Kissinger forced to reveal transcripts of phone conversations
December 23, 2008 Leave a comment
During his long career as US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger kept many secrets. One of these was that he clandestinely recorded all telephone conversations he had with US government officials, which he subsequently had transcribed by his private secretary. Upon leaving office, in early 1977, Kissinger had the audio recordings destroyed but held on to the transcripts which he described as “private papers” not suitable for public release. George Washington University’s National Security Archive had a different view on the matter, however, and in 2004 managed to force the US government to hand over the transcripts. The Archive has now released a generous portion of 15,000 pages of transcripts, fully catalogued and indexed. William Burr, a senior analyst with the National Security Archive, who edited the released documents, described them as “ranking up there with the Nixon tapes as the most candid, revealing and valuable trove of records on the exercise of executive power in Washington”. Among other things, the transcripts reveal that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger “shared a belief in 1972 that the [Vietnam] war could still be won”. [IA]
On December 9, 1945, a chauffeur-driven US military vehicle carrying US Army General George S. Patton was involved in what appeared to be a minor collision with another US military vehicle. The collision fatally injured General Patton a day before he was scheduled to leave US-occupied Germany and return to the United States. On December 21, 1945, Patton mysteriously died from his injuries, even though he appeared to be recovering. Now a new book by military historian Robert Wilcox 
Rare revelations on Detroit counterintelligence operations
December 24, 2008 by intelNews Leave a comment
Assistant Attorney Eric Straus, chief of the East Michigan District Criminal and National Security Division of the US Attorney’s Office, has given a rare interview discussing counterintelligence operations in Detroit. Among other things, Straus revealed that his Division has been monitoring alleged support for Hamas and Hezbollah among Detroit’s substantial Middle Eastern population, which is one of the largest in the United States. He also described military and dual use (i.e. civilian with potential military application) technologies as prime targets of international espionage in the Detroit area. Finally, he briefly commented on a number of counterespionage prosecutions against Iraqi spies, employed by the government of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, operating in the Detroit area before 2003. He did not go into details on whether these were trained and accredited intelligence officers working for Directorate 14 of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat), but hinted that most were not. The interview is available here. [JF]
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