“I frankly don’t think it’s going to be a successful war on terrorism until law enforcement agencies like the FBI are willing to share with other law enforcement agencies. If they can’t share information, there’s no way this war can be won.”
Patricia Campbell Hearst
On September 24 1976, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“The men and women at Bletchley had no idea that in the Napoleonic Wars we had broken the French ciphers, any more than those people knew how ciphers had been cracked when we faced the threat from the Armada.
There was absolutely no question of learning from experience. This repeats itself more in intelligence than in any other area because the experience is less well known, and much of it classified. That is why you get major policymakers whose abilities are adequate in other ways who do so badly in matters of intelligence.
There is no profession that knows so little about its own history as the intelligence community does.”
Professor Christopher Andrew — Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History
There is no do doubt whatsoever that Intelligence professionals should have a much better knowledge of their history as, now and then, they could use a few hints from past cases. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“Few times have we hated so, and so united in our hate.”
Julio Muriente — University professor and co-leader of the Hostosiano Movement
“We have every reason to believe the agents acted properly.”
FBI Spokesperson
Ojeda Ríos’ funeral was attended by the highest authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico, Archbishop Roberto Octavio González Nieves, ex-Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, and numerous other dignitaries and personalities.
On September 23 2005, Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was shot and killed by FBI agents during his sleep, after they entered the house where he was living in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. The FBI operation was questioned by local Puerto Rican authorities as well as international organizations. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“It is clear that the quake wasn’t caused by an artificial explosion.”
South Korea Meteorological Administration (Anonymous)
“This event occurred in the area of the previous North Korean Nuclear tests. We cannot conclusively confirm at this time the nature (natural or human-made) of the event. The depth is poorly constrained and has been held to 5 km by the seismologist. The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) is the sole organization in the U.S. federal government whose mission is to detect and report technical data from foreign nuclear explosions.”
USGS — September 23 2017
September 23 2017 — CTBTO Analysts are looking at an unusual seismic activity of “small magnitude” in North Korea timed at 23-SEP-2017 08:30 UTC. An artificial explosion seems unlikely. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“The Eagle = vigilance, a symbol of our nation. The Defense Shield = intelligence as our nation’s first line of defense. The 16-Point Compass Rose = information coming in from all points of the globe & being brought together at one central place.”
CIA Tweet — September 18 2018
“I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency. At least, I would like to submit here the original reason why I thought it necessary to organize this Agency during my Administration, what I expected it to do and how it was to operate as an arm of the President. (…) We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”
US President Harry Truman (December 22, 1963)
On September 18 2018, the CIA has tweeted a GIF marking its 71st birthday. Some folks took the opportunity to express their sincere thanks to the intelligence agency for the work it does. Many were not so kind. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“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)
On September 22 1985, French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius appeared on TV to confess that agents of the DGSE — French Foreign Intelligence Service — had sunk the Rainbow Warrior. They acted on orders. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“Over the past year, according to police documents, the police have been piecing together Mr. [Yassine] Atar’s role in the network. He is a cousin of the brothers Ibrahim and Khalid el-Bakraoui, who on March 22, 2016, carried out the Brussels attacks by setting off suicide bombs at an airport and in a subway station. (…) The Belgian authorities suspect that a brother of Mr. Atar, Oussama Atar, was a leader of the Brussels network. Oussama Atar remains at large.”
June 2 2017)
“With the usual reservations, it seems to indicate that Oussama Atar is dead and, importantly, that the judicial investigation continues. It is essential to continue to try to shed light on this dark affair.”
Georges Dallemagne — Belgian Federal representative (February 28 2018)
“If not for the request by different organizations … Oussama Atar would still be in Iraqi prison.”
Jawad Al-Hindawi — Iraqi Ambassador to Belgium
Yassine Atar, brother of Oussama Atar, one of the main suspects in the March 22 2016 terror attacks in Brussels
September 22 2017 — A Belgian policeman from Brussels was arrested on Monday (September 18 2017) for violating professional secrecy and passive corruption. The policeman had been in contact with Yassine Atar, brother of Oussama Atar, one of the main suspects in the March 22 2016 terror attacks in Brussels. The readers of INTEL TODAY will not be surprised a bit… Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
“There are troubling early signs that cocaine availability is on the rise in the US for the first time in nearly a decade.”
US State Department — February 2017
“The old conventional wisdom of this being a conspiracy theory survived even if the evidence is now incontrovertible. So even NARCOS wants to avoid the issue and pretends it did not happen.”
American Journalist Robert Parry
September 19 2018 — Colombian cocaine production hit record levels in 2017, according to newly released UN statistics. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says production rose about 31% year on year to some 1,400 tonnes, cultivated on 171,000 hectares. It is estimated that the potential production of cocaine has a value of 2.7 billion dollars in the local market. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading
“We will take the appropriate steps if the high-level involvement of a foreign country is confirmed.”
Elio di Rupo — Then Belgian Prime Minister (September 2013)
“Meanwhile the prosecutor’s office is reported to have advised the minister that the case has to be dropped, since there is a lack of admissible evidence to be able to make criminal accusations against particular individuals. Other political or diplomatic moves are a matter for the two governments, and are unlikely ever to be made public.”
Alan Hope — The Brussels Times (September 21 2018)
BRUSSELS (September 20 2018) – A confidential report by Belgian investigators has concluded that British intelligence services hacked state-owned Belgian telecom giant Belgacom (Today renamed PROXIMUS) on behalf of Washington. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_Today Continue reading
“Because it’s a military operation, I don’t think we can completely treat the people who run it purely as intelligence operatives. It moves into a different realm in the discussion as far as I’m concerned. It’s not like you’re exposing a wide undercover operation in Afghanistan. You’re writing about something that is generally done by the military, which I think means that the cloak of secrecy that usually we all allow for the CIA is a little more complicated.”
Dean Baquet — Executive Editor of the New York Times
“As the nation’s dominant news organization, The Times deserves, and gets, intensive scrutiny for how it has handled that story. The grades, clearly, are mixed. Its role in the run-up to the Iraq War has been rightly and harshly criticized. (…) But it’s certainly a healthy sign that The Times’s top editor and some of its key reporters are not only grappling with these issues, but are willing to do so publicly. In an era in which “trust us” — on the part of both the government and the media — hasn’t worked out too well, this discussion couldn’t be more important for American democracy and for We the People.”
Margaret Sullivan — Former Public Editor of The New York Times
“The Obama administration accidentally revealed the name of the CIA’s top official in Afghanistan [Greg Vogle] in an email to thousands of journalists during the president’s surprise weekend trip to Bagram Air Field.”
WASHINGTON (AP)
September 20 2017 — Amy Fiscus — the NYT national security editor — has just explained why The Times published the name of a C.I.A. official last month. The story is obviously reigniting an old debate. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading
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