CIA case officers are sometimes recognized for their covert and often dangerous work overseas. The House of Representatives recently named a post office in upstate New York for officer Gregg Wenzel, who died in a car accident in Ethiopia in 2003 while under cover. Rep. Nan Hayworth of Ny said, "When a man has given his life, as Gregg David Wenzel did, to protect our American liberties, honoring him through the tradition of naming a post office for his extraordinary service to our country is both fitting and inspiring."
The US Post Office facility is located in Monroe, New York, and is officially designated to be the "National Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency NCS Officer Gregg David Wenzel Memorial Post Office".
Wenzel was a ten-time marathon runner and finisher, three-time Ironman finisher as well as a world traveler. He was affiliated with many organizations, some of which include Chabad, the University of Miami Masters Swimming, The Florida Bar Speakers Bureau, The Florida State and Federal Bar (Southern District), FACDL, Dade County Bar Association (Young Lawyer's Division), Civil Litigation Committee (DCBA), Miami Runners Club and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training.
At the time of his death, Wenzel was 33 years old, he was employed as a clandestine CIA officer and was stationed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia until he was killed in a tragic car accident on July 9, 2003. To this day, the drunken driver remains a fugitive. Six years after his death in Ethiopa, on June 1, 2009 the CIA uncovered Gregg's true identity as a clandestine services officer. His obituaries said that he was a "U.S. Foreign Service officer" killed by a drunken driver on the streets of Addis Ababa. The State Department job was a cover for his real occupation: CIA spy. It was CIA Director Leon Panetta who revealed Wenzel's true identity during a ceremony commemorating those who died in the line of duty. Panetta also revealed that Wenzel was a member of the first clandestine service class to graduate after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Wenzel represented the spectacular class of young Americans who joined the CIA after 9/11. He left his job as an attorney to join the agency, thus sacrificing a career in which he could have accumulated a higher salary and financial well-being...for his love of America and patriotism. There are now 90 stars prominently displayed on the memorial wall in the spacious atrium of CIA headquarters, each commemorating an officer, like Wenzel, who died while serving the country.
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Class 11 was the CIA's first post-9/11 Spy Class. It turned out to be the most elite and secretive espionage training program in the country. Most likely, T. J. Waters, author of Class 11, was a classmate of Wenzel, and joined for the same reason. In the weeks following the 9/11 attacks, the Central Intelligence Agency received over 150,000 resumés from people wanting to serve their nation as spies. More than one hundred students were admitted to the CIA's Clandestine Service to become Class 11, the first post-9/11 CIA training class. It was the largest and most diverse class in the agency's history.
The 90th star was added recently, but as with most of the victims, the person's name and nature of service will remain unknown to the public so as not to compromise secret operations.
Wenzel leaves behind his parents Gladys and Mitchell, his sister Maura and her husband and his nephews Michael and Joshua and niece Jessica, his uncle Joe and his cousins Allison, Philip and Julie, and many friends. His memory will be instilled in the many lives he inspired and touched with his positive attitude and motivation toward life.
Robert Morton, Ed., Ed.S. is a member of the Association Of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). A portion (10%) of this site's ad revenues is donated to the AFIO. The views expressed on this site do not represent those of any organization he is a member of. OSINT News is always looking for different perspectives regarding the Intelligence Community- got a thought, article or comment you'd like to submit? Contact us on the Secure Contact Form
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Israel's Mossad sent assassins into Iran in order to sabotage the nuclear program. Israeli operatives have killed at least
four Iranian nuclear scientists, including targeting them with operatives on motorcycles, an assassination technique used by the Israeli spy service. This conclusion comes from two highly-reliable sources: authors Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, who wrote the book "Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars".
The book describes how Mossad agents are deft at extremely accurate shooting at any speed and staying steady to shoot and to place exquisitely shaped sticky bombs onto cars. "That is their hallmark", Raviv said during an interview.
The Mossad assassinations are part of a series of regular missions deep inside Iran, intended to keep Tehran from developing weapons and following through with threats by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map. U.S. officials have said in the past that they were not involved, and they don't know who did it.
The U.S. and Israel accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies. Iran has long blamed the scientists' killings on Israel, which has remained silent on the matter, but media reports speculated Israel had contracted killers to do the job.
"They don't farm out a mission that is that sensitive, so sensitive that Israel's prime minister has to sign off on it personally", Raviv said. "They might use dissidents for assistance or logistics but not the hit itself. The methodology and training and use of motorcycles is all out of the Mossad playbook. They wouldn't trust anybody else to do it."
The Mossad operatives enter and exit Iran through a "multitude" of routes, using a series of safe houses once inside the country that predate the 1979 revolution, the authors said. During an interview, co-author Melman said Israel believes the campaign successfully disrupted Iran's nuclear program not only by taking out key scientists but also dissuading other up-and-coming scholars from joining the program.
Raviv is a CBS News correspondent, and Melman is a well-known Israeli reporter and commentator. Israel has told the Obama administration that it expects American military power to "obliterate" Iran's nuclear program, the authors said. If the U.S. does not act, Israel has threatened to attack Iran's nuclear sites on its own. The U.S. prefers the carrot-and-stick approach of talks aimed at convincing Iran to stick to a peaceful nuclear regime, combined with increasingly harsh financial sanctions to punish Iran as it improves its current program.
The US and Israel have cooperated on the harassment campaign, including partnering on cyber programs like Stuxnet, malware credited with damaging the control panel on centrifuges in Iran's nuclear plant.
Melman said the cyber campaign was an Israeli innovation, not an American one as recently reported. It was the brainchild of Israel's military intelligence agency Aman and Unit 8200 – Israel's equivalent of the eavesdropping, code-breaking National Security Agency – and endorsed by the White House at Israel's suggestion, he added.
Israel's cyber warriors then worked with NSA to build malware. The program Flame was built first – a Trojan horse code designed to penetrate the Iranian nuclear sites and "suck information about the (uranium-enriching) centrifuges and how they operate," Melman said. Once the Israeli and U.S. cyber experts got that information, they were able to build Stuxnet.
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Mossad was created in 1951 to ensure an embattled Israel's future, the Mossad has been responsible for the most audacious and thrilling feats of espionage, counterterrorism, and assassination ever ventured. OSINT News believes that, when any nation is bordered by countries wishing to eliminate every man, woman, and child residing within, intelligence agencies like Mossad are creations well-worth their existence.
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Robert Morton, Ed., Ed.S. is a member of the Association Of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). A portion (10%) of this site's ad revenues is donated to the AFIO. The views expressed on this site do not represent those of any organization he is a member of. OSINT News is always looking for different perspectives regarding the Intelligence Community- got a thought, article or comment you'd like to submit? Contact us on the Secure Contact Form
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The Director of National Intelligence issued a May 2012 directive that is intended to improve foreign language skills throughout the U.S. intelligence community. It notes, "Foreign language capabilities are essential to the performance of intelligence missions and operations."
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This directive is nothing new, since Leon Panetta stated, three years ago, that his goal as CIA Director was to double the number of analysts and collectors who are proficient in languages, particularly those that are mission critical; increase by 50% the number of people with the right language skills serving in language-use positions; transform the way CIA trains its officers in foreign language capability; increase the number of officers in full-time language training; increase the number of officers from the National Clandestine Service in full-time training by 50%; triple the number of analysts from the Directorate of Intelligence in full-time training; and recruit and retain new officers who have critical language skills. 
Foreign language competence for intelligence purposes extends well beyond mastery of a common vocabulary or the ability to translate a newspaper article.
"Foreign language capabilities include a broad range of
language proficiency skills and other abilities, such as cultural awareness and understanding, regional expertise, skill in translation and interpretation, and knowledge of the scientific and technical vocabularies of critical foreign languages," the directive says.
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Not surprisingly, shortfalls in foreign language abilities are a recurring problem in U.S. intelligence agencies, for less than 20 percent of Americans speak at least two languages. And, the Intelligence Community must find, among that population, its multilingual recruits from a much smaller pool of candidates who are willing and able to serve.
Leon Panetta‘s language goals, mentioned above, are critical for our national security efforts, since a major constraint on HUMINT collection is the availability of personnel trained in appropriate languages. Cold War efforts required a supply of linguists in a relatively finite set of foreign languages, but the intelligence community now needs experts in a wider range of more obscure languages and dialects," wrote CRS specialist Richard A. Best, Jr. last year. OSINT News agrees. After all, al Qaeda functions in 60 different countries around the globe!
The CIA has aimed to boost its ranks of foreign language speakers, with a special focus on recruiting speakers of Arabic, Mandarin (Chinese), Dari, Korean, Pashto, Farsi (Persian), Russian, Dari, and Urdu. The clandestine services refer to these as "mission critical" languages. If you are in high school or college and are interested in working for the Intelligence Community (IC), learn one or more of these languages! Why? Because they reflect the current world's political and military "hot spots". Fluency in these tongues are especially important if you're seeking a position in the clandestine service. Begin now, for your language proficiency must be above and beyond mere college knowledge; you must demonstrate that you can speak it as well as a native. 
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If they haven’t already done so, the CIA and the rest our Intelligence Community (IC) could emulate what U.S. corporations are doing to create an assemblage of foreign language speakers. In the age of globalization, these companies seek out language research centers, such as the one headed by Doughty, for help in training their most promising employees.
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Robert Morton, Ed., Ed.S. is a member of the Association Of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). A portion (10%) of this site's ad revenues is donated to the AFIO. The views expressed on this site do not represent those of any organization he is a member of. OSINT News is always looking for different perspectives regarding the Intelligence Community- got a thought, article or comment you'd like to submit? Contact us on the Secure Contact Form
I don't see how we can trust Pakistan. Take a peek at our diplomatic and military relations from a historical viewpoint. I remember being concerned about Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and wondered 
if Pakistan’s ruler at the time, Pervvez Musharraf, was "walking the talk" when he declared that he was America's ally in the war against 
terrorism. Are we forgetting the anti-American sentiment that exploded in Pakistan after our 2001 Afghanistan invasion and how Islamic extremists enjoyed total freedom in Pakistan’s tribal border areas? They continue to cross the Afghanistan border to attack American soldiers and retreat back to their sanctuary at will.
I have no faith in Pakistan's decree that they will be America's ally in the fight against radical Islam, and much of my doubt surrounds Benazir Bhutto's assassination. I remember hoping that her son and husband would be able to incite the same fervor for change that she did...but to no avail. In November of last year, Pakistan filed charges in the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan claimed two senior police officers and five Taliban militants were responsible for Bhutto's assassination after she made a dramatic return from exile to run for election in 2007. The police officers—including the chief of police at the time in Rawalpindi, where Bhutto was killed—were charged with security breaches and failing to protect Bhutto. As we all remember, Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack while campaigning in an election that was ultimately won by her husband, the current Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
Roughly three years ago, I attended an Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) symposium outside Washington, DC. The topic of al Qaeda's role in Pakistan was the central topic of formal lectures presented by intelligence specialists, in subsequent small group discussions, and at gatherings around the hotel watering hole later on in the evening.
My distrust of Pakistan's government and intelligence service, the ISI, was reinforced by what I heard at the AFIO symposium. Many retired and still active intelligence analysts and operatives I met there shared my distrust. They did not see Pakistan’s Musharraf as being America‘s warrior against radical Islam. Here’s three reasons why:
(1) Rashid Rauf. Remember him? A British national of Pakistani descent, he was a major player in the international plot to detonate bombs on transatlantic jumbo jets in August 2006. Rauf, 25, was arrested by Pakistani intelligence agents in August after a tip-off from their British counterparts. Rauf was eager to surpass 9-11’s American death toll by funding and training 26 Pakistani British nationals to pack the liquid chemical peroxide-based TATP in their carry-on luggage, concealed in drink and toothpaste containers. They intended to board a dozen Continental, United and American Airlines jumbo jets leaving Britain for New York City, Washington D.C. and California. Once over the Atlantic, they planned to ignite the explosives with detonators hidden in cell phones and MP3 players. Before the plan was made public, Pakistani authorities arrested Rashid Rauf for possessing false identity papers and bomb-making materials. The British intelligence service (MI-5) was already on to the terrorist scheme and repeatedly attempted to extradite Rauf under the deception that he murdered his uncle in Birmingham, England. Still, Pakistani authorities would not release him.
While MI-5 swooped down and arrested all 24 of Rauf’s terrorist buddies around London, the terrorism charges against Rashid were mysteriously dropped by the Pakistani court and, shortly after, he “escaped” from his jail cell after freeing himself from handcuffs. Let’s see…12 jumbo jets carrying an average of 500 American passengers each… Rashid roams free. Do the math and connect the dots.
(2) The Frontier Corps fiasco is what heightened my distrust of Pakistan's rulers. Remember, under the Bush administration we sent billions of dollars of our tax monies to fund this new paramilitary force of 80,000 soldiers? I thought President Bush made a correct choice and backed his decision 100%. They were expected to aggressively hunt down al Qaeda and Taliban militants throughout Pakistan‘s remote tribal areas. However, America's all in the war on terrorism wasted the funds on heavy arms, like harpoon missiles to sink warships, F-16 fighter jets, and howitzers to wage conventional war against their rival and our friend, India.
Thus, without counterinsurgency training, night-vision equipment or communications gear, the Frontier Corps, wearing sandals and toting obsolete bolt-action rifles, suffered defeat whenever they engaged the cunning al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists armed with deadly AK-47 assault rifles and grenade launchers.
My trust in the Pakistani government and its ISI, as a loyal ally, took a nosedive as I witnessed General Musharraf squander America's multi-billion dollar counterinsurgency subsidy. President Bush exerted heavy political pressure for them to attack the militants in the tribal areas, but he was ignored. Meanwhile, al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan swelled in both number and courage.
(3) Lastly, my trust turned to disbelief when Pakistan gave the Taliban military aid. Let me explain. The CIA operates secretly in Afghanistan and Pakistan and doubled their number of case officers (CO) embedded throughout the region. These CO’s recruited local spies in high and low-level positions, enabling US intelligence to expose Pakistan’s true nature. The CIA “acquired” (embezzled) official documents that make it clear that before 9/11, the Pakistani government sent arms and soldiers to fight alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. And, Pakistan’s intelligence service (ISI) still protected Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists in the tribal areas.
The CIA was certain that devoted Islamic extremists operated within ISI’s ranks.I remember hoping, a while ago, that Benazir Bhutto’s surviving son and husband could incite the same fervor for change as she did, and I prayed that the Pakistani Government would protect them from harm. My hopes are not rising, for her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, has indeed become President of Pakistan. But this position makes him a mere figurehead who has no true executive power. He can't make decisions and executive authorizations.
It is the Prime Minister of Pakistan who enjoys the power to execute decisions and operations- he is the one who OK's every decision and decree that President Asif Ali Zardari makes from his presidential palace in north east Islamabad. Maybe, some day, President 
Asif Ali Zardari, or possibly his son, will gain enough influence to become the new, influential Prime Minister of Pakistan, like Benazir Bhutto was.
Yes, I will continue to hope that either Bhutto's husband or son will become Pakistan's next Prime Minister. If so, I wonder if they will be assassinated, like their respective wife and mother was?
Robert Morton, Ed., Ed.S. is a member of the Association Of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes the online spy series "Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster in the Caribbean". He is always looking for different perspectives regarding the Intelligence Community- got a thought, article or comment you'd like to submit? Contact him on the Secure Contact Form
Note: Please read "Likelihood Of Naval War Between US and Iran", then take the THIS WEEK'S POLL "What's liklihood of US- Iran Naval War?" in the upper right-hand margin.
The new sanctions imposed by the West are the most severe that have ever been imposed. The West must sense Iran's nuclear activities are going full-steam ahead. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must feel these new European and US sanctions will, indeed, cripple Iran's oil industry and economy. In addition, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps test-fired missiles capable of hitting Israeli and American military bases in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad's exact words were, “The sanctions imposed on our country are the most severe and strictest sanctions ever imposed on a country, but the enemies’ assumption that they can put Iran in a weak position through these sanctions is false and is the result of their materialistic calculations.”
About 80% of Iran's national budget income comes from its oil and their oil exports have already fallen by 40 percent so far this year, and the country is losing billions of dollars a month it had not anticipated. The new European oil embargo was implemented last Sunday and the US measures, which penalize buyers of Iranian oil, were imposed on Friday.
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CIA case officers are sometimes recognized for their covert and often dangerous work overseas. The House of Representatives recently named a post office in upstate New York for officer Gregg Wenzel, who died in a car accident in Ethiopia in 2003 while under cover. Rep. Nan Hayworth of Ny said, "When a man has given his life, as Gregg David Wenzel did, to protect our American liberties, honoring him through the tradition of naming a post office for his extraordinary service to our country is both fitting and inspiring."
