“One is reminded of Montaigne’s acerbic comment: ‘Men under stress are fools, and fool themselves.’ ”
Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain
June 2 2022 — Matsuo Bashō was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. After centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku. The CIA could learn a few things from his poetry. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years. They worked by a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually.”
Herodotus (484 – c. 425 BC)
March 1st 2023 — A ‘Fermi Question’ asks for a quick estimate of a quantity that seems difficult, or even impossible, to determine precisely. Fermi’s approach to such questions was to use common sense and rough estimates of quantities to piece together a ball-park value. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days.”
Biden (May 26 2021)
June 3 2021 — The US President Joe Biden has announced an urgent investigation into the origin of the COVID pandemic. What are the competing theories? What do we know about these theories so far? What can the US Intelligence Community learn in the next 90 days. And, last but not least, what is the most likely conclusion of the investigation? Here are my predictions! Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“KE-007 was a victim of the cold war. Another casualty, always war’s first, was the Truth. The story of KE-007 will be remembered pretty much the way the Americans told it in 1983 and not the way it really happened. (…) The moral of the story is that all governments, including our own, lie when it suits their purposes. The key is to lie first.”
Alvin A. Snyder
Warriors of Disinformation
September 1 2020 — Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (also known as KAL 007) was a scheduled Korean Air Lines flight from New York City to Seoul. On September 1st 1983, the airliner serving the flight was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor, near Moneron Island west of Sakhalin in the Sea of Japan. President Reagan described the attack as a “massacre” and a “crime against humanity”. In fact, the US Intelligence Community knew full well that the Russians had not been able to identify the airliner and truly believed that it was a spy plane. The tape presented as evidence at the UN had been edited to remove 5′ documenting the relevant exchanges between the pilot and the Russian authorities. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“The secret deal was ‘immoral’ and in breach of legal principles, but it was justified for strategic reasons. This might be absolutely shocking, but the reward was that there were no more attacks.”
Pr. Jean Ziegler
February 21 2023 — On February 21 1970 — a cold and wet Saturday — Swissair Flight 330, bound for Tel Aviv, crashed shortly after take-off from Zürich. 38 passengers and nine crew died in the tragedy. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“The truth is — as this deplorable experience proves — that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of themselves…Despite the unequivocal language of the Constitution of the United States that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, and despite the Fifth Amendment’s command that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, both of these constitutional safeguards were denied by military action under Executive Order 9066.”
Former Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark
“Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans”
February 19, 2023 — On February 19 1942, US President Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which allowed regional military commanders to designate “military areas” from which any or all persons may be excluded. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“It clearly looked to me like the body was in what we call mummification, or early stages of mummification, which essentially means drying. Because of the drying certain areas become sunken like the eyes are sunken. If you look at the Higgins pictures, they certainly look that way. … I’m inclined to think he was dead before he was hanged.”
Dr. Werner Spitz — Professor of forensic pathology at Wayne State University
February 17 2023 — William Richard Higgins (January 15, 1945 – Unknown but declared dead on July 6, 1990) was a colonel in the United States Marine Corps who was captured on February 17 1988 while serving on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. He was held hostage, tortured and eventually murdered by his captors. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“And you’ll ask: why doesn’t his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land?
Come and see the blood in the streets.”
I explain a few things
Pablo Neruda
October 21 2022 — Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician. On October 21 2018, The Spy Museum tweeted: “Today in #SpyHistory – The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to former KGB agent and Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, 1971.” Really? Where is the evidence that Neruda was a KGB agent? Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is… One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I’m in.”
Kurt Vonnegut — About Dresden and his famous novel Slaughterhouse-Five
February 13 2023 — From February 13 to February 15 1945, during the final months of World War II (1939-45), Allied forces bombed the historic city of Dresden, located in Eastern Germany. I regard the bombing of Dresden as a war crime. I understand that one may disagree with me on this issue. Anyone is entitled to his own opinion. However, I expect everyone to acknowledge the facts because no one is entitled to his own facts. Former CIA Director John McLaughlin should not be allowed to ignore History and to make his own “In-facts”. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Continue reading“It was pure expediency to call on democratic South Africa to turn its back on Libya and Qaddafi, who had assisted us in obtaining democracy at a time when those who now made that call were the friends of the enemies of democracy in South Africa.”
Nelson Mandela
Cape Town (June 13 1999)
February 11 2023 — At a Downing Street meeting in April 2001, Mandela told Tony Blair it was “wrong to hold Libya legally responsible for the Lockerbie bombing.” Mandela surely understood the difference between personal responsibility and state responsibility. So I always doubted very much that he would have made such a statement if he had really believed that Megrahi (and Libya) was actually responsible for the Lockerbie tragedy. Do you seriously think Mandela would have visited Megrahi in prison if he had believed that Megrahi was a terrorist? Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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