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Bernice Moore

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Posts posted by Bernice Moore

    Woman on Agents Corner identified?

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted

    hi jack ; i am wondering if it is another look a like, because if she had been there that day, i imagine somewhere down through the years she would have eventually told someone in the family, just thinking out loud, i do see a resembance but i imagine we could find others also within the crowds perhaps, ...fwiw, many thanks for posting the new information though...take care b

    The Phil Ochs Question

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted

    Thanks Bernice I just read the account of officer Mooney who said the power to the Book Depository building was cut off before the elevator hit the 2nd floor. They also had to order search lights to see in the dark.

    This was right after he told a "civilian" to not let anyone in or out of the back door shipping dock.

    BILL HERE IS A LINK TO THE BOOK.

    http://tiny.cc/vcf2e

    e

    your wecome jim, yes the fire dept took in search ights up to the 6th floor, all they had were single bulbs hanging from the ceiling at that time...also you might be interested in this info, there were 4 separate doors exiting the tsbd ...take care...b

    The Other Witnesses

    By George and Patricia Nash

    The New Leader, 12 October 1964, pages 6–9

    <P class=yiv832301038yiv1869975492MsoNormal> <P class=yiv832301038yiv1869975492MsoNormal> The Report mentions that “the front door” and “the rear door” of the Depository were guarded from about six minutes after the shooting. What it omits, however, is that there were four separate “rear doors,” all of which were open and only one of which was guarded. There are two loading platforms, a customer’s door and a rail entry. No one guarding any of these doors could see any of the others. This conceivably might be relevant to a question of whether Oswald acted alone. As Shelley told us, “Any one of a thousand different people could have entered or left the building and nobody would have known it.” http://www.kenrahn.com/jfk/history/wc_period/reactions_to_warren_report/support_from_center/The_other_witnesses--Nashes.html

    Lyndon Johnson makes "cowboy love" to Jackie post assassination

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    hi moderator, the edit button appears not to be working, could you check i have tried 3 times now, and it does not appear to click after one has made their corrections, so the spellum goofs are still there...thanks..b :blink::blink:

    p.s now the upload for attachments is not loading...have a look many thanks, tried twice...b :blink::blink:

    Both my edit and upload fucntions seem to be working.

    Could another member please confirm if they are experiencing the same problems as Bernice?

    Bernice, which browser are you using?

    :ph34r:

    i was using the internet explorer... ...i tried to upload a photo tonight but that did not work but jus now when i clicked the attach files they came up ???the edit is..not working for me in this post .....but it would not surprise me if it is this pita lap...thanks b..

    PENTAGON DELAYS NEW BOOK;Afghanistan

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    Be careful where you tread Miss. B. I smell something fishy whenever there is "tabloid" news in the media before our eyes.

    I AWAIT THE NEXT CHAPTER, SOMEONE WHO WORKS FOR SOMEONE, HAS JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE BEEN PROVIDED WITH ONE OF THOSE OUT THERE COPIES...:unsure:MAY BE INTERESTING TO FOLLOW IT ALONG... :ph34r: THANKS TAKE CARE B..

    If Oswald didn't do it

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted

    JIM, VERY INTERESTING INFORMATION THANKS, "" I have spent a great deal of time pondering how a group of conspirators could have executed a plan so exact and percise that, to this day, it has alowed their names to remain a mystery"". COULD THIS BE BECAUSE THEY WERE IN CHARGE OF INVESTIGATING THEMSELVES, THEREFORE NOTHING WOULD LEAD TO THEM..THEY THOUGHT...BEST B

    CIA DATABASE RECORDS AVAILABLE

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted

    CIA RECORDS DATABASE AVAILABLE FOR INQUIRIES

    The Central Intelligence Agency maintains a very high quality records system

    called ARCINS, the Agency Records and Information System. ARCINS contains

    subject listings down to the folder level of more than 34 million records.

    Requesters seeking records under either the Freedom of Information Act or

    under the provisions of Mandatory Declassification Review can specify a

    search of ARCINS when contacting the CIA. Such a request will aid the

    agency in processing requests more efficiently.

    If you wish to submit a request, simply identify the relevant keywords and

    submit a request to the following address, asking that the agency conduct a

    search of ARCINS.

    Information and Privacy Coordinator

    Central Intelligence Agency

    Washington, D.C. 20505

    Or FAX: 703-613-3007

    The agency says on its website:

    The FOIA is designed to permit requesters to obtain information from the

    Government on subjects in which they are interested. Sharply focused and

    specific requests will facilitate the Agency's processing of your request by

    helping us to identify those records systems likely to contain information

    responsive to the request and to identify any responsive materials the

    Agency may have previously released. The FOIA does not require agencies to

    answer questions or do research.

    ===

    As noted on the CIA website, the CIA prefers to receive sharply focused and

    specific requests. Requesters may submit a request for a search of the

    ARCINS database for records with specific keywords or subject matter. You

    can also specify records of a particular timeframe, such as all reports from

    a particular Month and Year.

    ==

    The following additional details are taken from the report of the Advisory

    Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, and are provided for background.

    Director of Central Intelligence Area. The files under the control of the

    DCI are in paper from years 1947-80 and are indexed in ARCINS.

    Directorate of Science and Technology. The files under the control of the

    DST are also indexed in ARCINS.

    Directorate of Intelligence. The DI has three central databases which are

    computerized index systems of raw and finished intelligence reports, as well

    as two hard copy indices. The former are queried by subject categories,

    area codes, and/or key words.

    Directorate of Administration. The DA's files are indexed primarily by

    name.

    Directorate of Operations. The DO has an automated index system that

    contains subject files and personality flies.

    ==

    ------ FROM FROG..END OF FORWARDED MESSAGE

    MEET THE 8,074 NEW YORK TRANSIT WORKERS WHO EARN

    in Political Conspiracies

    PENTAGON DELAYS NEW BOOK;Afghanistan

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted

    PENTAGON DELAYS PUBLICATION OF NEW BOOK

    The Department of Defense says that a forthcoming book about the war in Afghanistan contains classified information, and that it should not be put on the market in its current form. Instead, the Pentagon is considering whether to purchase and destroy the entire first printing of the book, "Operation Dark Heart" by Anthony A. Shaffer, while a revised edition is prepared. The controversy was first reported by the New York Times in "Pentagon Plan: Buying Books to Keep Secrets" by Scott Shane, September 10.

    Shaffer, the book's author, is a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer and Army lieutenant colonel. He submitted the manuscript to the Army for prepublication review and received permission to proceed earlier this year. The book was printed and prepared for release at the end of August by the publisher, St. Martin's Press.

    But prior to the publication date, a copy of the manuscript was obtained by DIA and other intelligence agencies, all of whom raised new objections to its publication.

    "DIA's preliminary classification review of this manuscript has identified significant classified information, the release of which I have determined could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security," wrote DIA Director Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess, Jr. in an August 6 memo.

    "I have also been informed that United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) have determined that the manuscript contains classified information concerning their activities. In the case of NSA, this includes information classified at the TOP SECRET level," Gen. Burgess wrote. He directed that Lt. Col. Shaffer be "ordered to take all necessary action to direct his publisher to withhold publication of the book" pending a new security review.

    But the Pentagon now faces a policy conundrum due to the fact that numerous review copies of the book are already circulating in the public domain. (We picked up a couple of them last week.) What this means is that any effort to selectively censor the manuscript at this late date would actually tend to highlight and validate those portions of the text that agencies believe are sensitive, not to conceal them.

    Therefore, as a practical security policy matter, it seems that the Pentagon's best move would be to do nothing and to allow the book to be published without further interference.

    * * *

    "Operation Dark Heart" is a memoir, not a work of scholarship, policy analysis or journalism. It describes the author's personal experiences and perspectives in sometimes clunky, occasionally gripping prose. It often seems formulaic or cliched, though it is quite readable and sometimes moving. Overall, it seems unlikely to alter the prevailing understanding of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

    It is hard to know what to make of the author. As a clandestine operator he claims to have run one operation "deep into North Korea," and another that penetrated the Iranian intelligence service. He also says he once recruited a high ranking Soviet military officer while posing as a freelance journalist. Maybe so. His most frequent cultural points of reference are Star Wars and the action movies of Steven Seagal.

    Within those parameters, he tells some pretty good stories about intelligence gathering, impromptu clandestine operations and bureaucratic wrangling with stuffy superiors. Operation Dark Heart was the name of a plan to target and destroy several Taliban operational centers, in what the author believed might have been a decisive blow to the brewing insurgency in 2003. But because the proposed targets lay across the border in Pakistan, the operation was scuttled, to Shaffer's dismay and disgust. He believes his intelligence career was then derailed as the result of his decision to brief the 9/11 Commission about the Able Danger data mining program, which he says had succeeded in identifying some of the 9/11 hijackers in advance.

    Even in the present version of the book that is now in the public domain, the author seems alert to security issues. He says that several names have been changed or concealed. At several points in the narrative, he stops short of full disclosure, citing classification restrictions on what he can discuss (p. 147, 165, 180).

    But at other points, he is quite chatty, in ways that might have alarmed some officials. He describes the location of the CIA station in Kabul, along with the name and appearance of the CIA station chief ("he reminded me of Peter Cushing, the actor who played Governor Tarkin, commander of the Death Star in Star Wars"). He briefly discusses the COPPER GREEN "enhanced interrogation" program (that was first reported by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker). And he names quite a few unfamiliar names, not all of which have been changed.

    At the rare intervals where his assertions can be independently confirmed, they check out. At one point he introduces a certain person as "chief of NSA here in country" (page 150). A search of that person's name online turns up his resume that does indeed describe the individual as "Officer in Charge, Cryptologic Services Group (CSG), OEF, Bagram, Afghanistan" and "Senior SIGINT advisor to Commander, JTF-180."

    Last June St. Martin's Press, the book's publisher, distributed promotional material (pdf) to reviewers, including a list of "Key Background Points and New Revelations in Operation Dark Heart."

    * * *

    While national security classification arguments naturally warrant serious consideration, the mere fact that a government official says certain information could damage national security if it were disclosed doesn't necessarily make it so. Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, the DIA director who is Mr. Shaffer's current antagonist, has previously been known to make dubious claims about classification and about the secrecy needed to protect national security.

    Last year, Gen. Burgess formally expressed the view that the size of the National Intelligence Program budget for 2006 was properly classified, even though the DNI had already declassified the intelligence budget figures for 2007 and 2008 and published them openly. Yet in Burgess' opinion, as he wrote in a January 14, 2009 letter (pdf), "the release of this [2006 budget] information would reveal sensitive intelligence sources and methods."

    General Burgess was wrong then. Given the present circumstances, where all of the information in the Shaffer book is effectively in the public domain, it would seem reasonable for him to reconsider his position now. ARMS TRANSFERS TO DEVELOPING NATIONS, MORE FROM CRS

    Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following (all pdf). Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2002-2009, September 10, 2010.

    Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses, August 20, 2010.

    China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities -- Background and Issues for Congress, August 26, 2010.

    China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues, August 16, 2010.

    Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence, August 24, 2010.

    Emergency Communications: Broadband and the Future of 911, August 25, 2010.

    Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress, August 24, 2010.

    Afghanistan: U.S. Foreign Assistance, August 12, 2010.

    U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians, August 12, 2010.

    The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer, August 18, 2010.

    _______________________________________________

    Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

    The Secrecy News Blog is at:

    http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

    In defense of "lone nutters"

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    http://cipshare.com/...hnson/index.htm

    J.F.K ASSASSINATION QUESTIONS LBJ RANCH

    b

    Jackie’s observation, in both drafts, that Lyndon Johnson, her husband’s successor, exhibited the traits of a classic Roman emperor also reveals her perceptive view of political character. At times aggressive and vulgar, LBJ indeed employed the brutish skills of the more authoritarian leaders of the Roman empire. Yet tape recordings reveal that he and Jackie could bill and coo to each other on the phone when they turned on the charm. They both were masters of such political manipulation. Ironically, Jackie need not have worried about Adlai Stevenson’s feelings. Six weeks after her letter to Schlesinger, Stevenson collapsed on a London sidewalk and suffered a fatal heart attack.

    http://blog.barbaraaperry.com/2009/10/23/historic-jackie-kennedy-letters-to-be-auctioned.aspx

    In defense of "lone nutters"

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    KATHY WELL SAID...B

    Billie Sol Estes is the guy who claimed that Johnson went to the Murchinson party, and he had a look-alike in Fort Worth !!! Do you believe that ?

    LBJ'S COUSIN...THIS RESEARCHER WENT AN EXTRA STEP PROVIDING FURTHER GOOD INFORMATION.....ON JAY BERT PECK AND THE MOVIE WITH ELKE SOMMERS DEAN MARTIN'S ''THE WRECKING CREW'', ANYONE STILL HAVE THE PHOTO OF ELKE AND JAY DANCING, MINE IS NOT APPEARING...THANKS ALL..http://www.jfklancer...id=&page=#61506

    A SPECIAL KENEDY REPORT 2003 DALLAS NEWS

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    "Then Ted Dealey rose, pulling out a prepared statement. Since Kennedy's election, the News' editorial page had leveled an unrelenting attack on the president: he was a buffoon, a thief, thirty times a fool. Now, face to face, Dealey continued the assault. "The general opinion of the grassroots thinking in this country is that you and your administration are weak sisters," Dealey read to the president. "If we stand firm, there will be no war. The Russians will back down. We need a man on horseback to lead this nation, and many people in Texas and the Southwest think that you are riding Caroline's tricycle." "

    That is an EXTREMELY important statement above. It reflected precisely the views and opinions of the CIA assassins of John Kennedy. LBJ was killing him for other reasons, but the CIA and anti-Castro Cubans, and even the mafia felt just like Ted Dealey.

    HI ROBERT, YES THAT QUOTE HAS SINCE BEEN INCORPORATED INTO MANY A BOOK AND ARTICLE, THE WHOLE OF DALLAS WERE NOT OF THE SAME CUT, EXTREME RIGHT, THOUGH THERE WERE GROUPS, BUT THE MAJOROTY WHICH WAS SEEN SO CLEARLY AND SHOWN BY THE THOUSANDS OF CITIZENS WHO CAME OUT THAT DAY, TO WELCOME THEM..DID NOT FEEL THE SAME WAY.THEY DID.....BEST B

    dallas citizens council http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?act=post&do=reply_post&f=126&t=15258

    A SPECIAL KENEDY REPORT 2003 DALLAS NEWS

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    ''"The Legacy of Citizen Robert," http://www.texasmont...-01/feature.php

    "However ill-suited for the job he might be, however uninterested he was, Ted Dealey was the only remaining son of the founder. The burden was his. In 1940 his father gave Ted the title of president. Six years later G. B. Dealey died of a heart attack, and Ted had the reins all to himself.

    Coarse and Ugly

    The new publisher of the Dallas Morning News was unlike any other Dealey. And he was remarkably unlike his father. George Bannerman Dealey had been a serious, industrious child. Ted was expelled from the sixth grade and later sent to a private school for delinquents. G.B. was a cultured man with a fine-tuned sense of propriety. Ted once wrote a Belo executive who had moved into new quarters. "Some day when you're sitting in that fancy new office of yours, keep in mind that at one time in that exact location stood the finest whorehouse in the entire city of Dallas." In a collection of essays about his childhood, titled Diaper Days of Dallas, Ted offered anecdotes about his "masturbation period" and urinating in his pants. G. B. Dealey was a progressive man who ordered the staff to stop referring to "Jew girls" and was sensitive about the treatment of black people. Ted laced his speech with remarks about "niggers." G. B. Dealey never drank, but Ted, like his late brother, drank too much, and the booze turned his mood coarse and ugly.

    Ted cared little for the civic meetings and causes, the fundraising drives and betterment groups that had been his father's lifework. He became a charter member of the Dallas Citizens Council, the group of Dallas executives that would chart the city's political course from 1937 to the mid-seventies, but he rarely went to its meetings. He preferred to hunt and fish, often at a private lodge near Athens called Koon Kreek Klub, frequented by other members of the Dallas power structure. His great civic passion was the Dallas zoo.

    But the most critical difference between father and son was reflected on the editorial page. Gone was the sense of moderation. The editorials began to take on Ted's personality — strident and shrill, outspoken and mean. Ted Dealey was a red-baiter, a supporter of Joe McCarthy, an unforgiving opponent of the United Nations, an enemy of social welfare and unions and federal aid, and so was his newspaper. In the News' editorial columns, the Supreme Court was a "judicial Kremlin." Liberals were fools, dupes, or fellow travelers. U.S. recognition of Russia, an action that G. B. Dealey had applauded, was a "Queer Deal." Ted Dealey's News never strayed far from its free-enterprise gospel, not even when it was speaking to the high rate of traffic deaths in Texas. The accidents, it observed, resulted from "the same human qualities that made America great—willingness to risk, driving energy, rugged individualism."

    Just as G. B. Dealey's editorial page had changed the Dallas of an earlier era, Ted Dealey's shaped his. The public life of the city turned ugly in the fifties and sixties. The art museum took down a Picasso after a barrage of calls protested that the artist was a communist. When the museum board resisted attempts to close a photography exhibit that included Russian photographers, the News headlined its story MUSEUM SAYS REDS CAN STAY. Police pressure forced all local bookstores to take Tropic of Cancer off their shelves. In 1960 Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson were spat on during a campaign visit to the Adolphus Hotel. Four days later John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States, an event that led to Ted Dealey's most notorious public acts.

    In October 1961 Ted joined a group of nineteen Texas publishers for a Friday lunch at the White House. It was a typical presidential courting ritual: an elegant bite to eat, an off-the-record briefing, and a bit of pleasant conversation, all harmless enough. But this time was to be different.

    After lunch Kennedy spoke to the publishers about foreign affairs and then asked if any of his guests had anything to say. One publisher got up and delivered the best wishes of his local citizenry. Then Ted Dealey rose, pulling out a prepared statement. Since Kennedy's election, the News' editorial page had leveled an unrelenting attack on the president: he was a buffoon, a thief, thirty times a fool. Now, face to face, Dealey continued the assault. "The general opinion of the grassroots thinking in this country is that you and your administration are weak sisters," Dealey read to the president. "If we stand firm, there will be no war. The Russians will back down. We need a man on horseback to lead this nation, and many people in Texas and the Southwest think that you are riding Caroline's tricycle."

    The other publishers were aghast. "Mr. President," said Jim Chambers, publisher of the Times Herald (Dallas' afternoon paper) and a man who knew Ted Dealey well, "I think you should know that Mr. Dealey does not express the sentiments of all the publishers around this table." The incident produced a national media fire storm, and the News relished every moment. Around the state and the country, Ted Dealey was condemned as a reactionary and a boor. But in Dallas, the News received more than 2,000 letters, and 1700 of them voiced approval of his actions. In Dallas it was Jim Chambers who fielded the stacks of hate mail.

    Two years later a News advertising salesman took the copy for an unusual ad up to the executive suite. He was worried about the ad's strong language and uncertain origin. Normally such questions would have been routed through Joe Dealey, Ted's son, but Joe was away at a newspaper convention and wouldn't be back until President Kennedy's visit the next day. Instead, the decision was left to Ted.

    Even today Joe Dealey shakes his head at the memory of the ad. "Damn, we ought not to have done it," he says. "If I'd been sitting there, I'd have killed it." But Ted was sitting there, and so, on November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was greeted with the ad that would forever link the Dallas Morning News with the tragic events of that day. "Welcome, Mr. Kennedy, to Dallas," it began, and it went on to ask a series of rhetorical questions, such as "Why have you scrapped the Monroe Doctrine in favor of the Spirit of Moscow?" The entire ad was enclosed in a thick black border. That morning Kennedy read the ad and handed it to his wife. "Oh, you know, we're heading into nut country," he said. Three hours later he was struck dead by an assassin's bullet — as his limousine passed through a plaza named for G. B. Dealey."

    -- excerpt from "The Legacy of Citizen Robert," by Peter Elkind. Published in the July, 1985 issue of Texas Monthly.

    ________

    STATE SECRETS VS THE RULE OF LAW &

    in JFK Assassination Debate

    Posted · Edited by Bernice Moore

    STATE SECRETS VS. THE RULE OF LAW THE NEW NOBILITY: RUSSIA'S SECURITY STATE

    STATE SECRETS VS. THE RULE OF LAW

    The inherent tension between the state secrets privilege and the rule of law reached the breaking point last week when an appeals court dismissed the claims of several persons who said they were illegally transported and tortured through a CIA "extraordinary rendition" program. They would not be permitted to litigate their case, the court decided, because to do so would place "state secrets" at risk.

    "This case presents a painful conflict between human rights and national security," the 9th circuit court of appeals noted in its September 8 opinion (pdf) in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, and by a 6-5 majority the judges determined that security considerations would take precedence.

    "We have thoroughly and critically reviewed the government's public and classified declarations and are convinced that at least some of the matters it seeks to protect from disclosure in this litigation are valid state secrets, 'which, in the interest of national security, should not be divulged'," according to the majority opinion.

    At the same time, the majority acknowledged, "Denial of a judicial forum based on the state secrets doctrine poses concerns at both individual and structural levels. For the individual plaintiffs in this action, our decision forecloses at least one set of judicial remedies, and deprives them of the opportunity to prove their alleged mistreatment and obtain damages. At a structural level, terminating the case eliminates further judicial review in this civil litigation, one important check on alleged abuse by government officials and putative contractors."

    For these reasons, "Dismissal at the pleading stage" as in this case "is a drastic result and should not be readily granted." Yet grant it the court did.

    But the majority seemed conflicted and apologetic about its own ruling. It ordered the government to pay the parties' costs, and it devoted several speculative paragraphs to identifying potential "non-judicial remedies" that might be available to the plaintiffs. Perhaps Congress could investigate the matter, the court weakly noted, or maybe pass legislation on behalf of the plaintiffs.

    And just because the court ruled against the plaintiffs, the majority suggested, that "does not preclude the government from honoring the fundamental principles of justice" and providing reparations to the plaintiffs anyway.

    But these suggestions range from "impractical" to "absurd," five dissenting judges wrote. "Permitting the executive to police its own errors and determine the remedy dispensed would not only deprive the judiciary of its role, but also deprive Plaintiffs of a fair assessment of their claims by a neutral arbiter."

    Attorney General Eric Holder's September 23, 2009 policy statement on the state secrets privilege did hold out the possibility of seeking Inspector General review of allegations of misconduct whose adjudication was blocked by the use of the state secrets privilege:

    "If the Attorney General concludes that it would be proper to defend invocation of the privilege in a case, and that invocation of the privilege would preclude adjudication of particular claims, but that the case raises credible allegations of government wrongdoing, the Department will refer those allegations to the Inspector General of the appropriate department or agency for further investigation...." (section 4C).

    Given the court's extended discussion of non-judicial remedies, this case would seem to be a fitting subject for an Inspector General investigation under the 2009 Justice Department policy. But it could not immediately be learned if the Department has made such a referral to an agency Inspector General in this or any other state secrets case.

    "The state secrets doctrine is a judicial construct without foundation in the Constitution, yet its application often trumps what we ordinarily consider to be due process of law," the five dissenting judges wrote. "This case now presents a classic illustration."

    THE NEW NOBILITY: RUSSIA'S SECURITY STATE

    "The Soviet police state tried to control every citizen in the country. The new, more sophisticated Russian [security] system is far more selective than its Soviet-era counterpart; it targets only those individuals who have political ambitions or strong public views." That's what Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan discover in "The New Nobility," their impressive new book on the resurgence of Russia's security services in the post-Cold War era.

    Soldatov and Borogan, Russian journalists who have produced some of the boldest reporting on the subject over the past decade, are also the creators and editors of Agentura.ru, a pioneering web site devoted to public interest research on Russian intelligence policy and related matters.

    In "The New Nobility," they present many of the decisive episodes in the recent history of the FSB, the primary Russian security service, from the 2002 Moscow theater siege, to the 2004 Beslan school massacre, the war in Chechnya, and more. Overall they present a picture of a security service of increasing power and influence, uneven competence -- but virtually no accountability to parliament or the public.

    "The Soviet KGB was all-powerful," Soldatov and Borogan write, "but it was also under the control of the political structure: The Communist Party presided over every KGB section, department, and division. In contrast, the FSB is a remarkably independent entity, free of party control and parliamentary oversight...."

    The book is based on the authors' original reporting, which itself is a demonstration of unusual courage and commitment. A reader soon loses track of the number of times their computers are seized by authorities, how often their papers' web servers are confiscated, and how many times they are summoned for interrogation or even charged with crimes based on their reporting. Yet they persist.

    Their book is full of remarkable observations. For example:

    * In 2006, the FSB organized a competition "for the best literary and artistic works about state security operatives."

    * The history of Moscow's Lefortovo prison has never been documented. "Even the prison's design [in the shape of the letter K] remains a mystery."

    * The Russian security services in Chechnya have made extensive use of the tactic known as "counter-capture," which involves seizing the relatives of suspected terrorists in order to induce them to surrender.

    Fundamentally, the authors contend, Russia's FSB has gone astray by acting as an agent of state authority instead of representing the rule of law. "In today's Russia,... the security services appear to have concluded that their interests, and those of the state they are guarding, remain above the law." An American reader may ponder the similarities and differences presented by U.S. security services.

    "The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB" by Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan is being published this month by Public Affairs Books.

    "To those following the increasingly hostile environment for journalists in Russia, Soldatov's career is a curiosity," according to an internal profile of him prepared by the DNI Open Source Center in 2008. "Despite being questioned and charged by the FSB on several occasions, Soldatov has continued to cover hot-button issues such as corruption, security service defectors, and the increasing role of the special services in limiting free speech in Russia."

    The New York Times featured Agentura.ru in "A Web Site That Came in From the Cold to Unveil Russian Secrets" by Sally McGrane, December 14, 2000.

    The New York Times has also published Above the Law, a continuing series of stories by Clifford J. Levy on "corruption and abuse of power in Russia two decades after the end of Communism."

    _______________________________________________

    Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

    The Secrecy News Blog is at:

    http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy

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