Who Is Who in World Intelligence and Security Agencies : MI6 Alex Younger [2017]

Posted on September 21, 2017 by L

“Alex Younger has played a vital part alongside me in modernising SIS and ensuring that the Service is in the best possible shape to play our part in defending the country’s security and our values.”

Sir John Sawers

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Alexander William Younger CMG (born 4 July 1963) is a career British intelligence officer for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) who, from November 2014 has served as the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, succeeding Sir John Sawers on his retirement. Follow us on Twittter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Jake LaMotta — “Raging Bull” and the Fight that Never Came…

Posted on September 20, 2017 by L

“I just want people to know, he was a great, sweet, sensitive, strong, compelling man with a great sense of humour, with eyes that danced.”

Mrs LaMotta

Jake LaMotta, the uncompromising fighter portrayed by Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull”, has died aged 95. Born 10 July, 1922 to Italian parents in the Bronx area of New York City, he took up boxing after being rejected by the US military due to a medical condition.

LaMotta won the World Middleweight title on June 16, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan, defeating Frenchman Marcel Cerdan.

A rematch was arranged, but while Cerdan was flying back to the United States to fight the rematch, his Air France Lockheed Constellation crashed in the Azores, killing everyone on board.

As “soft power goes,” Piaf and Cerdan were really the number one couple on the planet. It would take about 5 years to replace them with the wedding of Marylin Monroe and Joe DiMaggio.

I will not go into the details of why I post this news on this INTEL blog. The time will come.  For now, I will just tell you that Hubble — Yes, this Edwin Hubble — claimed he used to spare (/train) with Marcel Cerdan. The late John Bahcall told me to ignore this story as utter nonsense… — Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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New York Times vs. CIA: “An Old Debate Wrapped in New Clothes” [UPDATE]

Posted on September 20, 2017 by L

“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)

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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World’s Greatest SPY Movies — 2017

Posted on September 20, 2017 by L

“Espionage is everywhere: twisted tales of deception, secrecy and surveillance are never far from the headlines. So it’s no wonder that these real world spy stories find their way to the big screen.”

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The World’s Greatest Spy Movies will reveal the top secrets of espionage through a countdown of the ten most thrilling spy movies of all time. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Suspicious Aviation Tragedies: 1989 — UTA Flight 772 (September 19 1989)

Posted on September 19, 2017 by L

“It is striking to note the similarity of the ‘scientific’ evidence discovered by the FBI’s Tom Thurman in both the Lockerbie and UTA cases. Of the tens of thousands of pieces of debris collected at each disaster site, one lone piece of printed circuit was found and, miracle of miracles, in each case the fragment bore markings that allowed for positive identification: MEBO in the Lockerbie case and TY in the case of UTA Flight 772. Despite the common findings of the DCPJ, the DST and the Prefecture of Police crime laboratory, Juge Bruguière chose to believe Thurman, the expert in fabricating evidence.”

Pierre Péan — African Manipulations

Rescuers stand near the wreckage of the French UTA DC-10 flight 772 in the Tenere desert, on September 22, 1989

It has been called the greatest murder investigation in French history. When a suitcase bomb destroyed French Airlines UTA Flight 772, killing all 170 passengers and crew on board, it triggered a decades long search for accountability… A story that has previously been largely untold. But in his new book, “The Forgotten Flight,” author Stuart Newberger remembers one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history from his unique vantage point as the attorney who represented the families of the seven Americans killed.  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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Historian Webster Tarpley: Nixon Was Ousted By The CIA

Posted on September 19, 2017 by L

“Another item in the memo is a detailed report of a recent meeting of Indira Gandhi’s cabinet about the pros and cons of accepting a cease-fire once a government was installed in Bangladesh. The CIA provided the information based on a source in Gandhi’s cabinet, confirming Seymour Hersh’s finding in The Price of Power that the CIA had a highly-placed mole in the Indian government.”

National Security Archive — 14 September 2016

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President Richard M. Nixon meeting with national security adviser Henry A. Kissinger in the Oval Office, n.d. (Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, Photo collections, Master Print File with Staff Individuals)

As a contribution to the ongoing discussion about the role of the PDBs in the Nixon White House, the National Security Archive today publishes together for the first time the six Kissinger daily briefing memoranda from 1969 through 1973 that have been declassified so far.’ Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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NEVER FORGET — Suspicious Aviation Tragedies: 1961 — Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash

Posted on September 18, 2017 by L

“We saw a plane fly over Chifubu but did not pay any attention to it the first time. When we saw it a second and third time, we thought that this plane was denied landing permission at the airport. Suddenly, we saw another aircraft approach the bigger aircraft at greater speed and release fire which appeared as a bright light. The plane on the top turned and went in another direction. We sensed the change in sound of the bigger plane. It went down and disappeared.”

Dickson Mbewe — Eyewitness

“It will be necessary to find some way of pulling Hammarskjold up short.”

UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (September 13  1961)

“Hammarskjöld was at the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him’.”

US President Harry Truman (September 19  1961)

“I continue to have a strong feeling that Hammarskjold’s death was not an accident.”

Richard Goldstone

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The wreckage of Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane near Ndola, now Zambia.

On 18 September 1961, the Ndola United Nations DC-6 crashed, killing Dag Hammarskjöld — the second Secretary-General of the United Nations — and 15 others died. Hammarskjöld’s death occurred en route to cease-fire negotiations. A British-run commission of inquiry blamed the crash in 1961 on pilot error. A later UN investigation rubber-stamped its findings. Case closed? Not so fast… Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today Continue reading →

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One Year Ago — Dr A. Q. Khan: The Bomb, the Swiss and the CIA

Posted on September 18, 2017 by L

“If you put the [A. Q. Kahn] puzzle together, you get the whole picture.”

 Swiss magistrate Andreas Müller

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Pakistani nuclear physicist: Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan

A Swiss man whose computers were destroyed a decade ago during an investigation into the illicit sale of nuclear weapons material to Libya has failed to force Switzerland to pay him more than $1 million in property damages. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

Continue reading →

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The KRYPTOS Sculpture: NSA Solution for Section III

Posted on September 17, 2017 by L

With trembling hands, I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner… widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in… at first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle to flicker. Presently, details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold – everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment – an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by – I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand in suspense any longer, inquired anxiously “Can you see anything?”, it was all I could do to get out the words “Yes, wonderful things”.

Howard Carter — The Tomb of Tutankhamen

Diary — November 26 1922

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. Of the four messages, the first three have been solved, while the fourth message remains as one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. The sculpture continues to be of interest to cryptanalysts, both amateur and professional, who are attempting to decipher the fourth passage. The artist has so far given two clues to this passage.

In this post, I present the solution to Section III of the cypher as explained by the NSA. As I explained before, I do not like this method/explanation for several reasons. I do not think that this technique would appeal to an artist such Sanborn. Moreover, the way the question mark is handled is highly dubious. And finally, there is no explanation for the mysterious “Q” at the end of the message. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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One Year Ago — NSA Hacked French President’s House: Video Back Online

Posted on September 17, 2017 by L

“Keith Alexander (Director of the NSA) told me he was disappointed because he never thought we would detect them and he even added: You guys are good.”

Bernard Barbier

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French newspaper “Le Monde” just published an article confirming that the US/NSA indeed hacked the Élysée Palace in 2012. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY Continue reading →

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