One Year Ago — CIA Statement on [Vault 7] Claims by WikiLeaks (March 8 2017)

“I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind.”

President John F. Kennedy.

“A people always ends by resembling its shadow. ” Rudyard Kipling

On Tuesday 7 March 2017, WikiLeaks began its new series of leaks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Code-named “Vault 7” by WikiLeaks, it is the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency. Here is the official CIA statement regarding the claims made by WikiLeaks. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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On This Day — CIA Jacqueline K. Van Landingham (1962 – March 8 1995)

“African Americans have long made critical contributions to our Agency’s mission, taking the risks and bearing the sacrifices that intelligence work often demands. We at CIA join our fellow citizens in remembering the immeasurable sacrifice, strength, and courage of African Americans in building a more free and just society. It is a cause they nobly advanced, and one that we all must carry forward to this day.”

CIA Director John Brennan  — February 26 2014 CIA’s Black History Month Celebration

cia_s

The Memorial Wall is a memorial at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia. It honors CIA employees who died in the line of service. Today, there are 125 stars carved into the white Alabama marble wall. [WIKIPEDIA]. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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The Bizarre Story of ex-CIA Jerry Chun Shing Lee

“Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.”

Goethe — The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)

“Some former officials who reviewed the evidence described the case against Mr. Lee as strong but circumstantial, not bulletproof. Some at the C.I.A. argued that officials were too quick to suspect a mole — especially a Chinese-American — when there were other explanations.”

New York Times

“Mr. Lee is not a Chinese spy, he’s a loyal American who served his country in the military and in the CIA.”

Edward MacMahon — Jerry Lee’s attorney

A former Central Intelligence Agency officer was arrested at JFK airport on — Monday night — January 15 2018. According to the charges, Mr. Jerry Lee illegally retained highly classified information. But the FBI suspects a bigger crime. The Bureau believes that Lee betrayed the identities of several CIA assets in China.

Although US media have already widely accepted that explanation and most predict that Lee will eventually be charged with treason, I am very skeptical at this point. Firstly, the theory is not satisfactory as it does not, and cannot, explain all the facts. Secondly, alternative explanations — Do you remember the blunders of CIA Operation MERLIN? –appear far more convincing. Thus, I predict that Lee will NOT be charged with treason/espionage.

At an initial appearance in the US district courthouse in Alexandria, Magistrate Judge Ian Davis ordered Lee detained before his preliminary hearing, which was set for March 19 at 2 p.m. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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Trump’s ‘Utterly Ridiculous’ Spy Story Rings a Bell [UPDATE]

“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”

GCHQ Spokesman

GCHQ Headquarters: “The Doughnut”, in the suburbs of Cheltenham

March 21 2017 — GCHQ — Britain’s communications intelligence agency — has issued a statement denying it wiretapped Donald Trump in the weeks after he won the US election. However, as I reminded you recently, this crazy scenario has happened before. GIZMODO just picked up on this old story. Amazingly, three decades later, we still miss a key element on that story: Which of her Cabinet members was Lady Thatcher spying on? Follow us on  Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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Paris & Brussels Attacks — Q&A About Oussama Atar in the Belgian Parliament (UPDATE)

“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

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.”

Hanlon’s Razor

February 28 2018 — Oussama Atar, a Belgian of Moroccan descent believed to be the mastermind of the Paris and Brussels attacks, is dead according to French Intelligence. Now, a Belgian senator asks some questions which Intel Today raised long ago. Better late than never… Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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The Real CIA NARCOS Story Netflix Ignored [2018]

“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.”

Journalist Robert Parry (June 24, 1949 – January 27, 2018)

NARCOS tells a story of Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel in a cops and robbers drama, but the true CIA connection to the cocaine industry that reached to the White House runs much deeper than the TV show. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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This Day In History — US 1918 Sedition Act Repealed (March 3 1921)

“In addition to conventional spying, however, the Espionage Act has also been used to prosecute those who delivered confidential governmental information not to foreign governments, but to the press. Whistleblowers charged with violating the Espionage Act include Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, WikiLeaks contributor Chelsea Manning, and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Now there are threats that it may be used against the groups that publish that information.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation (June 14 2017)

On June 15 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act into law. The Espionage Act was further modified by the Sedition Act of 1918 but those amendments were ultimately overturned on March 3 1921. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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China — Electromagnetic Satellite Launches to Study Earthquake Precursors

“Zhangheng 1 will help scientists better understand the coupling mechanisms of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere and the temporal variations of the geomagnetic field, and thus accumulate data for the research of seismic precursors. Zhangheng 1 cannot be used to predict earthquakes directly, but it will help prepare the research and technologies for a ground-space earthquake monitoring and forecasting system in the future.”

Zhao Jian — Senior official with the China National Space Administration (CNSA)

On February 2 2018, China launched its first seismo-electromagnetic satellite to study seismic precursors, which might help establish a ground-space earthquake monitoring and forecasting network in the future. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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This Day In History — “Horrifying and Unnecessary” (New York Time Editorial – March 2 2008)

“Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary.”

US General David Petraeus

This image of a prisoner, Ali Shallal al-Qaisi, being tortured has become internationally famous, eventually making it onto the cover of The Economist

During the war in Iraq that began in March 2003, personnel of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. On March 2 2008, the New York Time Editorial strongly criticized these violations. The CIA issued a reply on the next day. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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Paris & Brussels Attacks — Q&A About Oussama Atar in the Belgian Parliament

“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

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don’t rule out malice.”

Hanlon’s Razor

February 28 2018 — Oussama Atar, a Belgian of Moroccan descent believed to be the mastermind of the Paris and Brussels attacks, is dead according to French Intelligence. Now, a Belgian senator asks some questions which Intel Today raised long ago. Better late than never… Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading

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