Tag: Spies

Heroes Of The Philippines

There are always stories about our wars that seldom get told…..these are some of those stories……

MacArthur’s Spies by Peter Eisner recounts how three individuals played a significant role in the resistance against the Japanese occupation in the Philippines during World War II.  The book shows how heroes come from many backgrounds: a singer, a soldier, and a spymaster.  As the Greatest Generation dies off, written accounts such as this are a reminder of how ordinary people can become extraordinary by putting themselves in danger to help others survive and achieve victory.

The emphasis of the book is on the American singer Claire Phillips, who opened a nightclub in Manila catering to Japanese officials and officers.  She and those who worked for her gathered information that was passed on to the allies.  In addition, she provided food, supplies, and medicine to many of the allied POWs and citizens interned in the camps.  Given the code name “High Pockets,” she met with guerrilla fighters to inform them of Japanese military plans, and by all accounts, she gave credible intelligence reports.
History is fascinating and we should suck it all in for most of the WW2 vets are dying and soon there will be NO one to tell their stories….and when that happens that part of our history will disappear.

Fake News And World War Two

There has been a bunch of crap these days about so-called “fake news”…..this technique is nothing new….Hell fake news has been used since the dawn of time just it makes a much better slogan these days than in the past……it use to be called “propaganda”…..

But as long as we are talking about fake news let’s talk about its use in World War Two.

And yes it was used extensively but both sides during the war and there was even a time that it was used to get the US to commit to the war in Europe…..

In the spring of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill was certain of one thing for his nation caught up in a fight to the death with Nazi Germany: Without American support his nation might not survive. But the vast majority of Americans—better than 80 percent by some polls—opposed joining the fight to stop Hitler. Many were even against sending any munitions, ships or weapons to the United Kingdom at all. To save his country, Churchill had not only to battle the Nazis in Europe, he had to win the war for public opinion among Americans. He knew just the man for the job.

In May 1940, as defeated British forces were being pushed off the European continent at Dunkirk, Churchill dispatched a soft-spoken, forty-three-year-old Canadian multimillionaire entrepreneur to the United States. William Stephenson traveled under false diplomatic passport. MI6—the British secret intelligence service—directed Stephenson to establish himself as a liaison to American intelligence. He went to the White House where the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, remained deeply concerned about the fate of Great Britain. To Stephenson’s dismay, he learned that the U.S. government had no coordinated central command for spies and counterintelligence. Stephenson would have to create one on London’s behalf in America. Before long, Britain’s lone secret agent in the Americas built a vast clandestine propaganda, counterintelligence, and espionage empire.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-real-007-used-fake-news-to-get-the-us-into-world-war-ii

I love history and I do like to share it with my readers….it is my hope that my readers learn something from these posts…..but then I may be asking for too much.

Closing Thought–05Jan18

This is 2018….and the year of the spy…..we have investigations going on about the Russian intel project that may have influenced an election or at least had some willing Americans working for them during the election.

The US just busted some Russian spies about 5 years ago…they were normal individuals with jobs, families and spy craft…..how does Russia go about recruiting people to work with them……

Good question with a pretty good answer…..

Are you of Russian descent?

The Senate committee probing alleged Russian interference in the U.S. political system has deemed anyone “of Russian nationality or Russian descent” relevant to its investigation, according to a document obtained by TYT.

In an email dated December 19, 2017, April Doss—who serves as senior minority counsel on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI)—defined the scope of the committee’s inquiry as anyone a subject “knows or has reason to believe [is] of Russian nationality or descent.” The senior majority counsel for the SSCI, Vanessa Le, was cc’d on the emails.

https://tytnetwork.com/2017/12/27/anyone-of-russian-descent-now-targeted-in-senate-investigation/

The babbling Right has said the Congressional investigations is a witch hunt….after reading this story I have to agree….that is if the story is accurate…..

Sorry I digress….back to the meat of the post….how does Russia recruit their operatives?

This is the first of a three-part series based on never-before-published training manuals for the KGB, the Soviet intelligence organization that Vladimir Putin served as an operative, and that shaped his view of the world. Its veterans still make up an important part of now-Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power base. All were trained in the same dark arts, and these primers in tradecraft are essential to an understanding of the way they think and the way they operate.

U.S. intelligence operatives understand this only too well. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN earlier this month Putin is “a great case officer,” suggesting he “knows how to handle an asset, and that’s what he’s doing with the president”—that is, the president of the United States.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kgb-papers-how-putin-learned-his-spycraft-part-1

Recruiting spies is an art form……and the Russians have become artist in its execution…..

A new year and we are off to the races…..shall we enjoy the time together…..TTFN…..chuq

Closing Thought–08Aug17

Agents Of A Foreign Power

We have heard all the mash up about this person or that that has been working as an agent of a foreign country……and how they failed to register as an agent or they forgot some vital information when filling out their security forms…..

To me there are some PACs that need to register……a group like the pro-Israel AIPAC…..is the first to come to mind.

Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a meeting ostensibly convened to discuss the failure to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA). Originally rescheduled for this week, the postponed meeting would have featured Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort testifying about their controversial Trump Tower meeting, but their subpoenas were canceled at the last minute after they arranged to turn over documents. The June 2016 meeting under investigation included Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, publicist Rob Goldstone, businessman Ike Kaveladze, and translator Anatoli Samochornov. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner was also in attendance, apparently only briefly.

The Judiciary Committee hearing was originally set up to look at the possible Russian links of former journalist and head of the research firm Fusion GPS Glenn Simpson, who was behind the infamous Trump dossier that appeared in January. Yet in reality it is part of the broader effort to determine whether Moscow interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of the Donald Trump campaign.

Source: Should AIPAC Register as a Foreign Agent? | The American Conservative

Yes they should register as the agent of a foreign government especially since they have so much influence over Congress and presidents.

I think anyone or any group that takes money to influence or country should be on record as a foreign “agent”……matters not your station in life.

Time to bow out…..hope everyone has a good afternoon and a better evening and I will see you guys tomorrow….chuq

Spying By The Book

I do love a good spy thriller…..and we have a whopper going on in DC proper….

You know I really think that the mash up with Don, Jr and his spies would not be such a big deal if he would have come clean in the beginning….now every time he opens his mouth few will believe anything he is saying….even FOX News is starting to doubt his honesty…..

There is more from an ex-KGB spy…….

The story of the Trump presidency is quickly turning into a bad spy novel with bumbling, idiotic protagonists.

Donald Trump Jr. stumbled into a major scandal this past week when he tweeted out emails showing that he actively tried to collude with a surrogate of the Russian government to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton.

It was soon revealed that the meeting was a bigger affair than it originally seemed, with eight people in attendance. Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rob Goldstone, Moscow-connected attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, a translator, and one as yet unrevealed participant all attended.

Source: An Ex-KGB Spy Just Revealed A Chilling New Detail About Trump Jr.’s Secret Russian Meeting

How does this situation stack up against known KGB techniques?

Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer and a Russian-American Lobbyist – among others – begs the question, was this a Russian intelligence operation? If so, is this typical Russian tradecraft, or something out of the ordinary? And what should we expect in the coming years? The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder asked former CIA Chief of Station Daniel Hoffman, who did a tour in the Soviet Union and is a Russia expert, his thoughts on this.

Source: Straight Out of the Russian Intelligence Playbook | The Cipher Brief

How will this bad novel turn out?

Was He A Commie Spy?

I feel I must throw some history in today….to some this is a waste of time (to them I say….Sesame Street is on at 3  pm)……there have been lives ruined by the accusation of being a “Commie”…..a popular accusation from the days of the Cold War….now it has been replaced by socialist or Marxist….even liberal.

Sorry I digress.

Ever heard of the Manhattan Project?

In case you have not…it was a secret program during WW2 to develop an atomic bomb…..some of our brightest minds were part of this program and even a few old Germans that fled prosecution for crimes by working with the US under the handle of Operation Paper Clip….

One of the great minds in this program was Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist…..the reason I bring this up is because he was accused of being a communist spy during the witch hunts of McCarthy and his band of inquisitors….

But was he as accused….a spy?

The relationship of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to communism and Soviet espionage has been a controversial subject since 1954, when the decision of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to decline renewal of his security clearance put the issue firmly into the public arena. Journalists and historians addressed the issue repeatedly in the decades that followed. Nothing fueled the liberal/left critique of the so-called “national security state” more than the supposed excesses of the US government in the Oppenheimer case, save the cases involving Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs.[1]

But while the emotional level, even shrillness, of the debate continued, the substance of the argument became increasingly stale and repetitive; there was little new evidence to clarify the ambiguities of the matter. In the last two decades, however, new evidence has emerged that, while not resolving all ambiguities and still leaving a number of details unclear, nonetheless allows confident answers to the question of whether Robert Oppenheimer was a Communist and a spy. It demonstrates that he had, indeed, been a Communist but had not been a spy.

Source: Washington Decoded: J. Robert Oppenheimer:

Many lives were ruined by the mere accusation of being a communist sympathizer…..especially when the Congress led the charge for awhile….but was he, Oppenheimer, a spy or not?

Closing Thought–30Jun17

Spy vs Spy!

That’s Bond– James Bond

Since I was a teenager I have loved me some spy novels and such….but you know real-life is just as interesting as the fiction stuff.

Remember a few years back when the US caught all those Russian sleeper agents…..one was a sexy red head that could make a dead guy write bad checks.

Then there are stories of the assassinations around the world…especially the ex-KGB guy that was poisoned in the UK with his tea…..

Then I read the report of a Brit spy that was found dead stuffed into a sports bag…..

After the dead body of an MI6 spy was found locked in a sports bag in London, police said the death was “probably an accident” – but British and American spy agencies have secret intelligence suggesting Gareth Williams may have been assassinated over highly sensitive work on Russia.

A British spy whose naked body was found decomposing in a padlocked sports bag in his bathtub is among at least 14 people suspected of having been killed by Russian assassins on British soil, BuzzFeed News can reveal.

Source: The Death Of The Spy In The Bag Is Linked To Russia By Secret Intelligence Files

See what I mean…fascinating.

My question is how does a dead guy accidentally lock himself into a sports bag?

Any answers out there?

Time to say bye for the day…..hope you will join tomorrow for more stuff…..chuq

Spies Like Us

A funny movie from the 80’s…..Ackroyd and Chase…..but intel gathering is not a funny business…..dangerous and unpredictable……and NO one looks like Sean Connery or Roger Moore.

But when I was younger I was thrilled by spy novels…Ian Fleming, LeCarre, et al……but my fave in those days were the pulp novels written by Edward S. Aarons whose character Sam Durell was always fighting bad guys and chasing beautiful women….

Then when I joined the Army I volunteered for Military Intelligence….thus began my career of an analyst…..

As you can tell Spies have always fascinated me….so I ask…who were the 10 most famous spies?

In and out of wartime, spies play an essential role in information gathering for their nations (and, on occasion, as double-spies for other nations). The spies listed here are the most famous in history.

Source: Top 10 Famous Spies – Listverse

History can be fun and it is always informative and educational.

The Real-Life “Americans”

I have been bored with the news and have decided to watch “The Americans”….a TV show set in the 1980’s and the work of Soviet spies to gleam intel out of the American citizens….

I bring this up because the news is starting to look like an episode of the Americans…..all the intrigue and role playing going on in DC these days….I mean according to the news reports it has been one attempt after another to involve Russia in the governing of the US……(I am not saying that all this “news” is true….just that it is just too unbelievable….)

I mean look at the news these days…..

Well as it turns out. not only did the retired Lt. General Mike Flynn tell the republican President Donald Trump transition team all about his work with foreign governments, before the president’s inauguration date, but it just so happens that he and/ or others made at least 18 contacts with Russian officials. And yet, he still became the president’s national security adviser. It has become obvious that the Vice President Mike Pense who was in charge of the vetting process failed to follow protocol.

Source: Flynn And Others Made Contact With Russians At Least 18 Times ‹ Gronda Morin ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

Washington Post reported the Russia investigation was zeroing in on Jared Kushner. On Friday, the Post explained why that might be: Kushner reportedly proposed setting up a secret communications line between the Trump transition team and the Kremlin during a meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The Post cites “US officials briefed on intelligence reports.” Kushner is said to have wanted a secure line and suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the US in order to avoid having communications monitored.

President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser reportedly made the pitch to Kislyak during a meeting in early December at Trump Tower that Michael Flynn also attended. Despite apparently being “taken aback” by Kushner’s proposal, Kislyak reported it to Moscow. Officials learned of it from intercepts of Russian communications. The White House has declined to comment on the report. Read the full Post story here.

There is more……

There is more news on the republican President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner’s contacts with Russian operatives. It is only after there are leaks and public disclosure that Jared Kushner has admitted to these meetings. Why the deception?

Any desire to want to give a family member, Jared Kushner the benefit of the doubt in the hopes that he was at least a modifying influence on the president, has been completely diminished.

Source: Additional Data On Kushner’s Previously Undisclosed Contacts With Russian Operatives ‹ Gronda Morin ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

President Trump had only kind words for Jared Kushner in a statement issued Sunday night: “Jared is doing a great job for the country. I have total confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is working on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition to that, and perhaps more importantly, he is a very good person.” The New York Times paints a far less rosy picture of Kushner’s position in the White House in the wake of the news that Kushner allegedly tried to set up a secret communications line between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team. The latest:

  • Among the Times’ more damning lines: “In recent weeks, the Trump-Kushner relationship, the most stable partnership in an often unstable West Wing, is showing unmistakable signs of strain. … It has been duly noted in the White House that Mr. Trump … has increasingly included Mr. Kushner when he dresses down aides and officials, a rarity earlier in his administration.”
  • At the root of it: The Times reports things began to sour slightly after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, a move Kushner pushed for, but says the president’s biggest bone to pick with Kushner relates to his sister, who was filmed trying to woo Chinese investment in a Kushner Companies condo project in Jersey City by trumpeting the availability of EB-5 visas.

 

  • What’s next: In a column for the Guardian, Walter Shapiro suggests “strain” with the president is nothing compared to what’s coming due to the FBI scrutiny the White House senior adviser is now under. Kushner’s “life in the coming months and maybe years will be a study in misery,” he writes. “He will probably spend more time with his personal lawyer … than with Ivanka or his children. Whether it is an appearance under oath on Capitol Hill or the inevitable FBI interview, every sentence Kushner utters will bring with it possible legal jeopardy.”
  • “Lay low”: NBC News quotes a source who says Kushner is being advised by other officials that he “lay low” for a while.
  • Poking at him: Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California has called for Kushner to be prosecuted over omissions on his security clearance form, reports the Hill, and he poked at Kushner in a Sunday tweet: “Dear Jared: I have been told that Siberia, Russia has lovely weather this time of the year. You can backpack and back-channel all you want.”
  • Others weigh in: Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday he sees no “big issues” related to Kushner; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper took an opposite stance.

Come on….even the dullest person can see that this stuff is writing itself……even if all this turns out to be some sort of hoax…..it still would make a great episode of the “Americans”.

All this is a bit humorous because if it were anyone but Trump those nut hugging supporters would be having a stroke over these incidents….and yet they see NOTHING out of the ordinary….that is what happens when they are being tea bagged by their leader.

If you are scratching your head then I suggest that you watch an episode of the “Americans” and you will see what I mean.

I Spy

NO!  This is not a rehash of the ’60’s TV show with Bill Cosby(never was a fan of that show)……

By now every American has heard of the CIA….and the NSA….and even the ultra secret DIA…..but do you think that is all there is to the intel agencies?

If so then you would be mistaken.

There is an even a more secret agency than any of the ones you thought you knew.

Ever heard of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency?

Of course you have not…that is until now.

If you’re one of the countless Americans who was distraught to learn of the revelations made by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the mere idea that there might be yet another agency out there — perhaps just as powerful and much more intrusive —  should give you goosebumps.

Foreign Policyreports that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, is an obscure spy agency former President Barack Obama had a hard time wrapping his mind around back in 2009. But as the president grew fond of drone warfare, finding a way to launch wars without having to go through Congress for the proper authorization, the NGA also became more relevant. Now, President Donald Trump is expected to further explore the multibillion-dollar surveillance network.

Source: More Dangerous Than the NSA? The Massive Spy Agency You Haven’t Heard Of

There is so much more to our intel apparatus than what you see on cheap TV shows….and now you know a bit more than you did when you started this post.

Now do you feel safer or what?

You are welcome!