Intelligence RIP

Read article--The Crossroads of History: The Struggle against Jihad and Supremacist Ideologies

"....The true challenge of Islamic supremacism to America and the free world is not about Islam, Islamism, or terrorism, but about us.

It is a historic challenge to determine whether we truly have the courage of our convictions on equality and liberty and we are willing to fight for these ideals, or if we will instead accept the continuing growth of anti-freedom ideologies here and around the world...."

Intelligence RIP

August 2008

Richard J. Poppleton Sr. FBI Ballistics Expert

Richard Joseph Poppleton Sr., 84, a special agent with the FBI for 28 years who testified as a ballistics expert throughout the country, died of cardiac arrest on July 19…Among his cases, Mr. Poppleton testified in the murder trials for slain Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. The FBI agent took the witness stand in 1964 and linked the high-powered hunting rifle used in Evers's June 12, 1963, assassination to segregationist Byron De La Beckwith. All-white, all-male juries deadlocked twice in 1964 and failed to render a verdict. Mr. Poppleton came out of retirement to testify at the 1994 retrial of Beckwith, who was found guilty and received a life sentence in the civil rights leader's death……(Washington Post, 7 Aug 08)

John W. Coffey, 91; CIA Communications Expert

John William Coffey, a communications expert who was deputy director of support for the CIA in the 1970s, died of multiple myeloma July 23… In 1947, after serving as a captain in the Army Signal Corps, Mr. Coffey joined the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency as the deputy chief of the communications division. He was stationed for several years in London and Frankfurt, West Germany. While working at the State Department from 1963 to 1965, Mr. Coffey played a key role in reorganizing the communications department and establishing the Diplomatic Telecommunications Service. He also helped to set up a hotline between Washington and Moscow……(Washington Post, 7 Aug 08)

Robert Maheu, 90; Tycoon's Aide, CIA Spy

Robert A. Maheu, who was a powerful aide to reclusive tycoon Howard Hughes and whose cloak-and-dagger exploits included involvement in a CIA and Mafia plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, died Aug. 4 at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas. He was 90… Mr. Maheu (pronounced MAY-hew) was a onetime FBI agent who ran a Washington company that he said carried out secret missions for the Central Intelligence Agency……(Washington Post, 6 Aug 08)

CIA Analyst Thomas F. Troy; Historian of Agency's Early Years

Thomas F. Troy, a longtime Central Intelligence Agency officer who wrote an authoritative history of the spy agency's early years, died July 30… Mr. Troy joined the CIA in 1951 and was an analyst of Middle Eastern affairs. He spoke Arabic and traveled throughout Egypt and other African countries as well as Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and Israel during his years with the agency. He also compiled a history of the CIA's founding while working at the agency in the 1970s. After several years, he received clearance to publish the study, "Donovan and the CIA: A History of the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency," independently under his own name……(Washington Post, 2 Jul 08)

Richard Christopher Proto NSA Analyst

Richard Christopher Proto, 68, a retired National Security Agency analyst, died July 27… Mr. Proto joined the NSA in 1964. Before his retirement in 1999, he received the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, National Intelligence Medal of Honor and Presidential Rank Award. He continued to consult with the Defense Department and intelligence agencies until 2007……(Washington Post, 1 Aug 08)

Adelaide M. Hawkins OSS, CIA Analyst

Adelaide Mulheran Hawkins, 94, who was an analyst in the Office of Strategic Services and its successor, the Central Intelligence Agency, died July 10…While her husband worked in the temporary munitions building on Constitution Avenue as a cryptanalyst for the Army, Mrs. Hawkins began studying his cryptanalysis lessons. After learning of her studies, her husband's boss offered her a job. She began working with Gen. William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, who was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's coordinator of information, in what became the Office of Strategic Services. Mrs. Hawkins created the OSS message center and remained its deputy director throughout World War II. She oversaw the reception, processing and distribution of sensitive communications, and she trained agents in communicating from behind enemy lines in occupied Europe…..(Washington Post, 1 Aug 08)

July 2008

Roger Hall, a Spy With a Sense of Humor, Is Dead at 89

The letter arrived for Second Lt. Roger Hall at Camp Plauche, La., signed by Gen. George C. Marshall and ordering him to report to Washington for an assignment of “a secret and hazardous nature.” Thus began Mr. Hall’s career as a spy, an agent in the Office of Strategic Services, the World War II precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency — and his career as a humor writer as well……(New York Times, 28 Jul 08)

Milton Zaslow, 87; played major role in U.S. intelligence

Mr. Zaslow, 87, a seminal figure at the National Security Agency who played a significant role in U.S. intelligence from World War II through the Vietnam War, died of cardiac arrest July 15 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. Because he worked for an agency that holds some of the government's most secret information, an agency that for years was itself a secret, the full details of Mr. Zaslow's career might never be known. But by the time he retired in 1979, he was the NSA's second-highest-ranking civilian. (Washington Post, 25 July 08)

Charles Wick; Reagan ally ran U.S. Information Agency

Charles Z. Wick, 90, a Hollywood agent and entrepreneur who became the longest-serving director of the U.S. Information Agency and an original member of the "kitchen cabinet" that financed Ronald Reagan's first run for the California governor's office in 1966, died July 20 of cardiopulmonary failure at his home in Los Angeles. During his USIA tenure from 1981 to 1989, Mr. Wick was credited with raising the profile and influence of a traditionally staid agency in ways seldom seen since Edward R. Murrow served in the same position under John F. Kennedy. He was an impassioned Cold Warrior and used his close friendship with Reagan to more than double the USIA budget and embark on projects that drastically expanded its reach, including the launch of Voice of America's anti-Castro Radio Marti and Worldnet, the first live global satellite television network. (Washington Post, 23 July 08)

Donald Graves, 79; State Dept. Cold War Analyst

Regional Soviet newspapers in 1980 were reporting an unusually large number of deaths of rocket scientists, and the obituaries were running a bit later than usual. Donald Graves, who collected facts and data about the Soviet Union with a zeal matched by few others in the U.S. government, noticed the reports and suspected something was up. Several high-level officials who had an interest in Soviet space matters had also recently died, but the dates and places of the deaths had been obfuscated. Putting bits of information together, Mr. Graves soon realized the scientists and officials had died simultaneously, probably in an accident at the Plesetsk launch site……(Washington Post, 18 Jul 08)

Donald V. Mulcahy CIA, Senior Administrator

Donald Vincent Mulcahy, 89, a senior administrator with the CIA who joined the agency when it began in 1947, died of complications of a respiratory ailment June 26 at the Fountains at Washington House, a retirement community in Alexandria. (Washington Post, 9 July 08)

Ruth Greenglass

Ruth Greenglass, who has died aged 84, provided crucial evidence in a notorious espionage trial that led to the execution of her sister-in-law, Ethel Rosenberg, in 1953; her testimony, and the conviction, was later called into question. During the Second World War Ruth's husband, David Greenglass, had worked as a machinist on the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He was said by prosecutors at the trial to have been persuaded by his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, and her husband Julius, to give them top-secret data relating to atomic weapons, which Julius then transmitted to Moscow. Both couples were avowed Communists. Following a tip-off by a Soviet defector, in 1950 Klaus Fuchs, head of the physics department of the British nuclear research centre at Harwell, was arrested and charged with espionage. (Daily Telegraph, 9 Jul 08)

After a lifetime in hiding, Rosenbergs' accuser dies

RUTH Greenglass, whose testimony in a sensational US Cold War espionage trial helped send her sister-in-law, Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair, has died. She was 84 and had been living under an alias to avoid association with the case that led to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953......Mrs Greenglass and her husband, David, were pivotal figures in the spy case. They confessed to being part of an effort to smuggle secrets to the Soviets and turned in the Rosenbergs, their own relatives, as the spies who recruited them to the task. (The Age, 10 Jul 08)

Ruth Greenglass, Key Witness in Trial of Rosenbergs, Dies at 84

Ruth Greenglass, whose damning testimony in the Rosenberg atomic-bomb spy case of the early 1950s helped lead to the execution of her sister-in-law Ethel Rosenberg, died on April 7. She was 84. Along with her husband, David Greenglass — Ethel’s brother and a central figure in the case — Mrs. Greenglass had lived in the New York metropolitan area under an assumed name for more than four decades. Her death was revealed in court papers on June 23. (New York Times)

Testimony of Ruth Greenglass

The Rosenbergs: A Case of Love, Espionage, Deceit and Betrayal

Joseph G. Schaffner Jr. CIA Technology Analyst

Joseph G. Schaffner Jr., 58, a CIA technology analyst and manager for 30 years, died of acute myeloid leukemia May 31… Dr. Schaffner's work in the directorate of intelligence ranged from assessing foreign electronics and information technology to identifying emerging technologies that would enhance U.S. national reconnaissance. Those technologies included semiconductors, electro-optics, high-performance computers, quantum computing, fiber-optic lasers and mobile or satellite communications. He was on loan to the National Reconnaissance Office when he retired in 2006……(Washington Post, 1 Jul 08)

Henry F. Connor CIA, County Employee

Henry F. Connor, 82, who worked for the CIA and later for the Fairfax County government, died June 13… Mr. Connor worked on several overseas assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, including in Taiwan and Germany, and also at the CIA's Langley headquarters. He retired in the 1970s after about 25 years…..(Washington Post, 1 Jul 08)

June 2008

Robert Ernest Lytle Navy Captain, Intelligence Officer

Robert Ernest Lytle, 87, a retired naval aviator and intelligence officer, died of cancer June 19…Capt. Lytle flew 44 combat dive-bombing missions against Japanese forces on Bougainville Island and in Rabaul, New Guinea, during World War II, and he was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and eight Air Medals. He later received two Legions of Merit. Recalled to duty during the Korean War, he was an instructor at the Naval Intelligence School for three years. He then served in a variety of posts, including intelligence officer with the commander of the Naval Air Forces, Atlantic fleet; in the office of the chief of naval operations; on the Joint Strategic Target Planning staff in Nebraska; and with the Defense Intelligence Agency…..(Washington Post, 28 Jun 08)

Winston C. Oliver CIA Officer

Winston C. Oliver, 82, a CIA officer who spent 30 years in the directorate of operations before retiring in 1980, died of cancer June 17… Mr. Oliver was an operations officer for much of his early career, mostly stationed in Asia. From 1973 to 1980, he worked at Central Intelligence Agency headquarters at Langley. His decorations included the CIA's Career Achievement Medal…..(Washington Post, 28 Jun 08)

Austin W. Kibler Air Force Colonel

Austin W. Kibler, 78, a retired Air Force colonel and an experimental psychologist who managed research programs for government agencies including the Defense Department and the CIA, died of respiratory failure June 19…Col. Kibler served in the Air Force from 1953 to 1975…From 1978 to 1987, he was a research division director at the CIA……(Washington Post, 26 Jun 08)

J. Donald Huppert FBI Assistant Section Chief

J. Donald Huppert, 86, an FBI special agent who became an assistant chief in the agency's investigative division, died June 2…Mr. Huppert worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1947 to 1975 and had been based at the headquarters since 1962. He retired as assistant chief of the investigative division's criminal section. From 1987 to 1999, he worked for the Greenbelt-based MSM Security Services as a security clearance investigator for military and intelligence organizations……(Washington Post, 26 Jun 08)

Irving J. Albert CIA Translator

Irving J. Albert, 83, a multilingual translator for the Central Intelligence Agency for more than 30 years, died of brain cancer June 11…Mr. Albert worked for the CIA from 1950 to 1984, using his proficiency in almost a dozen languages during postings in Europe, Scandinavia and Southeast Asia. When he retired, he received the CIA's Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. He spoke Russian, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, French and Italian and was a student of Turkish, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese……(Washington Post, 25 Jun 08)

Roger E. Wheeler, 88; NASA Intelligence Specialist

Roger Eugene Wheeler, 88, a retired intelligence specialist who later operated an air charter service, died June 5… After serving in the Army for four years during World War II, he received a master's degree in economics and sociology from the University of Nebraska in 1947…Mr. Wheeler moved to Washington and joined the old Army Security Agency. He then worked for an Air Force intelligence unit for several years before joining NASA in 1962. He was an intelligence management specialist and assisted in developing cryptographic linkages for space missions, including Apollo 11, the first manned flight to reach the moon…..(Washington Post, 21 Jun 08)

John G. Bonner, Portrait Artist, Retired CIA

John G. Bonner, 83, a portrait artist who earlier had spent 20 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, died of cancer May 25…He graduated from SMU in 1948 and attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., until 1951. Mr. Bonner then worked at the CIA. He retired in 1971……(Washington Post, 21 Jun 08)

Ward Boston, Navy attorney in USS Liberty investigation dies

Ward Boston, a former Navy attorney who helped investigate the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 crewmen and years later said President Lyndon Johnson ordered that the assault be ruled an accident, has died… Boston was assigned as a legal adviser to a military board of inquiry investigating the attack on the Liberty, an electronic-intelligence-gathering ship that was cruising international waters off the Egyptian coast on June 8, 1967. Israeli planes and torpedo boats opened fire on the Liberty in the midst of the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War. In addition to the 34 Americans killed, more than 170 were wounded……(AP, 18 Jun 08)

Leonard F. Crowe Computer Programmer

Leonard Fulton Crowe, 83, a former computer programmer, died May 30…He graduated from the University of Colorado and came to Washington in 1970. He worked for the Department of the Army as a cryptographer and intelligence communications specialist for 13 years……(Washington Post, 17 Jun 08)

Nancy Lovell Dean CIA Officer, Budget Analyst

Nancy Lovell Dean, 75, a former CIA officer and budget analyst at the National Institutes of Health, died of a pulmonary embolism June 4… Mrs. Dean worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1959. She joined the old Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1971 as a budget analyst and later switched to the NIH, from which she retired in 1989……(Washington Post, 12 Jun 08)

Ralph Whitebergh Air Force Intelligence Officer

Ralph Whitebergh, 86, a former U.S. Air Force chief warrant officer, died of vascular dementia May 20… Mr. Whitebergh organized the service's Human Intelligence Reserve Program, which eventually enrolled 1,000 to 1,500 reservists. After he retired from the Air Force in 1967, he worked 25 years as a civilian in the same job at Fort Belvoir. He retired a second time in 1992…..(Washington Post, 9 Jun 08)

Norman Longfellow Smith, 83; CIA Official

Norman Longfellow Smith, 83, a former deputy chief of operations in the CIA's counterintelligence service, died of congestive heart failure and complications of Guillain-Barre Syndrome on May 26… Mr. Smith, who joined the CIA in 1951, analyzed Soviet armaments and, after the Soviets launched Sputnik, specialized in ballistic missiles and space vehicles. In 1960, he chaired an intelligence community task force to monitor missile activity outside the Soviet Union……(Washington Post, 7 Jun 08)

Robert W. Moore Foreign Service Officer

Robert W. Moore, 86, a retired Foreign Service officer who had seven overseas assignments with the State Department, died May 9…After serving in the Army during World War II, he joined the Foreign Service in 1946. He was assigned to U.S. embassies in Paraguay, Chile, Ecuador and Malaysia and to consulates in Indonesia and Scotland. In addition, he was the consul general in Karachi, Pakistan, and Vancouver, B.C…..(Washington Post, 5 Jun 08)

William Odom, 75, National Security Director, Dies

William E. Odom, a director of the National Security Agency in the Reagan administration who became an early and outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, died last Friday…Mr. Odom, who also worked at the National Security Agency under President Jimmy Carter, was once described as a “blue-ribbon hawk” for his opposition to détente with the Soviet Union……(New York Times, 5 Jun 08)

Heinz Geyer, deputy head of former East German spy agency, dies

Heinz Geyer, a deputy head of the former East Germany's foreign intelligence service, died Tuesday… Geyer was a deputy to Markus Wolf _ who notoriously outwitted the West as communist East Germany's long-serving spymaster _ and the last chief of staff of the foreign intelligence arm of the Stasi secret police, known by its German initials, HVA… During his tenure, Wolf, who died in 2006, planted some 4,000 agents in the West _ most famously placing Guenter Guillaume as a top aide to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt. The agent's unmasking forced Brandt to resign in 1974…..(AP, 3 Jun 08)

CIA acknowledges two dead with stars on memorial wall

Two unidentified Central Intelligence Agency employees killed over the past year were acknowledged Monday with stars on a memorial wall at the intelligence agency's headquarters…The new stars raised to 87 the number of fallen CIA members memorialized on the wall -- 35 of whom have not been identified. The two new additions "were killed in the past year while conducting missions in the war zones…..(Focus, 3 Jun 08)

CIA pilot to be honored

A former CIA spy pilot from Birmingham will be honored at Battleship Memorial Park on the 40th anniversary of his death…Jack Weeks, a 1955 University of Alabama graduate, was killed June 5, 1968, when his A-12 Blackbird spy aircraft crashed during a "checkout flight" out of Okinawa, Japan, according to Bill Tunnell, the park's executive director. Weeks is credited with being the first to locate and photograph the USS Pueblo in North Korea on Jan. 26, 1968, after it had been seized three days earlier by the North Koreans…..(Alabama, 2 Jun 08)

William E. Odom, 75; Military Adviser to 2 Administrations

William E. Odom, 75, a retired Army lieutenant general who was a senior military and intelligence official in the Carter and Reagan administrations and who, in recent years, became a forceful critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, died May 30…Because of his fierce anti-Soviet stance, Gen. Odom was known as "Zbig's superhawk" and his "crisis coordinator," who helped plan responses to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the capture of hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Gen. Odom spent four years in Army intelligence before being named director of the National Security Agency, the government's largest spy operation, in 1985. He threatened to prosecute journalists at The Post and other media outlets in 1986 for compromising national security after exposing a U.S. eavesdropping operation by submarines in Soviet harbors….(Washington Post, 1 Jun 08)

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