On This Day — Che Guevara Is Executed (October 9 1967)

“The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

“The only passion that guides me is for the truth… I look at everything from this point of view.”

“I had a project for my life which involved 10 years of wandering, then some years of medical studies and, if any time was left, the great adventure of physics.”

“I have a wish. It is a fear as well – that in my end will be my beginning.”

Che Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967)

A 1960 photo taken by Alberto Korda of Guevara in a beret became iconic and has since appeared on countless posters and T-shirts.

On this day in 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara (age 39) was killed by the Bolivian army. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Two Years Ago — 2016 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE JUAN MANUEL SANTOS — Does Anyone Remember “Los Falsos Positivos”?

“Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize.”

Thomas Andrew Lehrer — American  satirist

“We can call them ‘false positives’ or ‘extrajudicial executions’, but really these were cold-blooded murders. They were meticulously planned and carried by all ranks.”

Omar Rojas Bolaños and Fabian Leonardo Benavides — Blind Obedience in Fictitious Battlefields

santos

October 8 2016 — The 2016 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Juan Manuel Santos “for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”.

Santos was named Minister of Defence on 19 July 2006. He resigned on 18 May 2009. In 2008 the ‘false positives’ scandal was uncovered.  Members of the military carried out extrajudicial executions in order to artificially increase the number of guerrillas killed by the Army and claim rewards from the government.

UPDATE — Earlier this year (May 2018), we learned that the Colombian army has killed thousands more innocent civilians than previously reported. The authors of a new study — one of them is a former police colonel — estimate that 10,000 civilians were executed by the army between 2002 and 2010 – more than three times the number tallied by human rights groups. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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CIA Director Gina Haspel — First Public Appearance (U. of Louisville, Sept. 24 2018)

“No foreign challenge has had a more direct impact on American families and communities…than the flow of opioids and other drugs into our country. That’s why the CIA is going to invest more heavily in our counter-narcotics effort abroad to combat this terrible threat, one that has killed far more Americans than any terrorist ever has.”

CIA Director Gina Haspel

CIA Director Gina Haspel addresses the audience at the University of Louisville, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in Louisville, Ky.

In her first public appearance as CIA Director, Haspel spoke at the University of Louisville in her native Kentucky, where she earned her degree. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Salisbury Incident — Was “Novichok Killer” Driving License Photoshopped?

“According to the OSAGO insurance policies database, this driver’s license is indeed registered in the name of Anatoly Vladimirovich Chepiga.”

Crime Russia (October 6 2018)

“Do you never wonder how all this information about this apparently top secret dude is so easy to come by? Who took this picture? How did they get hold of his driving licence? How do you know it’s genuine? Why don’t journalists ask questions anymore?”

Michael Marshall (Twitter October 6 2018)

CIT Tweet : “A source sent us a photo of what appears to be a driver’s license issued to GRU colonel Anatoliy Chepiga who is suspected of poisoning the Skripals in the UK. The license apparently was issued back when he was serving in a Spetsnaz unit in Khabarovsk before transfer to Moscow.”

Crime Russia has reported that independent investigators from “Conflict Intelligence Team” (CIT) posted — via their Twitter account — a picture of a driving license, which allegedly belongs to GRU Colonel Anatoly Chepiga.  There is one problem. This document is obviously a forgery. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Lockerbie Victim’s Father : “Lockerbie Trial Was a Parody of Justice.”

“In our sad search we have also uncovered material showing that the Government of the day had ample accurate warnings in advance of what was about to happen, but raised not a finger to prevent it happening.”

Dr Jim Swire (October 7 2018)

“There was a real push in the embassy community to make sure that everybody was aware that there had been a terrorist threat made, and that people flying Western carriers going through Frankfurt should change their tickets.”

Karen Decker — Consular Official at the Moscow US Embassy  (ABC, Nov. 30 1989)

“I regard the Lockerbie verdict against Megrahi as a ‘Grand Monument to Human Stupidity’.  Indeed, the written opinion of the Lockerbie judges is a remarkable document that claims an ‘honoured place in the history of British miscarriages of justice.’ If the [SCCRC] Commission accepts the application for a full review, the infamous Zeist verdict doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving.”

INTEL TODAY — July 5 2017

Dr Herbert ‘Jim’ Swire

Today (October 7 2018), Dr Jim Swire published a Letter in the Scottish edition of the Mail on Sunday. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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On This Day — The Murder of Anna Politkovskaya (October 7 2006)

“Who killed Anna and who lay beyond her killer remains unknown. Her murder robbed too many of us of absolutely vital sources of information and contact. Yet it may, ultimately, be seen to have at least helped prepare the way for the unmasking of the dark forces at the heart of Russia’s current being.”

Jon Snow — News anchor for UK Channel 4

“Anna Politkovskaya paid the ultimate price for her bravery in investigating and reporting on human rights violations. Achieving justice and establishing the truth about her murder must become a top political priority. This is owed first and foremost to her family and the general public, but is also an important obligation to uphold media freedom and safety of journalists.”

Council of Europe (October 5 2018)

Anna Politkovskaya (August 30, 1958, New York City — Assassinated: October 7, 2006, Moscow)

On October 7 2006, Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed in front of the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. After several arrests, releases and retrials over eight years, five people have been jailed for her murder. However, it has still not been established who ordered the murder. Twelve years later, the murder’s organiser is still free. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Remembering Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455 (October 6 1976)

 “The CIA created and unleashed a Frankenstein.”

Peter Kornbluh — Head of the National Security Archive’s Cuba project

“Luis Posada Carriles  died without having paid for this crime nor the many other terrorist acts that are a feature of his criminal record.”

Cuban government website Cubadebate — May 23 2018

“A15 — CIA code name for Posada — is not a typical kind of ‘boom and bang’ individual. He is acutely aware of the international implications of ill-planned or overly enthusiastic activities against Cuba.”

Former CIA handler Grover Lythcott

“Our confidential source ascertained (…) that the bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 was planned, in part, in Caracas, Venezuela, at two meetings attended by Morales Navarrete, Luis Posada Carriles and Frank Castro.”

“A confidential source all but admitted that Posada and [Orlando] Bosch had engineered the bombing of the airline.”

FBI Declassified reports

Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) — nicknamed Bambi — is a Cuban exile militant and former Central Intelligence Agency agent. Carriles is considered a terrorist by the Government of Cuba, among others; he is widely considered responsible for the bombing of Cubana flight 455, which killed 73 people.He was a long-time member of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations described by the FBI as “an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization”.

Cubana de Aviación Flight 455 was a Cuban flight from Barbados to Jamaica that was brought down on 6 October 1976 by a terrorist bomb attack. All 73 people on board the Douglas DC-8 aircraft were killed.

Several CIA-linked anti-Castro Cuban exiles and members of the Venezuelan secret police DISIP were implicated by the evidence. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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On This Day — James Bond Dr. No Worldwide Premiere at the London Pavilion (October 5 1962)

“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)

James Bond Dr No — Behind-The-Scenes Photos of Sean Connery and Ursula Andress

On October 5 1962, Dr. No had its worldwide premiere at the London Pavilion. Fifty years after the release of the film, Eon Productions celebrated “Global James Bond Day” on October 5 2012. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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Netherlands — MIVD Director : “GRU Hacked OPCW Wi-Fi Network”

“We, as you understand, have abilities to receive confidential information. And as this information concerns questions of life and death, we won’t keep this information secret.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (April 14 2018)

MIVD director Onno Eichelsheim

Dutch military intelligence service MIVD Director Onno Eichelsheim said his service interrupted a GRU attempt to hack the WiFi network of the OPCW. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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German Court Rejects Request to Release Swiss Suspected Spy — [UPDATE-3]

“When someone in Switzerland uses illegal methods in Switzerland to steal state or business secrets, that is espionage, and we have the task to fight that.”

Swiss Federal Intelligence Service Director Markus Seiler

“The scandal reaches new proportions when spies sign up informers in the finance administration, in order to spy on successful NRW [North Rhine-Westphalia ] tax investigators and play into the hands of people who make billions in profit at the expense of society. It’s hard to believe that such a spy thriller took place not on the screen but on our own doorstep.”

NRW Finance Minister Norbert Walter-Borjans

Daniel M

Daniel M.

On June 27 2017, a German court rejected a request to release Daniel M. — a Swiss man being held on suspicion of spying. The alleged Swiss spy was arrested in a Frankfurt hotel on May 5 2017 .

On Thursday November 9 2017,  Daniel M. was found guilty of spying on German tax authorities at a hearing in Frankfurt. The defendant was handed a suspended sentence of 22 months.

On October 2 2018, the Swiss Federal Council said that the decision to send Daniel M. to snoop on tax authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia was taken in a different political context, and its outcome was impossible to predict. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading

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