On This Day — The Chilean Coup (September 11 1973)

“I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

Henry Kissinger — Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under Richard Nixon

“It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It would be much preferable to have this transpire prior to Oct. 24 but efforts in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date. We are to continue to generate maximum pressure toward this end, utilizing every appropriate resource. It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the USG and American hand be well hidden…”

CIA cable — October 16 1970

“With respect to your earlier comments about Chile in the 1970s and what happened with Mr. Allende, it is not a part of American history that we’re proud of.”

General Colin Powell — US Secretary of State (2003)

Salvador Allende gives his inaugural address as president of Chile in 1970. (No Photoshop back then…)

Before the coup, Chile had been hailed as a beacon of democracy and political stability for decades; whilst the rest of South America had been plagued by military juntas and Caudillismo. The collapse of Chilean democracy ended a streak of democratic governments in Chile, which had held democratic elections since 1932. Historian Peter Winn characterised the 1973 coup as one of the most violent events in the history of Chile. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This Day — Former CIA Boss John McLaughlin : “So, that’s it.” (September 11 2001)

“I typed a single sentence, a memo to myself: Nothing will ever be the same.”

John McLaughlin — Former CIA Deputy Director & Acting Director (2000 to 2004)

john-mclaughlin

John McLaughlin — Former CIA Deputy Director & Acting Director (2000 to 2004)

“The hijacked planes hit the twin towers at 8:46 and 9:03 a.m. and the Pentagon at 9:37. Around 10 a.m., we moved out of our headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, to an adjacent structure; we assumed that our building was also a target.” Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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One Year Ago — The KRYPTOS Sculpture — SECTION IV : A Few Clues From Edward Scheidt

“Maintaining secrecy about the sculpture became a challenging part of creating Kryptos. Both Jim and I were under scrutiny by the media who wanted badly to know the answer. To be honest, I don’t know the answer. After Jim finished the sculpture, I never went back to check the code.”

Edward Scheidt  — Former CIA Head of Cryptography

Kryptos at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia

KRYPTOS is a sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the four encrypted messages it bears. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Skripal Case — Going from Weird to Berserk (UPDATE)

“That the attack on the Skripals was nonsense is clear to a person with half a brain. But some don’t even have one half, that’s why they believe in this absurdity.”

Roger Waters — (August 27 2018)

“There is a wonderful book that you might read… And the title of it is from a quote from Winston Churchill: ‘In time of war, the truth is so precious, it must be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’ ”

US Secretary of State George P. Shultz (03/10/1986)

“The issue surrounding the identify [sic] of a former MI6 informer Sergei Skripal is already widely available in the public domain. However, the identifies [sic] of intelligence agency personnel associated with Sergei Skripal are not yet widely available in the public domain.”

UK D-Notice issued on March 7 2018

“I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years and I was educated to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public. The truth will come out one day, the truth won’t die.”

Dr. Udo Ulfkotte — German Journalist and Whistleblower

Woman’s Head — Pablo Picasso (1934)

In matters of espionage and National Security, no one covers the news better than the BBC or the Guardian. Day after day, their “presstitutes” will cover the truth under layers of lies until their readers can no longer tell which way is up. The Lockerbie affair is a case in point. The Skripals’ story is another first-rate example. The official narrative is beginning to look a lot like a Picasso painting from his surrealism period, although without the master’s genius. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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On This Day — 1,000 Boeing 747 Jumbo Plane Produced (September 10 1993)

“Aviation investigations are replete with accident scenarios that couldn’t happen. And given the lack of bomb evidence so far, neither scenario has been ruled out, officials said. First is the possibility that the doomed plane’s front section, which has a history of structural fatigue cracks and must undergo regular inspections, simply unzipped from the rest of the plane as weakened structural frames gave way.”

TWA 800 — Washington Post August 1 1996

“There was a single primary return received (…) 16 seconds before SSR returns were lost. […] No explanation can be offered for its presence.”

Pan AM 103 AAIB

Kalitta Air (25th May, 2008)

Boeing has delivered more than 1,500 of these jets since 1970. The 747 has been involved in 60 hull losses, resulting in 3,722 fatalities. The destruction in flight of three Boeing-747 remains the subject of intense debates to this day: AIR INDIA 182, PAN AM 103, and TWA 800. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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One Year Ago — Welcome to Belgistan! [Is Belgium a Failed State?]

“What do Molenbeek’s failures reveal about the deep dysfunction in the Belgian state? That Molenbeek has been allowed to become a breeding-ground for jihadism says some damning things about formal and informal structures in Belgium, and in particular Brussels.”

Belgium is a Failed State – POLITICO 

“While the government has acknowledged that hundreds of Belgians have gone to fight with ISIS or for other groups in the Syrian civil war, Pieter Van Ostaeyen, an independent researcher, calculated in October (2015) that 516 Belgians had fought in Iraq or Syria, far higher than the government’s figures. Based on his numbers, Belgium has contributed more fighters per capita to the fight in the Levant than any other European country.”

David A. Graham — The Atlantic (November 2015)

“The Committee will want to consider whether Gaddafi’s prophetic warning of the rise of extremist militant groups following the collapse of the regime was wrongly ignored because of Gaddafi’s otherwise delusional take on international affairs. The evidence that the Committee has taken so far in this inquiry suggests that western policy makers were rather less perceptive than Gaddafi about the risks of intervention for both the Libyan people and the western interests.” Crispin Blunt MP, Chair.

September 9 2017 — Brussels is the capital of Belgium as well as the capital of Europe. But some are now calling it the ‘Muslim’ capital of Europe The small European nation has become a major source of violent jihadists, both in Syria and Iraq and also inside Europe. After the Paris and Brussels attacks, many have denounced Belgium as a Failed State. The claim is not entirely without merit. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Think On These Things : Should Spies Use Cryptography?

“Bizarrely the stubby pencil and piece of paper that you put your cross on in the ballot box is actually much more secure than anything which is electronic.”

Former MI6 Chief Sir John Sawers

“The approved systems have simply been shown to adequately resist whatever kinds of crypto-mathematical attacks we, with our finite resources and brains, have been able to think up. We are by no means certain that the [opponent] equivalent can do no better.”

David Boak’s (NSA)

Security expert Bruce Schneier — Chief Technology Officer of IBM Resilient, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center, and a board member of EFF — just wrote a very short but highly important comment on the story of the CIA debacle in China. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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One Year Ago — CIA Goes to War with WikiLeaks [POLL]

“It is the sense of Congress that WikiLeaks and the senior leadership of WikiLeaks resemble a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors and should be treated as such a service by the United States.”

2018 US Intelligence Authorization Bill

September 8 2017 — The Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a bill classifying WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service.” Phillip Giraldi, former CIA officer and counter-terrorism specialist, explains how this is “like going to war” and that he “would not rule out assassinations.” Follow us on Twitter:  @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Two Years Ago — CIA and BND Employed Former SS “Bloody Brigitte” – Reflections on Nazis and ISIS

“Although she understandably questions the morality of the decision to hire Nazi SS scientists, Jacobsen balances her judgment with an understanding of the perceived threat of the Soviet Union under Stalin and the communists’ dialectical determination to prepare for total war with the West.”

Operation Paperclip — Book review by CIA Jay Watkins

ss_hildegard_lachert

Hildegard Martha Lächert (20 January 1920 – 1995) was a notorious female guard, Aufseherin, at several German World War II concentration camps. She became publicly known for her service at Ravensbrück, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Despite her crimes, she was recruited by the CIA and the BND after the war. I take this opportunity to raise a very simple but extremely important question. Why did the US Government handle the de-Nazification of Germany and the de-Baathification of Iraq in completely opposite manners? A very good documentary — Enemy of Enemies: The Rise of ISIL — discusses some of the background related to this issue. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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OBITUARY — CIA Psychologist Richards “Dick” J. Heuer, Jr. (July 15 1927 – August 21 2018)

“Dick influenced analysis at the CIA more than any other single person.”

Former CIA Director Michael Morell

“Do You Really Need More Information? The US Intelligence Community invests heavily in improved intelligence collection systems while managers of analysis lament the comparatively small sums devoted to enhancing analytical resources, improving analytical methods, or gaining better understanding of the cognitive processes involved in making analytical judgments.”

Psychology of Intelligence Analysis — Richards J. Heuer

Former CIA veteran Richards “Dick” J. Heuer died on August 21st at Carmel Valley Manor. Dick was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency during its early years. Throughout his career he worked in numerous areas of the intelligence field. He was the recipient of multiple honors from the Central Intelligence agency, the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts and the International Association for Intelligence Education. Follow us on Twitter:@INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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