U.S. Government Employee Arrested For Attempting To Provide Classified Information To Foreign Government

The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia released the below information yesterday.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today for attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government.

Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, was arrested in northern Virginia and will make his initial court appearance tomorrow.

According to court documents, Laatsch became a civilian employee of the DIA in 2019, where he works with the Insider Threat Division and holds a Top-Secret security clearance. In March, the FBI commenced an operation after receiving a tip that an individual - now known to be Laatsch - offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government. In that email, the sender wrote that he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was therefore “willing to share classified information” to which he had access, including “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.”

After multiple communications with an FBI agent - who Laatsch allegedly believed to be an official of the foreign government - Laatsch began transcribing classified information to a notepad at his desk and, over the course of approximately three days, repeatedly exfiltrated the information from his workspace. Laatsch subsequently confirmed to the FBI agent that he was prepared to transmit the information.

The FBI implemented an operation at a public park in northern Virgina where Laatsch believed he would deposit the classified information for the foreign government to retrieve. On May 1, FBI surveillance observed Laatsch proceed to the specified location and deposit an item. Following Laatsch’s departure, the FBI retrieved the item, which was a thumb drive later found to contain a message from Laatsch and multiple typed documents, each containing information that was portion-marked up to the Secret or Top Secret levels. The message from Laatsch indicated that he had chosen to include “a decent sample size” of classified information to “decently demonstrate the range of types of products” to which he had access.

After receiving confirmation that the thumb drive had been received, on May 7, Laatsch allegedly sent a message to the FBI agent, which indicated Laatsch was seeking something from the foreign government in return for continuing to provide classified information. The next day, Laatsch specified that he was interested in “citizenship for your country” because he did not “expect things here to improve in the long term.” Although he said he was “not opposed to other compensation,” he was not in a position where he needed to seek “material compensation.”

On May 14, the FBI agent advised Laatsch that it was prepared to receive additional classified information. Between May 15 and May 27, Laatsch again repeatedly transcribed multiple pages of notes while logged into his classified workstation, folded the notes, and exfiltrated the classified information in his clothing.

On May 29, Laatsch arrived at a prearranged location in northern Virginia, where Laatsch again allegedly attempted to transmit multiple classified documents to the foreign country. Laatsch was arrested upon the FBI’s receipt of the documents.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division; Steven J. Jensen, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; and Lee M. Russ, Executive Director of Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Office of Special Projects, made the announcement.

The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Air Force OSI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorneys Christina Clark and Mark Murphy of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

A criminal complaint is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. 

The Defense Intelligence Agency Offers Compelling Podcasts to the American Public

While serving as the administrative officer and security chief of a Defense Department command in Philadelphia from 1986 to 2007, I received regular reports, briefings and training from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Now the general public can receive briefings via a podcast called "DIA Connections." The DIA stated that they plan to offer interesting, informative and sometimes overlooked content. 

You can view the first three podcasts via the below link:

https://www.defense.gov/Explore/Features/Story/Article/2299567/defense-intelligence-agency-brings-compelling-podcast-to-the-american-people/ 

Former Intelligence Officer Convicted Of Attempted Espionage Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

A former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, who pleaded guilty in March to attempting to communicate, deliver, or transmit information involving the national defense of the United States to the People’s Republic of China, will serve 10 years in federal prison.  U.S. District Judge Dee Benson imposed the sentence Tuesday afternoon in Salt Lake City.

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 60, of Syracuse, Utah, was arrested June 2, 2018, on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washington, as he was preparing to board a flight to China while in possession of SECRET military information. 

“One of three ex-US intelligence officers recently convicted of acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, Ron Rockwell Hansen received hundreds of thousands of dollars for betraying his country and former colleagues,” said Assistant Attorney General of National Security John C. Demers.  “These cases show the breadth of the Chinese government’s espionage efforts and the threat they pose to our national security.  Our intelligence professionals swear an oath to protect our country’s most closely held secrets and the National Security Division will continue to relentlessly pursue justice against those who violate this oath.”

“The Chinese government continues to attempt to identify and recruit current and former members of the United States intelligence community.  This is a very troubling trend. These individuals must remain vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity. The Hansen case is an example of what will happen to those who violate the public’s trust and risk our national security by disclosing classified information,” said U.S. Attorney John W. Huber for the District of Utah.

“Ron Hansen was willing to betray his oath and his country for financial gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Paul Haertel of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office.  "This case brings to light that not all spies are foreign adversaries.  Insider threats pose a significant national security risk, and the FBI will continue to aggressively investigate those who put our country and citizens at risk.”

Hansen retired from the U.S. Army as a Warrant Officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence.  He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian, according to court documents. Upon retiring from active duty, DIA hired Hansen as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006. Hansen held a Top Secret clearance for many years, and signed several non-disclosure agreements during his tenure at DIA and as a government contractor. 

As Hansen admitted in the plea agreement, in early 2014, agents of a Chinese intelligence service targeted him for recruitment, and he began meeting with them regularly in China.  During these meetings, the agents described to Hansen the type of information that would interest Chinese intelligence.  Hansen stipulated that during the course of his relationship with Chinese intelligence, he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for information he provided them.

Between May 24, 2016, and June 2, 2018, Hansen admitted he solicited national security information from an intelligence case officer working for the DIA.  Hansen admitted knowing that the Chinese intelligence services would find the information valuable, and he agreed to act as a conduit to sell that information to the Chinese.  He advised the DIA case officer how to record and transmit classified information without detection, and how to hide and launder any funds received as payment for classified information.  He admitted he now understands that the DIA case officer reported his conduct to the DIA and subsequently acted as a confidential human source for the FBI.

Hansen admitted meeting with the DIA case officer on June 2, 2018, and receiving individual documents containing national defense information that he had previously solicited.  The documents he received were classified. The documents included national security information related to U.S. military readiness in a particular region -- information closely held by the federal government. Hansen did not possess a security clearance nor did he possess a need to know the information contained in the materials. 

As a part of his plea agreement, Hansen admitted he reviewed the documents, queried the case officer about their contents, and took written notes which contained information determined to be classified.  He advised the DIA case officer that he would remember most of the details about the documents he received that day and would conceal notes about the material in the text of an electronic document he would prepare at the airport before leaving for China.  He admitted he intended to provide the information he received to the agents of the Chinese Intelligence Service with whom he had been meeting.  He also admitted knowing that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation.

As a part of the plea agreement, Hansen has agreed to forfeit property acquired from or traceable to his offense, including property used to facilitate the crime.

The case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert A. Lund, Karin Fojtik, Mark K. Vincent and Alicia Cook of the District of Utah, and Trial Attorneys Patrick T. Murphy, Matthew J. McKenzie and Adam L. Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.  Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington assisted with this case.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by special agents of the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. 

Former CIA Officer Sentenced To Prison for Espionage

Kevin Patrick Mallory, 62, of Leesburg, Virginia, was sentenced today to 20 years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release after being convicted under the Espionage Act for conspiracy to transmit national defense information to an agent of the People’s Republic of China.  Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III.

“Former U.S. Intelligence officer Kevin Patrick Mallory will spend the next 20 years of his life in prison for conspiring to pass national defense information to a Chinese intelligence officer,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers.  “This case is one in an alarming trend of former U.S. intelligence officers being targeted by China and betraying their country and colleagues.  This sentence, together with the recent guilty pleas of Ron Hansen in Utah and Jerry Lee in Virginia, deliver the stern message that our former intelligence officers have no business partnering with the Chinese, or any other adversarial foreign intelligence service.”

“Mallory not only put our country at great risk, but he endangered the lives of specific human assets who put their own safety at risk for our national defense,” said. U.S. Attorney Terwilliger.  “There are few crimes in this country more serious than espionage, and this office has a long history of holding accountable those who betray our country.  As the Chinese continue to attempt to identify and recruit current and former members of the United States intelligence community, those individuals should remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the appropriate security officials.  This case should send a message to anyone considering violating the public’s trust and compromising our national security by disclosing classified information.  We will remain steadfast and dogged in pursuit of these challenging but critical national security cases.”

“U.S. Government employees are trusted to keep the nation's secrets safe,” said Assistant Director in Charge McNamara, “and this case shows the violation of that trust and duty will not be accepted.  The targeting of former U.S. security clearance holders by foreign intelligence services is a constant threat we face, and the FBI will continue to preserve and combat these threats head on.  I would like to thank the men and women of the FBI, and our counterparts at the Department of Justice, for their years of hard work to investigate and prosecute this case.”

Mallory was found guilty by a federal jury in June 2018 of conspiracy to deliver, attempted delivery, delivery of national defense information to aid a foreign government and making material false statements.  The district court subsequently ordered acquittal as to the delivery and attempted delivery of national defense information counts due to lack of venue.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, in March and April 2017, Mallory, a former U.S. intelligence officer, travelled to Shanghai to meet with an individual, Michael Yang, who held himself out as a People’s Republic of China think tank employee, but whom Mallory assessed to be a Chinese Intelligence Officer.

Mallory, a United States citizen who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, consented to an FBI review of a covert communications (covcom) device he had been given by Yang to facilitate covert communications between the two.  Analysis of the device, which was a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, revealed a number of communications in which Mallory and Yang talked about classified information that Mallory could sell to the PRC’s intelligence service.  FBI analysts were able to determine that Mallory had completed all of the steps necessary to securely transmit at least five classified U.S. government documents via the covcom device, one of which contained unique identifiers for human sources who had helped the United States government.  At least two of the documents were successfully transmitted, and Mallory and Yang communicated about those two documents on the covcom device.

Evidence presented at trial included surveillance video from a FedEx store in Leesburg where Mallory could be seen scanning documents classified at the Secret and Top Secret level onto a micro SD card.  Though Mallory paid to have the paper copies of the eight documents shredded, FBI agents found a carefully concealed SD card containing those documents during a search of Mallory’s home, the day of his June 22, 2017 arrest.  A recording was played at trial from June 24, 2017, where Mallory could be heard on a call from the jail asking his family to search for the hidden SD card.

Mallory has held numerous positions with various government agencies and several defense contractors, including working as a covert case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).  As required for his various government positions, Mallory obtained a Top Secret security clearance, which was active during various assignments during his career.  Mallory’s security clearance was terminated in October 2012 when he left government service.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys John T. Gibbs and Colleen E. Garcia, and Trial Attorneys Jennifer Kennedy Gellie and Evan Turgeon of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case. 

Former Defense Intelligence Officer Pleads Guilty To Attempted Espionage

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a resident of Syracuse, Utah, and a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, pleaded guilty today in the District of Utah in connection with his attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic of China.  Sentencing is set for Sept. 24, 2019. 

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney John Huber for the District of Utah and Special Agent in Charge Paul Haertel of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office announced the charges.

Hansen retired from the U.S. Army as a Warrant Officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence.  He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian.  DIA hired Hansen as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006.  Hansen held a Top Secret clearance for many years, and signed several non-disclosure agreements during his tenure at DIA and as a government contractor.

As Hansen admitted in the plea agreement, in early 2014, agents of a Chinese intelligence service targeted Hansen for recruitment and he began meeting with them regularly in China.  During those meetings, the Chinese agents described to Hansen the type of information that would interest the Chinese intelligence service.  During the course of his relationship with the agents of the Chinese intelligence service, Hansen received hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for information he provided them, including information he gathered at various industry conferences.  Between May 24, 2016 and June 2, 2018, Hansen solicited from an intelligence case officer working for the DIA national defense information that Hansen knew the Chinese intelligence service would find valuable.  Hansen agreed to act as a conduit to sell that information to the Chinese.  Hansen advised the DIA case officer how to record and transmit classified information without detection, and explained how to hide and launder any funds received as payment for classified information.  The DIA case officer reported Hansen’s conduct to the DIA and subsequently acted as a confidential human source for the FBI.

As Hansen further admitted in the plea agreement, Hansen met with the DIA case officer on June 2, 2018, and received from that individual documents containing national defense information that Hansen previously solicited.  The documents Hansen received were classified. The information in the documents related to the national defense of the United States in that it related to United States military readiness in a particular region and was closely held by the United States government.  Hansen reviewed the documents, queried the DIA case officer about their contents, and took written notes about the materials relating to the national defense information.  Hansen advised the DIA case officer that he would remember most of the details about the documents he received that day and would conceal some notes about the material in the text of an electronic document that Hansen would prepare at the airport before leaving for China.  Hansen intended to provide the information he received to the agents of the Chinese intelligence service with whom he had been meeting, and Hansen knew that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of a foreign nation.

Hansen pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government.  The plea agreement calls for an agreed-upon sentence of 15 years.

Special agents of the FBI, IRS, U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, U.S. Army Counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency were involved in the investigation. 

The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert A. Lund, Karin Fojtik, Mark K. Vincent and Alicia Cook of the District of Utah, and Trial Attorneys Patrick T. Murphy, Matthew J. McKenzie and Adam L. Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.  Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington assisted with this case.

Defense Intelligence Agency Bringing Forewarning Into 21st Century

Jim Garamone at the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2018 — The adage “forewarned is forearmed” has entered the digital era at the Defense Intelligence Agency, as leaders, collectors and analysts there seek to adapt to the changing security and technological world, the agency’s director said at the Defense One Tech Summit here today.

DIA has the mission of compiling information and intelligence on foreign militaries and the operational environment the American military will confront, Army Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr. told Defense One editor Patrick Tucker.

The agency is in the business of giving leaders strategic warning. “What are the emerging technologies that are coming out that we need to be thinking about?” Ashley said. “The other part of that is to inform the decision-makers and what they have to build to counter them.”

Hypersonics, anti-satellite capabilities, and sophisticated ground, sea, air capabilities must be countered, and the agency looks to gather information and intelligence on them Ashley said. The general talks often about analytic modernization. This concept deals with data. “How do we deal with big data? How do we deal with the wealth of information that is out there and available?” he said.

So much information is available that it is difficult for humans to digest it all, he pointed out. “One of the things we are working on now are analytic data teams,” he said. “How do we take a traditional analyst and link him up with a data scientist?” Ashley said he sees the job of an analyst morphing into that of a political scientist and data scientist in the future.

Growth of Space Domain

The agency is broadening its collection to deal with the new military domain of space. Ashley said he sees the domain growing over the next decade. “If you look to the National Defense Strategy, the central problem that it seeks to solve is [that] the technological gap that we have had the lead on is slowly collapsing,” the general said. “The goal is to maintain primacy and a leading role.”

Since 2001, the only domain the American military has been challenged on is the land domain, through improvised explosive devices and combat in cities. American dominance in the sea, air, cyber and space domains was not seriously contested by terror groups. “The re-emergence of great power competition – Russia and China – you start seeing a closing gap in all domains, and they are being contested,” he said.

Military capabilities to interdict satellites both in space and on the ground is possible, the general said. “In the warfighting doctrine, you have to account for the resilience you build into the domains, you have to build in redundancy, and in some cases, if it is degraded or denied, how do you fight in that realm?” Ashley said.

Reflexive Control

The general also discussed a concept current in the agency with regard to Russia – reflexive control – and it deals with hybrid warfare. The Russians use this to intimidate, coerce and scare nations into doing what is in Russia’s best interests. Ashley said the concept is an outgrowth of Soviet doctrine that the Russians continued to work on after the brea-up of the Soviet Union.

“Reflexive control is information operations [conducted] in such a way to drive you toward a decision or outcome that you think is yours,” he said. “[The Russians)]seed the information in such a way to drive you toward that decision.”

Identifying this is tough, the general said, using Russian involvement in Western elections as an example. “What’s happening now is you have a great deal of sensitivity across the European nations – they are actually looking for [reflexive control]. They are looking for those themes to ensure they will be able to put the truth out and counter to that.”  

Former Defense Intelligence Officer Arrested For Attempted Espionage

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a resident of Syracuse, Utah, and a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, was arrested Saturday afternoon on federal charges including the attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic of China.  The FBI agents took Hansen into custody while he was on his way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle to board a connecting flight to China.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney John Huber for the District of Utah, and Special Agent in Charge Eric Barnhart of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office announced the charges.

“Ron Rockwell Hansen is a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who allegedly attempted to transmit national defense information to the People's Republic of China's intelligence service (PRCIS) and also allegedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars while illegally acting as an agent of China,” said Assistant Attorney General Demers.  “His alleged actions are a betrayal of our nation's security and the American people and are an affront to his former intelligence community colleagues.  Our intelligence professionals swear an oath to protect our country’s most closely held secrets and the National Security Division will continue to relentlessly pursue justice against those who violate this oath.”

“These allegations are very troubling in their description of conduct that runs contrary to how we identify ourselves as Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Huber.  “On the other hand, revealed details of this lengthy investigation reflect effective performance and dedication on the part of the men and women of the FBI and their partners.”

“The allegations in this complaint are grave as it appears Mr. Hansen engaged in behavior that betrayed his oath and his country,” said Special Agent in Charge Barnhart.  “This case drives home the troubling reality of insider threats and that current and former clearance holders will be targeted by our adversaries.  The FBI will aggressively investigate individuals who put our national security at risk.”

Hansen will have an initial appearance Monday, at 5 p.m. EDT in U.S. District Court in Seattle.  He is charged in a 15-count complaint, signed by Chief Federal Magistrate Judge Paul M. Warner in Utah Saturday, with attempting to gather or deliver national defense information to aid a foreign government.  The complaint also charges Hansen with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for China, bulk cash smuggling, structuring monetary transactions and smuggling goods from the United States.  

According to court documents:

Hansen retired from the U.S. Army as a Warrant Officer with a background in signals intelligence and human intelligence.  He speaks fluent Mandarin-Chinese and Russian.  DIA hired Hansen as a civilian intelligence case officer in 2006.  Hansen held a Top Secret clearance for many years, and signed several non-disclosure agreements during his tenure at DIA and as a government contractor.

Between 2013 and 2017, Hansen regularly traveled between the United States and China, attending military and intelligence conferences in the U.S. and provided the information he learned at the conferences to contacts in China associated with the PRCIS.  Hansen received payments for this information by a variety of methods, including cash, wires and credit card transactions.  He also improperly sold export-controlled technology to persons in China.  From May of 2013 to the date of the complaint, Hansen received not less than $800,000 in funds originating from China.

In addition, Hansen repeatedly attempted to regain access to classified information after he stopped working on behalf of the U.S. Government.  Hansen’s alerting behavior ultimately resulted in the participation of a law enforcement source from whom Hansen solicited classified information.  Hansen disclosed to the source his ongoing contact with the PRCIS, including in-person meetings with intelligence officers during his trips to China.  Hansen told the source the types of information his contacts in China were interested in and discussed working with the source to provide such information to the PRCIS.  Hansen suggested he and the source would be handsomely paid.    

Complaints are not findings of guilt.  An individual charged in a complaint is presumed innocent unless or until convicted of the crimes in court. Hansen faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, if convicted of attempted espionage.  The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the assigned judge.

Special agents of the FBI, IRS, U.S Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, U.S. Army Counterintelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency are involved in the investigation.  U.S. Army Counterintelligence, the FBI Seattle Division, the IRS, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the Weber County Sheriff’s Office assisted in law enforcement operations Saturday in Utah and Seattle.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert A. Lund, Mark K. Vincent and Karin Fojtik of the District of Utah, and Trial Attorneys Patrick T. Murphy and Adam L. Small of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.  Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington assisted with this case.

Defense Intelligence Agency Report: Russia, China Undermining U.S.

Veteran national security reporter Bill Gertz offers a piece at the Washington Times on the Defense Intelligence Agency’s report that Russia and China are actively undermining America. 

Russia and China are working against the United States around the world, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report.

“Moscow and Beijing share a common interest in weakening U.S. global influence and are actively cooperating in that regard,” the DIA’s first annual report on Russian military power says.

The military intelligence agency stated in the report made public last month that defense cooperation between Russia and China is slowly expanding along with economic ties. Russian officials, according to the report, frequently praise Russia’s ties with China, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Beijing-Moscow ties are the closest in a decade.

“In fact, the Russian National Security Strategy lists developing a strategic partnership with China as one of Russia’s most important goals,” the report said.

... The report did not provide details of the growing military ties. But a separate report published in March by the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission reveals that the closer ties include increasingly complex Russia-China military exercises and sales of advanced weapons. That report warns that the joint cooperation has important strategic implications for American security interests in Asia.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/12/inside-the-ring-russia-china-undermining-us/ 

There is No Substitue For American Power: Spy General Unloads On Obama

Kimberly Dozier at the dailybeast.com offers a piece on the brilliant military intelligence officer who was reportedly forced into early retired by the Obama administration because he didn't toe the official administration line.

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency slammed the Obama administration on Monday as “well intentioned” but paralyzed and playing defense in its the fight against Islamic militancy. 

Recently retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn called for the U.S. to lead the charge in a sweeping, decades-long campaign against the Islamic State group, al Qaeda, and its ilk—a fight like the one against the former Soviet Union—against a new enemy he said is  “committed to the destruction of freedom and the American way of life.”

“There is no substitute, none, for American power,” the general said, to occasional cheers and ultimately a standing ovation from a crowd of special operators and intelligence officers at a Washington industry conference.

He also slammed the administration for refusing to use the term “Islamic militants” in its description of ISIS and al Qaeda.

“You cannot defeat an enemy you do not admit exists,” Flynn said.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/27/ex-pentagon-spy-chief-blasts-white-house-paralyzed-by-radical-islam.html

New Revelations About Cuban Spy Ana Montes

Brian Latell, author of Castro's Secrets: Cuban Intelligence, the CIA, and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, offers new revelations about convicted Cuban spy Ava Montes in a piece for the Miami Herald.

For 16 years, Ana Belen Montes spied for Cuba from increasingly responsible positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency. If Havana has ever run a higher level or more valuable mole inside the American defense establishment, that has never been revealed.

When she was arrested in late September 2001, Montes was about the equivalent in rank of a colonel. She had access to sensitive compartmented intelligence. Strangely, for one so openly enamored of Fidel Castro, her superiors considered her one of the best Cuba analysts anywhere in government.
Despite the importance of her case, some of the most tantalizing questions about her spying have never been publicly answered.

Could the calamity of her treason have been avoided? What was learned about Cuban intelligence tradecraft? How was she discovered? And, of enduring concern, did she work with other American spies thus far undetected or not prosecuted?
    
Thanks to researcher Jeffrey Richelson and the National Security Archive, new light has finally been shed on the Montes case. Because of their efforts, a 180 page study completed by the Department of Defense Inspector General in 2005 has recently been declassified. It is heavily redacted; many pages, including the CIA’s extensive comments, blacked out. Yet, a quantity of surprising new details are now on the public record.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/02/4267428/new-revelations-about-cuban-spy.html

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Scott Carmichael's book on Montes, called True Believer: Inside the Investigation and Capture of  Ana Montes,Cuba's Master Spy via the below links:

 http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/TrueBSpyReview1JPG.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/TrueBSpyReview2JPG.jpg 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/02/4267428/new-revelations-about-cuban-spy.html#storylink=cpy

George Washington: More Than A General And A President, He Was America's First Intelligence Chief

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) offers a piece on George Washington's contributions to America's intelligence history.

Not only was George Washington the first president of the United States, he was also America’s first intelligence chief. During the revolutionary war, Washington spent more than 10 percent of military funding on intelligence-related activities. These activities included managing individual spies, running spy rings, and establishing special units for the collection of military intelligence.

Washington himself established agent networks in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

In the early years of the war, Washington personally supervised the recruitment, training, and running of intelligence agents. The Culper Ring, established in the summer of 1778 in New York and made up of about 20 people, was the most sophisticated of Washington's agent networks, using aliases, coded writing, dead drops and other tradecraft.  

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.dia.mil/News/Articles/tabid/3092/Article/8690/george-washington-more-than-a-general-and-a-president.aspx

You can also read an earlier post on the AMC series Turn, which dramatizes Washington's Culper spy ring via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/01/amcs-turn-tells-revolutionary-wars-real.html

Changing World Challenges U.S. Intelligence Community

Claudette Roulo at the American Forces Press Service offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2013 - In the past, intelligence personnel wouldn't be found participating in open forums, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said yesterday at a Brookings Institution discussion on defense intelligence.

"I think that's a sign of the times for the kinds of things that we are involved in, particularly ... [in] this open world," Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn said. "There's so much transparency going on between the intelligence community and all others, and there has to be. There has to be more of it."

The immense volume of open source information has increased commanders' intelligence needs and changed what sources they use, he said. Ten or 15 years ago, intelligence briefings were primarily composed of what is traditionally thought of as intelligence -- human intelligence, signals intelligence, imagery intelligence -- with a little bit of open source information thrown in.

"Today, it's almost 180 degrees flipped," Flynn said. "The open world -- and the knowledge that exists and is available to all of us at the push of a button -- [is] really smart. This is some really smart analysis that's out there that's being written by people that are on the ground, seeing it for how it is."

Whether that information is posted on a blog or on Twitter, he said, "We cannot sit idle ... and not pay attention to that."

Freely accessible information is just one of the two driving factors behind today's intelligence imperatives, Flynn said.

The international fiscal situation is forcing intelligence agencies to evaluate their priorities, including how they collaborate and how they invest in current capabilities versus the next generation of ideas and capabilities, he said.

Four "mega-trends" influence these factors: economic, resources, information and population, the general said. "For the most part ... these are trends that we can judge pretty accurately," he noted.

Of these four mega-trends, the rapid changes over the past 100 years in information and population trends are having the most impact, Flynn said.

Those changes were "stunning," the general said, and the world hasn't yet come to grips with many of them despite already being nearly 15 years into the 21st century.

Flynn said that about half of DIA personnel are working on the "edge" of the enterprise -- in combatant commands and forward environments -- and for him, the question is how to leverage those resources. "How do we make the edge the center?" he asked.

It's important to understand what is happening at the edge, he said, and to make it the place where the best, most relevant and most timely knowledge can be gained. "Then you bring it back to help shape the conversations that are happening [in Washington, D.C.]," Flynn added.

The general said he expects that the nation's need for special operations forces, cyber capabilities and intelligence will only increase in the coming years.

Special operations forces will not only continue their counterterrorism mission, but will become increasingly involved in foreign internal defense operations and building the capacity of partner nations, he said.

In some defense communities there's still a belief that cyber is a function of intelligence, or that intelligence and cyber are the same, but that isn't at all the case, Flynn said.

"Cyber is a capability that allows us to understand an operational environment far better," he said. "It allows us to see each other. It allows us to communicate. It allows us to defend. It allows us to exploit. It allows so many other things."

And whenever possible, Flynn said, the United States' cyber capabilities should be used to help partner nations.

"I think there's a tendency to think [cyber] is all about war fighting or some negative," he said, "and we have to look at it as how it can be turned into a positive."

For the intelligence community to succeed, it must be agile and integrated with other agencies and partners, Flynn said, and it must have a firm grasp of the operational environment.

That includes developing an understanding of social issues, he said.

"Some of the regions that are out there in the world are facing extraordinary challenges, and we have to have a much deeper operational understanding of that. That means understanding the culture, understanding just the humanity that's out there," the general said.

"I think the last key to success is about technology," he said, "but it's not to lose sight of the human being in the loop."

If intelligence's role is to provide the kind of information leaders need to be able to make better decisions, the intelligence community must not let itself be pulled along by technology, Flynn said.