“We have a very strong team of people — the best across CIA — focused on those questions of ‘What?’ and ‘Who?’, led by a very experienced and accomplished senior officer who, a decade ago, led the successful hunt for bin Laden. So we’re throwing the very best we have at this issue.”
CIA Director William J. Burns
Michael D’Andrea was the basis for a character known as “The Wolf” — played by Fredric Lehne — in the movie “Zero Dark Thirty”. He is also known as the Dark Prince or Ayatollah Mike. D’Andrea was the head of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center from February 2006 to March 2015.
July 28 2021 — The identity of this veteran CIA officer remains classified. But various media and CIA director William Burns have offered a few clues. Although very little was revealed, the information is probably sufficient to identify the new boss of the CIA ‘Havana Syndrome’ task force. Here is my best guess! Follow us on twitter: @Intel_Today
“A nuclear scientist and reporter Ludwig De Braeckeleer suggested that intelligence agents may have been 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
July 26 2017 — On this day (July 26 2007) ten years ago, OMNI (Ohmy News International) published a piece regarding suspicious edits made to certain articles on Wikipedia. As I was researching a piece on the Lockerbie tragedy, I noticed that some information regarding a Palestinian terrorist group had been erased. Upon closer inspection, I came to the conclusion that Intelligence Agencies were editing sensitive information on Wikipedia. I was not wrong. PS: Jimmy Wales never apologized… Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency.(…) There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”
HarryTruman (December 22 1963)
July 26 2021 — On January 22 1946, President Harry S. Truman signed the directive establishing the National Intelligence Authority and the Central Intelligence Group. On July 26 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act which established the Central Intelligence Agency. By 1963, Truman admitted in writing that he was seriously “disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment.” Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
“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, Judge Bruguière chose to believe Thurman, the expert in fabricating evidence.”
Pierre Péan — African Manipulations
July 25 2020 — Pierre Péan, one of the greatest French investigative journalists, died Thursday July 25 2019. He was 81. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
July 25 2020 — Margaretha Geertruida “Margreet” MacLeod (Born Zelle; 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan. She was put on trial on July 24 1917. The following day, she was convicted of being a spy for Germany. On October 15 1917, she was executed by firing squad in France. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“All mistakes originate with people’s acting like experts thoroughly familiar with a subject, and looking down with an air of superiority on others.”
Yoshida Kenkō — Tsurezuregusa (ca. 1330)
July 25 2021 — To celebrate the 2020 Summer Olympics, a group of Japanese artists decided to replace the traditional flags of countries by a typical samurai. The result is fun and seems childish. But make no mistake. Much intelligence went into writing the profile of these warriors. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“Once the pursuit of truth begins to haunt the mind, it becomes an ideal never wholly attained.We can never achieve absolute truth but we can live hopefully by a system of calculated probabilities.”
Agnes Meyer Driscoll
July 24 2019 — Agnes Meyer Driscoll (July 24, 1889 – September 16, 1971), known as Miss Aggie or Madame X, was an American cryptanalyst during both World War I and World War II. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
“Some are worried it signals that North Korean might be planning some type of operation, alerting its spies by sending the coded broadcast. But for that to be true, North Korean agents would have had to have been listening at the right time to take down the message, and how would they have known it was coming?
Numbers haven’t been broadcast for 16 years, so have agents really spent the last decade and a half listening just in case something came across? It is possible they could have been alerted that such a message was about to be broadcast, but then when why not send the message contents over whatever communications channel was used for such an alert?”
Martyn Williams — 38 North
July 23 2016 — The broadcast on July 15 2016 was the first number sequence aired by Pyongyang in over 16 years. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
“How do you remove the wrapping from a gift you’ve been given? How do you unpack the stories that are shared with you in order to discover what’s contained within — what most people refer to as the ‘moral’ or the ‘message’? There are many ways to do this. There is no one, ‘right’ way.”
The Art of Unpacking Stories — Mitch Ditkoff
June 29 2021 — The time has come to unpack the mysteries. Four years ago, I coined the expression “Havana Syndrome” which implied a link between the (then) recent Havana attacks and the old story of the Microwave Syndrome in Moscow. Considering the known facts, it seemed plausible that the ‘diplomats’ posted in Havana were the victims of a spying operation using microwaves. This hypothesis was ridiculed at the time but today, it is regarded as the most likely theory by the US academy of Science and the Intelligence Community. In this post, I will address two difficulties that have never been discussed during the last four years. The plausible answers to these puzzles appear to point to a well-defined, and highly plausible scenario. If correct, this explanation has far reaching consequences.
UPDATE (July 9 2021) — Hiding Microwave Attacks in Plain Sight — Here is certainly a fair question. If the US Intel Community suspects microwave attacks against their people, why don’t they install spectrum analyzers in the homes and offices of U.S. diplomats. Although it is certainly a good idea, the devil is always in the detail. And you can be sure that the culprits will not make it easy for these attacks to be detected. In this update (at the end of this post), I suggest an old trick that may have gone forgotten…
UPDATE (July 12 2021) — At Long Last, Spy Agencies Turn to Scientists — During the Trump administration, the State Department commissioned the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to examine Havana syndrome. Its report concluded that a microwave weapon was a likely cause of many of the episodes but was hampered in part because of a lack of access to information. Scientists were not given the full range of material collected by the intelligence agencies. The National Security Council, working with the C.I.A. and the director of national intelligence, has established a pair of outside panels to study Havana syndrome. Outside scientists with security clearances will be able to view classified intelligence to better understand what may have caused the brain injuries.
UPDATE (July 19 2021) — On Friday, The New Yorker magazine revealed that two dozen U.S. intelligence officers, diplomats and other officials in Vienna have reported symptoms similar to those of Havana syndrome. The new cases are confirmed by the US State Department, which said it was “vigorously investigating”.
UPDATE (July 23 2021) — According to the Wall Street Journal, CIA Director William Burns has tapped a veteran of the agency’s hunt for Osama bin Laden to head the ‘Havana Syndrome’ task force. Follow us on twitter: @Intel_Today
“The fact that people didn’t evacuate or get the warnings suggests that something is going wrong. If you’ve got some information about what risk you’re at and you can understand it, you can take action to protect yourself. These floods were huge. Probably they were like a fantasy or a kind of science-fiction movie for people.”
Hannah Cloke — Professor of hydrology at Reading University
July 20 2021 — Belgium and Germany knew that huge floods were coming. Yet, the early warnings were not passed to the population. Scientists believe that this ‘monumental failure of the system’ is directly to blame for the death of at least 200 people in Germany and Belgium. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
Intel Today 