Cold War Spying

Espionage and Covert Operations: A Global History by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicus is a 24 lecture Great Course series. CIA Review     Audio lectures   Print handbook

 1944 November: SSA's Cecil Phillips discovers the new KGB indicator, with is then used to detect "key" duplicated in Trade messages.
1944 December: OSS purchases Soviet code and cipher material from Finnish sources; the Roosevelt administration orders the material returned to the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

 1944 December 15: War Department transfers operational control of SSA from the Signal Corps to MID.

 1945 February 4 to 11: At the Yalta Conference (photographs) between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin, FDR resides in the former Tsar's Livadia Palace (photographs) that is bugged.
  • "How 'Uncle Joe' bugged FDR," CIA article
  • "Yalta Conference, 1945" US State Department article
1945 April 12: President Roosevelt dies; Harry Truman sworn in as his successor.

 1945 April 27: US Army Target Intelligence Committee (TICOM) team finds Russian code and cipher material in a German Foreign Office cryptanalytic center in a castle in Saxony-Anhalt.

 1945 May 6: Germany surrenders.

 1945 May 10: FBI conducts lengthy debriefing of former Soviet agent Whittaker Chambers (photographs).

 1945 June: Earl Browder ousted as leader of the Communist Political Association, which reclaims its old name, the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).
1945 July 16: Manhattan Project detonates the world's first nuclear explosion, Trinity, New Mexico; Soviet agents had warned Moscow in advance.
  • Video about the test
  • Video documentary about Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb
1945 August 14: Japan surrenders.

 1945 September 5: Soviet GRU code clerk Lt. Igor Gouzenko defects in Ottawa.

 1945 September 6:  War Department authorizes merger of SSA with selected Signal Corps units to form the Army Security Agency (ASA), under MID.
1945 September 12: US-UK signals intelligence Continuation Agreement extends wartime cooperation in this field. 

1945 September 20: President Truman dissolves OSS.

 1945 November 7: Elizabeth Bentley (photographs) interviewed at length for the first time by FBI agents about her work for the KGB
  • "Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley" by Kathryn S. Olmstead, 2002 CIA review
  • FBI files about Elizabeth Bentley
  • Interview July 25, 1950
1945 August 4: Scouts in the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization gave US Ambassador Averell Harriman a large wooden Great Seal of the United States for the official Moscow residence, Spaso House.  Wikipedia article
1945: August 6 and 9: The US drops atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  • "Hiroshima Mission" Harold Agnew interview
  • "Information war in the Pacific: 1945" CIA article
  • "Final months of the war: Signals Intelligence, U.S. Invasion Planning, and the A-Bomb Decision" CIA book
  • "American reaction to Hiroshima and Nagasaki" Elaine Tyler May interview
  • "Soviet response to Hiroshima bomb" John Lewis Gladdis interview
  • "Stalin's response to the American A-bomb" John Lewis Gladdis interview
1945 September 2: World War II ends.

 1945 September 27: OSS operative Virginia Hall received the Distinguished Service Cross for exceptional heroism. After the war, she joined the CIA on December 3, 1951.
  • "The Courage and Daring of the 'Limping Lady'" CIA article
1945 October 1: OSS abolished and branches are distributed to other branches of government. Research and Analysis moves to the Department of State; Espionage and Counterintelligence is renamed the Strategic Services Unit (SSU) and moves to the War Department.
  • "Salvage and liquidation, 1945" CIA article
  • "At the end and the beginning" CIA article 
1945 October 24: United Nations is formed.
  • "OSS architect who designed UN logo" CIA article

1945 November: Elizabeth Bentley begins telling her spy story to the FBI.


1946 January 22: President Harry Truman creates the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) and the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).
  • "Creation of Central Intelligence Group" CIA article
  • "Birth of Central Intelligence" CIA article
  • "Central Intelligence: Origin and Evolution" CIA article
1946 January 23: Truman appoints Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers is appointed the first DCI CIA article
1946 February 15: Central Intelligence Group (CIG) publishes "The President's First Daily Brief" CIA article
  • "Evolution of the President's Daily Brief" CIA article
  • "Rethinking the President's Daily Intelligence Brief," December 2013 CIA article
  • "Ronald Reagan and the President's Daily Brief" CIA article
  • "Brennan keynote at President's Daily Brief public release event" CIA article
  • "Getting to know the President: Intelligence briefings of Presidential Candidates, 1952-2004"  2nd edition:  CIA book
1946 March: Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
1946 June 10: Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberb appointed DCI.
  • "The Reluctant Directors: Souers, Vandenberg, Hillenkoeter" CIA article
1946 June 13: The State-Army-Navy Communications Intelligence Board adds the FBI and renames itself the United States Communications Intelligence Board (USCIB).

 1946 July  8: National Intelligence Authority Directive 5 secretly directs the DCI to conduct, as "services of common concern," all foreign intelligence and counterespionage.

1946 July 10: CIG joins the new USCIB and gains access to signals intelligence.


 1946 July 15: Canadian Royal Commission releases its report on the Gouzenko affair to the public.
  • Igor Gouzenko (photographs) Wikipedia biography
  • "Gouzenko Affair and the Cold War" Library and Archives Canada article
  • "Igor Gouzenko: The man who revealed the cold war" SIGNIT Chatter article
1946 July 17: Attorney General Tom Clark urges Truman to renew and broaden Roosevelt's 1940 authorization to conduct electronic surveillance on "persons suspected of subversive activities"; the President soon approves.



1946 July 23: First Central Intelligence Group (CIG) assessment of the USSR. 
  • Assessing the Soviet Threat: The Early Cold War Years CIA book
  • CIA's analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1997 CIA book
If you see one bug, there are probably thousands in the walls. In 1979, the US started building in Moscow a new eight story embassy. In 1982, when the building was 65% complete costing $23 million, x-ray scanning revealed structural supports had steel rods that would act as antennas for eavesdropping equipment. This is not something normal x-ray scanning would detect. To fix the problem, the top two floors of the new embassy were removed and four secure floors were added on top, making a ten story embassy.  In retaliation, Congress denied the Soviet ambassador access to the new Soviet embassy being built Washington at about the same time. - Sources: Los Angeles Times article, July 29, 1991, and article, September 26, 1997; Baltimore Sun article, July 7, 2000.
1946: Soviet Union establishes MGB
  • MGB headquarters in Brest CIA document
1946 December 20: ASA's Meredith Gardner translates part of a KGB message containing a list of atomic scientists.

1947 September 1(?): Col. Carter Clarke briefs the FBI's liaison officer on the break into Soviet diplomatic traffic.

1947 March 12: President Truman announces the Truman Doctrine to aid nations threatened by Communism.
  • "Truman Doctrine, 1947 US State Department article
1947 March 21: President Truman signs Executive Order 9835 (a.k.a. Loyalty Order) tightening protection against subversive infiltration of the US Government, defining disloyalty as membership on a list of subversive organizations maintained by the Attorney General.
  • Text, Text 2
  • "Prelude to McCarthyism: The Making of a Blacklist" National Archives article
1947: May 1: Rear Admiral Roscoe H Hillenkoetter appointed DCI.
  • "Roscoe Hillenkoetter as DCI" CIA article
  • "Roscoe Hillenkoetter" the facts CIA article
  • "Intelligence Education of the first head of CIA: Roscoe Hillenkoetter" CIA article
  • "DCI Hillenkoeter: Soft Sell and Stick" CIA article
1947 Summer: Soviets kill American-born communist and Soviet spy Isaiah (Cy) Oggins in Laboratory 1 with a curare injection.

1947 July 26: President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947. This act creates the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Council, Office of Secretary of Defense and the US Air Force.
  • "National Security Act, 1947" CIA article
  • "National Security Act, 1947" US State Department article
  • Text of National Security Act, 1947
1947 September 18: CIA is born.
  • "CIA overview" CIA video transcript
  • "Organizational chart" 2007 CIA article
  • "National Security Act 1947" describes the components of the act and its establishment of the CIA CIA article
  • "Hollywood myths vs. the real CIA" CIA article
  • "What do James Bond, Downton Abbey and the CIA have in common? CIA article
  • "Our culture" CIA article
  • "Vision, Mission, Ethos, Challenges" CIA article
  • "Top 10 reasons to work for the CIA" CIA article
1947 October 31: Soviets kill Ukrainian Catholic Church Archbishop Theodore Romzha (photographs) with an injection of curare.
1947 December  12: NSCID-5 reiterates but qualifies DCI's counterespionage authority to avoid precluding certain "agreed" FBI and military counterintelligence activities.
1947 December 17: National Security Council authorizes CIA to perform covert action.
  • "Intelligence and covert action" CIA article
  • "Managing covert political action" CIA article
  • "CIA actions in Chile" CIA book

1948 June 1: Soviets blockades Berlin

  • "Berlin Airlift 1947-1948" US State Department article
1948 September 19: CIA establishes Office of Policy Coordination under Frank G. Wisner to manage covert action.
  • "Trailblazers and Years of Service" CIA article
  • "National Committee for Free Europe, 1949" CIA article
  • "The CIA and the Marshall Plan" CIA article
  • "On the craft of intelligence" by Frank G. Wisner CIA article
  • FBI files on Frank G Wisner

1948 July 1: National Security Council Intelligence Directive No. 9 (NSCID-9) puts USCIB under the National Security Council (NSC) and increases civilian control of signals intelligence.

1948 July 20: General Secretary Eugene Dennis and 11 other CPUSA leaders arrested and indicted under the Smith Act of conspiring to advocate violent overthrow of the US Government.

 1948 July 31: Elizabeth Bentley testifies before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), publicly accusing Harry Dexter White and Lauchlin Currie of being Soviet agents.

 1948 August 3: Whittaker Chambers names Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White as Communists in testimony before the House of UnAmerican Activities Committee (HCUA).

1948 October 19: Meredith Gardner and Robert Lamphere meet at Arlington Hall and formally inaugurate full-time FBI-ASA liaison on the Soviet messages.
  • Meredith Gardner NSA Hall of Honor biography
  • "Polyglot: Meredith Gardner Story" NSA document
  • "Meredith Gardner, 89, dies, broke code in Rosenberg case" New York Times article
1948 November 17: Chambers produces the "Pumpkin Papers" to substantiate his new charge that Hiss and White spied for Moscow during the 1930s.

 1948 December 16: Federal grand jury indicts Alger Hiss (photographs) for perjury.

  • "Alger Hiss Case: Half a century of controversy" CIA article
  • Alger Hiss's Looking Glass War by G. Edward White CIA review

1948 December: FBI identifies covername SIMA as Justice Department analyst Judith Coplon 

(photographs).

.

1949 March 4: FBI arrests Judith Coplon, (photographs) the first person prosecuted through the Venona project and Soviet UN employee Valentin A. Gubitchev in New York.

  • The Spy who seduced America: Lies and betrayal in the heat of the Cold War - The Judith Coplon story by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, 2002. CIA review
  • FBI files on Judith Coplon
  • "Judith Coplon, accused and cleared of being a Soviet spy dies at 89" March 4, 2011 Washington Post article
  • "The Venona Story" NSA article

1949 March 23: Truman approves NSC 17/4, which reconstitutes the secret Interdepartmental Intelligence Conference to coordinate jurisdiction of FBI and military counterintelligence.


1949 May 20: Defense Secretary Louis Johnson directs a quasi-merger of service signals intelligence in a new Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), subordinate to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

1949 September 23: Truman announces that the Soviets have exploded an atomic bomb.
  • "U.S. Decision to build the H-bomb" Barton Bernstein interview
1949 October 1: The People's Republic of China is proclaimed in Beijing.


1950 January 21: Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.


1950 January 24: Klaus Fuchs (photographs) confesses to espionage.

  • FBI files
  • "What the Soviets learned from Klaus Fuchs" German Goncharov interview
  • "What Klaus Fuchs told the Soviets" David Holloway interview
  • "Klaus Fuchs role in the Manhattan project" Richard Rhodes interview
1950 February 9: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, brandishes a list of Communists allegedly working in the State Department.


 1950 April 7: National Security Council Paper 68 (NSC-68) establishes the approach to the Soviet Union for many decades.

1950 May 22: FBI arrests Harry Gold (photographs) for espionage.

 1950 June 25: North Korean troops invade Nouth Korea

 1950 July 17: FBI arrests Julius Rosenberg (photographs).
  • Counterintelligence reader Vol. 3 Scroll down to pages 34 through 47.
  • Chronology of case
  • List of witnesses and description of who they are.
  • "The Rosenbergs: The Definitive Debate" International Spy Museum video
  • Rosenberg Grand Jury files contains testimonies of Ethel Rosenberg, Harry Gold, Ruth Greenglass, and William Perl I plus the jury transcripts from August 1950 to March 1951.
  • Files with testimonies from Elizabeth Bentley, Harry Gold, Louis Benson, David Bohm, Abraham Brothman, Benedict DeBuff, Thomas Donegan, Mariam Moskowitz, and Frank O'Brien. 
  • "Memorandum by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (Phillips) to the Under Secretary of State (Bruce)", December 11, 1952 US State Department document
  • Circular telegram to diplomatic posts, February 11, 1953 US State Department document
  • Circular telegram to diplomatic posts, June 13, 1953 US State Department document
1950 August 24: AFSA assigns Soviet intercept material a restricted codeword ("Bride") and special handling procedures.

 1950 September 23: Congress passes the Internal Security Act (the "McCarran Act"), which it would soon pass again over President Truman's veto. The Act requires Communist-linked organizations to register and allows emergency detention of potentially dangerous persons.

 1950 October 7: Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (photographs) becomes fourth DCI.

 1950 November 13: DCI Smith establishes Board and Office of National Estimates.

1951: Harry Gold sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for espionage.

1951 May 25: British Foreign Office officials Donald Maclean (photographs) and Guy Burgess (photographs) flee Great Britain to defect to the Soviet Union.

1951 July: CPUSA announces that the Party will operate as a "cadre organization," with many of its leaders underground.


 1952 April 9: Term “Intelligence Community” first appears, in IAC minutes. AFSA detects duplicate key pages in GRU messages.

 1952 October 24: NSA established.

1952 November 4: Truman creates the National Security Agency (NSA) to supersede Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) and further centralize control of signals intelligence under the Secretary of Defense and a reconstituted USCIB.

1952: Technicians discover 1945 bug inside the Great Seal of the United States in US Ambassador George F. Kennan's residence, Spaso House.

  • YouTube video puts bug discovery in its political context.
  • US Ambassador George F. Kennan memoir excerpt about discovering the bug
  • "Therimin's bug" article
  • How technicians discovered the bug. Article

1953 February 26: Allen Welsh Dulles becomes fifth DCI.


NSA places the "POBJEDA" codebook--recovered in Germany in April 1945--against KGB messages from 1941 through 1943. More than half of the burned codebook proves useable.

1953 March 5: Stalin dies.

 1953 March 14: Soviet "Laboratory 1" is renamed "Laboratory 12." 
1953 April 6: KGB defector Alexander Orlov's story appears in Life magazine; finally alerting the FBI to his residence in the United States.

1953 June 19: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed after President Eisenhower again denies executive clemency.
  • "Ethel and Julius Rosenberg's last letter" video
  • Execution report video
  • "Witness to the Ethel Rosenberg execution video
  • "Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in the Cold War World" International Spy Museum video
  • "Remembering David Greenglass and the Rosenberg spy case" video
  • "Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in the Cold War World" International Spy Museum video
  • "Memorandum by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs (Phillips) to the Under Secretary of State (Bruce)", December 11, 1952 US State Department document
  • Circular telegram to diplomatic posts, February 11, 1953 US State Department document
  • Circular telegram to diplomatic posts, June 13, 1953 US State Department document

1953 July 27: Armistice signed in Korea.

1953 September 23: Psychological Strategy Board prepared special report on the reported decline of US prestige abroad. 
1953 November 6: Attorney General Herbert Brownell sparks controversy by claiming in a Chicago speech that former President Truman had appointed Harry Dexter White to head the International Monetary Fund despite FBI warnings that White was a Soviet agent.

1953: MGB agent Nikolai Khokhlov was sent to kill Ukrainian nationalist Georgiy Okolovich using electronic gun shooting cyanide-tipped bullets hidden inside cigarette pack (scroll down to bottom of page, left side). Instead, Nikolai defects to the United States. Details in:
  • Pictures:  Nikolai Khokhlov and Georgi Oklolovich, weapon
  • Videos: Press conference
  • The Sword and Shield by Christopher Andrews, page 359+ 
  • Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Tricks and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today by Jay Robert Nash, 1997, pages 294+ Nash claims Khokhlov was a SMERSH assassin.
  • Activities of Soviet Secret Service, [Congressional]Testimony of Nikolai Evgeniyevich Khokhlov Former MGB Agent, May 21, 1954, especially pages 27+, 33+
  • Nikolai Khokhlov's obituary 1, obituary 2 
1953: CIA starts MKUltra Project for developing poisons, incapacitating drugs, e.g., LSD, interrogation techniques using hypnosis, etc.

1953 December 3: Lavrentiy Beria is killed

  • "Purge of L. P. Beria" CIA article

1954: Soviet Union establishes KGB


 1954: CIA and MI-6 built a tunnel into East Berlin to tap Soviet cables. (photographs: 1, 2; video: 1,) Soviet mole in MI-6, George Blake, informed the Soviets of the tunnel at the beginning. To protect George Blake, the Soviets let the operation continue for a year before "accidentally" finding it repairing cables.
  • Retired CIA Senior Review Officer Lou Meher tells the story at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
  • CIA article explains the purpose, construction, and why the Soviets let the operation continue. At the end of the article are links to additional articles. 
  • British MI6 had already dug successful tunnels in Potsdam and Vienna. Cold War Museum article claims the Berlin Tunnel became famous because the Soviets announced its discovery to embarrass the United States, pointing out "fame [is] a measure of failure and obscurity ... a measure of success." 
  • The Berlin Tunnel Operation 1952-1956 is a declassified CIA report. Four appendices are:
    • "Analysis of the Reasons for the Discovery of the Tunnel"
    • "Recapitulation of the Intelligence Derived"
    • "Typical American Press Comment"
    • "East German Press Comment"
  • Operation REGAL: The Berlin Tunnel is a declassified NSA report.

1954 December 20: CIA's Directorate of Plans creates the Counterintelligence Staff, with James J. Angleton as its chief.

  • "James Angleton; Master Spy Hunter" CIA article
  • "James Angleton Phenomenon" CIA article
  • "James Angleton: The Kremlin's favorite spook" by Yuri Shvets CI Centre article

1955 May 25: Clark Report submitted.


1956 March 8: NSC approves the FBI's proposed "Cointelpro" operation against the CPUSA.


 1956 June 4: Department of State releases Soviet General Secretary Khrushchev's secret speech to the Twentieth Party Congress, in which Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes.

 1956 October: Soviet troops suppress a popular uprising in Hungary.

1956 June 20: CIA U-2 spy overflights begin.

1957 January 25: FBI arrests Jack and Myra Soble for espionage on the basis of evidence provided by double agent Boris Morros.

1957 May 4: KGB officer Reino Hayhanen, en route from the United States, defects at the US Embassy in Paris.

1957 June 17: Supreme Court in Yates v. United States rules the government had enforced the Smith Act too broadly by targeting protected speech instead of actual action to overthrow the political system; this ruling makes the Act almost useless for prosecuting Communists.

1957 June 21: Federal authorities detain Hayhanen's superior, KGB illegal Col. Rudolf Abel, in New York.
  • Counteritelligence Reader, Vol. 3, NSA book, scroll down to pages 49+
1957 August 5: President Eisenhower sends memorandum to DCI urging active DCI coordination role and approving a deputy to the DCI for coordination.

1957 November 15: Col. Rudolf Abel is sentenced to 30 years and conveyed to prison.

1957: KGB agent Bohdan Stashinsky killed Ukranian leaders Lev Rebet (1957) and Stephen Bandera (1959) with cyanide gas gun rolled up in newspaper. (Photographs)
  • Articles: 1, 2
  • "Soviet use of assassination and kidnapping" CIA 1964 article
1958 September 15: USIB established.

 1960 May 1: Soviet Union shoots down Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane.
  • Audio interview with Francis Gary Powers (photographs), May 7, 1960.
  • Debriefing of Francis Gary Powers, February 20, 1962.
  • Congressional Hearing on Francis Gary Powers, March 6, 1962
  • Statement from the Board of Inquiry about the incident, January 1, 1963.
  • Newspaper article "Francis Gary Powers Tries to Set the Record Straight," May 12, 1970
  • CIA article "Looking Back ... The Cold War: Strangers on a Bridge" , 2009.
  • CIA review of Strangers on a Bridge by James B. Donovan, 1964
  • "Russian Officer Remembers the U-2 Program" by Alexander Orlov, 2007.
  • Audio interview with the son of Francis Gary Powers dispelling myths about the incident and the exchange with Col Abel.
1960 December 15: Joint Study Group (Kirkpatrick) report on intelligence submitted.

 1961 August 13: East German police and army close border between east and west Berlin to begin construction of the wall.
  • "City torn apart: photos and vidoes of the Berlin Wall" CIA article expanded book
  • "13 August 1961-Berlin Wall separates tyranny from freedom" CIA article
  • "The Wall" contains related memorandum and other documents CIA article
1961 September 6: National Reconnaissance Organization NRO established.

 1961 October 1: Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) established.

 1961 November 29: John Alex McCone  (photographs) becomes sixth Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).
  • "John Alex McCone" CIA article
  • John Alex Mcclone become DCI. CIA article
  • Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the Intelligence community: 1946-2005 CIA book, see pages 41+
  • John McCone as Director of Central Intelligence: 1961-1965 by David Robarge CIA review
  • "John McCone creates Directorate of Science and Technology" CIA article
  • "Highlights accomplishments of two trailbrazers" CIA article
1961 January 16: President Kennedy sends memorandum to DCI McCone stressing community role.
1962 February 10: U-2 Pilot Gary Powers and KGB Col. Rudolf Abel are swapped on Glienicke Bridge.
  • CIA article "Looking Back ... The Cold War: Strangers on a Bridge" , 2009.
  • CIA review of Strangers on a Bridge by James B. Donovan, 1964
1962 October 16: Cuban Missile Crisis begins. 
  • "Remembering the Cuban Missile Crisis" CIA article
  • "Value of photo intelligence" CIA article
  • "Art Lundahl: Father of imagery analysis" CIA article
  • "Presenting the photographic evidence abroad" CIA article
  • "Soviet deception in the Cuban Missile Crisis" CIA article
  • "Photogap that delayed the discovery of the missles" CIA article
  • "NSA and the Cuban Missile Crisis" NSA article
  • First hand account by Kenneth Michael Absher, 2009  book 120pages
  • The Face of Moscow in the Missile Crisis CIA article
1963 May 16: KGB executes GRU Col. Oleg Penkovsky (pictures) for espionage.
  • Short Youtube video about Penkovsky
  • 2 Youtube videos about Penkovsky: 1, 2
  • Long Youtube video about Penkovsky
  • Discussion of Penkovsky's interaction with CIA
  • "Capture and execution of Col. Penkovsky, 1963" CIA article
  • Joe Bulik, Penkovsky case officer, interview
  • "Oleg Penkovsky" International Spy Musem article
  • Declassified CIA documents related to Penkovsky case includes meeting notes, dead drop instructions, lists of documents provided by Penkovsky, Penkovsky letters to CIA, etc.
  • "The Penkovsky case: facts and myth" Voice of Russia article
  • "Tolkachev is a worthy successor to Penkovsky" CIA article
1963 August 5: Director of Central Intelligence John McCone announces the creation of the Directorate of Science and Technology
  • "Technology so advanced it's classified" CIA article 
1963 September 9: McCone creates NIPE Staff, under deputy to the DCI for NIPE.
1965 April 28: Vice Admiral. William Francis Raborn, Jr., becomes seventh Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).
1966 June 30: Richard McGarrah Helms becomes eighth DCI.
  • "Richard Helms as DCI" by Robert M. Hathaway CIA article
  • "Intelligence in American society" by Richard Helms CIA article
  • "Strategic arms limitation and intelligence" by Richard Helms CIA article
  • "Richard Helms: The intelligence professional personified" CIA article
  • "Interview" CIA article
  • "Life in intelligence: Richard Helms collection CIA book
  • "Revisiting Thomas Troy's review of Richard Helms memoir" CIA article
  • "DCI remards at the Helms Symposium" CIA article
  • "DCI remarks at the memorial service for Richard Helms" CIA article
1971 March 10: Schlesinger Report submitted.

 1971 August 8: Nobel prize laureate and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is poisoned with ricin, but survives.
  • Video on the effects of ricin on the human body
5 Nov 71 President Nixon sends memorandum to DCI urging stronger community role.
1 Mar 72 NIPE Staff renamed IC Staff, and its chief is designated deputy to the DCI for the IC.
2 Feb 73 James Rodney Schlesinger becomes ninth DCI.
4 Sep 73 William Egan Colby becomes tenth DCI.
1 Oct 73 George Carver appointed first deputy to the DCI for national intelligence, heading a group of NIOs. Simultaneously, the Board and Office of National Estimates are disbanded.
10 Jun 75 Rockefeller Commission Report submitted.
27 Jun 75 Murphy Commission Report submitted.
13 Oct 75 Taylor Report submitted to DCI Colby.
15 Dec 75 Ogilvie Report submitted to President Ford.
30 Jan 76 George Herbert Walker Bush becomes eleventh DCI.
16 Feb 76 Village Voice begins serial publication of Pike Committee Report.
18 Feb 76 Executive Order 11905, United States Foreign Intelligence Activities, issued.
26 Apr 76 Church Committee Report published by Congress.
9 Mar 77 Adm. Stansfield Turner, USN, becomes twelfth DCI.
24 Jan 78 Executive Order 12036, United States Intelligence Activities, issued.
26 Sep 78 IC Staff splits into resource management and collection tasking units.

1978: Soviet "Laboratory 12" is expanded into "Central Investigation Institute for Special Technology."

1978 September 11: Dissident Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov is assassinated with an umbrella gun shooting ricin by Bulgarian agents in London.
1979 December 3: NIC established under chairmanship of Richard Lehman.

 1981 January 28: William Joseph Casey becomes thirteenth DCI.

 1981 March 12: IC Staff reunified under John Koehler, who is designated Director, IC Staff.

 1981 December 4: Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities, issued.

1987 May 26: William Hedgcock Webster (photographs) becomes fourteenth DCI.

  • "William Webster" facts.
  • "US Intelligence and the end of the Cold War" CIA article
1991 May 29: Childs Report submitted to DCI Webster.

 1991 November 6: Robert Michael Gates becomes fifteenth DCI.

1991 November 6: Russia establishes the FSK, Federal Counterintelligence Service to replace the KGB.
1 Jun 92 CMS established, headed by EXDIR/ICA..
1 Jun 92 DCI delegates responsibility for major collection disciplines, replacing DCI committees with offices in various community agencies: SIGINT Committee subordinated to director, NSA; CIA’s DDO designated National HUMINT Manager; Central Imagery Office formed in DOD; DIA director takes responsibility for MASINT; EXDIR/ICA takes responsibility for OSINT.
5 Feb 93 R. James Woolsey becomes sixteenth DCI.

1991 December 24: Russia establishes FAPSI, Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information replaces 16th Directorate of the KGB.
1993 February 5: R. James Woolsey becomes sixteenth DCI.

1995 April 12: Russia establishes the FSB, Federal Security Service to replace the FSK.
10 May 95 John Mark Deutch becomes seventeenth DCI.
10 May 95 RAdm. Dennis C. Blair, USN, appointed first ADCI/MS.

1 Mar 96 Report of the Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the United States Intelligence Community published.
4 Mar 96 IC21 Report published by HPSCI.
7 Mar 96 Legislation creates new positions of DDCI/CM and ADCIs for administration, collection, and analysis and production.

 1996 May 27: Russia establishes the FSO, Federal Protective Service to replace GUO.

 1 Oct 96 NIMA created, incorporating CIO, NPIC, and DMA.

 2001 August 6: NSA President Daily Brief warns "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.
  • "The Presidents Daily Brief" by Thomas S. Blanton is NSA article that includes link to actual brief
11 Jul 97 George John Tenet becomes eighteenth DCI.
4 Jun 98 Charles E. Allen appointed ADCI/C by DCI; John C. Gannon appointed ADCI/A&P by DCI.
31 Jul 98 Joan A. Dempsey becomes first DDCI/CM, appointed by president.
4 Mar 99 James A. Simon becomes first ADCI/A, appointed by president.
15 Mar 01 First National Counterintelligence Executive named.
31 Aug 01 Scowcroft Commission interim report submitted to DCI.
10 Dec 02 Initial findings of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of 11 September 2001 issued by SSCI and HPSCI.
24 Jan 03 Thomas J. Ridge become secretary of new Department of Homeland Security.
11 Mar 03 Stephen A. Cambone becomes under secretary of defense for intelligence.
1 May 03 TTIC created.

 2003 March 11: Russia establishes the Spetssvyaz, Special Communications and Information Serivce of the Federal Protective Service (FSO) of the Russian Federation to replace the FAPSI.
24 Nov 03 NIMA renamed NGA.
27 Jun 04 Larry Kindsvater becomes second DDCI/CM.
22 Jul 04 Report of National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the “9/11” Commission) published.
27 Aug 04 Executive Order 13355, Strengthened Management of the Intelligence Community, issued.
24 Sep 04 Porter J. Goss becomes nineteenth DCI.
6 Dec 04 National Counterterrorism Center created.
17 Dec 04 President Bush signs the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act.
31 Mar 05 Report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction published.
21 Apr 05 John D. Negroponte becomes first DNI.

11 March 2003Pakistan captures Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, reported mastermind of 9/11 attacks
19 March 2003Operation Iraqi Freedom launched
09 April 2003Saddam Hussein’s regime collapses in Iraq
13 December 2003U.S. Special Forces capture Saddam Hussein near Tikrit, Iraq
24 September 2004Porter J. Goss appointed the 19th (and last) DCI.
01 October 2004Afghanistan holds first national election
17 December 2004President Bush signs Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, abolishing positions of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI) and creating position of Director, Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA).
01 January 2005Iraq holds first national election
21 April 2005Porter J. Goss appointed first Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
22 April 2005Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) begins operations at 0700 EST; Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Negroponte takes the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) into the Oval Office that morning.
07 July 2005Islamic terrorists bomb London subway and bus system, killing 52 and injuring 700
30 May 2006Gen. Michael V. Hayden, USAF, appointed D/CIA.
30 December 2006Saddam Hussein executed at Iraqi army base in Baghdad
30 July 2008President Bush signs revised version of Executive Order 12333, which formally outlines the goals and duties of the Director of National Intelligence and places a powerful emphasis on inter-agency collaboration. It also reaffirms CIA’s statutory authorities and its leadership in fields ranging from human intelligence to covert action abroad.
26 November 2008Attacks at 10 sites in Mumbai, India kill almost 200 people
13 February 2009Leon E. Panetta appointed as D/CIA.
01 October 2009The CIA Center on Climate Change and National Security was created as a primary producer of finished intelligence on the national security implications of climate change, including its impact on the political, economic, and social stability of foreign nations. The Center brings together specialists from the DI and the DS&T, enabling greater collaboration on this important national security issue.
25 December 2009Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempts to destroy flight over Detroit with PETN explosives hidden in his clothes
30 December 2009In southeastern Afghanistan, on a remote base, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest kills 7 CIA officers.
27 June 2010Ten Russian spies are arrested in the US. On 9 July they are exchanged for four prisoners held in Russia who have been convicted of having contact with Western intelligence agencies. The ten spies released pled guilty to conspiring to serve as unlawful foreign agents.
5 August–13 October 2010A large cave-in at a Chilean copper-gold mine trapped 33 men 2,300 feet underground, 3 miles from the mine entrance.  They survived for a record 69 days.
18 August 2010Director Leon Panetta announces the creation of CIA's Counterproliferation Center; it combines operational and analytic specialists combating the spread of dangerous weapons and technology.
08 January 2011Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head in Arizona during her first "Congress on Your Corner" gathering of the year. The gunman injured 14 and killed six.
25 January–11 February 2011The Egyptian revolution and uprising - mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance.
11 March 2011The Tōhoku earthquake was a magnitude-9.0 undersea earthquake off the coast of Japan.
19 April 2011CIA released the US Government's six oldest classified documents, dating from 1917 and 1918. The documents describe secret-writing formulas, letter-opening techniques, and methods of covert communications.  They are housed at the National Archives and are believed to be the only remaining classified documents from the World War I era. Pictured here, and advanced flaps and seals kit.
01 May 2011President Barack Obama announced that most-wanted fugitive Usama Bin Laden, the founder and leader of al-Qa’ida, was killed during an American operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
06 September 2011

 2011        Sep 6, Newly retired Gen. David Petraeus was sworn in as the 20th director of the CIA.
    (SFC, 9/7/11, p.A6)

 2011        Sep 29, Amnesty Int’l. called on Lithuania to reopen its investigation into CIA prisons and the alleged torturing of terrorist suspects based on what they said was new evidence of a rendition flight to the Baltic state. A Boeing 727 allegedly carrying an al-Qaida suspect, Abu Zubaydah, landed in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Feb. 17, 2005, after taking off from Morocco and refueling in Jordan. Reprieve, a human rights organization, announced earlier this year that it had provided investigators with confidential information that Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian repeatedly tortured by US investigators had been secretly imprisoned in Lithuania between 2004 and 2006.
    (AP, 9/29/11)

 2011        Nov 21, US officials said Hezbollah has partially unraveled the CIA’s spy network in Lebanon. Several foreign spies working for the CIA were reported captured by Hezbollah in recent months.
    (SFC, 11/22/11, p.A4)

 2011        Nov 24, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that Iran has arrested 12 agents of the American Central Intelligence Agency. Parviz Sorouri, a member of the powerful parliamentary committee on foreign policy and national security, said the alleged agents were operating in coordination with Israel's Mossad and other regional agencies, targeting the country's military and its nuclear program.
    (AP, 11/24/11)

 2011        Dec 29, In Puerto Rico FBI agent Daniel Knapp (43) drowned after trying to rescue a swimmer in distress at Hidden Beach in the coastal city of Fajardo.
    (AP, 12/30/11)

 2011        Glenn Carle, former CIA official, authored “Te Interrogator: An Education."
    (Econ, 7/9/11, p.82)

 2012        Jan 9, Iran’s state radio reported that an Iranian court has convicted Amir Mirzaei Hekmati (28), an American man, of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death. The case added to the accelerating tension between the United States and Iran. In March the Supreme Court tossed out his death penalty and said a new trial would held. In 2014 the death sentence was overturned and reduced to 10 years in jail. 
    (AP, 1/9/12)(SFC, 3/6/12, p.A3)(AFP, 4/13/14)

 2012        Jan 14, Iran’s Foreign Ministry sent a diplomatic letter to the US saying that it has "evidence and reliable information" that the CIA provided "guidance, support and planning" to assassins "directly involved" in the Jan 11 assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. State media IRNA also reported that Iran delivered a letter to Britain accusing London of having an "obvious role" in the killing.
    (AP, 1/14/12)

 2012        Jan 20, A US federal appeals court in Boston upheld multimillion-dollar judgments that found the federal government liable for the deaths of 3 people allegedly murdered by James “Whitey" Bulger. The FBI had used Bulger and associate Stephen Flemmi as informants and had shielded them from prosecution.
    (SSFC, 1/22/12, p.A7)
2012        Jan 20, The FBI announced that it had closed down one of the world's largest file sharing sites Megauploader.com. The site, which had over 180 million registered users, was accused of copyright violation and its founder Kim Dotcom (37), aka Kim Schmitz, was arrested in New Zealand. Shortly after, Anonymous launched an attack on several US based sites, including the FBI and Universal Music.
    (AFP, 1/20/12)

 2012        Jan 24, In Connecticut 4 police officers, including the president of the local police union, were arrested by the FBI on charges that they assaulted illegal immigrants and covered up abuses in a New Haven suburb where a federal investigation found life was made miserable for Hispanics.
    (AP, 1/25/12)

 2012        Feb 10, A Russian military court convicted Lt. Col. Vladimir Nesterets of providing the CIA with secret information on Russia's new intercontinental ballistic missiles and sentenced him to 13 years in prison. The Federal Security Service said Nesterets pleaded guilty to passing on that classified information in exchange for money.
    (AP, 2/10/12)

 2012        Feb 17, The FBI arrested Amine El Khalifi (29) of Morocco in Washington DC. He was charged by criminal complaint with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against US property. He had a MAC-10 automatic weapon and wore a suicide-bomber vest given to him by FBI undercover agents posing as accomplices in the sting operation. If convicted, he could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison.
    (SFC, 2/18/12, p.A12)

 2012        Mar 6, Five members of Anonymous and Lulz Security were charged in an indictment unsealed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. They included 2 men from Britain, 2 from Ireland and an American. Hector Xavier Monsegur (28), who pleaded guilty in August, served as an FBI informant leading to the new charges. Monsegur’s assistance led to the arrest of hacker Jeremy Hammond in 2013 and allowed authorities to disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks on the US government, US military as well as courts and private companies.       
    (AFP, 3/6/12)(SFC, 3/7/12, p.A7)(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.A8)

 2012        Apr 26, US officials said the White House has given the CIA and the Pentagon broader authority to carry out drone strikes in Yemen against terrorists who imperil the US.
    (SFC, 4/27/12, p.A2)

 2012        Apr 30, In Ohio 5 people, claiming to be anarchists, were arrested in Cleveland for trying to blow up a four-lane bridge across the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The explosive devices were inoperable and controlled by an undercover FBI agent. On Sep 5 three of the men admitted their roles in the bomb scheme in a move to avoid life in prison. A 4th had pleaded guilty earlier. On Oct 7, 2013, Joshua Stafford (25), the last of the five defendants, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
    (http://tinyurl.com/7p5kn2k)(SFC, 9/6/12, p.A5)(SFC, 10/8/12, p.A5)

 2012        Sep 10, Edwin Wilson (b.1928), former US spy and tycoon, died in Seattle. He had worked for the CIA but was arrested in 1982 for selling 20 tons of explosives to Libya. He was sentenced to 52 years in prison for smuggling arms and plotting to murder his wife. He served 22 years. The 1986 book “Manhunt" by Peter Maas was about Mr. Wilson.
    (SSFC, 9/23/12, p.C10)(Economist, 9/29/12, p.98)

 2012        Sep 14, Undercover FBI agents arrested Adel Daoud (18) for trying to detonate what he believed was a car bomb outside a downtown Chicago bar. An undercover operation in which an agent pretending to be a terrorist had provided him with a phony car bomb and watched him press the trigger. Prosecutors the next day said Daoud was offered several chances to change his mind and walk away from the plot.
    (AP, 9/15/12)

 2012        Oct 17, The FBI arrested 21-year-old Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, a banker’s son from Bangladesh, after he tried to detonate a fake 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) car bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank in NYC. On Feb 7, 2013, Nafis pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. On Aug 9, 2013, Nafis was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
    (AP, 10/18/12)(SFC, 2/8/13, p.A16)(SFC, 8/10/13, p.A4)

 2012        Oct 24, FBI agents arrested NYC police Officer Gilberto Valle, a 6-year veteran, after they uncovered several of his plots to kidnap women, including one whom he threatened to cook and eat.
    (SFC, 10/26/12, p.A13)

 2012        Nov 9, David Petraeus, the retired four-star general renowned for taking charge of the military campaigns in Iraq and then Afghanistan, abruptly resigned as director of the CIA, admitting to an extramarital affair. Petraeus carried on the affair with his biographer and reserve Army officer Paula Broadwell.
    (AP, 11/10/12)
2012        Nov 9, Mexican prosecutors charged 14 federal police officers with trying to kill two CIA agents and a Mexican navy captain in an August 24 ambush south of the capital.
    (AP, 11/9/12)

 2012        Nov 22, In Mexico fugitive Jose Luis Saenz, one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted, was arrested in Guadalajara after a joint operation with the Mexican government. Saenz, suspected in 4 slayings, was returned to Los Angeles to face murder, kidnapping and rape charges.
    (SSFC, 11/25/12, p.A11)

 2012        Nov 27, The Open Society Justice Initiative said four suspects in the Jul 11, 2010, bombings in Uganda claimed men who identified themselves as US FBI agents beat them up during questioning. Human rights groups have said Kenya and Tanzania circumvented their extradition laws to illegally deport suspects to Uganda where they could be interrogated at length by local and foreign agents without scrutiny.
    (AP, 11/27/12)

 2012        Dec 10, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it has decoded all of the data from a RQ-170 Sentinel craft, an advanced CIA spy drone captured in Dec 2011.
    (AP, 12/10/12)

 2012        Dec 11, In Georgia Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair and Randy Wilson were charged with conspiring to kill persons or damage property outside the US. FBI agents arrested one at the Atlanta airport and the other at a bus station in Augusta.
    (SFC, 12/12/12, p.A5)

 2012        Dec 13, The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Khaled El-Masri, a German man, who says the CIA illegally kidnapped him and took him to a secret prison in Afghanistan in 2003. It said the government of Macedonia violated El-Masri's rights repeatedly and ordered it to pay €60,000 in damages.
    (AP, 12/13/12)

 2012        Seth Rosenfeld authored “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power."
    (SSFC, 8/19/12, p.G1)
2012        Tim Weiner authored “Enemies: A History of the FBI."
    (SSFC, 2/26/12, p.F3)
2012        The FBI found 5 Baltimore police officers involved in a corruption racket.
    (Econ., 5/2/15, p.23)

 2013        Jan 4, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who moved to Somalia to wage jihad alongside al-Shabab militants, was given 15 days to surrender to militants or be killed. The FBI has named Hammami as one of its most-wanted terrorists.
    (AP, 1/18/13)

 2013        Jan 7, President Obama nominated former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for secretary of Defense and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
    (AP, 1/7/13)

 2013        Jan 22, US officials said the Pentagon has found that Gen. John Allen did not engage in inappropriate communications with Jill Kelley, a civilian woman linked to the sex scandal that led retired Gen. David Petraeus to resign as CIA director.
    (SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)

 2013        Jan 25, CIA veteran John Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison for leaking a covert officer’s identity to a reporter.
    (SFC, 1/26/13, p.A6)

 2013        Jan, Iran arrested Slovak national  Matej Valuch (26) and accused him of spying for the US CIA. On Feb 8 Valuch was released and returned home.
    (AP, 2/8/13)

 2013        Feb 1, In Italy a Milan appeals court vacated acquittals for a former CIA station chief and two other Americans, and instead convicted them in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The court sentenced former CIA Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli to seven years, and handed sentences of six years each to Americans Betnie Medero and Ralph Russomando. All three were tried in absentia at both levels.
    (AP, 2/1/13)

 2013        Feb 12, A Milan appeals court convicted two former Italian spy chiefs for their role in the kidnapping of a terror suspect as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The court sentenced Nicolo Pollari, the former head of Italian military intelligence, to 10 years, and Marco Mancini, a former deputy and head of counterintelligence, to nine. Three other Italian agents also were convicted and handed six-year sentences. All the convictions can be appealed.
    (AP, 2/12/13)

 2013        Feb 27, In Ireland Ali Charaf Damache (47) was arrested while leaving a courthouse in Waterford. He had just walked free from the court, after three years in prison when detectives acting on an American extradition warrant rearrested and escorted him, handcuffed, to an unmarked police car. The FBI and US Justice Department accuse Damache of being the ringleader behind an unrealized 2009 conspiracy to target artist Lars Vilks in Sweden over his series of drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog.
    (AP, 2/27/13)

 2013        Feb 28, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was captured by the FBI in Jordan as he was being deported to Kuwait from Turkey. On March 9 he pleaded not guilty in federal court in NY to conspiring to kill Americans.
    (SFC, 2/9/13, p.A5)

 2013        Mar 27, Eric Harroun of Phoenix, Az., was arrested upon returning to the US from Turkey, where he had described to FBI agents his bizarre journey to the front lines of Syria's civil war with fighters from the al-Nusra Front, a designated terrorist organization also referred to as al Qaeda in Iraq. Harroun served in the US Army from 2000 to 2003.
    (AP, 3/29/13)

 2013        Apr 5, Italy's Pres. Giorgio Napolitano pardoned Joseph Romano, a US Air Force colonel, convicted in absentia by Italian courts in the CIA-conducted abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street. He hoped the move would keep American-Italian relations strong, especially on security matters.
    (AP, 4/5/13)

 2013        Apr 16, A letter was intercepted in Maryland, postmarked from Memphis and mailed to Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker's DC office. It contained the toxic substance ricin, forcing the temporary closure of a Senate post office and prompting a federal investigation. The next day FBI agents detained Paul Kevin Curtis at his home in Corinth, Miss.
    (The Ticket, 4/17/13)

 2013        Apr 19, Federal agents swarmed Watertown, Mass., after local police were involved in a car chase and shootout with 2 men identified by the FBI as Suspect 1 and Suspect 2 in the April 15 Boston bombings. The shootout occurred after a gunfight erupted near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where MIT police officer, Sean Collier (26), was shot and later died. Suspect 1, identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26), was killed in the shootout. Suspect 2, identified as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev (19), a second-year student, was wounded but escaped. He was soon found hiding under a boat tarp in a neighborhood backyard. The brothers' family was originally from Chechnya.
    (AP, 4/19/13)(AP, 4/20/13)

 2013        Apr 27, The FBI arrested Everett Dutschke (41) at his Tupelo, Miss., home in connection with poisoned letters sent to the president and others.
    (AP, 4/27/13)

 2013        Apr 28, A New York Times report, citing current and former advisers to Afghan Pres. Karzai, said tens of millions of US dollars in cash were delivered by the CIA in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags to the office of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for more than a decade.
    (Reuters, 4/28/13)

 2013        May 14, Russia's security services said they have caught a US diplomat who they claim is a CIA agent in a red-handed attempt to recruit a Russian agent. Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the US Embassy in Moscow, was carrying special technical equipment, disguises, written instructions and a large sum of money when he was detained overnight.
    (AP, 5/14/13)

 2013        May 17, Two FBI agents were killed in a training accident off the coast of Virginia Beach, Va. 
    (SFC, 5/20/13, p.A4)

 2013        May 18, Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner was arrested in an FBI sting operation. She accused of taking at least $36,000 from a broker who later came to manage a large share of the state’s $3.3 billion stock and bond portfolio.
    (SFC, 5/21/13, p.A5)(SFC, 5/22/13, p.A5)

 2013        May 22, In Florida Ibragim Todashev was shot dead by an FBI agent in Orlando early today as he was "about to sign a statement" admitting to a role, along with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in an unsolved triple murder in Massachusetts on Sep 11, 2011. Todashev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev both fought mixed martial arts in the name of Boston's Wai Kru gym, where one of the 2011 triple murder victims, Brendan Mess, also trained.
    (ABCNews, 5/22/13)

 2013        Jun 9, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said that Edward Snowden (29), a contractor who says he worked at the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, is the source of leaks about a phone records monitoring program and an Internet scouring program called PRISM. Snowden was working in an NSA office in Hawaii until he left for Hong Kong on May 20.
    (AP, 6/10/13)(Econ, 6/15/13, p.11)

 2013        Jul 13, In Florida Jermaine McBean (33), a computer engineer, was shot as he walked through his apartment complex in Broward County with an unloaded air rifle propped across his shoulders. A photo by a nurse on the scene showed he was wearing earbuds. Earbuds were later found at the hospital in his pocket. In 2015 the FBI opened investigations as the image indicated deputies may have tampered with evidence and lied under oath.
    (http://tinyurl.com/o9gyynn)(SFC, 7/9/15, p.A5)

 2013        Jul 17, Robert Seldon Lady (59), a former CIA base chief convicted in the 2003 abduction of a terror suspect from an Italian street, was detained in Panama after Italy requested his arrest in one of the most notorious episodes of the US program known as extraordinary rendition. After barely a day in detention, he was put on a plane to the US by the Panamanian government.
    (AP, 7/18/13)(AP, 7/19/13)

 2013        Jul 29, US officials said the FBI has arrested 150 people across the country on charges of holding children against their will for prostitution in a three-day weekend sweep. Officials called this the largest-ever operation against child sex-trafficking.
    (Reuters, 7/29/13)

 2013        Aug 10, US FBI agents killed James Lee DiMaggio (40) in the Idaho wilderness. He was suspected of killing a California woman Christina Anderson (44) and her young son a week earlier before fleeing with her daughter, Hannah Anderson (16).
    (SSFC, 8/11/13, p.A10)

 2013        Aug 15, A CIA history was released that referred to Area 51 in Nevada by name and described some of the activities that took place there.
    (SFC, 8/17/13, p.A5)

 2013        Oct 2, FBI agents in San Francisco arrested Ross William Ulbricht (29) at the Glen Park library and accused him of being the “Dread Prince Roberts," the once-anonymous mastermind behind an online drug marketplace known as Silk Road. Ulbricht used Bitcoin virtual currency for transactions and was indicted in Manhattan on Feb 4, 2014.
    (SFC, 10/3/13, p.A1)(SFC, 2/5/14, p.A8)

 2013        Oct 22, Amnesty International called on the US to investigate reports of civilians killed and wounded by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan in a report that provided new details about the alleged victims of the attacks, including a 68-year-old grandmother hit on Oct 24, 2012, while farming with her grandchildren.
    (AP, 10/22/13)

 2013        Nov 14, Donald Sachtleben (55), a former FBI agent, was sentenced to more than three years in prison for disclosing confidential national security information about a foiled bomb plot to an Associated Press reporter. He had worked for the FBI from 1983 until 2008 as a bomb technician and, after his retirement, was hired as a security contractor.
    (AFP, 11/14/13)

 2013        Mark Mazzetti authored “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.
    (SSFC, 4/14/13, p.F1)

 2014        Jan 8, Seventeen people related to the San Diego street gang BMS were arrested in California and New Jersey by police and FBI agents for operating a prostitution ring that spanned 46 cities in 23 states. 
    (SFC, 1/10/14, p.A5)

 2014        Mar 11, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the CIA improperly searched a stand-alone computer network established for Congress in its investigation of allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program. She said the CIA's own inspector general has referred the matter to the Justice Department.
    (AP, 3/11/14)

 2014        Mar 26, In California state Sen. Leland Yee was arrested in an FBI sting on charges that he conspired to traffic in firearms and traded favors in Sacramento for bribes. Yee represented half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Yee was one of 26 people ensnared in a 5-year federal investigation that targeted Raymond “Shrimp Boy" Chow, a Chinatown gangster who had claimed to have gone straight. 
    (SFC, 3/27/14, p.A1)

 2014        Apr 3, Frank Janssen, the father of a North Carolina prosecutor, was kidnapped from his home in Wake Forest. He was held for five days in Atlanta before being rescued by the FBI. Seven people were soon arrested in the case. Janssen’s daughter had prosecuted a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang.
    (SFC, 4/22/14, p.A6)

 2014        May 5, Pakistan detained an American as he was about to board a flight for Islamabad. The man had arrived in Karachi on May 1 and was detained when officials found him carrying ammunition and three knives, as well as electronic devices that were being examined. US authorities identified the man as an FBI agent on an anti-corruption taskforce. Agent Joel Cox was released on May 8.
    (AP, 5/7/14)(AP, 5/8/14)(SFC, 5/9/14, p.A2)

 2014        May 19, European law enforcement officials  announced that police worldwide, acting on an FBI tipoff, have arrested 97 people in 16 countries suspected of developing, distributing or using malicious software called BlackShades that allows criminals to gain surreptitious control of personal computers. French detectives said they arrested more than two dozen people during their May 13 raids.
    (AP, 5/19/14)

 2014        May 22, In Puerto Rico the US FBI issued arrest warrants for 16 police officers on charges of corruption.
    (AP, 5/22/14)

 2014        May 28, In a TV interview by NBC News Eric Snowden, described by the NSA as an information technology contractor, said he was a trained spy who had worked under assumed names overseas for the CIA and the National Security Agency.
    (SFC, 5/29/14, p.A6)

 2014        May 29, FBI agents in Puerto Rico arrested judge Manuel Acevedo Hernandez.
    (AP, 5/29/14)

 2014        May 31, San Francisco police raided an apartment at 1831 Polk Street, the home of Ryan Kelly Chamberlain II, and reportedly found explosives. The FBI launched a nationwide manhunt for Chamberlain, a self-described political junkie with a background in Bay Area public relations. Chamberlain was arrested in SF on June 2. On June 3 the FBI said bomb making materials were found in Chamberlain’s apartment. FBI court filings later said Chamberlain was seeking illegal toxins on a black market website. 
    (SFC, 6/2/14, p.A1)(SFC, 6/3/14, p.A1)(SFC, 6/4/14, p.E1)(SFC, 6/7/14, p.C1)
2014        May 31, Isaac Patch (101), a CIA book-smuggler, civil rights campaigner and naturalist, died.
    (Econ, 6/28/14, p.82)

 2014        Jun 2, The US Justice Dept. announced charges against Evgeniy Bogachev, a Russian man accused of masterminding a scheme whereby hackers implanted viruses on hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, seized customer bank information and stole more than $100 million. The FBI issued a Most Wanted poster for his arrest.
    (SFC, 6/3/14, p.D3)

 2014        Jun 11, FBI director James Comey said the agency has opened a criminal investigation into the Dept. of Veteran Affairs.
    (SFC, 6/12/14, p.A9)

 2014        Jul 10, Germany ask the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country in response to fresh allegations of US spying on Berlin.
    (Reuters, 7/11/14)

 2014        Jul 24, The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Poland violated the rights of two terror suspects by allowing the CIA to secretly imprison them on Polish soil in 2002 and 2003 and facilitating conditions for torture. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Palestinian terror suspect, and Abu Zubaida, a Saudi national charged with orchestrating the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, were currently imprisoned at Guantanamo.
    (SFC, 7/25/14, p.A5)

 2014        Aug 15, FBI agents arrested a New Mexico sheriff and his son after the lawman allegedly pistol-whipped a motorist following a March 11 high-speed car chase.
    (Reuters, 8/15/14)

 2014        Sep 29, In Utah former FBI agent Robert Lustyik Jr. (52) pleaded guilty to charges that he derailed an investigation into military contract fraud by making a suspect appear to be a key counterintelligence source.
    (AFP, 9/30/14)

 2014        Dec 9, The US Senate Intelligence Committee released its report on the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques at secret overseas facilities after the 9/11 terror attacks. President Barack Obama said the interrogation techniques "did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies."
    (AP, 12/10/14)
2014        Dec 9, In Nevada a woman and two men from China pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Vegas to reduced charges in what prosecutors say amounted to a $13 million illegal Internet gambling operation broken up by an FBI raid at high-roller suites at Caesars Palace.
    (AP, 12/10/14)

 2014        Dec 19, The US FBI formally accused North Korea of hacking of Sony Pictures.
    (AP, 12/19/14)

 2015        Jan 25, In the southern Philippines 44 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents. 17 rebels and 4 civilians also died in the deadly clash. Mayor Tahirudin Benzar Ampatuan of Mamasapano town said dozens of commandos had entered the village of Tukanalipao at dawn looking for a top terror suspect, but had a "misencounter" with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. On Feb 4 the US FBI said DNA testing indicated that Zulkfli bin Hir (Zulkifli Abdhir, aka Marwan), a Malaysian member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant group, likely killed in the raid. Six Americans were later confirmed present at the command center of the Special Action Force hours before the raid.
    (AP, 1/26/15)(Reuters, 2/4/15)(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A6)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.34)(Reuters, 5/3/15)

 2015        Jan 26, Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling (47) was convicted of leaking classified details of an operation to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions to NY Times reporter James Risen, who authored “State of War" (2006). On May 11 sterling was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
    (SFC, 1/27/15, p.A5)(SFC, 5/12/15, p.A7)

 2015        Apr 23, In North Carolina former US military commander and CIA director David Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a$100,000 fine but was spared prison time after pleading guilty to mishandling classified information.
    (Reuters, 4/24/15)

 2015        Apr 27, Former Romanian president Ion Iliescu (2000-2004) acknowledged approving the CIA's request for a site in Romania in 2002-2003, but said he would have refused had he known how it would be used.
    (AP, 4/27/15)

 2015        May 15, The Polish Foreign Ministry said that it was processing payments, ordered last July by the European Court of Human Rights, of a quarter of a million dollars to two terror suspects allegedly tortured by the CIA in a secret facility in this country in 2002-2003. 
    (AP, 5/15/15)

 2015        Jul 1, Former California state Sen. Leland Yee admitted that he took bribes from undercover FBI agents in exchange for promises to vote on legislation, arrange meeting for his purported donors and illegally smuggle guns from the Philippines.
    (SFC, 7/2/15, p.A1)

 2015        Jun 2, US law enforcement officials said the FBI is operating a small fleet of low flying planes, traced to at least 13 fake companies across the country, carrying surveillance technology for ongoing investigations without a judge’s approval.
    (SFC, 6/3/15, p.A7)
2015        Jun 2, The FBI and Boston police confronted Usaama Rahim (26) on a sidewalk and fatally shot him after he refused to drop a knife. Rahim was suspected of planning to randomly kill police officers. On June 12 Nicholas Rovinsky (24) of Rhode Island and David Wright (25) of Massachusetts were charged with conspiring with Rahim to kill US citizens.
    (SFC, 6/3/15, p.A7)(SFC, 6/13/15, p.A4)

 2015        Jul 4, Alexander Ciccolo (23), the estranged son of a respected Boston police captain, was arrested by FBI agents as part of a counter-terrorism operation against alleged ISIS-inspired domestic terrorists.
    (ABCNews, 7/14/15)

 2015        Sep 29, In Puerto Rico FBI agents arrested 10 police officers as the US territory struggled to crack down on corruption during a federally mandated police department reform.
    (AP, 9/29/15)

 2015        Robert Grenier, former CIA station chief in Pakistan, authored “88 Days to Kandahar."
    (Econ., 2/28/15, p.76)
2015        William J. Maxwell authored “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature."
    (SSFC, 2/8/15, p.N4)		General David Petraeus (USA Retired) sworn in as D/CIA.
Corona: Eye in the Sky: video

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