10 Years Ago — Lockerbie : What the SCCRC should have asked the FBI

Posted on March 21, 2022 by L

“The Lockerbie investigation was supposedly driven by old-fashioned detective work, but, as we have learned over the years, behind the scenes the CIA played a key role. We now know that the timer fragment was not from one of the 20 timers to Libya. Is it really far-fetched to suggest that the CIA planted it in order to conclusively link Libya to the bombing?”

John Ashton — Lockerbie investigator

March 21 2022 — On This day 10 years ago, Lockerbie investigator John Ashton posted a list of questions that the SCCRC officers should have asked to the FBI. Seven of those twelve questions are directly related to the infamous MST-13 timer and the miraculous fragment PT/35(b) allegedly found among the debris. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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Sunday Jokes — The Cultural Differences among US Intel Agencies [Unclassified Summary of Assessment on COVID-19 Origin]

Posted on March 20, 2022 by L

“Variations in analytic views largely stem from differences in how agencies weigh intelligence reporting and scientific publications, and intelligence and scientific gaps.”

Unclassified Summary of Assessment on COVID-19 Origin — ODNI (August 27 2021)

March 20 2022 — Thank God, it is finally Sunday! Those of you who have read the ODNI report on the COVID-19 Origin are probably confused. How can U. S. intelligence agencies reach different conclusions while working on the same information? Well, it is cultural! I thought a joke would explain a bit better the cultural differences among US Intel agencies. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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Two Years Ago — Wikipedia : A Disinformation Operation?

Posted on March 19, 2022 by L

“A nuclear scientist and reporter Ludwig De Braeckeleer suggested that intelligence agents may have infiltrated Wikipedia to remove undesirable information from Wikipedia articles. The design and application of WikiScanner technology proved such suspicions to be well founded.”

Internet Brigades in Wikipedia — Wikipedia

*** *** ***

“The strange thing about this story is that this was proven to be true. And there was no denying it. Then later on, a few people started to deny it and claim that it was merely a rumor. Wikipedia has no excuse to hide this.”

Anonymous [Wikipedia user Blissyu2]

March 19 2021 — The Swiss Propaganda Research Group (SPR), founded in 2016, is an independent non-profit research group investigating geopolitical propaganda in Swiss and international media. In their last published work, SPR warns that Wikipedia is anything but an open, transparent and reliable source of information. This story brings back quite a few memories. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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Spy Glossary — On the Origin of “GLOMAR Response” [March 18 1975]

Posted on March 18, 2022 by L

“We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the information requested but, hypothetically, if such data were to exist, the subject matter would be classified, and could not be disclosed.”

CIA — March 18 1975

March 18 2022 — American spies don’t just talk American English. They have their own spy lingo. Did you ever wonder what a “GLOMAR” answer is? On March 18, 1975, one of CIA’s greatest intelligence coups, Project AZORIAN, was fully exposed through a nationally broadcast syndicated report. Jack Anderson’s syndicated television report revealed the truth about the Glomar Explorer and its connection to a secret intelligence operation. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — The Great Gardner Museum Heist (March 18 1990)

Posted on March 18, 2022 by L

“I have spoken to former IRA members who say it was common knowledge these paintings were probably in hands of the organization.”

Arthur Brand — Dutch investigator and art adviser based in Amsterdam

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt (1633)

March 18 2022 — On March 18 1990, two men posing as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole 13 pieces, including three Rembrandts, among them his only seascape “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”, Vermeer’s “The Concert”, and works by Flinck, Manet, and Degas. Despite a $10 million reward and promises of immunity, none of the pieces has been recovered. Thirty years later, nobody has ever been charged with the crime. In 1990, the FBI estimated the value of the haul at $200 million. This estimate was raised to $500 million by 2000. Today, these pieces could be worth US $1 billion. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today

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Spy Quotes — Leon Theremin & “The Thing” [UPDATE : FBI Report released after 70 years!]

Posted on March 17, 2022 by L

“Theremin did some of his best scientific work while imprisoned by one of the most repressive regimes of the 20th century. This brilliant scientist crossed path with the CIA more than once — to our detriment.”

Benjamin R. Fisher — CIA History staff

 

Clara Rockmore & Leon Theremin. Rockmore was a classical violin prodigy and a virtuoso performer of the “Theremin”, the grandfather of all electronic musical instruments.

October 23 2020 — Once upon a time, the Russians relied for many years on a technology unknown to the Americans to spy on the US ambassador in Moscow.

The device — known as “The thing” — was the brainchild of an extraordinary genius: Leon Theremin. I have long suspected that “Microwave Spying” was still a tool on the shelf of the modern spies.

In the aftermath of Snowden’s revelations, Der Spiegel published a catalogue of surveillance technologies used by the NSA and CIA to eavesdrop on foreign spies and diplomats.

And indeed, these documents show that the U.S. Intelligence is using products — with names like LOUDAUTO and ANGRYNEIGHBOR — against foreign embassies. Those devices are generally considered as direct successors of Leon Theremin’s brilliant invention. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — CIA William Francis Buckley is Kidnapped in Beirut (March 16 1984)

Posted on March 16, 2022 by L

“Less than a month after Buckley’s kidnapping, then-US president Ronald Reagan signed an order that put in motion what would become known as the Iran Contra Affair. Justified as a program to barter the release of American hostages held by Iranian-linked Hezbollah, the program saw the United States sell Iran missiles through Israel in exchange for the release of kidnapped Americans in Lebanon. By the time the first such sale was made in August 1985, however, Buckley was already dead.”

MICHAEL OMER-MAN — Jerusalem Post (March 11 2012)

 

March 16 2022 — In the early morning of March 16, 1984, William Francis Buckley, political officer/station chief for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped outside his residence. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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On This Day — The Dugway Sheep Incident (March 13 1968) [Porton Down 1953, Skull Valley 1968, Salisbury 2018, Wuhan 2019]

Posted on March 13, 2022 by L

“There had been three open-air nerve agent events on March 13 (1968), one of which was a test involving an F-4 fighter airplane operating two TMU-28B spray tanks, each holding 160 gallons of VX — a persistent nerve agent.”

Al Mauroni  — Who Killed the Dugway Sheep? Why It Matters Fifty Years Later (Modern War Institute – March 13 2018)

March 13 2019 — The Dugway sheep incident, also known as the Skull Valley sheep kill, was a 1968 sheep kill that has been connected to United States Army chemical and biological warfare programs at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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CIA : “Our failures are known. Our successes are not.” Really?

Posted on March 12, 2022 by L

“There have been only two kinds of CIA secret operations: the ones that are widely known to have failed — usually because of almost unbelievably crude errors — and the ones that are not yet widely known to have failed.”
Edward Luttwak

March 12 2022 — Cultural linguistics is a field of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and culture and how different ethnic groups perceive the world. For instance, it is hardly surprisingly that Eskimos have many words for snow and Japanese people have plenty of Kanji for seaweed. But the CIA has a near-infinite vocabulary for gradations of failure. And this is not funny. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY 

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Two Years Ago — Lockerbie : SCCRC Refers Case Back to Court [March 11 2020]

Posted on March 11, 2022 by L

“Oliver Cromwell died in 1658. His body was exhumed in 1661 to be hanged in chains. Later, he was decapitated and his head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685. There is a pole waiting for Megrahi’s head.”

INTEL TODAY (March 2020)

March 11 2022 — On March 11 2020, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission [SCCRC] decided to refer the Lockerbie case back to the High Court of Justiciary for determination.  As a result of the Commission’s decision, Mr Megrahi’s family was entitled to instruct an appeal against his conviction  Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY

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