“We continue to closely examine anomalous health incidents [Havana Syndrome], particularly in areas we have identified as requiring additional research and analysis.”
ANNUAL THREAT ASSESSMENT 2024
March 20 2024 — The ANNUAL THREAT ASSESSMENT reflects the collective insights of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). The 40-page long report is certainly worth reading. A few items have caught my attention. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the information requested but, hypothetically, if such data were to exist, the subject matter would be classified, and could not be disclosed.”
CIA — March 18 1975
March 18 2024 — American spies don’t just talk American English. They have their own spy lingo. Did you ever wonder what a “GLOMAR” answer is? On March 18, 1975, one of CIA’s greatest intelligence coups, Project AZORIAN, was fully exposed through a nationally broadcast syndicated report. Jack Anderson’s syndicated television report revealed the truth about the Glomar Explorer and its connection to a secret intelligence operation. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“I have spoken to former IRA members who say it was common knowledge these paintings were probably in hands of the organization.”
Arthur Brand
Dutch investigator and art adviser
March 18 2024 — On March 18 1990, two men posing as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole 13 pieces, including three Rembrandts, among them his only seascape “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”, Vermeer’s “The Concert”, and works by Flinck, Manet, and Degas. Despite a $10 million reward and promises of immunity, none of the pieces has been recovered. Thirty-four years later, nobody has ever been charged with the crime. In 1990, the FBI estimated the value of the haul at $200 million. This estimate was raised to $500 million by 2000. Today, these pieces could be worth US $1 billion. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
Continue reading“Theremin did some of his best scientific work while imprisoned by one of the most repressive regimes of the 20th century. This brilliant scientist crossed path with the CIA more than once — to our detriment.”
Benjamin R. Fisher
CIA History staff
March 17 2024 — Once upon a time, the Russians relied for many years on a technology unknown to the Americans to spy on the US ambassador in Moscow.
The device — known as “The thing” — was the brainchild of an extraordinary genius: Leon Theremin. I have long suspected that “Microwave Spying” was still a tool on the shelf of the modern spies.
In the aftermath of Snowden’s revelations, Der Spiegel published a catalogue of surveillance technologies used by the NSA and CIA to eavesdrop on foreign spies and diplomats.
And indeed, these documents show that the U.S. Intelligence is using products — with names like LOUDAUTO and ANGRYNEIGHBOR — against foreign embassies. Those devices are generally considered as direct successors of Leon Theremin’s brilliant invention. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“Less than a month after Buckley’s kidnapping, then-US president Ronald Reagan signed an order that put in motion what would become known as the Iran Contra Affair. Justified as a program to barter the release of American hostages held by Iranian-linked Hezbollah, the program saw the United States sell Iran missiles through Israel in exchange for the release of kidnapped Americans in Lebanon. By the time the first such sale was made in August 1985, however, Buckley was already dead.”
MICHAEL OMER-MAN
Jerusalem Post
(March 11 2012)
March 16 2024 — In the early morning of March 16, 1984, William Francis Buckley, political officer/station chief for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped outside his residence. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“No one in this world, so far as I know … has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”
H. L. Mencken
Notes on Journalism
(September 19, 1926)
March 11 2024 — Many years ago, while researching the Havana Syndrome affair, I noticed serious ‘issues’ regarding Proximus, the main Belgian Telecom Operator, which is owned primarily by the State (53%). Thus, I issued a simple recommendation to Proximus shareholders: “Sell all your shares of Proximus!” I was not wrong. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“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
[Released Feb. 11 2020]
March 8 2024 — Jacqueline K. Van Landingham joined the CIA in July 1985 as a clerk-typist, working in the Directorate of Operations (now the National Clandestine Service), Near East (NE) Division, Logistics Branch. She was gunned down on March 8, 1995 in Karachi, Pakistan. On May 22, 2012, her name was added to the Book of Honour.
According to Time Magazine of March 20, 1995, CIA employee Gary Durrell was the primary target of the attack.Time Magazine reporters believe that Van Landingham only died because she was sitting beside Durrell and came in the line of fire. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
Continue reading“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.”
President John F. Kennedy
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
New York City
April 27, 1961
March 5 2024 — Kennedy, like many other leaders before him, recognized the need for certain levels of confidentiality in matters of national security. Yet, the tension between the imperatives of national security and the principles of transparency remains a complex aspect of governance. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“Governments lie. They do it all the time. And, much as we’d like to believe otherwise, the US government is no exception.”
Ted Koppel
“The USS Vincennes:
Public War, Secret War.”
ABC News
July 1, 1992
October 31 2023 — Time really flies when you are having fun… On this day seven years ago, I announced that I would start a rather long series regarding Suspicious Aviation Tragedies. I will take this opportunity to look back and reflect on what we have learned during these years. I will also speculate on what we may hope to find out in the near future. Finally, I will provide a few words of advice regarding the matters that still need additional work. Remember: Truth never dies. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“One is reminded of Montaigne’s acerbic comment: ‘Men under stress are fools, and fool themselves.’ ”
Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain
March 1st 2024 — On March 1st 2023, the Director of National Intelligence Avril D. Haines announced that US Intelligence Community had concluded that it was ‘very unlikely’ a foreign adversary was responsible for the Havana Syndrome epidemics. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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