…or is it the Russians? The popular FX series premieres episode one of season four on Wednesday. (March 16th). In case you’re not already read in on the cold-war drama, prepare to be taken back to 1980s Virginia and into the household of Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, a seemingly normal American couple who are actually…
Category: Intelligence Tradecraft
Espionage Files: Spy vs Spies: Why Deciphering Putin is So Hard for U.S. Intelligence
American intelligence officers are trained to tackle tough targets. But there are tough targets, and then there’s Russian President Vladimir Putin, who plays his cards so closely that it’s hard for his own advisers to divine what he’s thinking, says Gregory Treverton, chairman of the National Intelligence Council. “Putin is so isolated that the chances…
Espionage Files: Israel’s Intel Wars
On January 12, the spokesman of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) announced the resignation of Brig. Gen. Eli Ben-Meiras head of the Research Division due to differences of opinion with the chief of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi. According to several prominent Israeli media channels, the dispute revolved around disagreement on…
Espionage Files: Time for a New CIA?
By John Sipher of the Cipher Brief Across the Central Intelligence Agency lobby from the iconic stars memorializing officers killed in the line of duty is a less well-known memorial. It is an understated relief in honor of those foreign spies who risked and lost their lives to provide secret information to the United States. …
Is Putin Really Dr. Moriarty?
An excellent article on understanding how Russian Hybrid Warfare manipulates the current geo-political spectrum. -SF We know ISIS is bad because it killed people in San Bernardino and Paris. We know Iran is bad because it’s still developing nuclear weapons. We know Russia is bad…because…well, didn’t Charlie Rose once say something about that? Or was…
The Espionage Files: The “Spider” James Jesus Angleton
Long before Game of Thrones dubbed its spymaster The Spider, James Jesus Angleton earned that name. His internal witch hunts still leave us wondering—madman, genius, or both? “Mr. Dickey? This is Jim Angleton.” I looked at the phone. I wasn’t sure what to say. This was 1978. I was a 26-year-old reporter on the Metro…
Espionage Files: European Companies Sold Spy Tech to a Secret Egyptian Intelligence Unit Amid Brutal Repression
When pro-democracy Egyptian protestors succeeded in ending the authoritarian rule of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, they would soon reap an unexpected double-coup. The following month reports claimed that the much-feared Egypt’s State Security Investigations Service (SSI) had been shuttered. A powerful symbol of state repression was no longer. Or so it seemed. Amid the flux…
Espionage Files: Navy Engineer with Secret Clearance Indicted After Iranian Passports and Illegal Money Found
Well it appears the Iranians are hard at work trying to place people in sensitive positions to spy on us. Wonder how many other yet undiscovered turd “moles” are floating around in the punch bowl? -SF A US Navy electrical engineer who works in the Washington D.C. Navy Yard for the Naval Sea Systems Command…
Your Next “Recon” Drone
Something to put on your “Man Toys” list. Never know when you might need some aerial surveillance of something or someone, and the best part is you can own it off the books. -SF The palm-sized ONAGOfly is an affordable GPS-enabled drone that automatically takes photos using smile and obstacle recognition technology. Normally the Federal…
Espionage Files: Richard Sakakida Spied on the Imperial Japanese Right Under Their Noses
The Nisei war hero endured torture and near-starvation, yet passed valuable intelligence to the U.S. Army It was 1942, not long after the fall of the American stronghold of Corregidor that guarded Manila Bay in The Philippines. U.S. Army Sgt. Richard Sakakida was in the hands of the dreaded Kempeitai, the Imperial Japanese military…