battle the prime minister has finally been forced to publish her secret order but we are a long way from having transparency. The public and parliament are still being denied the guidance that says when British spies can commit criminal offences and how far they can go. Authorised criminality is the most intrusive power a state can wield. Theresa May must publish this guidance without delay.”

Maya Foa — Director of the human rights group Reprieve (May 2018)

“If you report a crime that happened within the organisation, then the whistle-blower is the one accountable and not the person who committed the crime.”

Annie Machon — Former MI5 Officer

Patrick Finucane (March 21 1949 – February 12 1989) was an Irish human rights lawyer killed by loyalist paramilitaries acting in collusion with the British government intelligence service MI5.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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30 Years Ago — Mandela Is Released From Prison (February 11 1990)

Posted on February 11, 2020 by L

“There must be a kernel of morality also to international behaviour. Of course, nations must place their own interests high on the list of considerations informing their international relations. But the amorality which decrees that might is right can not be the basis on which the world conducts itself in the next century.

It was pure expediency to call on democratic South Africa to turn its back on Libya and Qaddafi, who had assisted us in obtaining democracy at a time when those who now made that call were the friends of the enemies of democracy in South Africa.”

Nelson Mandela — Cape Town (June 13 1999)

On February 11 1990 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela walked out of prison and embarked on a decade of historic endeavour. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Flashback — Intel Today : “Lockerbie Witnesses Were Paid”

Posted on February 11, 2020 by L

‘”I can assure you that no witnesses were ever offered any money by anyone–including the CIA. This issue came up at trial and I spoke with the defense lawyers about it in Edinburgh in 1999 — before trial. No one was promised or even told that they could get money for saying anything. Every FBI agent was under specific orders not to mention money to any potential witness.”

Richard Marquise — FBI agent who led the Lockerbie investigation (Communication to the author)

“The Myth surrounding Libya and Megrahi now quietly slides into history. Political Expedience rules over Truth.”

Richard C. Fuisz M.D. (Former CIA Agent) — Email to Intel Today (December 21 2018)

Mandela visiting Megrahi — aka the ‘Lockerbie bomber’ — in prison. Many thanks to my friend John Ashston who took the picture. “The same country should not be complainer, prosecutor and judge in this particular matter.” — Nelson Mandela

February 11 2020 —  On this day, eleven years ago, I revealed that Lockerbie key witnesses had been paid. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This day — Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (February 11 1979) [2020]

Posted on February 11, 2020 by L

“You will see we are not in any particular animosity with the Americans. [The Islamic Republic of Iran] will be a humanitarian one, which will benefit the cause of peace and tranquillity for all mankind. (…) It is advisable that you recommend to the army not to follow [Shah’s prime minister Shapour] Bakhtiar.”

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — Letter to US President Jimmy Carter (January 29 1979)

On February 11 1979, the Pahlavi dynasty officially ended officially. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, had entered Tehran on February 1 1979 and led an uprising throughout in Iran that resulted in victory after 10 days, known as the Ten Days of Dawn. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading →

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The CIA Book of Honor — Stars 118, 119 & 120 : David W. Bevan, Darrell A. Eubanks, and John S. Lewis

Posted on February 10, 2020 by L

“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

“They were young firefighters-turned-CIA operatives working thousands of miles from home in a remote corner of Southeast Asia. David W. Bevan, Darrell A. Eubanks and John S. Lewis, all in their mid-20s, were on a mission to drop supplies for anti-Communist forces in what was then known as the Kingdom of Laos. But on Aug. 13, 1961, the CIA-operated Air America plane carrying the men tried turning out of a mountaintop bowl near the Laotian capital of Vientiane and one of its wings hooked into a ridge. (…)  The CIA operatives died, along with Air America’s two pilots.”

Ian Shapira — Washington Post (June 18 2017)

“The CIA specifically invited/recruited smokejumpers into the covert operations business for several reasons: 1) We were damned good looking. 2) We didn’t get airsick. (…) 6) We were not active duty military, so our direct involvement in an affair of arms didn’t constitute an official act of war. … 9) We were deniable. … 10) Did I mention that we were damn good looking?”

Don Courtney — Smokejumpers and the CIA

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.  After 56 years, the CIA finally acknowledged the death of three operatives who had died in Laos. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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