On This Day In History: Che Guevara Is Executed In Bolivia

As History.com notes, it was on this day in 1967 that communist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara was executed in Bolivia.

You can read about the event via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/che-guevara-is-executed?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-1009-10092016&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=97137515&kx_EmailCampaignID=7474&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-1009-10092016&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa%20&os_ehash=44@experian:de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the hunt for Che Guevara via the below link:

 http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/my-piece-on-look-back-at-hunt-and.html

Breaking Bad: Bryan Cranston's Inner Killer Helped Him Create Walter White

My wife and I recently finished watching all five seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix.

We thought this clever and unpredictable TV series was one of the best we've ever seen. Bryan Cranston was quite brilliant in the role of a high school chemistry teacher who turned into a criminal meth kingpin.

From Mr. Chips to Scarface, is how Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan described the series.

So I was interested in reading Larry Getlen's piece in the New York Post on Bryan Cranston and his new book, A Life in Parts.

The woman screamed for her life, but Bryan Cranston says he couldn’t hear her as he repeatedly slammed her head into the brick wall, in retaliation for stalking him around the country and threatening him with death.

“I was surprisingly calm,” he reveals in his candid new memoir, “A Life In Parts” (Scribner, out Tues.). “Clumps of hair and bits of skin and brain matter stuck to the brick. Blood formed on the wall and then began dribbling to the floor. The screaming had stopped, of course.”

Before you remove “Breaking Bad” from your Netflix queue in disgust, know that this scene didn’t actually happen. Cranston imagined committing the murder while his “stalker” ex-girlfriend, who had allegedly threatened his life, banged on his front door in 1983. Cranston, then in his mid-20s, curled against the wall, paralyzed with fear, and slipped into a fantasy so lifelike he thought it was real — a feeling he later called upon to find the darkness in his most iconic character, Walter White.

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

http://nypost.com/2016/10/09/how-bryan-cranston-learned-he-was-capable-of-anything/

U.S. Navy Satellite Photo Of Hurricane Matthew

The U.S. Navy released a GOES-13 satellite image of Hurricane Matthew along the Florida coastline. 

At 500 AM EDT (0900 UTC), the eye of Matthew was located near latitude 28.2 North, longitude 80.0 West. It is moving toward the north-northwest near 13 mph (20 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue today. 

A turn toward the north is expected tonight or Saturday. On the forecast track, the center of Matthew will be moving near or over the east coast of the Florida peninsula through tonight, and near or over the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina on Saturday. 

Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph (195 km/h) with higher gusts. Matthew is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Although weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours, Matthew is expected to be a category 3 hurricane as it moves near the coast of Florida today. 

Note: You can click on the photo to enlarge.

On This Day In History: The First U.S. Train Robbery

As History.com notes, on this in 1886 the first robbery of a moving U.S. train robbery occurred.

You can read about the train robbery and watch a short video via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-u-s-train-robbery?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-1006-10062016&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=96305522&kx_EmailCampaignID=7461&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-1006-10062016&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa 

John Le Carre's 'The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life'

Muriel Dobbin offers a review in the Washington Times of John le Carre's The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories From My Life.

John le Carre has led an enviable life roaming the secret world of spies and becoming famous by writing about it all.

In this delightful potpourri of a biography he has injected the large and small secrets discreetly left out in his classic espionage work. His global wanderings for British intelligence put him in contact not only with the Russian KGB and British prime ministers but theatrical luminaries such as the great Alec Guinness and Richard Burton. Among the most fascinating and chilling vignettes in the book is Mr. le Carre’s account of being a confidante of Nicholas Elliott, s British veteran agent who was one of the few who knew what can only be termed the terrible truth about Kim Philby — the most contemptible of English traitors who sent many to their deaths for the Russians and escaped unscathed for the incredible reason that he fit so well into the British class system he was considered “one of us.”

Mr. le Carre gives generous credit to another author, Ben MacIntyre of the Times of London, noting that his recent book “A Spy Among Friends” should be acclaimed for its brutal candor not only about Philby but about Elliott, who was one of the unashamed British cadre who allowed a traitor to escape to a dull but safe life in Moscow. These silken smooth memoirs are the backdrop for what the author does not include in his best-read books, and it is a glimpse into a world that combined both privilege and irony. There is an enchanting glimpse of the humor of Alec Guinness at a sophisticated lunch party where one of the guests is dressed gaudily in orange and green. Guinness reacts by chuckling, “Oh, you came as a frog!”

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

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/5/book-review-the-pigeon-tunnel/

On This In History: Washington Informs Congress Of Espionage

As History.com notes, on this day in 1775 General George Washington informed Congress that Dr Benjamin Church was committing espionage with the British.

You can read about the incident via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/washington-informs-congress-of-espionage?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-1005-10052016&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=96135571&kx_EmailCampaignID=7437&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-1005-10052016&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa 

Maryland Man Charged With Removal Of Classified Materials And Theft of Government Property

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

A criminal complaint has been filed charging Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, with theft of government property and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials by a government employee or contractor.   

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office made the announcement today.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Martin was a contractor with the federal government and had a top secret national security clearance. Martin was arrested late on Aug. 27, 2016. The complaint was filed on Aug. 29, 2016 and unsealed today.

On Aug. 27, 2016, search warrants were executed at Martin’s residence in Glen Burnie, Maryland, including two storage sheds, as well as upon his vehicle and person. During execution of the warrants, investigators located hard-copy documents and digital information stored on various devices and removable digital media. A large percentage of the materials recovered from Martin’s residence and vehicle bore markings indicating that they were property of the U.S. government and contained highly classified information, including Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). In addition, investigators located property of the U.S. government with an aggregate value in excess of $1,000, which Martin allegedly stole.

The complaint alleges that among the classified documents found in the search were six classified documents obtained from sensitive intelligence and produced by a government agency in 2014. These documents were produced through sensitive government sources, methods and capabilities, which are critical to a wide variety of national security issues. The disclosure of the documents would reveal those sensitive sources, methods and capabilities.

The documents have been reviewed by a person designated as an original classification authority, and in each instance, the authority has determined that the documents are currently and properly classified as Top Secret, meaning that unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the U.S.

If convicted, Martin faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials and ten years in prison for theft of government property. An initial appearance was held for Martin in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Aug. 29, 2016. Martin remains detained.

A criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings. 

Assistant Attorney General Carlin and U.S. Attorney Rosenstein commended the FBI for its work in the investigation and thanked the Maryland State Police for its assistance. Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Carlin thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary A. Myers and Harvey E. Eisenberg, and Trial Attorney David Aaron of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, who are prosecuting the case.