PRESIDENT BUSH GETS PDB SIX MORNINGS A WEEK
- Also, according to the Post, DCI George Tenet himself sometimes accompanies the CIA morning briefer and President's Daily Brief. The PDB is a very limited distribution, highly classified, 10-page document which is prepared at CIA overnight and coordinated with both NSA and DIA before being hand carried every morning to the White House (and, presumably, to several other key Administration foreign and defense policymakers designated by Bush).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23616-2001Feb3.html
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICER DEFECTS FROM UN
- A Russian "diplomat" who defected with his wife and family in October was actually an SVR officer who has since undergone extensive debriefings by the FBI and CIA. The article goes on to say that the Russian intelligence presence in the US declined after the Cold War but has since gone back up. One reason, the article suggests, is that being stationed in the US is such "prize duty" because of the comfortable lifestyle that SVR officers seek it and the SVR may use such assignments as rewards and career inducements.
Also, the article says, with the Cold War over, Russian defectors are not much prized. So the fact that Sergei Tretyakov, the diplomat who defected, has been accepted into the CIA's defector resettlement program, indicates he had made or would make very valuable contributions to US intelligence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/10/world/10INTE.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20010209/t000011939.html
DRUG TESTS & SECURITY CLEARANCES AT WHITE HOUSE
- When the Clinton Administration took over in 1992, security clearance requirements were ignored or, at best, waived for much of the first year. The press made quite a to do about lax security and the need for "adult supervision" in the Clinton White House. It was many months before some staffers bothered to fill out security clearance applications. I doubt if there ever was drug testing. Now, according to US News & WR, the new Administration is trying to get started on a different foot. "The Bush White House is taking a harsh approach toward new aides who delay in taking the required drug test and filling out the necessary security forms for work. Failure to comply within two weeks means losing your temporary security pass. Among those who lined up first for the drug test was President Bush."
WHITE HOUSE VANDALISM. Meanwhile, US News reports, contractors have been getting "$10,000 a day to reprogram and reconnect the hundreds of phones yanked out of their wall jacks by exiting Clinton-Gore aides. It's a major undertaking. Each phone is programmed for a specific wall jack, and there are matching serial numbers on the phones to ease installation. But the former aides scratched the numbers off many of the phones or moved the handsets to other offices. Reprogramming each one takes an hour."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010212/12whisplead.htm
MOSCOW UPSET BY PORTRAYAL OF RUSSIA IN DCI's THREAT STATEMENT
- The Foreign Ministry says that a statement by CIA Director George Tenet to the US Senate is "surprising" in its effort "to present Russia as a culprit in the propagation of weapons of mass destruction" and to suggest that Moscow is always acting against American interests. Moscow has not yet reacted to a statement by US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice who was quoted in the 10 February Paris "Figaro" as saying that "I sincerely believe that Russia constitutes a threat to the West in general and to our European allies in particular." (Second URL below is the DCI threat statement in question.)
http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2001/02/120201.html
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/UNCLASWWT_02072001.html
FBI's CARNIVORE E-MAIL SNOOPING SYSTEM GETS NAME CHANGE
POLICE DEPT's BUYING HIGH TECH INFRARED AERIAL SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS
CIA IS BUYING OFF THE SHELF INTERNET PRIVACY SOFTWARE
ISRAEL ASSASSINATES SENIOR ARAFAT SECURITY OFFICIAL
- Masoud Ayyad, a LtCol in Yasser Arafat's body guard, was assassinated Tuesday by Israeli helicopter gunships which fired a volley of missiles into his automobile in the Gaza Strip. Israel has target a dozen or more Palestinians for assassination since the current "intifada" began 3 months ago usually without acknowledging the action. This time, they passed out to journalists what amounted to an indictment and death warrant for Ayyad, detailing several armed terrorist attacks he had directed. Western diplomats and middle east scholars expect a new cycle of violence...
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A76-2001Feb13.html
BOOKS & OTHER SOURCES
"SPIES CAFE" WEBSITE
Stephen Dorrill, MI6: INSIDE THE COVERT WORLD OF HER MAJESTY'S SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, Free Press, 2000
VERNON LOEB, WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE REPORTER
- Loeb, who wrote the first article referenced at the top of this "Stuff," is, in my view, the best as well as by far most active and prolific American journalist focused on intelligence matters. In just a few years, he has built a solid understanding of how the US intelligence community works along with excellent sources. Most important, his work seems unusually well balanced and fair -- rather than scandal mongering. In addition to several news stories a week, Loeb has a bi-weekly intelligence column on the Federal Page of the Post ("Back Channels"), another bi-weekly column on-line ("IntelligenCIA") and he regularly hosts live Q&A sessions about intelligence on-line. Last week, he reviewed the Stephen Budiansky book, "Battle of Wits: Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II" in the Sunday Post's Book World.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/fedpage/columns/backchannels/index.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/columns/intelligencia/
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/00/nation/loeb010301.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45434-2001Feb8.html
OTHER JOURNALISTS WHO COVER INTELLIGENCE include Walter Pincus at the Post, Tim Weiner at the NY Times (who wrote the story, about the Russian who defected at the UN), Jim Wolf at Reuters, Douglas Waller and Tony Karon at Time Magazine, Bruce Auster and Warren Strobel at US News, Maggie Farley and Paul Richter at the LA Times, and a number of others. Unlike the Post's Vernon Loeb, however, these journalists do not specialize exclusively on intelligence.
BILL GERTZ, Washington Times reporter, is a special case. He covers intelligence as well as foreign and defense policy and is a legend among Washington reporters (and readers) as well as government security officials because of his extraordinary sources and access to classified documents. Many if not most of Gertz's stories are based on classified documents that have been leaked to him by govt insiders. Indeed, most recent govt directives and legislation concerning "leaks" have been promulgated with Gertz in mind. Occasionally his stories deal with US intelligence policy or matters per se, but not often. Usually they are about the bad deeds of foreign countries and terrorist groups as reported by US intelligence -- rather than on the intelligence function itself. A good example was the Gertz story of Feb 9 saying that, "according to US intelligence officials," the North Koreans are negotiating to buy as many as 3000 SA-18's from Russia." The SA-18 is an advanced shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile similar to the US Stinger. Wags in the Pentagon call it the "Stinger-ski."
http://www.gertzfile.com/
http://www.washtimes.com/national/gertz.htm
INFORMATION WARFARE, BY BRUCE BERKOWITZ
- Bruce is coauthor of "BEST TRUTH: Intelligence in the Information Age" (Yale University Press, 2000). This article on info warfare (IW) argues that the primary target of a military IW attack on America would be commercial computers and communications rather than US government systems. But, he warns, the commercial world, while it does try to safeguard itself from malicious hackers, is not at all prepared to withstand a sophisticated, well funded IW "Pearl Harbor" launched by a foreign nation. The govt would like to correct that, but because of differing cultures, the relationship between the commercial information industry and the US government is not close. The two do not understand each other and are thus not in a position to prepare themselves. The article goes on to summarize the existing US government preparations and structures for cyberwarfare and then suggests a number of improvements.
http://www.nap.edu/issues/17.2/berkowitz.htm
http://www.yale.edu/yup/books/080115.htm
2001 AEROSPACE SOURCE BOOK FROM AVIATION WEEK
MITROKHIN INQUIRY REPORT TO BRITISH PARLIAMENT
ROBERT STEELE, OUT OF BOX THINKER. INTEL 101: "INTELLIGENCE FOR DUMMIES
- "Across the national security community, we continue to obsess on technology and ignore both smart people and private sector knowledge", which, according to Steele have 98% of info needed but not available to our classified collection systems.
http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/Intelligence101.doc
WASTE & MISMANAGEMENT IN INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
THE NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE
- "...the international information explosion has shifted the challenge from one of stealing a few secrets to one of "making sense" of vast quantities of open information; and at the same time, "who decides" has changed from a top-down command mode driven by elites, to a bottom-up consensus mode driven by non-state actors. .... National intelligence agencies...must shift their spending from spies and satellites to analysts, analytic tools, and open sources."
http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/FutureIntel.doc
NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY FOR 21st CENTURY
- Below are (short & long) copies of a new national security strategy paper by Bob Steele, President of Open Source Solutions, Inc (OSS). As usual, the critique is biting and the policy changes are far reaching. Steele would fold the existing CINC's and the 4 armed services into four theater commands (CINCHOME, CINCWAR, CINCSOLIC, CINCPEACE). The longer paper also has a half page on what he calls the RIA, "the revolution in intelligence affairs." Worth reading.
http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/Strategy21.doc
http://www.oss.net/Papers/white/AlternativeStrategy.rtf
SUBMARINE KURSK WEBSITE — CLICK ON THE PICTURES
LOBSTER MAGAZINE?
TWO INTELLIGENCE RELATED WEBSITES REPOST "STUFF"
OTHER SOURCES CURRENT OF INTELLIGENCE NEWS
CORRECTION
- Last week, I reported that there would be an AFIO luncheon on Feb 11. Wrong! That luncheon will be Tuesday, February 20, and will feature Herbert Romerstein, co-author of THE VENONA SECRETS at 11am and Patricia Allen Aquinas, Strategic Offensive Arms Elimination Project Office at 1pm. ($26.50)
http://www.afio.com/
MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE: SCHOLAR SEEKS HELP
- Dr Jonathan Clemente, MD, (an AFIO member) is preparing a scholarly analysis on the history of US medical intelligence and medical support for intelligence operations (OSS Medical Services Branch and CIA Office of Medical Services) from World War II to the present. He would be interested in discussing his project further and will provide bona fides for individuals who have had professional experience in medical intelligence (including but not limited to AFMIC, USMIIA, DIA, FTSC, CIA, Office of Scientific Intelligence, and CIA Office of Medical Services. He can be contacted by at jonathan_clemente@yahoo.com> or (718) 544-2232
