INFORMATION AWARENESS OFFICE

USING THE BEST TECHNOLOGIES AT OUR DISPOSAL,ALLOWS US TO FIGHT TERROR,ANYWHERE,ANYTIME. WE MUST BE ABLE TO ADAPT AND EVOLVE. THINK BIG,START SMALL,ACT FAST.FOUNDATIONS TODAY FOR A SAFER TOMORROW.

C.I.A. NEWS PAGE8

A Look Back … The Office of Strategic Services: Training in the Forest

Imagine:

As a recruit for a new intelligence organization, you train by creeping along trails laced with booby traps. You learn how to use weapons, radios and codes. Where might such secretive training take place? In the midst of our national forests and parks, of course!

Such tales of intrigue and heroism attracted the interest of Rutgers University history professor John W. Chambers. He was especially interested in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner of the CIA. When the National Park Service asked him to write a report about the OSS training in their parks during World War II, he was only too happy to oblige.

Chambers believes that teaching the public about the OSS is important.

“Until the declassification of the OSS records during the past three decades, the public did not really know very much about this secret organization,” he said. “Some said the initials OSS really stood for ‘Oh, So, Secret.’ The public should know about what was historically America’s first centralized intelligence and special operations agency.”

The Birth of the OSS

With the United States mobilizing for war, President Franklin Roosevelt recognized the need for an organization to collect and analyze strategic information. On July 11, 1941, he created the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) and named war hero William Donovan to head it.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt ended the COI and established the OSS with Donovan as its leader. The men and women of the OSS engaged in intelligence and special operations throughout the war.

With the pressing need for intelligence during World War II, the OSS grew very quickly. In part, because of its rapid growth, the OSS had little time to find a place to train its new recruits.

Training in the Forest

The ideal setting for OSS training was a place with a lot of land, isolated from roads and the general public.¹ Donovan had a few places in mind—Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland and Prince William Forest Park in Virginia.

These two parks had everything needed to train OSS recruits:

Heavily wooded terrain,
Camp houses where the recruits could sleep and
Buildings for dining and training.

And the parks were already government property.²

Training typically lasted between two and four weeks, depending on the course.

Although the Special Operations, Operational Groups, and Communications branches did much of their training at these two national parks, the OSS also leased other sites in Maryland for use by other OSS branches. They included:

Frontage on the Potomac,
Country estates for use by the intelligence branches, and
The Congressional Country Club for preliminary training particularly for the Operational Groups.

Catoctin Mountain Park

Catoctin Mountain Park was the first operative training camp for the OSS in the United States. It was the site for basic paramilitary training for the OSS’ Special Operations recruits and some Secret Intelligence personnel.³ Later, it would also serve for advanced training for OSS Operational Groups. Catoctin Mountain Park was also known as Training Area B.

While training at Area B, recruits learned knife-fighting and close-combat techniques. They also were introduced to the “house of horrors,” which imitated the stress of an actual urban combat situation.⁴ Recruits were awakened in the middle of the night and given a gun with ammunition and sent into the house, where they were told they would find Nazi guards.⁵

Prince William Forest Park

From 1942 to 1945, at least two branches of the OSS trained on the grounds of Prince William Forest Park—Special Operations (Training Area A) and Communications (Training Area C).

In the security that the forest offered, the Special Operations Branch trained its advanced recruits how to operate behind enemy lines in sabotage, guerilla leadership and other forms of subversion.⁶ New recruits were tasked with concealing their own identity while trying to learn as much information as possible from fellow trainees. Recruits also were:

Taught how to use weapons, radios and codes;
Make and disarm booby traps; and
Make low-level parachute jumps from aircraft.⁷

The OSS Communications Branch also trained its recruits in Prince William Forest Park. Recruits in this division learned Morse code and ciphers, covert radio practices and maintenance, as well as the use of weapons and martial arts.⁸

Famous Trainees

A few famous faces are among the graduates of these training courses:

Actor Sterling Hayden (also known as Capt. John Hamilton) trained at Area B.
Major league baseball catcher Moe Berg also trained in one of the camps held in the national parks.
Directors of Central Intelligence (DCI) William Colby and William Casey, who trained at Area B.

In particular, Casey is remembered for an incident during his time at Area B. He was training on a “demolition trail”— an obstacle course along a path in the woods that was laced with booby traps. Trainees were ordered to make their way along the trail as quickly and quietly as possible, while looking out for booby traps.⁹ Casey stumbled off the trail and caught a trip wire, which set off a charge of TNT. The blast sent a tree limb flying through the air. It hit Casey in the face and broke his jaw.

Sharing the Stories

The national parks were instrumental in the success of World War II because they provided the perfect place for OSS recruits to train.

“The OSS was a very important organization in American history,” said Chambers. “It played an important part in the American victory in World War II, and its institutional legacies include the Central Intelligence Agency and the Army’s Special Forces.”

CIA Museum Director Toni Hiley also thinks it is important to share the OSS’ robust history with Agency employees and the public.

“The OSS was the grandfather of today’s unconventional warfare,” she said. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Lessons from 60 years ago are still valid today.”

Related Stories and Links:

1 Maj. Garland H. Williams, “Training,” memorandum, n.d. [January or February 1942], p. 6; located in OSS Records (RG 226), Entry 136, Box 161, Folder 1754, National Archives II, College Park, Md., hereinafter, National Archives II.

2 Lt. Col. H[enson]. L. Robinson to Col. Atherton Richards, OSS Planning Group, subject: Schools and Training Report [a 14-page, historical and geographical overview of the entire OSS training program],” 30 October 1943, p. 1, OSS Records (RG 226), Entry 146, Box 162, Folder 1757, National Archives II.

3 F.J. B., Jr. [Lt. F.J. Ball, Jr.], OSS, to Major [Otto C.] Doering [Donovan’s Executive Officers at OSS HQ], 30 March 1944, subject: Release of Area “B,” OSS Records (RG 226), Entry 137, Box 3, Folder 24, National Archives II.

4 R.P. Tenney to J[oseph]. R. Hayden, 8 June 1942, interoffice memo, subject: “Area B,” OSS Records (RG 226), Entry 136, Box 158, Folder 1721, National Archives II.

5 Richard Dunlop, Behind Japanese Lines: With the OSS in Burma (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1979), 86; see also, the description of the mystery house reported in the Baltimore Sun, 26 July 1948.

6 Lt. Col. Henson L. Robinson, “Schools and Training,” report, October 1943, p. 1, OSS Records (RG 226), Entry 136, Box 158, Folder 1723, National Archives II.

7 Harry F. Belfry, “Office of Strategic Services (OSS),” in U.S.A. Airborne: 50th Anniversary: A Commemorative History (Atlanta, Ga: Turner Pub. Co., 1997), 350.

8 The Training Directorate to All Geographic Desks and Administrative Officers, SI-SO, n.d., [winter 1942-43?], subject: Training Procedures, OSS Records (RG 226), Entry 146, Misc. Washington Files, Security Office Files, Box 223, Folder 3106, Schools and Training, National Archives.

9 Frank A. Gleason, instructor Area B-2, June 1942 to March 1943, telephone interview with Professor John W. Chambers, 1 May 2006.

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Message from the Director: Memorial Day

Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on Memorial Day

May 22, 2009

This weekend, as America reflects on the heroism and sacrifice of those who died in military service, we at CIA remember as well our own heroes: the 90 men and women commemorated by stars on our Memorial Wall. Each of them, in their own way and own time, strengthened America and helped spread freedom across the globe.

Last night, at the University of Maryland, I challenged the graduates to take up that mantle, no matter where life leads them. I told them how privileged I am to lead an Agency of people who work tirelessly to defend our nation and build a better world. The United States, after all, is founded on decency and sacrifice, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice are remembered and honored this Memorial Day.

Many of us will enjoy extra time with family and friends this holiday weekend. To those who cannot—because of unaccompanied assignments or heavy demands at work—accept my thanks on behalf of the entire leadership team and all of your colleagues. Our mission never rests, as your dedication shows time and time again.

Leon E. Panetta

Director's Remarks at University of Maryland Commencement

Transcript of Remarks by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Leon E. Panetta
at the
University of Maryland Commencement Ceremony

May 21, 2009

(Applause.)

LEON E. PANETTA, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: Thank you very much. President Mote, distinguished deans and faculty, all the alumni, families, the friends, proud members of the class of 2009, I am truly honored to have this opportunity to share in this wonderful graduation ceremony.

And, first and foremost, let me extend my deepest congratulations to the class of 2009 on your graduation.

You made it! (Cheers, applause.)

Now let me also pay tribute to your families, your parents, your spouses, your friends, all of whom are now saying, thank God you made it. (Laughter, applause.)

The support of those who give their love without limits is critical to your success. There is no way, no way I could have gone very far in life without the support and the love of my parents and, in particular, the love and support of my wife, Sylvia. Today is truly about family. And, in many ways, you are part of a larger family: the University of Maryland family.

This great university makes vital contributions to Maryland and to the nation, including some outstanding work for the Intelligence Community that I am a part of. Your School of Public Policy is first rate. You offer an excellent graduate certificate in intelligence. And the Center for Advanced Study of Language is one of the leading programs of its kind anywhere.

One of my goals at the CIA is to require every officer there to get language training in order to be a better individual at gathering intelligence. Speaking of intelligence, I can also disclose that this university has produced two of the most mobile and accurate weapons in existence: Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver. (Applause, cheers.) If they hadn’t signed with Washington and Chicago, we’d sign them up at Langley -- of course, at the government rate. (Laughter.)

Today I want to sign all of you up. I want to sign all of you up as citizen soldiers to confront the huge challenges that face all of us in the 21^st century.

This day, this graduation, does mark a crossroads in your lives. That’s not just a cliché; you will now embark on a very different path in your lives. But it comes at a time when we face a major crossroads in the life of our country. As President Obama has made clear, we are confronting a set of unprecedented crises from the economy to energy, from war to health care, from deficits to immigration, from the threat of global warming to the threat of global pandemics.

How we confront these crises will determine the future course of America. It will determine whether we are to be a leader in the 21^st century or just another failed empire in history. That responsibility does not just rest with the President and the political leadership of the nation; it rests with all of us and all of you.

Our democracy has survived because it was born in the crucible of public service. The Preamble of the Constitution says, “We, the people,” not, “We, the leaders,” not, “We, the government,” but, we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity do hereby establish the United States of America.

And it was de Tocqueville who commented after he went through this country that “I have often seen Americans make great and real sacrifices to the public welfare.” Our very heritage is built on giving back to the nation.

Winston Churchill, whose mother was born here in America, once said, “You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.” I’m the son of Italian immigrants who, like millions of others, came to this country with few skills, little money in their pocket and hardly any English-speaking ability.

But they understood the dream of America. When I would ask my father, why did you travel those thousands of miles to come to a strange country, I will never forget his reply: because your mother and I believed that we could give our children a better life.

That is the American dream. It is the fundamental bond that we all share. And we will make whatever sacrifices necessary to give our children that better life; a quality education, a chance to earn a decent living, a chance to enjoy a secure and peaceful world.

That willingness to join in sacrifice on behalf of our children and their future is built into the fiber of our republic. Our forefathers understood that the strength of this nation did not rest on a king; it did not rest on a parliament; it did not rest on a court. Our strength rests in people, people who are willing to sacrifice for the future.

Thomas Paine said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” And this simple reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man -- and I will add, every woman -- to duty.

It is that sense of giving that helped build this nation, that carved it out of the frontier, that built churches and schools and hospitals and businesses and farms, that fought wars, that survived disasters, and that ultimately made life better for those in the future.

It is that torch of service and sacrifice that must now pass from patriot and pioneer and soldier and immigrant to all of you. Every Sunday at dinner, as a boy, something that was a tradition in my family: My parents made clear to my brother and I that we had a duty to give something back to this country that had given them so much. And with that advice came a set of values: hard work, honesty, a clear sense of right and wrong -- qualities essential to life and to citizenship.

My parents, two years in the Army, and a young president who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” and in many ways, it inspired my generation. And the nation benefited from the impact of that generation, from civil rights to women’s rights, from the environment to education, from the Peace Corps to issues of war and peace.

It is time for you, a new generation of Americans, to now respond. You have the obligation and you have the responsibility to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

At the Panetta Institute for Public Policy that my wife and I established at California State University in Monterey Bay, in California, I often told my students that in our democracy, we govern by leadership or crisis. If leadership is present, and those who are elected are willing to make the sacrifices and take the risks associated with leadership and making tough decisions, then this nation can avoid, or at least control, crisis.

But if leadership is not willing to take those risks and make those sacrifices essential to governing, then make no mistake, we will govern by crisis. And too often today, crisis drives policy. You have the greatest opportunity of any generation in my lifetime to make clear that crisis is not the legacy that you are going to pass on to the future. This is a time for statesmanship, not partisanship; for solutions, not sound bites. Throughout our history, this nation has had to face challenges, and it has risen to the occasion. And I am convinced that the President, Congress, Democrats and Republicans and all of us must now do the same.

For you in particular, for you in particular, the problems of recession and unemployment, financial crisis, record deficits, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not just abstractions. As you try to begin your career in life, you have a personal stake in whether or not we meet those challenges. Fortunately, every day at the CIA, I see young Americans just like you that have stepped into public service to fight al-Qaeda, to fight the war on terrorism, to work against the complex threats that we face in the world. They’re part of an exceptionally talented team that President Obama gave me the privilege of leading.

More than half of our officers have come forward since September 11^th, 2001, and quite a few from this university. Our men and women go wherever their mission calls them, and many put their lives on the line. There is a wall at the CIA in Langley where there are stars of those who’ve given their lives, and many of those names are not on that wall because they operated under cover. Each brings an extraordinary level of skill and dedication and spirit to the essential work they do in some very remote and dangerous places.

They do that work because they love this country. They believe in a free and open society, and they believe in upholding the laws and values of this country. And like the President, I do not believe that we have to choose between our values and our safety. We use – (applause) – we use our unique expertise and insight to protect the nation and to advance America’s interests globally and to help our country’s leaders change the world for the better.

The fact is that your Millennial Generation is already changing our nation and the world for the better. You are giving this good and decent country a new era of civic involvement and national purpose. Go forward knowing that you are greater than the challenges of your time. We’ve seen America, throughout its history, face adversity, and it forged great generations; you share that same destiny. The times demand your engagement, your leadership, and your integrity. So as citizen soldiers, fight for what’s right and what’s best about this country.

There’s a story I often tell of the rabbi and the priest who decided they would get to know each other a little better. So one evening, they went to a boxing match and thought that if they went to those kind of events, they could learn a little bit more about each other’s religion. And just before the bell rang, one of the boxers made the sign of the cross. The rabbi nudged the priest and said, what does that mean? The priest said it doesn’t mean a damn thing if he can’t fight. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentlemen, and graduates, we bless ourselves with the hope that this country will be okay, but frankly, it doesn’t mean a damn thing unless you’re willing to fight for it. (Applause.) And that means to fight for that American dream -- the dream that my parents and all of those who came before us hoped for -- that our children would have that better life in a more secure world, and to fight, most of all, for a government of, by, and for all people.

Class of 2009, the torch is yours. Good luck, Godspeed, and Go Terps!

(Cheers, applause, standing ovation.)

(END)

Asian-Pacific Heritage Valued at the Agency

The month of May is yet another time to celebrate the diversity of America’s people. This month, we honor Asian-Pacific American heritage. With the first wave of Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush in 1848, Asian-Pacific Americans have brought their culture to the nation known as the “melting pot.” The Agency would like to use Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month as an opportunity to acknowledge the talents and diversity of thought that Asian-Pacific employees bring to the mission.

The Asian-Pacific American Organization

The Central Intelligence Agency has many affinity groups; one of which is the Asian-Pacific American Organization (APAO). This affinity group acts as a support structure for Agency employees of Asian-Pacific heritage. APAO works to:

Advise senior Agency managers on Asian-Pacific career advancement, retention and recruitment
Provide career development guidance to staff officers and newly hired Asian-Pacific officers
Advocate training designed to capitalize on Asian-Pacific strengths
Partner with the Agency Diversity Council in an effort to foster diversity and create opportunities for information sharing and discussion
Promote a greater understanding of Asian-Pacific American values, cultural awareness, and work ethics to maximize organizational effectiveness

A former APAO president and current CIA employee, who has been with the organization since its creation in 1991, remarked upon the importance of the organization.

“APAO is an important organization because at the end of the day, you’re still who you are and this organization is here to help you through the good and bad,” she said. “It’s here to help you become successful in the Agency.”

APAO is also about making a difference in the Agency.

“We’re trying to show junior officers that their culture brings diversity of thought to the Agency, and it’s how they use it that makes a difference,” she said.

The former APAO president believes that APAO will continue to have an impact as the next generation enters the Agency workforce.

“It’s important for the more experienced officers to transfer their knowledge to the next generation, especially when we now have four generations of employees in the workforce,” she said.

Lighting the Past, Present and Future

The theme for the Agency 2009 Asian-Pacific American heritage celebration is “Lighting the Past, Present and Future.” The theme is selected annually by the Federal Asian-Pacific American Council.

APAO planned many exciting events to celebrate Asian-Pacific American Heritage month, including:

A panel discussion featuring senior Asian-Pacific American Agency officers—one from each directorate—who spoke about challenges and successes as they moved up the ranks
Keynote speaker Chancellor of D.C. Schools Michelle Rhee spoke to Agency employees about the challenges she faces in her work, the state of D.C. public schools and emphasized that the phrase “anything is possible in America” has meaning only if children receive a good education.

Continuing Culture

Currently, any knowledge of Asian-Pacific cultures and languages is highly valued by the Agency. Some Asian-Pacific languages are considered mission-critical. These include:

Chinese
Korean
Indonesian

To learn more about language opportunities at the CIA, visit the Language Positions page.

Related Stories and Links:

Message from the Director: Strengthening Our Foreign Language Capability

Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on Foreign Language Capabilities

May 29, 2009

Today, I’m pleased to announce an aggressive plan to build the truly multilingual workforce we need at the Central Intelligence Agency.

Deep expertise in foreign languages is fundamental to CIA’s success. Whether an officer is conducting a meeting in a foreign capital, analyzing plans of a foreign government, or translating a foreign broadcast, language capability is critical to every aspect of our mission. Language skills are the keys to accessing foreign societies, understanding their governments, and decoding their secrets. Stronger language skills will give our officers enhanced access to the information our policymakers need to protect our nation.

Through good recruiting and training, our Agency has improved its language capabilities in recent years, but we can and must do more.

Within five years, we aim to:

Double the number of analysts and collectors who are proficient in languages, particularly those that are mission critical;
Increase by 50% the number of people with the right language skills serving in language-use positions; and
Dramatically transform the way CIA trains our officers in foreign language capability.

To reach these goals, we will increase the number of officers in full-time language training. The number of officers from the National Clandestine Service in full-time training will increase by 50% and the number of analysts from the Directorate of Intelligence in full-time training will triple.

We will find innovative ways to acquire, teach, and maintain these skills. I have asked CIA University, our focal point for educational and training initiatives at CIA, to take the lead in identifying a mix of approaches to meet our objectives. Among the initiatives that will be explored:

Allowing qualified prospective employees to take language training while they await clearance,
Offering night school, more external and online training, and more full-time training overseas, and
Providing specialized training to officers who need to reach a higher level of proficiency in mission-critical languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Pushto, Urdu, and Persian.

Another major initiative will be to recruit and retain new officers who have critical language skills. We cannot train our way out of this problem. If we are going to succeed in this effort, we have to further diversify our workforce. I have directed our Human Resources office and our Recruitment and Retention Center to provide a long-term plan for hiring a qualified cadre of Americans who have foreign language skills.

Even as we focus on our people, we also will take a strategic look at the application of computer-based translation and other technologies. We will identify gaps and invest in equipment and practices that will help us more quickly and effectively exploit the foreign-language material we collect.

This important initiative will require significant new funding. In the coming weeks and months, I will reach out across the Intelligence Community, to the Office of Management and Budget, and most importantly, to our partners in Congress to find the necessary resources.

In sum, we’ll work this issue every way we can, so that officers across our Agency have the resources, support, and tools they need to pursue language learning and apply it to key jobs.

To gather intelligence and understand a complex world, CIA must have more officers who read, speak, and understand foreign languages. Our national security demands nothing less.

Leon E. Panetta

CIA Pays Tribute to Fallen Officers

June 1, 2009

The Central Intelligence Agency, which recently added a 90^th star to the Memorial Wall in its headquarters building, today commemorated the exceptional service and ultimate sacrifice of all employees lost in the line of duty.

Standing before the Wall, Director Leon E. Panetta said, “The men and women memorialized here came from all walks of life, and they were joined together by the same demanding mission that we pursue today. They held different jobs in different places, but they were motivated by the same sense of duty, the same sense of purpose that are the heart and soul of the CIA.”

Director Panetta started a new tradition at this year’s ceremony, presenting a replica of a star from the Wall to the brothers of Douglas S. Mackiernan, the first Agency officer killed in service to the United States. Mackiernan was an operations officer whose life was taken in Tibet in 1950 after a long and difficult journey out of China. Each family of the fallen will be given a star sculpted by the artist who engraves them on the Memorial Wall.

The memory of Gregg Wenzel, an operations officer who was killed in Ethiopia in 2003, also was honored today. A former defense attorney in Florida, Wenzel grew up in Monroe, New York, and was a member of the first clandestine service training class to graduate after the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, 2001. His Agency affiliation was made public at the event.

“During months of rigorous training, Gregg stood out as a leader, for his talent and for his intellect, but also for his great sense of humor and a great penchant for fun,” Director Panetta said. “He helped unite the class and kept its spirits high in the toughest moments.”

Overseas, Wenzel gathered intelligence on a wide range of national security priorities. In Director Panetta’s words: “At age 33, a promising young officer—a leader and friend to so many—was taken from us. We find some measure of solace in knowing that Gregg achieved what he set out to do: He lived for a purpose greater than himself. Like his star on this Wall, that lesson remains with us always.”

Director Panetta also paid tribute to an employee killed in the line of duty last year—CIA’s 90^th star. Due to continuing operational sensitivities, neither the name of the employee nor details of his work can be made public.

“It is an honor for me to lead this extraordinary organization and to know the stories of the heroes reflected in these stars,” Director Panetta said. “Their patriotism and leadership, courage and decency, are models for all of us. Their work is our work now. And their spirit abides with us.”

The memorial ceremony is attended each year by hundreds of employees, retirees, and family members and friends of those who have died in service with CIA.

Russell Jack Smith, Giant of CIA Analysis, Dies at 95

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lost a true exemplar of the analytic profession with the passing of Russell “Jack” Smith this spring at his home in McLean. Smith had a long and stellar career from the CIA’s early days as an analyst, estimator, and head of the Directorate of Intelligence (DI); he ended his service with a prestigious foreign assignment.

From Teaching to the OSS

Jack Smith, as he was known throughout his career, was born on July 4, 1913, into a working class Michigan family. He grew up with an appreciation for hard physical labor and was gifted with a brilliant mind, especially for writing.

Smith graduated with distinction from Miami University of Ohio in 1937. He attended graduate school at Cornell University on a full scholarship and earned a Ph.D. in English Literature. After graduating, Smith taught at Williams College until the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

With the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War II, Smith signed on with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the predecessor of today’s CIA. He worked for the OSS as a researcher and writer for the last six months of the war.

Beginning a Career in Intelligence

After World War II, the OSS was abolished and its functions were transferred to the State and War departments. It wasn’t long before President Harry S. Truman realized that the nation needed a central intelligence organization, and in January 1946 he issued an Executive Order establishing the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). The creation of the Central Intelligence Agency followed in September 1947, as ordered by the National Security Act.

After a teaching stint at Wells College in New York State, Smith was offered a position in the fledgling CIG and soon was editing the Daily Summary—an analytic publication that CIG and then CIA prepared for President Truman.

Smith had many qualities that contributed to his quick rise in the Agency, including:

the ability to research and write and edit clearly,

insistence on quality, and

leadership skills.

From 1957 to 1962, Smith served on the Board of National Estimates, an arm of the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), which was responsible for preparing estimates of foreign intentions. As a member of the elite Board—the predecessor to today’s National Intelligence Council—Smith worked closely with Sherman Kent. Kent—often called the “father of intelligence analysis”—is an Agency legend and is credited with developing the techniques and methods used in intelligence analysis today.

Kent praised Smith as an officer of distinction:

“He has the qualities which I believe are of greatest importance to a Board member: a lot of knowledge, a clear head, a judicious nature, drafting skill, and excellent presence … He has my full confidence as a man fitted for a wide range of most responsible positions in the Agency.”

Stepping into Leadership

Smith attributed his success in the Agency to personal connections. For example, a colleague from Smith’s OSS days helped him obtain his first leadership role in the Agency.

In the early 1960s, then-Deputy Director of Intelligence (DDI) Ray Cline made Smith the director of Current Intelligence and then his deputy. During this time period, Smith faced many challenges, including the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Smith as DDI

In 1966, Richard Helms—an alumnus of Williams College and then deputy to DCI William Raborn—recommended Smith to succeed Cline as DDI. Smith served as DDI from 1966 to 1971, a period that included the Arab-Israel Six-Day and Vietnam wars. During both wars, Smith was responsible for the analysis and dissemination of intelligence.

One of Smith’s first achievements in the position was the establishment of the Office of Strategic Research (OSR). CIA analysts in OSR would produce all-source, independent, strategic assessment of military developments and trends.

Another practice Smith instituted as DDI was saying “no” to low-priority requests for analysis. Smith established a review of such requests but found the directorate culture so accustomed to saying “yes” that he held staff meetings in which he would have his officers practice, “Now all together, say no. No.”

New Adventures

In 1971, Smith was ready for a change. DCI Helms sent Smith to an important field post in the Middle East, where he was highly regarded by U.S. ambassadors for his candor and judgment.

When Smith retired in late 1973, colleagues described him as one of the best all-round substantive analysts in the Intelligence Community. He received the Distinguished Intelligence Medal for a career of significant contributions to the Agency and the analytic profession.

Life after the CIA

In retirement, Smith continued to write and eventually produced more than a dozen books. His greatest contribution was his memoir, The Unknown CIA (1989). The book is now out of print; many historians agree that it is the best reflection on and explanation of a career in intelligence analysis.

Smith’s other books included spy novels, The House That Jack Built, and Rosemary: A Memoir. He was wrestling with the plot of yet another novel when he passed away on April 27, 2009.

Smith’s wife, Rosemary, died in 2004. He is survived by three sons and five grandchildren.

Reflecting on his career long after he retired, Smith was asked which job was most satisfying. He responded immediately, “I must say, I enjoyed it all.”

CIA World Factbook Launches New Web Site

On Monday, June 8, the World Factbook team unveiled its thoroughly redesigned Web site: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html. Presenting a cleaner look, improved navigation, and a host of added features, the new site provides visitors with a more user-friendly experience.

The CIA first made the Factbook available to the public in 1975 and launched its online presence in 1997. This is the first major redesign of the Factbook site in over a decade.

More than 3 million visitors access the online Factbook monthly. The world-renowned Factbook provides visitors with wide-ranging and hard-to-locate information about the background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 countries and other entities.

Key changes to the site include:

An overhaul of the entire site’s look/feel, including new uniform navigation throughout the Factbook site

A new homepage, featuring:

A color-coded, easily navigable world map
A featured links section that showcases regional maps, flags of the world, and a gallery of Factbook covers

Country pages now have collapsible/expandable content, giving visitors more information at their fingertips

In addition to the new look and improved navigation, the site provides several exciting new features:

Downloadable and printable photos for nearly 100 countries

A "Did You Know?" section that explains the impact of the Factbook around the world

A "What's New" section that highlights recent significant updates and additions

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An Agency Tradition: Remembering Fallen Officers

On June 1, 2009, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees gathered before the beautiful marble face of the Memorial Wall in the Original Headquarters Building (OHB) lobby to honor fellow employees who have died in the line of duty. The memorial ceremony is an act of commemoration that occurs around Memorial Day each year. The families, whether their loved one died long ago or just that year, are invited, and many come year after year.

During this year’s memorial service, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) Leon E. Panetta started a new tradition. He presented a replica of a star from the Wall to the brothers of Douglas S. Mackiernan, the first Agency officer killed in service to the United States. Each family of the fallen will be given a star sculpted by the artist who engraves them on the Memorial Wall.

This year’s ceremony also marked the addition of a 90^th star carved into the wall in remembrance of an employee killed carrying out the Agency’s mission last year. Due to continuing operational sensitivities, neither the name of the employee nor details of his work can be made public.

Stars for the Fallen

One might assume that such a ritual—coming together to remember CIA’s honored dead—has long been a permanent feature of Agency life. But that’s not the case. For most of the Agency’s history, employees who died in the line of duty were honored in small private ceremonies, usually with only the immediate family and the Director or another senior CIA official present. It was not an act of the Agency community as a whole.

This began to change in 1973, when officers of the Directorate of Operations (today’s National Clandestine Service) sought to commemorate the sacrifice of their colleagues who were killed in Southeast Asia. The Agency leadership embraced the idea, but expanded it to include all deaths of CIA employees regardless of directorate.

In 1974, the Memorial Wall with its initial 31 stars was created in the OHB lobby, but it went up without ceremony as a silent tribute to the fallen. The problem was that it was too silent, and the memories and stories about the “Stars on the Wall”—as those memorialized came to be known—were slipping from the Agency’s collective memory.

A Tradition Begins …

Finally, in 1986, a counterintelligence officer suggested that a ceremony be held annually in front of the Wall because “the majority of our employees, particularly the younger generation, are barely aware of the existence or the significance of this memorial.” The officer said this custom would result in “rising morale and pride in our achievements which, in turn, would greatly contribute to our continuing effort to achieve excellence.”

Again, senior management endorsed this idea from the ranks, beginning a new tradition of honoring CIA’s fallen employees near the national observance of Memorial Day.

On May 27, 1987—with the Agency in its 40^th year and with 50 stars on the Wall—Deputy Director Robert Gates presided at the first annual CIA memorial ceremony.

… And Continues

The ceremony has been held every year since 1987 with increasing openness. In 1989, non-Agency family members were first invited, and in 1995, all the memorialized names were read aloud for the first time.

Related Stories and Links:

The Stars on the Wall

Commemorating the Dead at CIA

Chiyoki Ikeda

James A. Rawlings

John Gregory Anthony Celli, III

Rachel A. Dean

Agency Pilots in the U-2 Program

James J. McGrath

Norman Schwartz & Robert Snoddy

A Look Back ... The Berlin Tunnel: Exposed

In the rainy, early hours of April 22, 1956, a team of Soviet and East German soldiers began to dig at the municipal cemetery in Altglienicke in East Berlin. It had been an extremely rainy spring and there had been many short circuits in Berlin’s telephone network. The soldiers’ assignment was to unearth a buried telephone cable and check for damage. When they reached the cable, they made an amazing discovery: the cable was tapped and rerouted into a tunnel. The Berlin Tunnel (a.k.a. Operation Gold) was exposed.

The Need for Intelligence

During the Cold War, monitoring and thwarting the Soviet Union’s influence worldwide was the top priority of the CIA. Berlin stood on the front lines of the superpower conflict. The East German capital was the center of a communications network connecting key European nodes and extending well into Russia. Soviet telephone and telegraph communications between Moscow, Warsaw, and Bucharest were routed through the city.

By the early 1950s the Soviets had shifted from radio to land line telephones for most military traffic, transmitting both encrypted messages and nonsecure voice communications. CIA assessed that tapping the underground cables could be done securely and with little notice. Following a similar success in Vienna in 1951, the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service developed a tunneling and tapping plan that Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles approved in January 1954; work began the following month. The construction used an Air Force radar site and warehouse as a cover and proceeded undetected.

Building the tunnel was an undertaking of extreme proportions. During construction:

3,100 tons of soil were removed, which would fill more than 20 living rooms in an average American home
125 tons of steel liner plate were used to line the tunnel
1,000 cubic yards of grout were consumed

The finished tunnel was 1,476 feet long.

British technicians installed the taps. Collection began in May 1955.

A Mole in Our Midst

: Tunnel interior with wooden rails for forklift and sandbag 'benches' for utility lines and ventilation.

Unfortunately, the KGB—the Soviet Union’s premier intelligence agency—had been aware of the project from the start. George Blake, a KGB penetration of the British Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI-6), knew about the operation and apprised the Soviets about it during the planning stages. It has been determined that there were no known attempts to feed disinformation to the CIA. The Soviet military continued to use the cables for communications of intelligence value.

Most likely, the KGB did not reveal that it knew about the Tunnel to protect Blake. In April 1956 the KGB sent a team to “discover” the Tunnel while repairing faulty underground cables. CIA officers monitoring the area saw the digging and vacated the tunnel before the Soviets closed it down. Moscow had hoped to win a propaganda victory by publicizing the operation, but most press coverage instead marveled at the United States’ technical ingenuity.

An Intelligence Success

The Berlin Tunnel episode illustrates how elements of success and failure can be found in the same intelligence operation. The cable taps yielded enormous amounts of intelligence on a hard target and answered important strategic questions for US policymakers and warfighters. The success in numbers includes:

50,000 reels of tape
443,000 fully transcribed conversations (368,000 Soviet and 75,000 East German)
40,000 hours of telephone conversations
6,000,000 hours of teletype traffic
1,750 intelligence reports

At the same time, a Soviet penetration of British intelligence compromised the costly operation to the KGB after less than a year and raised persistent (but ultimately disproven) concerns that the Soviets had used it to purvey disinformation. The Berlin Tunnel was probably one of the most ambitious operations undertaken by the Agency in the 1950s, and it succeeded despite the fact that the KGB knew about it before construction even began.

CIA’s official history of the Berlin Tunnel has been declassified and is available in the Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room.

Related Links:

A Look Back ... Benjamin Franklin: Founding Father of Covert Action

There was never a good war or a bad peace.
—Benjamin Franklin

With the beginning of the Revolutionary War came the birth of American intelligence. Since then, the tradecraft of intelligence has been developed and improved to better protect our nation. Our nation’s birthday is a good time to reflect on how intelligence tradecraft began.

Twice a Founding Father

One founding father who contributed to the development of American Intelligence was Benjamin Franklin. He became known as a master of covert action.

Long before the war, Franklin had established a reputation as:

a scientist of distinction,
a seasoned diplomat,
a world-class thinker, and
a talented public servant.

He utilized all of these skills to carry out covert actions successfully. During the war, Franklin served as:

an agent of influence,
a propagandist,
manager of covert French aid to the American Revolutionaries, and
director of American paramilitary activities against the British.

Befriending the French

In December 1776, Franklin was named the Ambassador to France. During his time in Paris, Franklin developed a relationship with the French Government that involved much more than diplomatic work. His real mission was to convince the French Government to become a military ally against the British.

In order to accomplish this, Franklin used his charm and virtues to establish a reputation as a friendly, humble and industrious American. This image was in stark contrast to how the French perceived the British at that time.

Franklin’s charm and established friendships with French officials allowed him to successfully manipulate French perceptions of America. On more than one occasion, Franklin convinced the French authorities not to reduce secret aid or block American privateer ships from using French ports despite British protests and threats.

After the American victory during the Battle of Saratoga, Franklin convinced French leadership that he was seriously considering British peace proposals. He orchestrated meetings between the American Commissioners and British envoys, all the while informing French authorities of the discussions and keeping up appearances that a peace agreement was inevitable.

Franklin’s trick worked. On January 7, 1778, the French Royal Council decided to negotiate an alliance with America.

A Master of Propaganda

Franklin was also quite talented in producing convincing propaganda. One of his more famous propaganda operations involved generating dissatisfaction among German mercenaries serving with British forces in America.

In 1777, Franklin composed a letter from a Prussian Prince to the commander of the Prince’s mercenary troops. The letter questioned casualty figures provided by the British Government and exposed British human rights violations committed against the Americans.

The forged letter also advised the commander to let his wounded soldiers die because the British would pay more for a death than for a wounded soldier. The letter was widely circulated in Europe and among Prussian troops in the colonies, and was credited with causing numerous desertions.

Paramilitary Operations

During the Revolutionary War, Franklin was involved in many paramilitary operations, including coordinating the efforts of privateers operating out of French and other European ports against British shipping. Franklin also played a role in the only American military attack on the British Isles during the Revolutionary War period.

In April 1778, Captain John Paul Jones raided the British port of Whitehaven. Franklin and Jones had planned to burn the ships at port. However, once the attackers were ashore, the element of surprise was lost and they were forced to retreat. The cost of the damage was minimal; no more than 250 – 300 pounds (less than $50,000 of today’s U.S. dollars).

Even though the raid was not successful, it was an important achievement for America in terms of propaganda and morale. A British town had been invaded for the first time since the late 1600s.

As a founding father, Benjamin Franklin understood that intelligence is as vital an element of national defense as a strong military. He also knew the importance of secrecy for conducting effective intelligence operations. Franklin used his intellect and humor to win friendships and build French support for the American independence struggle.