The ANC Attack on Koeburg Nuclear Power Station

After a six month lull in fighting, December 1982 saw the African National Congress strike back at the Apartheid regime with a vengeance. As the December 22, 1982 National Intelligence Daily reported, the ANC conducted a number of attacks against economic, police, and military targets that month.

The most spectacular operation was the bombing of the Koeburg Nuclear Power Station near Cape Town. The attack against the reactors of the well-protected installation released no radioactivity because nuclear fueling had not begun and caused enough damage to require three-to-six months of repairs. 

Here is the National Intelligence Daily released by the CIA in response to a Mandatory Declassification Review:

National Intelligence Daily Regarding NC Nuclear Power Plant Attack

CIA/ DIA Records on the Bradley Manning Support Network

In response to a FOIA request to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA’s Open Source Center has released two reports on the media coverage of the Bradley Manning Support Network. The reports are innocuous in of themselves. One briefly mentions that a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network commented on an Al-Jazeera show on the transfer of Bradley Manning to Fort Leavenworth. The second report contains a comment from a “Martiaan” who called for another commenter to give a shout-out of support to Bradley Manning during a planned disruption.

The value of these documents is in the fact they were referred back to the CIA by the DIA for release. This provides further evidence that the Defense Intelligence Agency is conducting an investigation of some kind into the Bradley Manning Support Network.

BMSN Article I

BMSN Article II

Is the CIA Censoring Its WikiLeaks Records?

A comparison between the "-Your search - WikiLeaks - did not match any documents-" responses given by the search engine used by the CIA's website and the multiple responsive records found Google, it appears the answer to the headline question appears to be Yes!

On a lark, I entered the term "WikiLeaks"  into the search engine used by the CIA's website. This was the response:

  

Curiosity piqued,  I entered WikiLeaks as a search term into the search engine of the CIA's website. This time I did more specialized search for "CSI" and "CSI Archive" results. CSI = Center for the Study of Intelligence. Here are the results.

Search of the CSI Archive for WikiLeaks

Search Results for "CSI" for WikiLeaks records:

An "Advanced search" by Google produces multiple "WikiLeaks" results"on the cia.gov domain.

Intelligence- Preservation Complex: The CIA and Colonial Williamsburg

Few Americans-then or now- realized how much American culture was adapted, modified, hidden, destroyed, or created to serve as weapons against the Soviets during the Cold War. For example, if you've ever seen the cartoon version of Animal Farm, you'll notice significant differences from the book, including the eliminations of characters who served as critiques of capitalism and the creation of a new, positive ending. The reason for these alterations to the narrative is the CIA was funding the film. As documented in the book, Cultural Cold War, the CIA funded numerous festivals, fairs, and publications with the idea of battling Soviet influence.

A random search thrown at the CIA's CREST system uncovered CIA involvement with that historical site. In classified March 1951 memorandum from [redacted]Assistant to the Director to Chief, Foreign Division, the Director's Assistant asks Foreign to provide commentary on a report compiled by a gentleman named Kershaw Burbank who appears to been hired by a John D. Rockefeller III to adapt Colonial Williamsburg’s programming to the needs of the Cold War. Specifically Rockefeller thought "the institution might serve a more useful purpose if the stress were shifted toward portraying the democratic way of life which contributed to America's growth." We know that the Cold War and anti-Communism were driving forces behind these revisions to Colonial Williamsburg programming due to Burbank's desire to have feedback from CIA experts on Soviet Communism. Not to mention that his 26-page report is nothing but a harsh critique of communism and a promotion of capitalism.

In a May 1951 memorandum classified “Secret”, the Chief, International Communism Branch, Staff C writes to [redacted] Assistant to the Director and informed [redacted] that the requested review has been completed. The International Communism Branch, Staff C gave the report middling remarks. Part A of the report is described as having "useful restatement of some of the concepts underlying Soviet/Communist ideology," but then criticizes the analysis for lacking "progress in depth" except for quoting a few list authors and books. Part B is giving higher praise for being "well formulated". However, Burbank is again dinged for lack of depth in his analysis. They also recommend a "through study” of the “Communist/Soviet theory” of 'Democracy’.  Chief, International Communism Branch, Staff C expresses a willingness and desire to review additional reports created by Burbank.

Colonial Williamsburg- CIA

A Liar for God, a Stooge for the Soviets: A Billy Graham Tale

An undated CIA report "Dissent and Religion in the USSR" reveals that the Soviet regime used Billy Graham and other high-profile evangelists to further government goals. According to the CIA study, visits by Graham and others served Soviet propaganda goals and weakened religious organizations hostile to the government. When Graham and others preached in the USSR, the Soviets were empowered to claim that free of religion was present in the USSR.  Graham and others were allowed to “registered church” congregations which the CIA noted denied legitimacy to unofficial or illegal religious groupings which as documented by the CIA engaged in widespread, near- continual resistance to the regime. In contrast, clergy from registered churches were used by the Soviets for their own purposes. Some clerics served as "propagandists for regime policy," while the Russian Orthodox Church received additional support in the hopes it would poach adherents away from religions likely to pose a challenge to continue government domination. 

Undated CIA Report on Religion in the USSR

CIA Glomars FOIA Request Christopher Hitchens

In response to a FOIA request, the CIA has invoked Glomar and refuses to confirm or deny the existence of any records pertaining to Christopher Hitchens.

I honestly suspect there are some records due to his past associations with communists and just the global nature of his work, fame, and persona. I am willing to wage a modicum of my meager wage that we will have some confirmation of this when the FBI responds to FOIA requests seeking Bureau records on Hitchens.

The CIA Glomars Request for Christopher Hitchens Records

"Rampant Corruption Among the Security Forces," Ineptitude Hindered Peruvian War on Terrorism

Information recently declassified in response to a Mandatory Declassification Review to the Central Intelligence Agency reveals that “rampant corruption among the security forces” and “interservice rivalries” hampered the Peruvian war on terrorism in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Also discussed is the role of Libyan money played in supporting the organization which the CIA believes was behind a spike in the capabilities of Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), which included as well as support to a wider-range of fellow terrorist organizations than the CIA was willing to publicly acknowledge. Support from MRTA was not only extended to Bolivian terrorists but also a terrorist group in Argentina and possibly elsewhere.

The CIA noted that the MRTA posed a challenge to the Sendero Luminoso, a larger, more rural terrorist organization operating in Peru at that time. The CIA believed that MRTA's successful attacks inside Lima and the publicity they generated were likely behind the uptick in violence by Sendero Luminoso occurring at that the time.

Finally, the CIA also reveal its organizational chart for the organization for the first time.See the full report below:

3/1991 CIA Report on the Tupac Amaru

CIA/ Mandela Porn: The Best CIA Documents About Nelson Mandela

In honor of the 22 anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, I have compiled from the CIA's publicly released archives, a collection of the most interesting documents and factoids available on or about Nelson Mandela.

In response to a Mandatory Declassification Review, the CIA processed a 9/26/1986 Directorate of Intelligence Report titled,” Nelson Mandela: What if Alive and Well and Free in South Africa [redacted].

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81311359/Mandela-Alive-and-Well-in-SA

 

The report reveals that Mandela, despite South African claims to the contrary, was not a Communist. Additionally, Mandela refused to renounce violence in order to secure his release from prison, preferring to remain in jail because he “almost certainly believes that his remaining in prison serves the black cause better than his accepting a conditional release. He evidently calculates that his continued imprisonment keeps international attention focused on the South Africa problem and discredits government reform efforts that do not include him.”

Another striking feature of the report is that Mandela was viewed as particularly close to death and there was an acute fear of him dying in prison.

Compare this version to the 2006 release version and you'll notice that despite the passage of twenty years and the deaths of many South African, African National Congress, and American figures related to this issue, we're still not allowed to know a single additional word of the report. In fact, the CIA released the document with zero new information declassified. The only difference is that the CIA switched the color of the redactions from black to a white.

One of the scenario likely contained within redactions of the above document is a renewed military campaign by the ANC. According to an article in the 4/8/1985 Terrorism Review, “if [Mandela] were to leave the country and actively resume his position as head of the ANC, many young blacks would follow him to fight under his leadership” and “ a reinvigorated ANC with Mandela at the helm might even cause a shift in attitudes among leaders of neighboring black states. They are currently are following a policy of cautious détente with Pretoria, but their hatred of apartheid could overcome fear of South African retribution if they believed the ANC's military campaign had a reasonable chance of success.”

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81311572/481985-Terrorism-Review

Here is the undated CIA profile of “Mike” "An Angry Young Black" supporter of Nelson Mandela. It is social/cultural history profile produced by the CIA on young black men in 1980s South Africa. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81311655/Mike-An-Angry-Young-Black

If this Mandela reader is giving a different view of Mandela, this is because you're seeing Mandela as the American and South African governments viewed and portrayed him at that time. He had yet to win. He was still a terrorist. The ANC was still a Soviet-backed terrorist organization.

Here is a 10/28/1961 Central Intelligence Bulletin reported on a sabotage campaign by the African National Congress which was called for by Mandela and which “would concentrate initially on telephone lines and government offices but later might include roadblocks and railroad sabotage.”

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81311955/10281961-Central-Intelligence-Bulletin

This 3/31/1979 National Intelligence Daily reports on the African National Congress's view that “terrorism, civil disorder, strikes, and propaganda are the only practical means now available to break down authority within South Africa.” It also reported that the ANC was receiving assistance from the Soviet Union, Cubans, and East Germany while possessing infrastructure in Mozambique, Zambia,  Tanzania, and Swaziland.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81312215/3311979-National-Intelligence-Daily-Cable

This NIE -94-4: Prospects for the South African Transition- is an estimative product on how the transaction from apartheid would occur. The US IC predicted a 1 in 20 chance which, the CIA believed "would push South Africa to the brink of anarchy" and lead the ANC to "resort to large-scale violence to protest such an outcome." This wasn't the only violence predicted by the CIA. This NIE is laden with violent end game scenarios resulting murder, mayhem, and bloodshed.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81315845/Prospects-for-the-South-African-Transition

In addition to the violence, this NIE is notable for calling out early Nelson Mandela's commitment to economic pragmatism. Too bad, Mandela's supporters didn't read this he smashed their hopes for economic justice. The CIA also predicted a 1 in 100 chance of an act of nuclear terrorism.

SNIE 73.2-85 Prospects for South Africa:  Stability, Reform, and Violence has very little about Mandela, but a great deal of information on the cultural, social, economic, and military situation.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81312510/SNIE-732-85-Prospects-for-South-Africa-Stability-Reform-And-Violence 

My favorite two factoids:

1. One in 8 South African whites were involved in the internal defense structure necessary to maintain apartheid in mid 1980s. 
2. Interestingly, black townships were built to facilitate white dominance. As documented by the NIE Township roads wide enough for a South African armored personnel carrier to make a U-turn, House built no closer than  a specified distance so as not to impede police weapons fire and to make it more difficult for a fugitive to evade authoritiesConvenient vantage points for police vehicles to gather and monitor wide areas of the townships.A distance between the boundaries of the township and main highways in the area that exceeded the range of a high-powered rifle, presumably to protect travelers from snipers and even errant police shots in the event of a serious disturbance.   

Libya's support to the African National Congress paid off when Mandela, grateful for Libyan assistance during the anti-apartheid struggle, called for the end of sanctions against the Qaddafi regime. South Africa also began to cultivate Libya as a market for South African goods.

9/9/1998 Sub-Saharan Africa: Seeking Pragmatic Relations with Rogue States

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/81313403?access_key=key-2f6tijdx8fqhe0wmryye

SNIE 73-86 The African National Congress of South Africa: Organization, Communist Ties, and Short-Term Prospects contains a great deal of background information on the ANC and its organization allies.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81312855/SNIE-73-86-the-African-National-Congress-of-South-Africa-Organization-Communist-Ties-and-Short-Term-Prospects

Key highlights and fun factoids:

1. The ANC was "externally based and bureaucratically complex organization."
2. The CIA estimated a quarter of the ANC were also members of the South African Communist Party.
3. It also notes that Mandela didn't even hold an official position in the ANC despite being popularly viewed as its leader.

A Nuclear End to Apartheid

In NIE 94-4 Prospects for the South African Transition, the American Intelligence Community found that hardline white South Africans were plotting to steal uranium. The American IC predicted a 1 in 100 chance of an act of nuclear terrorism.

Scary.  How is that for some black history month learning?

South African Nuclear Terrorism

Arkan Declassified: What the CIA Was Willing to Disclosed

Željko Ražnatović aka Arkan was the most mediagenic, infamous, and well-known Serbian warlord. Married to glamorous turbo-folk singer Ceca, owner of a leading Serbian soccer team, and possessor of the best-trained thugs in all the Balkans, he had little competition in that regard.

In response to a recent FOIA request seeking "all previously released records" pertaining to Željko Ražnatović, the CIA released just two records. The first is a FBIS translation of a Slovenian media article titled, "Rape as a Means of Battle" in which the authors report on the allegations the rape warfare strategies employed by VRS forces in Bosnia were organized, approved, and defended at the very top. The second - and far more interesting document- is a copy of the portions of the CIA's April 1999 Terrorism Review dealing with possible anti-American violence spawned by the NATO intervention against Serb genocide in Kosovo.

While I honestly disbelieve that Arkan named his group the Serbian Terrorist Organization Resistance Movement (STOP). I do not disbelieve that Arkan had the capacity- probably an organized, named capacity-to strike at the United States. However, I doubt he would have used it to defend Serbia. I base it not only on his failure to use it, but also the fact that Arkan was about Arkan first. While Hungary, Macedonia, Croatia, and the rest of the Balkans might be willing to tolerate his criminal enterprises, none of them could or would tolerate terrorist attacks on its soil, much less directed  terrorism at it. A single Arkan ordered terrorist attack would meant the end of his lucrative rackets. Thus, why, in part, there were none.

Anyway, enjoy the files.

Arkan's (Available) CIA File

The Milosevic Files

A rapid method to procure documents from the CIA is limit your request to "previously released records." This means sacrificing your right to appeal and usually (but not always) receiving stuff in the public domain. Y

I recently submitted several such requests for Yugoslav leaders such as Milovan Djilas, Aleksandar Ranković, Slobodan Milosevic, Željko Ražnatović (Arkan), and Edvard Kardelj. In the cases of Djilas, Ranković, and Kardelj, I received significant numbers of hard-to-find documents relating to the men. My request for Arkan's files, I was given two documents a FBIS translation of a Slovenian newspaper article and a copy of a Terrorism Review."

In response to Milosevic, I received two "requester reports"- a one- page report and another eight page report. I am not sure how they were created, but they list every previously released document on Milosevic. I done some research on the CIA's websites. The check marks means you'll find it searching for "Milosevic" while the an "x" means you have to search for that specific document. No marks means you'll most likely have to order it up.

Milosevic Requester Report

The CIA's Kagame Whitewash

The first two pages of the document below are the version of the 12/21/1990 Africa Review approved for release in June 2006.  You will notice that Paul Kagame’s decision to abandon military training at Ft. Leavenworth in early October 1990 to assume command of the Rwandan rebel forces when the former leader was slain,” was unclassified.


 Kagame CIA Coverup

Now, scroll down in the document and compare the 2006 version of page 5 to the the version of page 5 released at the end of 2011. The mention of Kagame’s training at Fort Leavenworth has been redacted.  It seems that as Kagame’s star has dimmed over the last five years, his activities in Leavenworth have become a source of embarrassment.

Against it Before He Used it: Joe Biden and the Intelligence Identities Protection Act

This week former CIA case officer John Kiriakou was charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act, one count of making false statements (Kiriakou is accused of having lied to the CIA's pre- publication review border about portions of his books being “fictionalized”), and one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. 

Passed in 1982, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was designed to deter and punish people like Philip Agee, a CIA officer turned rogue, who published a book on the agency (Inside the Company: CIA Diary) and a newsletter titled “CovertAction Information Bulletin,” in which he outed CIA case officers stationed abroad. So far, there has only been one prosecution under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, that of Sharon Scranage who was charged under the act  in 1985 because she passed information to her Ghanaian boyfriend who turned out to be a Ghanaian intelligence operative.

Lying to the federal government is frequently punished and the Obama's use of the Espionage Act to suppress whistle blowers is almost routine. However, neither fact reduces the irony of the Obama-Biden administration's use of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act to prosecute a CIA case officer's whistle blowing to the media. 

The irony of Kiriakou's situation arises from the fact that as Senator Biden, Joe Biden opposed the Intelligence Identities Protection Act on the grounds that it would deter legitimate media investigations into national security issues. As shown by Biden's April 6, 1982 op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor. Titled "A Spy Law That Harms National Security," Biden worried that the language as it stood then and as it passed would he called supporting the Act a "mistake" that would hinder[] the press from performing this vital function”

because 

"the mere threat of such prosecution would be enough to dissuade many news organizations from pursuing stories of this kind, out of fear of the legal entanglements and cost which might result even if a reporter is finally acquitted”

and this would 

"curtail legitimate journalistic scrutiny of a particularly important and sensitive area of government, creating the possibility that wrongdoing or wrong- headedness could flourish in that area, unchecked by public awareness.”

All of which Biden argued, posed a real risk to American national security.

While opposition to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was sparse (only 32 voted against in the house, while Biden was one of only 4 senators to oppose in the senate. He was joined by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Gary Hart, and one Republican Charles Mathias), it did exist. After the bill passed the Senate, Moynihan warned that:

"It now appears that we will soon have a law which, while making it easier to convict scoundrels, will chill the exercise of First Amendment rights." (1)

It seems Biden and Moynihan are being proved right. 

(1) "Bill to Penalize Uncovering of Agents Passed by Senate," New York Times, 6/11/1982. pg a20

Herbert Yardley : The NSA Hero Who Was a Spy

There is hope for Bradley Manning yet. That statement seems odd given that he's not challenging the facts of his case and, instead, is opting for a mitigation strategy. However, as the saga of Herbert O. Yardley shows, treasonous heels can become heroes if the evidence of their guilt is hidden by classification, buried in document dumps, and obscured by the passage of enough time. This was proven in 1999 when Yardley became an inaugural member of the NSA's Hall of Honor.

Well documented by James Bamford's books and the NSA's own website, Yardley "served as a cryptologic officer with the American Expeditionary Forces in France during WWI. In the 1920s he was chief of MI-8, the first U.S. peacetime cryptanalytic organization, jointly funded by the U.S. Army and the Department of State. In that capacity, he and a team of cryptanalysts exploited nearly two dozen foreign diplomatic cipher systems. MI-8 was disbanded in 1929 when the State Department withdrew its share of the funding." In 1931, in need of funds, Yardley published 'his memoirs of MI-8, "The American Black Chamber." In this book, Yardley revealed the extent of U.S. cryptanalytic work in the 1920s."

What Bamford did not know or chose to leave out his books was the fact that Yardley sold out the American Black Chamber to the Japanese Empire for 7,000 in 1930. This fact was uncovered by Ladislas Farago during his research for The Broken Seal: The Story of Operation Magic and the Pearl Harbor Disaster, a book on cryptography relation to Pearl Harbor. The story spawned an CIA investigation. Below is the 12/12/1967 Memorandum for the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from Walter Pforzheimer confirming the allegations. 

CIA Herbert Yardley Spy Memorandum

Nor was the CIA alone in launching an investigation. The National Security Agency conducted its own inquiry into Yardley's conduct which "tend[ed] to strongly to substantiate Farago's basic claim" though it also found that "much of the rest of his account of the transaction either could not be confirmed or was found to be wrong."(1) This tendency to be wrong was undoubted a reason that David Kahn and others disbelieved his allegations.(2) Eventually, the controversy as well as Yardley's memory faded from public memory creating the space necessary for his 1999 Hall of Honor Induction.

(1) [redacted], "The Many Lives of Herbert O. Yardley, Cryptologic Spectrum, Fall 1981 - Vol. 11, No. 4 , pg. 26 Read here
(2)Ibid., pg 28 fn. 68

A Father-in-Law With Benefits: How David Petraeus Advanced His Career

 I thought this would be as good a time to remind or teach everyone that David Petraeus' ascent is due, in part, not to his martial prowess, but his willingness to kiss or sleep his way up to the top.

When he was a mere West Point cadet, Petraeus conveniently fell in love with Hollister Knowlton, the daughter of William A. Knowlton, then West Point Commandant, providing an early demonstration of what Colonel Andrew J. Bacevich (ret.) describes as Petraeus' “considerable talent for cultivating influential figures, both in and out of uniform, who might prove useful in advancing his own prospects.” (1) Fortunately, for Petraeus, Knowlton wasn't completely through a long, successful career. After leaving West Point, Knowlton became the chief of staff United States European Command. After finishing Ranger School, Petraeus followed his father-in-law to Europe; he where was assigned to the 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team.

In some ways just as important as her status as the West Point's Commandant's daughter, was Hollister Knowlton's status as a descendant of a Mayflower traveler.(2)  This a status that is far more important to many American blue bloods than that of “Director of the CIA” or “General.”

(1)Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2010), 193

(2) Miss Knowlton Officer's Bride At West Point, New York Times, 7/7/1974, pg..40

Fun and Games With the CIA's CREST Database

CREST or the the CIA Records Search Tool is a system used by the CIA to make available declassified records since 2000. It  is located at NARA II in College Park, Maryland. For years, this system and the records contained with were available on just four computers housed on the second 3rd floor of the NARA II building. The reasons this limited access were, according to Mother Jones's reporting: fear of hackers altering the information, an implict desire to keep foreign intelligence from accessing those files, and a general wish to prevent mischief.

This has changed. The "CIA has now also begun to include documents images in addition to the metadata for a select group of documents referred to as the "Best of CREST: (BOC)." This means that some documents will be visible while others will be mentioned but you'll have to FOIA them to see them.

Metadata Leaks Still Secret Information

This inclusion of "metadata" makes for interesting reading. Recently, I discovered that metadata can compromise information the CIA wants withheld on national security or privacy grounds. Here is a safe example of such. Enter the name "Ann Caracristi" (she was the first female deputy director of the NSA) into the CREST search engine. You get back one document.

Now, request that document from the CIA. Here's what you get. Notice how Ms. Caracristi's name is withheld. Oops.
Caracristi Turner Letter

Half-Baked Declassification

Another problem with CREST is that it's subjected to the same half-baked CIA declassification standards as any FOIA, MDR, or statutory-required release. Here are two versions of a 3/14/1984 memorandum from Herbert E. Meyer to the Director of Central Intelligence,the deputy Director of Central Intelligence, and the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council titled: “Abortions in the Soviet Bloc: What They Mean.” The first version was released in August 2008. The second version was released in December 2008.

Here is the August 2008 version :

3/14/1981 Memo on Warsaw Pact Abortions

Here is the December 2008 version.

Soviet Abortion Limited Redactions

The August 2008 version has the following redactions:

A name or names on the first page is redacted while on the second page, Herbert E. Meyer's signature and another name are withehld.  The third page is withheld in its entirety.

The December 2008 version it features fewer redactions. As you can see, the name withheld in the August 2008 edition is revealed. Meyer's signature is revealed though the name is still redacted. Only two names are redacted on the third page.

None of the Really Good Stuff is There

CREST and "Best of CREST" has a lot of interesting and worthwhile stuff. However, the truly fascinating materials are not hosted on the CIA's website. You have to FOIA them and then wait and possibly pay fees. This serves to limit access to these files by erecting utterly unnecessary barriers between the documents and the public. If the CIA has the staff and equipment to scan worthless thank you letters, than they have the staff to include copies of cool documents like the records on Stargate, Ramparts Magazine, and Grillflame, where most, if not all the responsive records have to be ordered up via FOIA.

Only one "Grill Flame" result is available online

Document of the Week #15 CIA Report on Terrorist Attacks on American Business Abroad

In the hubbub spawned by the successful whacking of Osama Bin Laden, I totally forgot to post a Document of the Week. By the time I remembered to do so, it was already Thursday and I simply decided to shelve it until next week.

This Document of the Week is a June 1982 CIA report on terrorist attacks against American businesses aboard between January 1968 through December 1981. Twenty pages in length, the report includes several interesting graphs and numerous factoids that challenge the post-9/11 narrative that terrorism was unknown to the United States and its American inhabitants.

In the 14-year span covered by the report, the CIA noted there almost a thousand terrorist attacks against American business interests by foreign terrorists. Of the 953 attacks carried out by 98 different foreign terrorist organizations against American businesses, 144 of them caused casualties. The number of attacks increased from 1968 until they peaked in 1974 when they began a decline that was interrupted by an uptick in 1978 due to the events in Iran. During this time period, Argentina was the site of the most attacks against American businesses keeping with Latin America being the geographic location of the most attacks Argentinian terrorist organization Montoneros was the group responsible for the most terrorist attacks against American interests in the time period covered by the report. The Western Europe and the Middle East were each the locations of 18% of the total attacks followed by the North America (which includes the United States saw 16% of the total attacks.

This report does have some noticeable errors. A while back, I posted a similar CIA focused on skyjackings of American aircraft, which listed attacks by Croatian and Serbian nationalists groups opposed to the former Yugoslavia. This report lists and mentions  those acts (calling them skyjackings) but fails to list the groups responsible for them.

CIA Report on Terrorist Attacks on American Businesses

Croatian Dissident Bruno Busic's CIA Files

In response to a FOIA request I had submitted for the records of Croatian dissident nationalist and the manifesto writer for the hijackers of TWA-355 Bruno Busic, the CIA released fifteen pages of records (and invoked Glomar regarding the existence or non-existence of any other records), just finished intelligence reports, on him. The first document is a single page from the 21 September 1972 Eastern Europe Intelligencer in which the CIA reported that Busic, Franjo Tudjman, and another man were on trial, accused of working with “unspecified foreign intelligence service,” which in the case of Busic meant the CIA. The CIA also made note of Busic's contacts with emigre Croatian radicals.

The next document is the entire 14 December 1971 Central Intelligence Bulletin in which Busic was discussed. Sandwiched between a redacted in its entirety article and an article on the controversy very over the Soviet intention to open an embassy in Costa Rica is a page long article on the crackdown on Croatian nationalists by the Yugoslav government. At least thirty people, including Bruno Busic, were arrested and the Yugoslav government denounced their actions and threatened further interventions to maintain order. 

Bruno Busic's CIA Records

Skyjacking: A CIA Analysis and History

N.B.- I know that I have promised several of my readers that I was going to cut down on Scribd uploads. I intend to do so. However, I had already scanned this document and Google Documents refuses to accept it. Thus I have no choice.

As for the record itself, it is a July 1982 CIA study on “terrorist skyjacking”. The use of “Skyjacking” to describe airline hijackings makes this report worthwhile by itself because SKYJACKING is a boss word and deserves to be resurrected from its linguistic purgatory.

More seriously, this 24-page CIA report is a statistical study with historical commentary on the rise and prevalence of terrorist skyjackings and presumably garden-variety skyjackings since the first “terrorist skyjacking” took place in 1968 when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) seized an El-Al jet liner.(1) The CIA's statistics reveal a great deal of common wisdom challenging information:

As documented by the CIA, 9% of all terrorist attacks were skyjackings. The 684 skyjackings between 1968 and 1982 resulted in at least 500 deaths and 400 injuries. Of the 684 skyjackings, the CIA ruled 108 of them “terrorist skyjackings” and that these terrorist skyjackings. Among these 108, forty turned violent with the end result being 212 dead and 186 wounded.

So, contrary to popular wisdom, the pre-911 skyjackings were not necessarily safe nor simply affairs to draw media attention to one's cause or to procure the release of one's comrades.

While terrorist skyjackings were done by many groups for both attention and to secure the release of their members, the bulk of the hijackings were done by Palestinians.

Between 1968- July 1982:

Cuba was the most common diversion point. Cuba also granted safe haven to terrorist skyjackers the most often.

Lebanon was the most frequent point of origin for hijacked aircraft as well as the skyjackers' most frequently boarding point

While only 7% of skyjackings occurred in the North America, American aircraft were the most often skyjacked.

So again, the post-911 narrative that Americans had little experience with foreign terrorism is explicitly challenged and even debunked.

Sprinkled throughout the paper are some nifty graphics, one of which reveals a steep and briefly sustain drop-off in terrorist skyjackings in response to new security measures such as metal detectors.

On a final note, some caution is required when reading this report. The CIA itself admits to using “incomplete data” and I know that the CIA is incorrect in describing two incidents listed in this report.

First, only five Croatians were released during the 1972 hijacking in Sweden and secondly, only four Croatians and the American wife of the ringleader hijacked TWA-355 in September 1976.

Terrorist Skyjackings: A CIA Report

(1)Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998) 67

Document of the Week #12 CIA History of the Rwandan Genocide

The CIA's Office of Office of Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Analysis's 9/18/1999 Intelligence Report titled “Rwanda Struggling to Overcome Genocidal Past” is a well-written, and generally all-round stellar short-history of the Rwandan Genocide. Highlights of this document include

The author's clear, unequivocal rejection of the belief that the genocide "was a release of centuries-old ethnic hatreds.

The author's unhesitating assignment of responsibility to the guilty party.

The blunt, factual, and evidence-supported description of the genocide and the reasons behind the genocide.

In short, the author shows, the Rwandan Genocide was not the product of uncontrolled blood lust and ethnic hatreds, but was the cruel, cold, and well-thought plot of Hutu extremists fearing their lose of power and privilege. 

Rwanda Struggling to Overcome Genocidal Past