INTELLIGENCE "STUFF"
by Col. John Macartney, USAF Ret., Ph.D.
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14 November 2000
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ANOTHER AFIO MEMBER ELECTED TO CONGRESS!
- Rob Simmons, a member of
the AFIO's Northeast Chapter, was elected to Represent Connecticut's 2nd (eastern)
district, defeating 10 term Democratic incumbent Sam Gejdenson. Simmons, a
Republican, is a Vietnam vet, an colonel in the Army MI reserves and a former CIA
clandestine service officer. From 1981 thru 1985 he was Staff Director of the Senate
intelligence committee under then chairman, Barry Goldwater. Since 1991, he has been
a representative in the Connecticut Assembly.
http://www.simmonsforcongress.com/bio.htm
SEVERAL ARRESTS SO FAR IN USS COLE INVESTIGATION
WEN HO LEE, HAZMA EXTRACTION and PLO IN IRAQ
DD-21 WILL HAVE NO INTEL PERSONNEL ON BOARD
-
Recently I learned in a briefing that the Navy's future Zumwalt-class Land Attack
Destroyer, (a sort of "arsenal ship" concept), is currently programmed to have
NO intelligence personnel, officer or EM, embarked — ONI is fighting that plan.
http://dd21.crane.navy.mil/dd21/program/splash.htm
KASTEN CHASE, A CANADIAN SOFTWARE SECURITY FIRM, TO PROTECT SENSITIVE WHITE HOUSE DATA FROM HACKERS
UNAUTHORIZED CHAT ROOM ON CIA COMPUTER NET
- For the past 6 months or more,
the CIA has been s investigating 160 employees and contractors for exchanging
"inappropriate" e-mail and off-color jokes in a secret chat room created within
the agency's classified computer network and hidden from management. ... Several
officials, including members of the Senior Intelligence Service, have been suspended with
pay for the past six months while senior CIA officials try to determine what punishment is
appropriate. However, the willful "misuse of computers" did not
"involve the compromise of any classified information." (Ed Badolato)
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64444-2000Nov11.html
LIBERALS AT CIA PLAN TO WOO BUSH according to "Insight Mag"
NEW INSCOM COMMANDER
- Army BG Keith Alexander is being assigned as
commanding general, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir, Va.
Alexander is currently serving as Director for Intelligence, J-2, United States Central
Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
http://www.vulcan.belvoir.army.mil/
NMIA DIS
- Last week, NMIA held its annual all day conferences —
counterintelligence on July 8 and Defense Intelligence Status on July 9. I was able
to attend the DIS which featured presentations from the heads (or their deputies or
representatives) of the intelligence services of the 5 military branches plus DIA, NSA,
NRO. Although I did not hear anything startling, here are some interesting tidbits:
- FAO's, or Foreign Area Officer specialists, long a key resource in the Army, are
now part of both Navy and Air Force officer subspecialties.
- The CMO, or Central MASINT Organization, was upgraded a couple of years ago from an Office under the DIA collections directorate to an Organization at DIA's second level
reporting directly to the Director, DIA. But, contrary what I and others had
previously understood, the CMO remains part of DIA and does not report directly to the DCI
as, for example, NSA and NRO do.
- Regarding MASINT (Measurement & Signals Intelligence, the fourth INT, along with
HUMINT, SIGINT and IMINT). One speaker remarked that for the last few years speakers in
public forums, such as the NMIA DIS or AFIO Symposia, have been hailing MASINT as the “INT
of the 21st century, soon to be by far the most important of all the INTs." Well,
that speaker said, “maybe we've been overselling MASINT.” So far,
most of their wonderous sensor programs and abilities remain in R & D.
- Air Force intelligence has had its mission expanded from ISR (Intelligence,
Surveillance & Reconnaissance) to ISR and IO, or Information Operations
(Cyberwar). In that regard, the part of AIA, the Air Intelligence Agency, that
handles IO, is being transferred into the Air Combat Command, as befits an operational
combat unit.
- DIA is trying to strengthen its analysis by having "Red Cells" — basically
small teams of country experts who try to put themselves in the shoes of country X —
estimate what that country will or would do.
- Global Hawk, the long range, high altitude and stealthy UAV, is being developed to
replace the U-2 someday (about 2010?), but meanwhile, the U-2 is going through the most
comprehensive upgrade in both airframe and sensor suites ever.
- The US Coast Guard is both a military service and a law enforcement agency – a
dual role that presents complications for how it handles intelligence information.
- The new 1-meter commercial imagery firms are selling some images to the intelligence
community but far less than they would like. According to one speaker, if they
really want to sell to IC, they need to offer mapping imagery in the southern
hemisphere. But the commercial satellites, like NRO birds, are focused on the
northern hemisphere.
- Contingency planners are, according to one speaker, by far the biggest customers of
US intelligence, requiring some 98 percent of the entire intelligence
production. Most of what planners need is infrastructure data (what is the aircraft
parking and refueling capacity at the Islamabad Airport, for example) and most of that is
unclassified. However, the IC and it's products are not geared for their
biggest customer.
- In general (everyone mentions this year after year), too much intelligence funding
goes for collection and gee whiz collection hardware, while analysis, exploitation and
dissemination remain grossly underfunded.
- Many worry that intelligence is providing too much SMO (support to military
operations) and not enough intelligence to the White House, the State Dept, Congress, DOD
and the JCS and other senior US govt decionmakers. A couple of the speakers replied
to that charge by saying, in effect, there is no longer any meaningful distinction between
tactical & strategic, national and SMO, etc, they are all the same.
- These days, according on one speaker, the foreign information needed by US govt
decisionmakers is 97% open source and only 3% classified. If intelligence tries to
focus only on the classified element, it will quickly become irrelevant – it
must master both.
AFIO LUNCHEON
- Bill Gertz, intelligence and national security
reporter for the Washington Times, spoke at the AFIO luncheon last Tuesday. Gertz is
known to have "incredible sources" within the US intelligence community and when
new (classified) info get out, it is usually by Gertz. He said the recently vetoed
legislation that would have established a US "official secrets act" was aimed
directly at him. He did talk about responsibility and the publication of classified
info — I would say he charmed and satisfied most AFIO listerners, a tough audience, on
that score.
Mostly, he talked about his new book, "The China Threat." Among other
things, the book says that the view that China is not a threat is pervasive, indeed almost
unanimous, among China experts in and out of government. Moreover, because
that view gospel in the American business community and is also US Govt policy, US govt
China experts who disagree (i.e., see China as a threat), are likely to suffer serious
career setbacks. US policy on China — [which, by the way, has been more or less
constant from Reagan thru Clinton in my view, -jdamc] — is to "engage."
Regardless of what bad behavior China may be doing in the human rights,
proliferation, trade, Taiwan or other arenas, it is nevertheless better in the long run to
"engage" China rather than confront according to this policy view. The
(few) hardline China scholars who oppose that view call those "soft" on China
"panda huggers."
CHINESE ESPIONAGE AND "PANDA HUGGERS"
- Bill Gertz is running a
3-part series in the Washington Times that reinforces the thesis of his new book,
"The China Threat." In the first article, he identifies Ron Montaperto,
a respected China expert at the National Defense University and a former DIA China analyst
(once suspected of being a Chinese agent, according to Gertz), as a "panda
hugger" — which Montaperto denies. In the second article (today), Gertz
focuses on Notra Trulock, former chief of DOE intelligence, who was demoted, forced
out of govt and subsequently investigated after putting the spotlight on Chinese espionage
at Los Alamos — leading to the Wen Ho Lee case.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20001113231037.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-20001114223327.htm
MILITARY ABSENTEE BALLOTS MAY BE MISSING, OR LATE?
BOOKS & OTHER SOURCES
SMITHSONIAN COURSE ON COLD WAR ESPIONAGE
- The course will run in Washington for 8 Monday
evenings beginning Jan 22. Among the speakers are Herbert Romerstein (author
of latest VENONA book); Olag Kalugin, former KGB general; and Dr Gene Poteat,
President of AFIO and former CIA scientist.
http://residentassociates.org/com/coldwar.asp
CIA STUDENT INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
CIA DOCUMENTS ON 1970's CHILE COVERT ACTION
PHILADELPHIA SERIES ON US INVOLVEMENT IN COLUMBIA
- "Eight years ago, at
the request of the Colombian government, US military and spy forces helped fund and guide
a massive manhunt that ended with the killing of Pablo Escobar, the richest cocaine
trafficker in the world. . . The full extent of the U.S. role has never
before been made public. . . The Army's top secret counterterrorism unit, Delta
Force, along with a clandestine Army electronic surveillance team, tracked the movements
of Escobar and his associates and helped plan raids by a special Colombian police unit
called the Search Bloc. The former American ambassador to Colombia directed the US effort
with assistance from agents of the CIA, FBI, DEA and NSA."
Another story in the LA Times links the Colombian drug cartel, and the submarine they were
constructing, with the Russian mafia:
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/11/13/killingpablo/PABLO13.htm
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/11/12/killingpablo/KILLING12.htm
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/11/12/killingpablo/PABLO12.htm
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/11/14/killingpablo/PABLO14.htm
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20001110/t000107841.html
WEBSITE: SPECIAL SERVICES OF RUSSIA, SVR, GRU, FSB, etc.
SPECIAL FORCES IN THE GULF WAR
OLD "STUFF"
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