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Nearly 10,000 people have been killed and more than 20,000 injured since the Ukraine conflict began in April 2014, a top U.N. official said Thursday.
Title: Counterintelligence and Security
Author: Paul W. Blackstock
Blackstock, Paul W. (1978) and Frank L. Schaf, Jr. “Chapter 7: “Counterintelligence and Security: United States,” Intelligence, Espionage, Counterespionage, And Covert Operations: A Guide to Information Sources. Detroit: Gale Research Co.
LCCN: 74011567
Subjects
Date Updated: April 27, 2016
Chapter 7 Counterintelligence And Security: United States
Counterintelligence is often referred to as negative intelligence, since its primary objective is to block the efforts by those of inimical interests to obtain secret information and to conduct sabotage and subversion.
Active counterespionage, countersabotage, and countersubversion include specific and resolute operational measures designed to detect and identify individuals, groups, and organizations conducting espionage, sabotage, and subversion in order to neutralize their effectiveness or to exploit them through deception, disinformation, and manipulation.
Passive counterintelligence measures, on the other hand, ore designed to conceal or protect information, individuals, and installations. against espionage, sabotage, and subversion.
The security of classified information against unauthorized disclosure, access, or transmission is the responsibility of those who handle such information. Counterintelligence agencies assist them by providing (1) checks and inspections to detect weaknesses in security measures, (2) personnel security investigations to determine suitability for employment and to uncover espionage, and (3) security training and indoctrination which expose the methods of operation of foreign espionage organizations, For instance, during the 1950s and 1960s the FBI and various congressional committees published a number of works exposing Communist ,techniques of subversion. Other important passive counterintelligence measures are censorship and communications security, In order to evade censorship, microdot methods of concealing secret information were developed and used by agents to mail reports to their home bases. The burst or spurt radio transmitter was developed to reduce air time in agent reporting and thus to frustrate counterespionage communications interception end direction finding (DFing) efforts. The spurt transmitter used by Gordon Lonsdale in reporting to Moscow was captured by British counterespionage and photographs of the transmitter were later released in press articles and books describing the Portland Naval Secrets case in 1961. The importance of direction finding as a means of locating agent transmitters and as a wedge opening penetration to espionage networks is illustrated in H. J. Giskes’s London Calling North Pole.[1]
Library shelves are quite bare of comprehensive studies of overall counterintelligence organization, functions, doctrine, and tradecraft. The information available on negative intelligence is much worse than that available on the subject of positive intelligence. There is no counterintelligence source equivalent to Sherman Kent’s work on intelligence, Strategic Intelligence For American World Policy[2] or to Harry Hawe Ransom’s The Intelligence Establishment[3]. The growth of open societies, with attendant antisecrecy sentiment, freedom of information, deliberate leaks and disclosures of classified information (the Pentagon Papers, for example[4]), and resentment against surveillance, has created unique counter-intelligence problems and implications of national and international importance. In chapters 8 end 9 of Spy In The U.S., Pawel Monat and John Dille provide one of the few insights into the counterintelligence problems associated with free speech and freedom of the press.[5] In contrast, a considerable volume of literature has been created on the overclassification of government documents, the right to know, and the invasion of privacy by electronic surveillance methods.
The countersubversion role of counterintelligence has grown end altered significantly since most of the World War II I literature was written, although a corresponding unclassified literature of explanation has not developed. Combating Communist-inspired subversive insurgency in the United States has been a priority policy of the cold war. The countering of subversive insurgency abroad has come to be carried out through covert and clandestine operations by the CIA’s deputy directorate of operations (see part IV, Covert Operations) while countering domestic subversive insurgency has, as always, been the domain of the FBI. However, certain responsibilities have been delegated to other agencies, including the Army’s counterintelligence corps. In 1971 countering leaks and disclosures of classified information and other security problems became a matter of concern at the highest level, resulting in the establishment of the Special Investigations Unit under control of the White House staff—the unit later to be called the “Plumbers.” Literature available on these activities is generally restricted to exposures of operations by the press followed by reports of investigations by Congress. There is no comprehensive study which analyzes a necessary counterintelligence role versus involvement in the domestic affairs of foreign sovereign nations or the surveillance and repression of individual groups at home.
There is a fair amount of literature available describing the counterespionage, countersabotage, and countersubversion activities and operations of the FBI. These include counterespionage and countersabotage roles in World Wars I and II, plus positive intelligence activities in the Western Hemisphere, economic intelligence activities in Latin America, counterespionage and countersubversion activities against the Soviet Union immediately following World War II (the Atom Spies, for example[6]), and counterespionage and countersubversion during the “Big Red Threat Era.” Memoirs of FBI counterspies such as Herbert Philbrick’s I Led Three Lives and John Huminink’sDouble Agent are illustrative of FBI counterespionoge techniques[7]. References to these memoirs and other reports of counterespionage operations and networks will be found in chapter 15, Comprehensive and objective literature describing more recent FBI counter-intelligence activities against various domestic groups and organizations is far from. adequate, and insights must be gleaned or pieced together from articles and press reports often written in the muckraking or expose tradition.
- BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS
Collins, Frederick L. (1962). The FBI in Peace And War. New York: Ace Books
Dulles, Allen W. (2006). The Craft of Intelligence: America’s Legendary Spy Master on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press
Farago, Ladislas (1954, 1976). War of Wits: The Anatomy of Espionage And Intelligence. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
Felix, Christopher [pseud.J. “Counterespionage Versus Security, and Other Deviltry.” In his A Short Course in The Secret War, pp. 143-54. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1963.
A retired intelligence operations specialist discusses some of the fundamentals of counterespionage and security. Counterespionage, he believes is an operational activity, conceived with intimate, controlled, and purposeful contact with the “enemy,” for the primary purpose of penetrating the opposition’s own secret operations apparatus with the objective of eventual deception. Security, on the other hand, is protective and defensive, and seeks to sever all contact with the “enemy” as being too dangerous.
Godfrey, E. Drexel (1971) and Don R. Harris. Basic Elements of Intelligence; A Manual of Theory, Structure And Procedures for Use by Law Enforcement Agencies Against Organized Crime. Washington, DC: Technical Assistance Division, Office of Criminal Justice Assistance, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, Dept. of Justice
Goulding, Phil G. (1970). Confirm Or Deny; Informing The People On National Security. New York, Harper & Row
Hoover, J. Edgar (1958). Masters of Deceit: The Story Of Communism In America And How to Fight It. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Hyde, H. Montgomery (1962). Room 3603: The Incredible True Story of Secret Intelligence Operations During World War II. Guilford, DE: The Lyons Press (republished 2002). Originally published as The Quiet Canadian. [London : Quality Book Club, 1962]
Ottenberg, Miriam (1962). The Federal Investigators. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Perrault, Gilles (1965). The Secrets of D-Day. Boston: Little, Brown
Tully, Andrew. “The Hollow Nickel.” CIA: The Inside Story, in Tully, Andrew (1962). CIA: The Inside Story, pp. 230-42. New York: William Morrow
Ungar, Sanford J. (1975). FBI: An Uncensored Look Behind the Walls. Little, Brown & Company
Wise, David (1973). The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power. New York: Random House
- ARTICLES AND REPORTS
Blackstock, Paul W. “Political Surveillance and the Constitutional Order.” Worldview (14, May 1971, pp. 11-14).
An analysis of the broad political and constitutional implications of surveillance of civilians by U.S. Army counterintelligence agencies investigated by Senator Sam Ervin’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. The author argues that political surveillance erodes the foundations of the democratic state.
“Classifying and De-classifying of Papers.” Washington Post (22 June 1971, p. A11).
A copy of an affidavit presented in open session in the U.S. District Court during the Pentagon Papers affair by George MacClain, director of security classification management in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Security Policy. The affidavit is a detailed and authoritative description of the classification and declassification process. The affidavit cites Executive Order 10501, “Safeguarding Official Information in the Interests of the Defense of the United States” (originally put into force by President Eisenhower on 5 November 1953, and amended over the years), as the basic authority for classification and declassification, and identifies Department of Defense Instruction 5210.47, “Security Classification of Official Information,” 31 December 1964, and Department of Defense Directive 5200. 10, “Downgrading and Declassification of Classified Defense Information,” 26 July 1962, as implementing regulations of the Executive Order. Other implementing instructions include “Industrial Security Manual for Safeguarding Classified Information” (available through the Government Printing Office) and Army Regulations 380-5, “Military Security.”
Goldberg, David M. “Cold War Thaw Revives U.S. Card-Carrying Communists.” Washington Post (26 August 1973, p. F1).
Columnist Goldberg describes the signs of the thaw that has convinced many Americans that the Communist threat has eased and there is no longer a danger of overthrow of the U.S. government.
“How Detente Opens Doors for Soviet Spies in the U.S.” U.S. News & World Report. (23 February 1976, pp. 18-19).
A survey article on the rise of the numbers of Soviet-bloc spies in the United States as relations with the Soviet Union expand and at a time when Congress is investigating U.S. spying abroad and in the United States. The article provides figures on the increase in the number of Soviet spies over the past five years, and lists those enlarged missions to the United States, 70 to 80 percent of the members of which are assigned some intelligence task by Moscow.
“Memorandums Urged Nixon to Set Up Program of Spying.” Washington Post, (8 June 1973, p. A15).
This article contains copies of top-secret memorandums written by ex-Nixon aide Tom Charles Huston in July 1970 recommending a comprehensive program for improving domestic intelligence. The decision memorandum proposes the organization of an Interagency Group on Domestic Intelligence and Internal Security (IAG) with members consisting of representatives of the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and the counterintelligence agencies of the army, navy, and air force. The memorandums were first printed in the 7 June 1973 issue of the New York Times.
“1970 Intelligence Plan.” Washington Post, (23 May 1973, p. A10).
Text of the statement issued by President Nixon relative to his efforts in 1970 to improve domestic intelligence and to stop leakage of national security secrets. Noting that coordination among intelligence agencies had fallen short of national security needs and that the FBI had shut off liaison with the CIA and other agencies, the president sought advice, established an Intelligence Evaluation Committee, and approved the creation of a special investigations unit, later to become known as the “Plumbers,” to stop disclosures and leaks and to lock into other sensitive security matters.
Political Rights Defense Fund. A Challenge To The Watergate Crimes. New York: 1974.
Produced for the purpose of raising money, this brochure reproduces documents concerning the $27 million damage suit filed in July 1973 by Leonard Boudin, the defense lawyer in the Ellsberg case, on behalf of the Socialist Workers Party. Also included in the collection are copies of numerous press clippings about the suit, the government reply, and FBI documents regarding a counterintelligence program against the New Left movement and directives placing a mail cover (censorship) on the Socialist Workers Party.
Rositzke, Harry. “America’s Secret Operations: A Perspective.” Foreign Affairs (53, January 1975, pp. 334-51).
In an important article concerned mainly with counterintelligence functions, the author, a twenty-seven-year veteran of the OSS and the CIA, argues convincingly that propaganda and paramilitary operations do not belong in a secret intelligence service even if they are worth doing at all. Further, the author does not believe that covert political operations designed to sway elections in foreign countries or to overturn governments be long in a secret intelligence organization. The author argues, however, that there will continue to be occasions when support of a few individuals for intelligence purposes cannot (-and should not) be separated from a measure of support for their political ends. There should be a means whereby the president, or a local ambassador, would be able to support a foreign political or labor leader who cannot afford to accept American largesse publicly. See also the annotation for this article in chapter 16.
Shloss, Leon. “DOD Security: The New Look.” Government Executive, (October 1969, pp.44-46).
The article, by Government Executive’s senior editor, describes new efforts by Director for Security Policy Joseph J. Liebling to get the “gumshoe” stigma off security, and to replace it with a reasonable policy consistent with national security and national interests. The changes noted in the article occurred when Secretary of Defense Laird gave Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert F. Froehlke new responsibilities in both intelligence and security. Liebling worked under Froehlke.
Szulc, Tod. “Secret Reports Keep Air Force Informed on Radicals”. New York Times, (29 January 1971, p. 10).
A detailed article on the activities of the Office of Social Investigations (OSI) of the Air Force, which has responsibility for both counterintelligence and criminal investigations. Specially noted is the Significant Counterintelligence Briefs (SClB), a secret bi-monthly publication of the OSI, intended to keep Air Force commanders apprised of internal threats.
Ungar, Sanford J. “Internal Security Dies Quietly at Justice.” Washington Post, (27 March 1973, pp. A1, A9).
The article announces the abolition of the Internal Security Division of the Justice Department and the transfer of its functions to the Criminal Division. The background of the Internal Security Division is traced, and it is suggested that its abolition was a sign of diminishing fear of the threat of subversion and the requirement to fight it.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities. 87th Cong., 2d sess., 1961. House Doc. no. 398. xxxvii (1961). Guide To Subversive Organizations And Publications (and appendix), prepared and released by the Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, DC: The Committee
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights (1973). Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off
U.S. Department of Justice (1973). Report of The Attorney General To The Congress of The United States On The Administration of The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, As Amended For The Calendar Year 1972. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office
[2] Now dated, but still useful: Kent, Sherman (1966). Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy. Hamden, CT: Archon Books
[3] Another dated, but quite useful book: Ransom, Harry Howe (1970). The Intelligence Establishment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
[4] See Sheehan, Neil (1971), Hendrick Smith, E.W. Kenworthy, and Fox Butterfield. The Pentagon Papers: As Published By The New York Times, Based On Investigative Reporting By Neil Sheehan. New York: Bantam Books. More recently we have the case of Edward Snowden.
[5] See Monat, Pawel (1962) with John Dille. Spy in the U.S. New York: Harper & Row
[6] See, for example: Pilat, Oliver (1952). The Atom Spies. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; and Hyde, H. Montgomery (1981). The Atom Bomb Spies. London: H. Hamilton
[7] See Philbrick, Herbert A. (1952). I Led 3 Lives: Citizen “Communist” Counterspy. McGraw-Hill; and Huminik, John (1967). Double Agent. New York: New American Library
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Title: Counterintelligence And Security the USSR
Author: Paul W. Blackstock
Blackstock, Paul W. (1978) and Frank L. Schaf, Jr. “Chapter 9: “Counterintelligence And Security: The USSR,” Intelligence, Espionage, Counterespionage, And Covert Operations: A Guide to Information Sources. Detroit: Gale Research Co.
LCCN: 74011567
Subjects
Date Updated: April 27, 2016
Chapter 9 COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY: THE USSR
In the Soviet Union protection of the government and Communist party and suppression of opposition at home and abroad are traditional defense mechanisms equal in importance to the more conventional armed forces. Secrecy, surveillance, and censorship are essential methods for the conduct of this defense. While counterintelligence and internal security measures may be causing considerable problems and controversy in the United States, there is no question of their strict application in the USSR. The tradition, however, does not date from the revolution but from the days of the tsars. The tsarist security organization, the Okhrana, was responsible for suppression of two generations of Russian revolutionists, who in turn were developing the techniques and methods, and grooming the personnel to staff the new Soviet counterintelligence, security, and intelligence organization after the takeover.
The necessity for strict protective measures against counterrevolution, infiltration, wrecking, sabotage, and subversion was made clear in the months following the revolution by the activities and efforts of Western and Japanese intelligence and counterrevolutionary operations. These early counterrevolutionary battles, which resulted in establishing more firmly the doctrine of suspicion and security followed in the USSR, are described in Deacon’s History of The Russian Secret Service.[1]
Today the civilian Committee for State Security (KGB) is responsible for counterintelligence, security, and intelligence functions, but unlike intelligence, which is performed by other organizations in the USSR, the KGB has counterintelligence and security entirely to itself. The KGB is preeminent as the custodian of the iron curtain , For example, it performs the counterintelligence and security functions for all of the armed forces, at home or deployed outside the Soviet Union. While the KGB is directly responsible to the Council of Ministers, it is equally responsive to the desires and requirements of the party Central Committee—in fact all counterintelligence and intelligence has its focus in the Central Committee. In April 1973 the head of the KGB was made a serving member of the Central Committee, the first to have this position since Beria, Stalin’s security chief. The implications of this move may be that the more extensive international exchanges of personnel of the USSR abroad, detente with the West, increased economic relations with the West and Japan, and internal dissident controversies will not alter the essential counterintelligence and security doctrine although methods may be changed.
Considering the absolute dedication to secrecy in the USSR, there is more in-formation available in the literature regarding the KGB than could reasonably be expected. Most of it, however, is history, but history which traces in detail the evolution of the state security agency from a commission, to a commissariat, to a ministry, to a committee; with mergers and separations from the internal affairs ministry. All of these changes had political significance, but did not fundamentally change the organization, functions, and doctrine. For example, the comprehensive bibliography Soviet Intelligence And Security Services, 1964-70[2] published by the Senate Judiciary’s Internal Security Subcommittee (see chapter 4, section B1), lists 715 titles out of a total of 2,507 in the bibliography under the rubric “State Security.”
In addition to the multitude of names applicable to the same organization, there is another confusing factor regarding the literature on the KGB. In this one agency there are a combination of counterintelligence and internal security functions (some quite unlike any in the West—such as border guards and transportation security), external counterintelligence and positive intelligence and espionage functions, and covert political actions functions. Like the literature on the CIA, it is difficult to find definitive works that sort out and analyze various functions separately. However, a few scholarly works dealing with the subject proper are listed here, along with articles that tend to provide up-to-date insights into functional additions or changes.
- BOOKS
Baron, John (1974). KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Agents. Pleasantville, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association.
Conquest, Robert (1968), ed. The Soviet Police System. New York: F. A. Praeger
Copp, DeWitt S. (1968). Incident at Boris Gleb: The Tragedy of Newcomb Mott. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
Deacon, Richard (1972) [pseud .]. A Hlstory of The Russian Secret Service. London, Muller
Deriabin, Piotr (1959) and Frank Gibney. The Secret World. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
Hingley, Ronald (1970, 1971). The Russian Secret Police: Muscovite, Imperial Russian, and Soviet Political Security Operations. New York: Simon & Schuster
Lewytzkyj, Borys (1972). The Uses of Terror: The Soviet Secret Police, 1917-1970. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan
Little, Robert (1969), ed. The Czech Black Book. Prepared by the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. London: Pall Mall P.
Smith, Edward Ellis (1967) and Rudolf Lednicky, collaborator. The Okhrana—the Russian Department of Police; a bibliography. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
Wittlin, Tadeusz (1972). Commissar: The Life and Death of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. New York: Macmillan
Wolin, Simon (1957, 1964) and Robert M. Slusser, eds. The Soviet Secret Police. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
- ARTICLES AND REPORTS
Astrachan, Anthony. “Soviets Hit Telecasts by Satellite.” Washington Post, (13 October 1972, p. A23).
The Soviet ambassador to the United Nations submitted proposals that would limit any possibility that the United States or China would broadcast television programs directly from a satellite into the homes of Soviet citizens. The proposals included the right to jam such telecasts, censor, and even to destroy the relay satellite .
Barron, John. “Russia’s Voices of Dissent.” Reader’s Digest (104, May 1974, pp. 139-43).
Senior editor Barron describes incidents in recent years of KGB efforts to suppress and eliminate dissidents in the USSR and how, in 1969, the KGB added an organizational element, the Fifth Chief Directorate, to enforce ideological conformity. Barron is the author of a recent study [as of 1972]:KGB: The Secret Work Of Soviet Secret Agents[3] (see this chapter, section A).
Burger, Marilyn. “Soviets Halt Jamming of VOA Broadcasts.” Washington Post,(1 September 1973, p. A12).
The article reports that the Soviets had stopped jamming Voice of America, British Broadcasting Corporation, end West German radio transmissions for the first time since the invasion af Czechoslovakia in 1968. Includes some speculation as to the reason for the cessation of the jamming.
Byrnes, Robert F. “Amerlcan Scholars in Russia Soon Learn about the KGB.” New York Times Magazine, (16 November 1969, pp. 84, 87, 102).
A comprehensive and objective analysis of KGB surveillance against graduate students and scholars visiting the Soviet Union from Western and African countries, with examples cited involving those from the United States. The usual charges brought against students and scholars are for espionage, conducting anti-Soviet propaganda, and being “ideological saboteurs,” and there is usually an offer to drop charges if the American will turn informer. The author, a professor of history at Indiana University and once head of the Inter-University Committee, suggests kinds of U. S. activities which tend to strengthen KGB suspicions of “subversive” activity.
Crankshaw, Edward , “Soviet Secret Police Shift to Soft Sell for Undermining West.” Washington Post, 25 December 1967, p. C4.
The British expert on Soviet affairs analyzes the KGB in the light of the present world environment and relaxed international tension. He suggests that the Soviet leadership is forced by the present environment to move away from absolute hostility to the West, but is sure that while the KGB is still dedicated to rigid control and repression in the USSR, some of the methods may have altered. Organizational aspects of the KGB are detailed.
Doder, Dusko. “Kremlin Hounds U.S. Newsmen.” Washington Post, (7 February 1971, p. C4).
A well-developed and objective article on the problems of American correspondents in the Soviet Union—the continual surveillance by the KGB and KGB provocations—and the links newsmen have established with Soviet political dissidents. The Soviet viewpoint regarding the meaning of free press is provided.
Dornberg, John. “In the Soviet Isolation Ward.” Newsweek, (28 December 1970, pp. 25-26).
The article details the secrecy, surveillance, travel restrictions, tapped telephones, bugged apartments, and searches that an American correspondent must put up with from Soviet state security.
Kaiser, Robert G. “Case 24: The KGB’s Drive against Dissidents.” Washington Post, (17 April 1973, pp. A1, A10).
In this lengthy article Moscow correspondent Kaiser summarizes the activities of the KGB operations (Case 24) against Soviet dissidents. Specifically, one objective of Case 24 was to prevent the publication of the dissident activities journal, The Chronicle Of Human Events, which was suppressed early in 1973, but which reappeared again in the spring of 1974.
Kaiser, Robert G. “A Professor vs. the KGB.” Washington Post, (19 May 1974, pp. C1, C4).
The Washington Post’s Moscow correspondent has put together an unusual collection of documents concerning the harassment of Soviet professor of literature Yefim G. Etkind. This harassment is probably because Etkind is a friend to exiled dissident Solzhenitsyn. The article includes an account of a meeting of the Academic Board of Hertzen Teacher’s Training College in Leningrad, which expelled Professor Etkind from his institute and from the Soviet Union of Writers. A copy of the certificate from the KGB used by the board is included. This certificate illustrates the type of surveillance and dossier kept on Soviet citizens.
Seeger, Murray. “Radio Hooligans Bug Soviets.” Washington Post, (31 December 1973, p. A2).
Amateur radio broadcasters transmitting illegally in the USSR are becoming a problem and the focus of extensive police action. In many cases the “radio hooligans” transmit information that contradicts official news broadcasts, or retransmit recordings of foreign shortwave newscasts—two forms of anti-Soviet agitation and propaaganda.
Shabad, Theodore. “Soviet Says B .B.C. Helps Espionage,” New York Times, (17 December 1968, p. 10).
An analysis of an Izvestia counterintelligence and security warning article stating that the British Broadcasting Corporation’s East European Division, which transmits to the USSR and Warsaw Pact countries, collaborates with the British Secret Intelligence Service by broadcasting prearranged musical passages and textual phrases at designated times to enable a British agent to prove his bona fides to a perspective contact or agent recruit.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. “Solzhenitsyn vs. the KGB.” Time, (27 May 1974, p . 51).
In this first short article since his exile to the West, Solzhenitsyn details hew the KGB forged his handwriting and signature in letters to an emigre organization in Brussels in an apparent attempt to demonstrate his connect ion with anti-Soviet organizations and to establish a case for treason or anti-Soviet propaganda. Examples of Solzhenitsyn’s handwriting and the KGB forgeries are shewn in the article.
“Soviet Is Lifting Cloaks fran Some of Its Spies.” New York Times, (19 January 1969, p. 14).
This article tells of a film showing in Moscow neighborhood movie-houses entitled Off Season, glorifying the exploits of a Soviet intelligence agent working in the West—probably the spy Gordon A. Lonsdale (real name: Konon T. Molodiy). This film is one indication of radical decisions made in 1964 to depart from traditional security policy, to lift the cloak of secrecy from some Soviet espionage activity, and to recognize the work• of specific agents publicly. The glorifying of Richard Sorge, a Soviet intelligence agent operating in Japan prior to World War II, started the trend. He was posthumously awarded a Hero of the Soviet Union; a tanker and a street in Moscow were named after him; and his face was pictured on a four-kopek commemorative postage stamp. Later, Gordon A. Lonsdale was allowed to publish his memoirs, Spy: Twenty Years In The Soviet Secret Service[4], as was Kim Philby My Silent War[5] (both cited in chapter 14, section D3).
[1] Deacon, Richard (1972) [pseud .]. A Hlstory of The Russian Secret Service. London, Muller
[2] Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service (1972-75). Soviet Intelligence And Security Services; A Selected Bibliography of Soviet Publications, With Some Additional Titles From Other Sources. Washington, DC: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
[3] Baron, John (1974). KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Agents. Pleasantville, NY: The Reader’s Digest Association.
[4] Lonsdale, Gordon (1965). Spy: Twenty Years of Secret Service: Memoirs of Gordon Lonsdale. New York: Hawthorn Books
[5] Philby, Kim (1968). My Silent War: The Soviet Master Spy’s Own Story with an introduction by Graham Greene. London: MacGibbon & Kee
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· · · · · · · · · ·
The Second World War by fredslibrary
Title: The Second World War
Author: Winston S. Churchill
Churchill, Winston (1948, et al.). The Second World War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
LCCN: 83012791
Contents
- v. 1. The gathering storm — v. 2. Their finest hour — v. 3. The Grand Alliance — v. 4. The hinge of fate — v. 5. Closing the ring — v. 6. Triumph and tragedy.
Subjects
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Review of “In Command of History”: How Churchill Revised World War II by Max Bootnov[1]
Historians spend a lot of time visiting libraries and archives, reading dusty tomes, taking notes, and writing and revising their manuscripts. A book that describes the gestation of a historical work would therefore seem about as thrilling as an in-depth account of cabinetmaking. Except, that is, when the historian in question is Winston Churchill and the book in question is a description of a war in which he played a starring role.
That is the subject that David Reynolds, a professor of international history at Cambridge University, has chosen for himself. Despite the hall-of-mirrors quality of “In Command of History”—a historian writing about another historian writing another book—he has produced a fascinating account that accomplishes the impossible: he actually finds something new and interesting to say about one of the most chronicled characters of all time.
In Command of History describes how Churchill produced the six volumes of The Second World War, which appeared between 1948 and 1954. That Churchill had the freedom to write was due to one of the bitterest blows of his life—the loss of the 1945 general election. During his “second wilderness years,” he turned to the pen, as he had before, to redeem his reputation, and also to pad his bank account. But he faced considerable obstacles before he could present his version of events.
For one thing, the government’s wartime files would not be opened for decades. Churchill had tried to get around these restrictions by collecting bound volumes of his “personal minutes” and “personal telegrams” while prime minister, but a good case could have been made that they were actually state property. And even if Churchill had been able to make use of his own papers, he would still have needed access to other sealed files to round out his narrative. To gain the documents he required, Churchill had to promise his successor, Clement Attlee, that he would submit his text for vetting by the government before publication. This would turn Churchill’s volumes into a “quasi-official history.”
There was still the question of whether it would be worthwhile to write at all. Under Britain’s confiscatory tax regime, Churchill would have owed 97.5 percent of his royalties to the state. “I shan’t write while the Government takes all you earn,” he growled. To get around this obstacle, his lawyers came up with a dodge worthy of Enron: Churchill would donate his papers to a trust run by his friends and family, which would sell them to publishers for a handsome sum without any tax liability and provide the proceeds for Churchill to live on. The actual writing of the book would be done for a nominal—and taxable—fee.
Churchill reaped quite a bonanza from this arrangement. His chief literary agent, the press baron Lord Camrose, negotiated lucrative deals with publishers in 15 countries and even more lucrative syndication deals with 50 newspapers and magazines in 40 countries. Churchill was to clear at least $18 million in today’s money—enough to secure a very comfortable dotage.
Though Churchill had turned 70 in 1944, he had no intention of retiring. He continued as leader of the opposition before returning to 10 Downing Street from 1951 to 1955. In the meantime he made a major international impact with speeches like the 1946 “Iron Curtain” address. This did not leave even a man of Churchill’s prodigious energy much time to concentrate on literary endeavors. He therefore wound up relying heavily on a bevy of distinguished helpers known as The Syndicate—including two retired generals, a former naval officer and an Oxford historian—who served as his researchers and first-draft writers.
The spine of The Second World War came from documents collected in chronological order. These were supplemented by Churchill’s reminiscences of central events and personalities, usually dictated after a well-lubricated dinner to a secretary who, Reynolds writes, used “a specially muffled typewriter to avoid disturbing his train of thought.” Even as prime minister, however, Churchill did not have personal knowledge of all aspects of the war—he knew little, for example, about the Eastern Front and the Pacific theater. These gaps were partly filled by his assiduous assistants, who produced memorandums that were often incorporated virtually unchanged into the final work.
When the raw material of a chapter was in hand—what Reynolds describes as “a mess of printed documents, typed dictation and drafts, covered with handwritten scrawl”—it would go off to the printers. Churchill would then revise the galleys, send them back to the printers and revise some more. Six to 12 drafts per chapter were normal. The final touches were often applied during working vacations in swank Mediterranean hotels, with the hefty bills footed by his American syndicators, Lifemagazine and The New York Times.
The result was a bit lumpy and uneven: sparkling anecdotes interspersed with half-digested documents and ghostwritten essays. Because Churchill pushed deadlines to the limit and beyond, typos abounded. In one notorious passage, he referred to the French Army as the “poop of the life of France,” rather than the “prop.”
None of this, however, stopped the books from becoming mega-best sellers and winning almost universal accolades from reviewers who had no idea of The Syndicate’s role. “A ghostwriter for Churchill would be the height of the incredible,” opined The Newark News. Though Reynolds shows that the incredible actually happened, he does not hold it against Churchill. He cites one of the research assistants’ dismissal of the question as to how much of The Second World War Churchill actually wrote: It’s “‘almost as superficial a question’ as asking a master chef, ‘Did you cook the whole banquet with your own hands?’”
While the most compelling parts of In Command of History describe how Churchill cooked up this magnum opus, the bulk of the book is actually a detailed critique of The Second World War. Comparing its version of events with subsequent accounts, Reynolds finds, not surprisingly, that Churchill did not always paint an objective portrait.
He had to be careful not to offend wartime colleagues like Dwight Eisenhower and Anthony Eden, with whom he had to continue working in the postwar period. And he had to watch what he said about other countries, even the Soviet Union, for fear of causing a diplomatic incident. He wound up pulling a lot of punches—for instance, toning down his criticisms of Eisenhower’s failure to take Berlin in 1945. He also had to cover up some wartime secrets, like the British success in cracking German codes, which was not publicly revealed until 1974.
The chief source of bias was of course Churchill’s attempt to defend his own reputation. Like most out-of-office politicians, he tried to deflect blame for everything that went wrong while grabbing the lion’s share of the credit for everything that went right. Along the way, Reynolds shows, Churchill had to bend and sometimes break the historical record—for instance, by overstating his support for a cross-channel invasion.
Reynolds thoroughly exposes Churchill’s revisions of history—sometimes too thoroughly. His narrative occasionally bogs down in minute critiques that merely confirm what any sentient reader already knows: that memoirs are inevitably self-serving.
To Reynolds’s credit, while he is intent on pulling back the curtain a bit, he does not conclude, as have more fervent debunkers, that the emperor has no clothing. In the end, Reynolds’s respect for Churchill as writer and statesman appears undiminished by the lengths to which he went to shape his own reputation.
[1] Bootnov, Max, “Command of History’: How Churchill Revised World War II,” in “Sunday Book Review,” New York Times (Nov 13, 2005). Downloaded April 27, 2016, a review of Reynolds, David (2005). In Command of History: Churchill Fighting And Writing The Second World War. New York: Random House. [LCCN: 2004051087]. Max Bootnov, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is completing a history of revolutions in military technology over the past 500 years.
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Under Every Leaf by fredslibrary
Title: Under Every Leaf
Author: William Beaver
Beaver, William (2012). Under Every Leaf: How Britain Played the Greater Game from Afghanistan to Africa. London: Biteback Pub
LCCN: 2012427162
Subjects
- Espionage, British–History–19th century.
- Espionage, British–History–20th century.
- Great Britain–Foreign relations–1837-1901.
- Great Britain–Foreign relations–1901-1936.
Date Posted: April 27, 2016
Reviewed by Hayden B. Peake[1]
In February 1855, the British Secretary for War created the Topographical and Statistical Department, subsequently renamed the Intelligence Department (ID). It was staffed by specially selected military officers and made answerable, over the outraged objections of army generals, to War Department civilians. Its mission was to furnish analyzed intelligence directly to the department, bypassing senior generals, if necessary. The secretary could do this because he controlled the military’s purse strings. The ID had a very impressive record and became a part of the newly created General Staff before WWI. The ID’s story, based mainly on memoirs and letters, has been summarized in several intelligence histories.[2] Working with new material found in the British National Archives, Oxford historian William Beaver provides the first complete account in Under Every Leaf.
The title of the book is taken from a Farsi expression that reflects the pervasiveness of Victorian empire: “Anywhere in the world that a leaf moves, underneath you will find an Englishman.” (p. 7) Managing the empire fell to the War Office, and that required intelligence. The ID was created to provide it in finished form, unprejudiced by military biases. One example of how the ID worked in practice concerned the “Great Game” in the mid-1880s. The generals in India foresaw a major threat from Russia on the northern frontier and proposed moves to thwart it. The ID was tasked to assess the situation and concluded a “Russian attack on India would be so difficult as to be unlikely … [and] well nigh impossible.” (p. 56) The Army turned its attention to Afghanistan and was supported by the ID with maps and other essential data.
The ID did more than make assessments. It established its own agent networks, a library, and a print plant. The presses were a source of real power, allowing the ID to produce its own reports and maps. But the ID’s reports were not heeded. When war loomed in South Africa, ID warnings of upcoming trouble with the Boers were ignored. (p. 278)
The ID’s capabilities were not acquired quickly or without difficulty, and much of the book is devoted to the incessant bureaucratic battles with the Horse Guards and key figures on both sides. The principal lesson from the ID experience is that intelligence without organizational parochialism is critical to sound government policy. This view may sound commonplace today, but Under Every Leafshows it was not always so.
[1] Peake, Hayden B. in The Intelligencer: Journal of U. S. Intelligence Studies (20, 2, Fall/Winter, 2013, pp. 134-135). Hayden Peake is the Curator of the CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection. He has served in the Directorate of Science and Technology and the Directorate of Operations. Most of these reviews appeared in recent unclassified editions of CIA’s Studies in Intelligence. These and many other reviews and articles may be found online at http://www.cia.gov.
[2] Aston, George Grey, Sir (1930). Secret Service. New York, Cosmopolitan book corporation; Parritt, B.A.H. (1971, 2011). The Intelligencers: The Story Of British Military Intelligence Up To 1914(3rd ed.). Barnsley, S. Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military; Fergusson, Thomas G. (1984). British Military Intelligence, 1870-1914: The Development of a Modem Intelligence Organization. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America
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Times Seeks CIA Info on Chemical Weapons
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Pakistan defense minister says Islamabad and Moscow are in talks on sales of military helicopters, air defense systems and modernized tanks.
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Three individuals were charged in the United Kingdom on Thursday on terrorism crimes during a joint investigation following the Paris and Brussels attacks.
The two men charged, Mohammad Ali Ahmed and Zakaria Bouffassil, were indicted for funding terrorism, according to the BBC.
Ahmed along with the third, a woman named Soumaya Boufassil, were separately charged with raising money “with the intention of committing acts of terrorism” or assisting an accomplice to commit those acts, according to police.
They were among five others who police arrested in Birmingham, England and at London’s Gatwick Airport earlier this month. The trio will appear in court Friday.
A fourth man, Fazal Sajjad Younis Khan, was charged with possession of tear gas.
The U.K.’s counter-intelligence Security Service investigation involving Belgian and French authorities heightened after jihadists detonated bombs at Brussels Airport and the Maelbeek subway station, killing 35 people. The Islamic State terrorist group took credit for the attacks.
When authorities arrested the five suspects last month, police said that there was “no risk to the public” and no indications that “an attack in the U.K. was being planned.”
The U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced Monday that ISIS has terrorist cells in the U.K., Germany, and Italy. He said U.S. intelligence officials “continue to see evidence of plotting” on behalf of ISIS in those three nations.
Top U.S. officials have urged European leaders to improve information sharing between nations so that intelligence authorities can better track potential jihadists.
The post UK Authorities Charge Three on Terrorism Offenses appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
The Obama administration is dodging a congressional inquiry into its refusal to designate recent Iranian ballistic missile tests as a violation of an international statute barring such tests, prompting frustration on Capitol Hill from lawmakers who accuse the administration of breaking past promises to enforce the missile ban, according to recent communications sent by the State Department and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Lawmakers launched an investigation earlier this month into what they describe as Obama administration efforts to mislead Congress about the nature of last summer’s comprehensive nuclear agreement.
The administration’s refusal to say that Iran’s missile tests violated the nuclear agreement has emerged as a key diplomatic sticking point in recent months and prompted congressional leaders to launch an investigation into claims that the administration misled lawmakers about the terms of the deal.
Administration officials initially promised Congress that United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which formally governs the nuclear deal, would prohibit Iran’s ballistic missile program. However, the resolution only “calls upon” Iran to refrain from these tests, sparking accusations from lawmakers that the administration is rewriting the terms of the nuclear agreement.
Reps. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), Peter Roskam (R., Ill.), and Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.) petitioned the State Department in a letter this month to explain its shift on the ballistic missile issue.
“While many lawmakers, ourselves included, are certain that Iran’s latest tests violate UNSCR 2231, your decision to cease labeling the launches a violation is alarming,” they wrote. “We are troubled by reports that the administration is stifling voices within its ranks for stronger action against Iran—putting the [nuclear agreement] and political legacy above the safety and security of the American people.”
The State Department, in its response to the letter, continued to dodge questions about the shift in policy, declining to provide lawmakers with information about why it no longer views Iran’s missile tests as a violation, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Free Beacon.
A senior congressional source working on the issue accused the State Department of dodging key questions raised by lawmakers in their initial inquiry.
“It looks like the State Department did not feel a need to answer any of Congressman Pompeo’s questions,” the source said. “Given the complete disconnect between what the Obama Administration testified to Congress about Iranian ballistic missile tests, and how it is behaving now, it is no wonder Pompeo is asking these questions. I am not sure how much longer President Obama and his staff can dance around these issues while avoiding legitimate inquires like this one.”
The State Department described the recent Iranian tests as inconsistent with the U.N. resolution, but would not call them a violation.
“We have long been concerned about Iran’s ballistic missile program,” the State Department wrote. “Iran’s efforts to develop increasingly capable ballistic missile systems remain one of our most significant nonproliferation challenges and a very real threat to regional and international security.”
The resolution only “calls upon Iran not to undertake any launches of ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon,” according to the State Department. “We regard Iran’s March ballistic missile launches to be clearly covered by this provision.”
The administration vowed to continue sanctioning Iranian entities complicit in the ballistic missile program and said it is primarily concerned with resolving the issue at the U.N. Security Council.
During recent talks with international partners, the administration “rejected the notion that it is in any way excusable for Iran—or any other country—to behave contrary to the clear and unanimous express of the Security Council’s will,” the State Department wrote.
“We sent U.S. missile experts to New York to brief on the launches at this meeting to make clear to our Council partners that the launches were inconsistent with the resolution and needed a Security Council response,” the State Department disclosed.
However, the administration admitted that the U.N. is not likely to act on the issue due to opposition by member states such as Russia and China.
“Further action in the Security Council can be blocked by other permanent members of the Council,” the administration said in its letter. “We will continue to use the Security Council to discuss such missile launches and increase the political costs to Iran of its behavior.”
The administration further vowed to help its partners in the region boost their missile defenses to protect against Iranian aggression.
The post Obama Admin Dodges Congressional Inquiry Into Illicit Iranian Missile Tests appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
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“I am very sure about how EUCOM needs to change,” Breedlove said during a recent exit interview with Stars and Stripes. “This headquarters shrank and changed from a war-fighting headquarters to a building-partnership-capacity, engagement kind of headquarters.”
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The Pentagon will levy a series of disciplinary actions against 16 U.S. service members for their role in a deadly attack against a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan last October.
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Three individuals with family connections to Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the terrorists who opened fire on a San Bernardino, California, holiday party last December, have been arrested on multiple charges.
Rizwan Farook’s older brother Syed Raheel Farook, his wife Tatiana Farook, and her sister Mariya Chernykh were arrested on charges of federal conspiracy, marriage fraud, and making false statements, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced in a statementThursday.
The three were charged in a five-count indictment filed in federal court this week. Raheel Farook and his wife were arrested in Corono, Calif., and Chernykh was arrested in Ontario, Calif.
The Los Angeles Times reported that all three individuals were charged with conspiring to create the illusion of marriage between Chernykh and Enrique Marquez, the man awaiting trial for allegedly conspiring with Syed Rizwan Farook to provide material support to terrorists. The indictment alleges that Chernykh entered into a fraudulent marriage with Marquez in order to achieve legal status in the United States.
All three face a maximum of five years in prison for these charges. Additionally, Chernykh is also charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents, perjury, and two counts of making false statements to federal agents. Chernykh faces a maximum of 25 years in federal prison for these charges.
“As I have said previously, we owe the victims, and the entire community of San Bernardino, a thorough investigation that uncovers all criminal activity surrounding these events,” U.S. Eileen Decker said in a statement announcing the charges. “Today’s arrests open a new phase in the process of bringing to justice all individuals who allegedly committed crimes that were uncovered during our exhaustive investigation.”
“The charges also reflect the importance we place on statements made to law enforcement officials during a terrorism investigation. Those who lie to or conceal material information from law enforcement officers investigating terrorist acts will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Decker added.
Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a shooting rampage at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on December 2. They later died in a shootout with police.
The post San Bernardino Terrorist’s Brother, Others Arrested on Federal Charges appeared first onWashington Free Beacon.
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This week marked the 30th anniversary of the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl reactor meltdown—a nuclear disaster that saturated northern Ukraine, southern Belarus and parts of western Russia with radioactivity in the worst fallout in human history. But in the present atmosphere of acute anti-Western sentiment in Russia, even Chernobyl is being used by Moscow as a pretext to attack the Ukrainian government and the United States. Duma speaker Sergei Naryshkin published an official Chernobyl anniversary statement in which he accused the West of ignoring the threat of Ukrainian nuclear power stations being badly managed and open to possible terrorist attacks. Naryshkin called on European countries to discontinue following commands from Washington and start pursuing their true vital interests: “The US is across the ocean, while a possible future nuclear disaster could affect hundreds of millions of Europeans” (Duma.gov.ru, April 26).
Moscow is annoyed by Ukrainian plans to stop buying Russian nuclear fuel and replace it with US sources, which, according to Naryshkin, may lead to disaster. At present, Russia supplies reactor fuel to Ukraine and takes spent fuel rods back for storage and reprocessing. The newly appointed Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Hroysman announced plans to assess the possibility to produce and reprocess nuclear fuel within Ukraine, cutting ties to Russia. A facility to store undamaged fuel rods from the reactor that exploded in 1986 is being built in Chernobyl, using Western grants. Ukrainian authorities hope the same facility may be used to store used rods from other Ukrainian nuclear power plants long term, diminishing dependence on Russia. Moscow of course, does not want to lose either its influence or its premier position in a nearby a nuclear services market (RIA Novosti, April 25).
Russia has used blunt military force, armed hybrid war subversion, acute propaganda, trade sanctions, natural gas shipment cuts and an overall trade blockade to force Ukraine into submission. Yet, none of it seems to have had a desired effect for Moscow: Ukraine is clearly in turmoil and disrepute, but still struggling to break out of Moscow’s grip. Of course, the Kremlin is sure that all its failures are the result of Western (US) plotting and scheming to deprive Russia of its self-declared right to dominate Ukraine.
On April 25, speaking to a regional gathering of activists of the All-Russian People’s Front (ONF) in Yoshkar-Ola—the capital of the Mari El Republic in the Volga region—President Vladimir Putin declared that Western diversions were the core reason of Russia’s problems: “There is an information standoff, initiated by Western opponents jealous of Russia becoming strong.” According to Putin, “information attacks” against him, like the attempt to link the Kremlin to the so-called “Panama Papers,” are in fact attacks aimed at Russia. “If we nodded and agreed with the West, relations would have been good,” continued Putin, “But then we would have lost our standing and, after that, our sovereignty, which is absolutely unacceptable.” Putin announced: “We are ready to seek compromises, we do not want anything from anyone, but only what belongs to us.” Apparently, Crimea and the rest of Ukraine all “belong” to Russia. “They [the West],” continued Putin, “in the last 15–20 years have forgotten what are our interests; and now when we are forcefully manifesting them, they are trying to push back” (Kremlin.ru, April 25).
Putin used the occasion to issue an unequivocal warning: “This is the logic of fighting for interests, and we must not step over designated red lines, but we will not allow others to step over our red lines—we demonstrated that recently.” Apparently Putin was referring to Russia’s use of military force in conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and possibly Georgia. In an additional twist of apparently growing xenophobia, Putin told the ONF activists: “Some foreign foundations are attempting to impose themselves in our schools and kindergartens. We are, of course, open to everything new, but this is very dangerous—our traditions and culture may suffer” (Kremlin.ru, April 25).
Putin’s subordinates follow the chief’s lead without hesitation, and there seems to be something of a contest regarding who can accuse the “treacherous West” of worse crimes. Prosecutor General Yuri Chayka, speaking at a Federation Council session, announced that the Panama Papers exposé was a “special operation”—the work of an unnamed foreign intelligence service, under orders from an unnamed foreign state, as part of the information war against Russia (Interfax, April 27).
The same day, at an international security conference in Moscow, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu denounced the West and its “uncompromising information war against Russia.” According to Shoigu, European security is in tatters, and last week’s session of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels was a failure. “Old arms control agreements are obsolete and are often misused by the West,” continued Shoigu, “while a new security architecture of conventional arms control in Europe is hard to build because of acute lack of mutual trust.” Shoigu complained that Moscow is falsely accused of threatening European countries while the North Atlantic Alliance is considering armed deterrence. In fact, according to Shoigu, “it is the other way round”—NATO is advancing its military infrastructure to Russia’s borders. “NATO must show Moscow respect, if it wants to restore relations,” announced Shoigu (Interfax, April 27).
Arms control agreements that ended the Cold War are indeed turning dysfunctional. These agreements were primarily intended to build mutual trust, which is now absent. Moscow left the 1989 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, in December 2007, as it was preparing for the August 2008 war with Georgia. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Vienna document on trust building is constantly violated by massive Russian snap military exercises, held without prior warning or foreign observers. The Open Sky Treaty is faltering. Moscow does not want Western prying as it prepares for possible military action, and the West could begin to respond in kind. Moscow has officially rejected any further nuclear arms control talks with Washington (Interfax, February 6). The defense ministry has published footage of the launch of long-range (450 kilometers), land-based cruise missiles using the Iskander-M missile launcher (Tvzvezda, April 23). The range of the Iskander cruise missile apparently could be easily increased, so the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty seems in danger, as well.
In 1987, the INF, signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, signaled the beginning of the dismantling of the Cold War standoff. Now, all seems to be in freefall mode back to pre-Gorbachev times.
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