Exagente de la CIA “Musculito” habla sobre los atentados a Fidel

para una semblanza preliminar de rolando eugenio martinez alias "musculito",  ver la cronica de camilo loret de mola  El último de los plomeros

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America TeVe

CIA Restructured To Cover Entire Universe? Men In Black

Mary Greeley

Rolando Sarraff, el espía canjeado a EEUU reaparece tras un mes de silencio

martinoticias

Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, el espía que quedó en libertad tras el acuerdo entre Cuba y Estados Unidos, confirmó que está en Estados Unidos y se encuentra bien, informó el martes su hermana Vilma Sarraff a The Associated Press.

Vilma Sarraff, que vive en España, dijo que su hermano contactó por primera vez con la familia tras un mes de silencio. El espía confirmó que se "encuentra libre y bien", pero no quiso desvelar detalles de la conversación telefónica ni la ciudad norteamericana en la que se encuentra.

La familia había dicho desconocer el paradero de Sarraff. La hermana hizo público este contacto horas después de que Estados Unidos confirmara la liberación de los 53 prisioneros políticos que Cuba se comprometió a excarcelar como parte del acuerdo histórico entre las autoridades cubanas y el gobierno norteamericano.

Rolando Sarraff, de 51 años, fue identificado por un ex miembro del gobierno estadounidense como el espía liberado al que el presidente estadounidense, Barack Obama, elogió como uno de los activos más valiosos de Washington. La fuente indicó que Sarraf fue la persona repatriada a Estados Unidos junto a Alan Gross el pasado 17 de diciembre.

Sarraff era un criptógrafo que trabajaba para la inteligencia cubana como "agente de comunicaciones".

Fue detenido y condenado a 25 años de cárcel en 1995. Antes de que cayera en manos de las autoridades cubanas, Sarraff ayudó a desmantelar la llamada "Red Avispa", una red de espionaje cubano en Florida que incluía agentes del grupo conocido como Los Cinco. Tres de ellos fueron puestos en libertad y enviados de vuelta a Cuba a cambio de Sarraff, Gross y los 53 disidentes.

El caza espias Simmons sobre la inteligencia cubana en EEUU y el enigma de Sarraff Trujillo

Maria Elvira Salazar 

Café Fuerte

Por Miguel Fernández Díaz

El paradero aún desconocido de Rolando “Roly” Sarraff Trujillo fuerza a sospechar que se procedió a inflarlo para compensar un tanto el canje desigual del contratista estadounidense Alan Gross por los tres espías penitentes de la Red Avispa, que a su vez aflora como pretexto para que la administración Obama emprendiera la rectificación de errores y tendencias negativas en la política de Estados Unifos hacia Cuba.

Obama soltó que el canje había incluido a “uno de los agentes de inteligencia más importantes de Estados Unidos en Cuba”, quien proveyó la información conducente al arresto de los miembros de la Red Avispa y otros espías. El vocero de la Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia, Brian P. Hale, precisó que esos otros eran la analista del Pentágono, Ana Belén Montes, y los esposos Myers.

Sin embargo, el valor de cambio de Saraff Trujillo, de 51 años, se consideró despreciable desde que el canje de prisioneros se columbró hacia 2001 con el juicio a “Los Cinco”. Todavía en enero del 2009, al solicitar al Tribunal Supremo la anulación de las sentencias dictadas en el trámite de apelación, los abogados de “Los Cinco” tenían cifradas esperanzas en el canje, tras proponer al gobernante Raúl Castro, en diciembre del 2008, hacerlo con los 75 disidentes encarcelados.

La apelación ante la máxima instancia judicial coindidó con una exhortación de Raúl Castro para canjear los cinco espías por los opositores políticos encarcelados durante la ola represiva de la primavera del 2003.

Mercancía revalorada

En un artículo publicado en El Nuevo Herald el 26 de enero del 2009, el abogado Paul McKenna, quien representaba por entonces a Gerardo Hernández, condenado a dos cadenas perpetuas, le dijo al periodista Wilfredo Cancio Isla que la propuesta de canje no debía desestimarse. “No soy político ni quiero participar en asuntos políticos, pero sería ingenuo decir que [el canje] no es una opción posible. No sería la primera vez que hay intercambios de prisioneros, hay precedentes durante la Guerra Fría”, declaró McKenna.

Las cartas estaban sobre la mesa. Durante una visita a Brasil, en diciembre del 2008, Raúl Castro había lanzado la propuesta a Estados Unidos de hacer “un gesto de ambas partes” y canjear “con familia y todo” a los 75 por los Cinco.

Washington respondió tajantemente que no y ni por asomo hubo contrapropuesta de canje por espías suyos presos en Cuba.

Además de Sarraff Trujillo, arrestado en septiembre de 1995 y condenado a 25 años, cumplían entonces sanciones por espionaje los oficiales del MININT Claro Alonso Hernández, Ernesto Borges Pérez, Amado Medel Martín y Máximo Omar Ruiz Matoses. El cambio habría sido cinco por cinco. El artículo de Cancio Isla es el primero donde aparece mencionado Sarraff Trujillo como una opción de canje, mucho antes de que se produjera el arresto de Gross, pero una investigación reciente de los Herald sobre el tema no reparó en el detalle.

Entonces Cuba enfiló hacía otro objetivo de mayor valor de cambio. En diciembre del 2009, Raúl Castro tuvo que echar mano a Alan Gross para presionar a Washington con un ciudadano estadounidense tan desconectado de la realidad cubana que se creyó podía instalar alegremente dispositivos de telecomunicaciones sin enredarse con la Seguridad del Estado.

Tras casi 20 años en la cárcel y a más de una década del juicio a “Los Cinco”, el valor de cambio de Saraff Trujillo debió ser aun más bajo, pero subió de repente para trompetearse en el canje que ni siquiera incluyó los valores agregados de otros espías encarcelados en la isla, aunque cabe suponer que aparezcan ahora entre las demás personas excarceladas en virtud de decisión unilateral y por las cuales, según Raúl Castro, Estados Unidos “había mostrado interés”.

¿Inflación o justo precio?

El teniente coronel (retirado) de la inteligencia militar de Estados Unidos, Christopher Simmons, asevera que Sarraff Trujillo infomó a la CIA de cómo los agentes de Castro transmitían mensajes cifrados en alta frecuencia y qué deficiencias podían ser aprovechadas para descifrarlos. A poco de ser arrestado Sarraff Trujillo, el FBI pudo descifrar ya las comunicaciones de la inteligencia cubana.

No encaja para nada que la judicatura militar cubana dejara con vida a Saraff Trujillo a sabiendas de que había dado a la CIA información tan comprometedora. Por intentar infructuosamente pasar a la CIA datos sobre agentes infiltrados y las operaciones Baraguá y Sahara, el capitán Ernesto Borges Pérez fue condenado a 30 años el 14 de enero de 1999. Todo parece indicar que la Seguridad del Estado nunca supo hasta dónde había llegado la traición de Saraff Trujillo.

El criptólogo José Cohen, capitán de la Dirección de Inteligencia (DI), desertó en 1994 y el 13 de enero de 2001 declaró al St. Petersburg Times que la Red Avispa fue desarticulada porque el FBI atinó a “descifrar los códigos de comunicación”, algo tan improbable como ganarse tres veces la lotería.

Cohen nunca se ha presentado como parte de la solución al problema del cifrado ni mucho menos como parte de la labor de espionaje atribuida a Saraff Trujillo, a quien reconoce tan sólo como compañero de estudios preuniversitarios y estudioso de José Martí, sin que esta relación de amistad traspasara jamás las líneas marcadas por la regla de compartimentación del trabajo en la DI.

El caso Montes

Por el contrario, Simmons narra que Cohen recurrió al teniente Sarraf Trujillo, asignado al Departamento M-XV (Comunicaciones) de la DI, para conseguir información clasificada y pasarla a la CIA con vistas a desertar. Ambos caerían bajo el radar de la contrainteligencia cubana por la mano suelta de Cohen con el dinero que la CIA pagaba por la información. Cohen advirtió la vigilancia, pidió a la CIA exfiltrarlos y terminó escapando en 1994, pero Sarraff Trujillo acabó siendo detenido. Habría logrado preservar la vida porque sus padres, Odesa Trujillo y Rolando Sarraff Elías, eran altos oficiales de la DI.

Por el hilo de los códigos descifrados se saca el ovillo de los “otros espías” que mencionó Obama. Tales códigos se aplicaron a transmisiones en onda corta que la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional (NSA, por sus siglas en inglés) venía grabando de antes y así el FBI comenzó a perfilar quiénes serían los agentes de Castro.

La investigación de un “sujeto no identificado” [UNSUB] con acceso a informes de inteligencia sobre Cuba se estancó por tres años, pero en agosto del 2000 se dio parte a la inteligencia militar estadounidense y en tres semanas el equipo formado por Scott Carmichael, Karl James, John Kavanagh y el propio Simmons logró identificar a UNSUB: Ana Belén Montes.

Más demoraron en convencer al FBI, que vino a registrar el apartamento de Montes hacia mayo del 2001. Aquí dieron con una latop Toshiba y disquetes que permitieron al agente especial Stephen McCoy concluir: “El estilo de trabajo y comunicación de Montes con la inteligencia cubana corresponde al mismo patrón de comportamiento [de la] Red Avispa”.

Otro superespía en juego

El misterio en torno a Sarraff Trujillo concitó también que saliera al ruedo Bill Gaede, ingeniero informático de origen argentino que dio pie al Congreso de Estados Unidos para dictar la Ley de Espionaje Industrial (1996), como consecuencia de haber aprovechado Gaede su empleo (1979-92) en la empresa estadounidenses Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) para dar información a Cuba, así como su empleo (1992-94) en Intel Corporation (INTEL) para vender información a China e Irán.

Gaede sostiene haber formado con Sarraff Trujillo, Cohen y su esposa, la capitana Lázara Brito, una célula de espionaje [PR-2], que a través del mismo Gaede pasó información clasificada a la CIA desde junio de 1991 hasta abril de 1994, aunque sin guardar relación alguna con transmisiones de mensajes cifrados por radio.

En calidad de oficial del Departamento M-VI (Ciencia y Tecnología) de la DI, Cohen se encargó de atender a Gaede durante sus visitas Cuba y en una de ellas, hacia junio de 1992, le presentó a Sarraf Trujillo, quien habría revelado trabajar en intercepción de teléfonos y otras labores de escucha. Gaede venía ya renegando del comunismo y para el 13 de julio de 1992 estaba en Langley con información suministrada por PR-2, pero la CIA no se tragó que aquel trío de oficiales de la DI fueran desertores genuinos e instaron a Gaede a darles pita.

Gaede dice haber recibido explicación de Cohen por carta sobre la caída de Sarraff Trujillo: “Fue condenado en Cuba simplemente por haber estudiado conmigo y haber sido amigo mío, sin que pudieran probarle jamás absolutamente nada”. La acusación oficial =Causa 45/1996 del Tribunal Militar Territorial de Occidente= reza: Espionaje, Revelación de secretos concernientes a la Seguridad del Estado, Otros actos contra la Seguridad del Estado y Apropiación indebida.

Asimismo, Gaede plantea la hipótesis conspirativa de que Cohen y su esposa trabajaban para Castro y engañaron tanto a él, Gaede, como a Sarraf Trujillo, quien vino en el mismo avión con Alan Gross, pero no podía someterse al escrutinio de la prensa porque no tenía cómo responder a las preguntas sobre los atributos de superespía con que Obama se atrevió a adornarlo.

De este modo Sarraff Trujillo no acaba de aparecer y las preguntas amenazan con escalar hasta el nuevo Congreso instalado en Washington con mayoría republicana. ¿Quién es este espía y por qué resultaba realmente tan valioso para Estados Unidos? ¿A qué se debe la larga espera para conocer de sus servicios a la nación americana?

Tal vez el silencio de Sarraff no se debe a estar sometido a debriefing de la CIA sobre lo que sabe o hizo, sino más bien a briefing sobre lo que tiene que decir si alguna vez reaparece bajo luz pública.

Spy Wars: A Wilderness of Mirrors in U.S.-Cuba Swap

cubaconfidential

Rolando Sarraff Trujillo. Villa Marista 2014 [51 años]/
rolandosarraff.wordpress.com

By Glenn Garvin, Juan O. Tamayo and Patricia Mazzei

More than two weeks have passed since the White House announced that it had traded three imprisoned Cuban intelligence officers — including one convicted of conspiracy to murder — for a super spy held in a Havana prison whom President Barack Obama labeled “one of the most important intelligence agents that the United States has ever had in Cuba.”

But since the president’s announcement, there’s been only silence. Nothing more has been said of the spy or his accomplishments. Of the people released from prison as part of the deal between Washington and Havana, the three Cuban spies and U.S. Agency for International Development contractor Alan Gross have all appeared on television to talk exultantly about their release.

Yet Washington’s master spy has remained anonymous and incommunicado. The only man who seems to fit the handful of clues the White House provided about the spy’s identity — former Cuban Interior Ministry Lt. Rolando Sarraff, jailed since his arrest in 1995 — has disappeared from the Havana prison where he was being held, and his family members say they’ve neither heard from him nor been told his whereabouts.

The Obama administration won’t confirm Sarraff’s name, much less why he could be out of reach.

But a man who claims he is a former member of Sarraff’s spy ring speculates there’s a good reason for Sarraff’s disappearance: that Sarraff was a fake, feeding the CIA false or trivial information as part of a Cuban scheme to disrupt U.S. intelligence.

Jose Cohen 2000 (Al Diaz, Miami Herald)

“They were acting on behalf of Fidel Castro,” insists Bill Gaede, an Argentine engineer who says he carried information to the CIA from Sarraff and other Cuban intelligence officers. “They weren’t genuine. They were full of caca.”

What’s more, Gaede contends, the CIA and FBI suspected that Sarraff was a fake — a “dangle,” in intelligence parlance — right from the start, and never believed anything the ring of putative spies passed along. U.S. officials, he says, are calling him a valuable agent now only to make the Gross-for-Cuban-spies swap more palatable to U.S. conservatives. “It’s just public relations,” sniffs Gaede.

AT CUBA’S SERVICE

But Gaede’s claim is hotly disputed by another member of the spy ring — Jose Cohen, also a former lieutenant in the Cuban Interior Ministry, who defected from Cuba in 1994. “Bill Gaede is not a [credible] source. He was an enemy of the United States. He’s at Cuba’s service,” says Cohen, now living in southwest Miami-Dade, where he’s a highly successful Amway salesman.

“I think what Bill is looking for is publicity. ... He’s mocking the press, he’s mocking the government.”

Article continues here: Spy Wars >>

Obama's Cuba Deal Poses Major U.S. Counter-Intelligence Challenge

capitolhillcubans

We disagree with the first half of this assessment by former U.S. defense and intelligence official, Daniel J. Gallington, regarding the impact that American culture and capitalism will have on the Cuban people -- for they have been exposed to this (with limited impact) for decades through geographical proximity, American relatives, and millions of foreign tourists.

Sadly though, Mr. Gallington may be right about a successor to Castro stemming from the military, which Obama may have just facilitated thanks to his betrayal of Cuba's democrats.

Moreover, he's absolutely right regarding the influx of Cuban spies that will emanate from Obama's announcement -- and the imminent challenge it poses for U.S. counter-intelligence officials.

By Daniel J. Gallington, in U.S. News and World Report:

Keeping an Eye on Cuban Spies

America's new relationship with Cuba will likely mean an influx of Cuban spies.

On balance, it was probably a good idea to move forward with a new relationship with Cuba. The Castros are old, getting older and will soon be gone – and it’s doubtful that the Cuban people will choose, voluntarily of course, to succeed them with another such family dynasty. When the Castros are finally gone, there likely will be a muffled internal insurrection or two, as the competing factions for power seek to kill each other off – and there is likely to be a period of uncertainty before the emergence of a new personality that can coalesce a central government. The most likely successor will probably come from the military. No real surprises here.

During the coming next few years, we really don’t have to actually do much to influence the people of Cuba except inundate them with our media, social or otherwise, movies, TV, investments, business, travel, sports teams, tourism and the Internet. They continue to be huge consumers of American culture and capitalism will creep into their lives whether they want it or not, and no matter what the Castro government says or does to keep it out. In short, President Raul Castro can say that they will remain Communist all he wants, but that system will not be able to sustain itself in the face of the onslaught of American commercialism. Like the old Soviet Union, Cuba will soon implode from American and Western cultural influence – especially as they realize how poor they have become compared to their neighbors from the North.

What do we want from them? Cigars and resorts for our tourists? Not a whole lot really, nor do we need much of anything to let the natural symbiosis of the new relationship work out in our favor. In short, it will happen, and it will be to our advantage – especially after Raul is gone, just as Fidel is already mostly out of the picture.

So is that the end of the story with Cuba?

Not by a long shot, because we must now prepare ourselves for an onslaught of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Cuban spies. And I have bad news for you – they are very, very good at it, probably the best in our hemisphere, including us, who look like amateurs compared to them, especially when it comes to the long-term penetration of high-value intelligence targets and getting critical information therefrom. In my day, the Cubans were thought to be every bit as good as the East Germans, who were probably the best in the world, next to the Israelis, of course.

It is not surprising, therefore, that part of the deal we made to establish the new relationship was to release three members of the notorious “Cuban Five” from federal prison, one of them serving multiple life sentences for espionage and murder.

The Cuban Five, if you may remember, were a group of spies who successfully penetrated the Brothers to the Rescue and other Cuban-American groups in the U.S. that advocated overthrow of the Castro regime. The FBI broke them up in the late 90’s and they were all sentenced to prison. While there is lots of controversy surrounding them, the Cuban government later acknowledged that the five were intelligence agents.

The record of Cuban spies in our country is long and of major concern to our counterintelligence services and agencies. While the Chinese, just for example, are probably the largest and most prolific spies in our country, the Cubans make up for it with their specialized skills and knowledge of American social structures.

So one can only hope that an essential part of the new relationship with Cuba will also be an aggressive counterintelligence program on our part to protect ourselves from Cuban spies. And Cuba's spying program will no doubt also be enhanced by the Castro government as it expands its ability to gather national security information against us, both in Cuba and in the United States.

I say “only hope” because counterintelligence has long remained the unwanted step-child of our intelligence community, despite some new attention to its organization and structure. It remains to be seen, however, whether we have really improved our ability to actually catch spies, both outside and inside our government. And the Cubans, because of their consummate skills and abilities to penetrate our most sensitive targets, will no doubt be able to decide this for themselves – and probably before we realize it.

In short, I’m not optimistic. The Cubans are good, real good!

The Death of Money: Project Prophecy 2.0

Money Morning

Former Cuban Spy & Conspiracy Theorist Bill Gaede Offers His Interpretation of US-Cuba Spy Swap

cubaconfidential

by Chris Simmons

Bill Gaede/
www.youtube.com

Rolando Sarraff Trujillo

By Bill Gaede

Spy vs. Spy

The recent spy swap between the United States and Cuba puts an end to 50 years of wrangling between the two countries. Washington finally decided to smoke the peace pipe with the Castros, kiss and make up. Conservatives and anti-Castro groups are outraged, and that's an understatement. They see it as capitulation after over 50 years of cold war with the little squirt down south.

As a token of good faith, the U.S. released the remaining three Cuban Five prisoners and Cuba paid back in kind by releasing communications spy Alan Gross. The deal also included a mysterious Cuban national who President Obama credited with helping expose Cuban spies such as the Cuban Five, Ana Belen Montes, and Kendall and Gwen Myers.

However, unlike Alan Gross who took the spotlight and gave a press conference, this agent, who came on the same plane that landed at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington D.C., was whisked away secretly to an undisclosed location. His name was 'leaked' to the press by an anonymous intelligence official of the United States and the story of why the spy is so important and why he was included in the swap was read off a carefully worded text by Brian P. Hale, an expert with an extensive career in dealing with the media. Everyone from the NY Times to the LA Times quickly picked up on the story quoting these sources and each other. The entire frenzy is actually a study in how information is manipulated in the U.S. and how popular opinion is formed.

To help the Obama Administration make its case, Raul Castro, the president of Cuba also remained silent on the mysterious spy that Fidel's Revolution coughed up. The U.S. and Cuba may not agree on much, but here they had to cooperate, and that was one of the things that obviously was negotiated between the two sides: the U.S. would handle the public relations aspect of the swap and Castro would remain silent. Cuba had nothing to lose by putting their three heroes on TV shaking hands with Raul Castro any more than President Obama had anything to lose by putting Alan Gross on camera. None of these agents had to be 'debriefed' or checked by the doctors before appearing in front of the cameras.

The only reason people strongly suspected that the mysterious spy might be Rolando Sarraff Trujillo (a.k.a. Roly) is that his family can't find him. Cuban prison officials told them that their son had been transferred, but not to worry about him. He was in 'good hands'. Certainly, Roly fit most of the description made by Obama at his press conference announcing reestablishment of relations with Cuba: a Cuban intelligence officer locked up for 20 years for providing cryptographic information that led to the capture of the aforementioned spies. So who else could it be? And if in addition the Obama Administration 'carelessly leaks' the name through 'unidentified official' sources, we have the makings of what appears to be 'disinformation'.

Ramblings continue here:  Bill Gaede

Editor’s Note: Cuba recruited Guillermo “Bill” Gaede in the mid-1980s to steal information on computer software and provide it to case officers in Mexico.  Havana, in turn, passed the information to the USSR and East Germany until the end of the Cold War. Gaede, an Argentine communist and software engineer, worked for Advanced Micro Devices, Incorporated in Sunnyvale, California from 1979-1993.  He provided Cuba with AMD specs, designs, “Blue Books,” masks, wafers, and small measuring devices. He claimed his initial motivation was his belief in communism, but this motivation waned after he repeatedly traveled to Cuba and became disillusioned. He left AMD in 1993 because of mistaken fears that the company would soon detect his misconduct. Intel then hired him and greed became his motivator. He began committing espionage for China and Iran, which paid him handsomely.

On a personal note, analysis of Bill Gaede’s current and previous writings found numerous errors, based in part on his flawed interpretation of facts and a predisposition to see conspiracies everywhere.

Los padres de Sarraff, el supuesto topo de EE.UU. en Cuba, fueron agentes de la inteligencia cubana

y esta fotico no es del parqueo de coppelia, estarian de visita en espana o jayalia? pobres viejitos.

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ABC.es

Carmen Muñoz

facebook katia sarraff

Odesa Trujillo y Rolando Sarraff Elías, los padres del preso político en paradero desconocido

Los padres de Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, el supuesto agente doble que Estados Unidos intercambió la semana pasada por tres espías cubanos, fueron agentes de la Dirección de Inteligencia del Ministerio del Interior de Cuba hasta que se jubilaron. Tanto Odesa Trujillo como el teniente coronel Rolando Sarraff Elías estudiaron en una escuela selecta del KGB para agentes especiales cubanos, según ha podido saber ABC de varias fuentes de la inteligencia cubana que desertaron en EE.UU. Uno de estos portavoces se formó en el mismo centro de Moscú.

Los familiares del teniente Sarraff, detenido en 1995 y condenado a 25 años por espionaje, han asegurado desconocer el paradero de su hijo desde que lo visitaron hace justo una semana en Villa Marista, el cuartel general de la Seguridad del Estado en La Habana. «Ha sido trasladado, y no para mal», fue la única explicación que recibieron de sus carceleros, según un portavoz de la disidencia interna.

«Es un hombre extraordinario con quien se han violado todos los derechos humanos»

Varios medios estadounidenses identificaron a Rolando Sarraff como el supuesto espía cubano descrito por Barack Obama como «uno de los activos de inteligencia más importantes que EE.UU. haya tenido jamás en Cuba». Sarraff, de 51 años, habría proporcionado a la CIA información clave para detener en 1998 a la llamada Red Avispa, de la que formaban parte «Los Cinco», así como a la agente Ana Belén Montes. Antes de su detención, en noviembre de 1995, Rolando estaba destinado en el departamento de criptografía de la Dirección de Inteligencia y era experto en los códigos utilizados por los espías cubanos en Estados Unidos para comunicarse con el régimen de La Habana. En ese momento estaba casado, tenía 32 años y un hijo pequeño.

Mientras todos los indicios apuntan a que ya se encuentra en territorio estadounidense -se afirma incluso que viajó en el mismo avión que el contratista preso durante cinco años Alan Gross- el hecho de que el supuesto agente doble no haya salido a la luz pública es «normal». «Además de los exámenes médicos, en estos casos existe un tiempo de entrevistas ("debriefing") para conocer muchos detalles que solo él conoce, como quien lo delató, así como otras informaciones que él sabía, que nunca pudo entregar y que posiblemente aún serían útiles», agregó uno de los exagentes cubanos.

«No es tan importante»

Sin embargo, Sarraff también podría no tener la importancia que le atribuyen: «Lo utilizaron como moneda de cambio para poder excarcelar a los tres últimos espías de la Red Avispa; no era de recibo cambiarlos solo por Alan Gross», destacaron las fuentes consultadas.

Tanto su familia como los activistas de derechos humanos han asegurado desconocer el supuesto pasado de agente doble de Rolando Sarraff, quien ha permanecido aislado la mayor parte de los diecinueve años de reclusión y siempre ha mantenido su inocencia. La Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional lo había incluido en su lista de presos políticos. El Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos había planteado su caso ante Naciones Unidas.

En España desde hace años

Su hermana Vilma Sarraff, que reside en Tarancón (Cuenca), explicó este domingo a ABC que las informaciones sobre su doble vida «son fantasía, la única persona que puede decir si es cierto o no es el propio Roli». Para esta bióloga, casada con un español y que se dedica al turismo, su hermano siempre ha sido «un hombre extraordinario, de gran formación y cultura, que no quiere protagonismos y con quien se han violado todos los derechos humanos».

Tanto Vilma como la pequeña de esta familia de abuelos libaneses, Katia, han sido muy activas para lograr la liberación de Rolando. Viven en España desde hace 20 y 16 años, respectivamente. Katia Sarraff es médico y se ha establecido en Palma de Mallorca. Los cinco miembros de la familia estudiaron en la Universidad de La Habana. Sus padres y Rolando hicieron Periodismo. Sarraff Elías llegó a ser corresponsal de Prensa Latina. Mientras espera inquieta sus noticias, Vilma Sarraff afirma que «me da lo mismo lo que sea Rolando, siempre será el hombre de mirada limpia de ojos azules que yo quiero y que se merece estar libre».

Who is The American Spy Traded in the U.S.-Cuba Diplomatic Breakthrough?

newsweek

www.infobae.com

The unidentified United States spy being swapped as part of a diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Cuba is almost certainly a former cryptographer in Cuba’s Directorate of Intelligence who worked secretly for the CIA until he was arrested on espionage charges in the mid-1990s, according to a former U.S. intelligence officer and other sources.

Rolando “Roly” Sarraff Trujillo was “an expert on cryptography for the Cuban Ministry of Interior who was arrested in 1995 and sentenced to 25 years in jail,” said Chris Simmons, a former Defense Intelligence Agency specialist on Cuba.

“I know of all the Cubans on the list of people in jail and he is the only one who fits the description” of the unnamed asset in question, Simmons added.  “I am 99.9 percent sure that Roly is the guy."

The agent, U.S. officials said, was exchanged for the remaining three members of the so-called “Cuban Five,” a group of operatives arrested in Florida on espionage charges in 1998. Another element of the agreement, which ended the decades-long feud between the U.S. and Cuba, was Havana’s decision to free Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor imprisoned on the island since 2009 on charges of trying to subvert the state.

In a speech on Wednesday, Cuban President Raul Castro said that a spy of “Cuban origin” was being released. But neither Cuba nor the Obama administration’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) would identify the operative in question or comment on Sarraff Trujillo.   

DNI spokesman Brian P. Hale said in a prepared statement that the asset being released spent 20 years in a Cuban prison for his work for the U.S. Many of the details of his cooperation are classified, but Hale said he was “instrumental in the identification and disruption of several Cuban intelligence operatives in the United States and ultimately led to a series of successful federal espionage prosecutions.”

Indeed, according to Hale, the spy “provided the information that led to the identification and conviction of Defense Intelligence Agency senior analyst Ana Belen Montes; former Department of State official Walter Kendall Myers and his spouse Gwendolyn Myers; and members of the Red Avispa network, or ‘Wasp Network,’ in Florida, which included members of the so-called Cuban Five.”

On Wednesday, the Miami Herald’s Spanish-language edition also reported that its sources believe that Sarraff Trujillo was the spy. “Just as a matter of elimination,” it’s Sarraff Trujillo, Simmons said.

A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve who also worked in counterterrorism operations in the Balkans and Iraq, Simmons runs a website called Cuba Confidential. On May 27, 2012, he wrote on his site that in 1994 Sarraff Trujillo was persuaded by a DGI colleague, José Cohen Valdés, to steal information that he could use to facilitate his defection to the U.S. Sarraff Trujillo, according to Simmons, gave him the info to pass along to Langley. “Cohen planned to bring Sarraf Trujillo and another individual with him in a mass defection,” Simmons wrote.

Apparently, the plan didn’t work out. As Simmons explains on his blog:

“Sarraff Trujillo started passing files [and] Cohen began indiscreetly spending the considerable cash the CIA paid for Sarraff Trujillo’s treasure trove of intelligence. In short order, the two men came under surveillance. Cohen reportedly noted the surveillance and had his brother-in-law signal the CIA station in Havana for an emergency extraction. Cuban counterintelligence videotaped his brother-in-law’s assistance, for which he was subsequently jailed. Cohen and the second individual successfully escaped, despite the extensive counterintelligence coverage. Sarraff Trujillo was arrested and sent to prison.”

Simmons told Newsweek that the Cuban spy did such damage to Havana’s intelligence apparatus that “the only thing that saved him from execution was the fact that both his parents were retired senior intelligence officers.”

Paul McKenna, the court-appointed lawyer for Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five who is being released in the deal, said he had “no idea” who the U.S. spy was.

“If I’d known they had a person like that,” McKenna told Newsweek in a telephone interview from his office in Coral Gables, Fla, “we would have pressed for an exchange a long time ago.”

Before Gross was arrested, McKenna said he constantly asked Cuban officials on trips to the island whether they had someone who they could swap for Hernandez and they said no. “They would just shrug it off,” he said. When he pressed for a possibility of a trade of Gross for his client, he said, one Cuban official told him, “Leave the political to us.”

Following the ages-old rules of espionage, it’s entirely possible that Sarraff Trujillo was under orders never to reveal his connection to U.S. intelligence. McKenna said when he visited his his client in jail, he “gave us only name, rank and serial number” for a number of years before his superiors in Cuba cleared him to admit he was a spy.

The so-called “Cuban Five” were indicted on 25 different counts related to espionage. After a plane piloted by anti-Castro exiles was shot down as it flew into Cuban airspace, the government added an additional murder indictment to charges against Hernández.

“I’m very happy for my client,” McKenna said. “He’s going home to his wife after 14 years.”

As for Simmons, he said that any deal that got Sarraff Trujillo out of prison “was worth it.”

Agent Storm: Inside al Qaeda for the CIA

Read at CNN.com >>

Top CIA Officer in Afghanistan Mistakenly Named by White House

breitbart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House inadvertently included the name of the top CIA official in Afghanistan on a list of participants in a military briefing with President Barack Obama that was distributed to reporters on Sunday, the Washington Post reported.  

The newspaper said the official, identified as "Chief of Station" in Kabul, was named as being among those at a briefing with Obama during the president's trip to Bagram Air Base near the Afghan capital.

The list of names was sent by email to reporters traveling with Obama on his surprise Afghanistan visit and included in a "pool report" shared with correspondents and others not on the trip.

The Post said the White House issued a revised list deleting the CIA official's name after it recognized the mistake.

Read the full story at Reuters.

Agente de Gadhafi habla en Cuba sobre sus hazañas

ElNuevoHerald.com

Juan O. Tamayo

Frank Terpil

El fugitivo de Estados Unidos y agente renegado de la CIA Frank Terpil sigue viviendo en La Habana y rememora con toda tranquilidad la época en que ayudaba al dictador libio Muammar Gadafi a asesinar a sus enemigos, según un documental británico recién estrenado.
El coproductor Michael Chrisman dijo que Terpil, de 74 años, fue entrevistado en su casa de La Habana en diciembre y dio la impresión de llevar una vida un tanto aburrida “con poco que hacer, (y) pasa mucho tiempo con un trago en la mano en los bares de La Habana”.
Terpil tiene una novia cubana mucho más joven que él, y pide a amigos y visitantes que le traigan de vez en cuando algún libro en inglés, dijo Chrisman. El documental de Showtime se llama Mad Dog: Inside the Secret World of Muammar Gaddafi ( Perro rabioso: dentro del mundo secreto de Muammar Gadafi).
La entrevista se centró en las relaciones de Terpil con el dictador libio, muerto en una revuelta en el 2011, y no en sus vínculos con sus anfitriones cubanos porque “sin duda él estaba corriendo peligro de disgustarlos al conceder la entrevista”, agregó el coproductor.
Terpil, operativo de la CIA que renunció a la agencia en 1970, es uno de más de 70 fugitivos estadounidenses de quienes se reporta que se han refugiado en Cuba. Muchos son considerados por La Habana como víctimas de la persecución política de EEUU, como es el caso de la militante afroamericana Joanne Chesimard.
El huyó de Estados Unidos en 1980 para escapar un encausamiento federal bajo cargos de conspiración para cometer asesinato y de entregar más de 20 toneladas de explosivos plásticos a Gadhafi y despues apareció en el Líbano, pero finalmente se refugió en Cuba.
La Dirección General de Inteligencia de Cuba reclutó a Terpil, le dio el nombre en clave de Curiel –conejillo de Indias– y lo usó en 1987 para tratar de reclutar a un agente de la CIA en Checoslovaquia, escribió el analista retirado de la agencia Brian Latell en su libro Castro’s Secrets: Cuban Intelligence, the CIA and the Kennedy Assassination ( Los secretos de Castro: la inteligencia cubana, la CIA y el asesinato de Kennedy).
El gobierno canadiense anunció en 1995 que a su embajada en La Habana se le había informado que las autoridades cubanas habían arrestado a Terpil, pero no dió detalles sobre las razones de la detención o de qué pasó con él después de eso.
Un extranjero que vive en La Habana dijo que en el 2000, durante una función de ballet, un amigo cubano le señaló a un hombre sentado cerca de ellos y lo identificó como Terpil. El hombre estaba acompañado por una mujer cubana más joven que él, dijo el extranjero.
Terpil huyó de Estados Unidos luego de que fiscales federales lo acusaran a él y a su socio de negocios Ed Wilson de conspiración para cometer asesinato y de vender explosivos plásticos a Libia. Una corte del estado de Nueva York lo había sentenciado anteriormente a 53 años de prisión luego de enjuiciarlo en ausencia por cargos de conspiración para contrabandear 10,000 armas semiautomáticas.
Chrisman dijo que durante la entrevista de La Habana para el documental —producido por Fresh One Productions para el canal Showtime— Terpil admitió que había ayudado a Gadhafi a manejar una campaña para encontrar y asesinar a los enemigos del dictador libio en el extranjero.
“Yo lo llamaría Asesinatos Incorporados, sí, asesinato por contrato. Gadhafi creía que todo el que fuera disidente debía ser eliminado”, dijo Terpil. En un caso, agregó, el dictador quería que le trajeran la cabeza de uno de sus enemigos en una hielera.
Dijo Chrisman que Terpil también relató haber contratado a dos exiliados cubanos de Miami, y haberles dicho que debían asesinar a Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, el terrorista conocido como Carlos el Chacal. Los cubanos rehusaron al percatarse de que el blanco verdadero era un enemigo de Gadhafi, agregó.
“Terpil no expresó ningún remordimiento o duda al contar la historia de manera muy factual, con un toque de humor morboso, acerca del tiempo que pasó ayudando a dirigir y conseguir suministros para la campaña internacional de terror de Gadhafi”, dijo en un comunicado de prensa para el documental.
Nacido en Nueva York, Terpil ha dicho que fue obligado a renunciar a la CIA luego de que la agencia se enterara de que cuando él estaba asignado en la India, había llevado a cabo un negocio de dinero a través de Afganistán para su beneficio financiero personal.
El ha reconocido haber trabajado para dictadores como Idi Amin de Uganda, Saddam Hussein de Irak, y Anastasio Somoza de Nicaragua, así como para los gobiernos de Arabia Saudita, Irán y Egipto.
Y ha alegado en ciertas ocasiones, a veces dando evidencia, que tenía aprobación de la CIA para algunas de sus supuestas operaciones no oficiales. Terpil era un amigo cercano de Ted Shackley, un director adjunto de operaciones encubiertas de la CIA que falleció en el 2012.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2014/04/21/1730732/agente-de-gadhafi-habla-en-cuba.html#storylink=cpy

Former CIA Official: Cuba Remains Primary Threat for U.S. Counterintelligence

capitolhillcubans

From Texas A&M's The Batallion:

James Olson, former chief of counterintelligence at the CIA and senior lecturer at Texas A&M’s Bush School, and Michael Waguespack, former senior counterintelligence executive with the FBI, described how the U.S. faces a threat rarely seen or heard of by the public — spying.

“There are friendly countries, but there are no friendly intelligence services,” Olson said.

Olson and Waguespack described a world hidden from the public, where countries use sophisticated spy networks to steal U.S. political and technological secrets and to compromise U.S. spy networks abroad.

Olson named China, Russia and Cuba as the primary threats in U.S. counterintelligence.

“Never in my memory has our country been more in peril at home and abroad than it is right now,” Olson said.

Olson said foreign intelligence agents use a wide variety of covers to seek U.S. intelligence, from business and diplomatic covers to student identities. Olson said the Chinese, for example, have gained access to U.S. nuclear weapons data and sophisticated technology that has allowed them to upgrade their combat aircraft and submarines to levels more advanced than their domestic technology would allow.

CIA papers Show Panetta Spilled bin Laden Secrets to 'Zero Dark Thirty' Scribe

breitbart

publicintelligence.net

By KIMBERLY DOZIER
AP Intelligence Writer
WASHINGTON
Newly declassified documents show that former CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed secret information to "Zero Dark Thirty" scriptwriter Mark Boal, who was allowed to attend Panetta's speech at CIA headquarters marking the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Judicial Watch filed a request for the more than 200 pages of documents, which the CIA released Tuesday. The documents concerned the internal investigation of its role in the film about the bin Laden raid.

In a statement, Panetta says he had no idea Boal was in the audience when he gave the speech. He says he assumed everyone inside had proper clearance.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd says the agency has since "overhauled its procedures for interaction with the entertainment industry after an extensive internal review."

Penny Lane: CIA's secret facility made for double agents

This Sept. 2, 2010 satellite image provided by TerraServer.com and DigitalGlobe shows a portion of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including the secret facility known as Penny Lane, upper middle in white.

Washington:  In the early years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the CIA turned some Guantanamo Bay prisoners into double agents and then sent them home to help the U.S. kill terrorists, current and former U.S. officials said.

The CIA promised the prisoners freedom, safety for their families and millions of dollars from the agency's secret accounts.

It was a risky gamble. Officials knew there was a chance that some prisoners might quickly spurn their deal and kill Americans.

For the CIA, that was an acceptable risk in a dangerous business. For the American public, which was never told, the program was one of the many secret trade-offs the government made on its behalf. At the same time the government used the risk of terrorism to justify imprisoning people indefinitely, it was releasing dangerous people from prison to work for the CIA.

The program was carried out in a secret facility built a few hundred yards from the administrative offices of the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The eight small cottages were hidden behind a ridge covered in thick scrub and cactus.

The program and the handful of men who passed through these cottages had various official CIA code names.

But those who were aware of the cluster of cottages knew it best by its sobriquet: Penny Lane.

It was a nod to the classic Beatles song and a riff on the CIA's other secret facility at Guantanamo Bay, a prison known as Strawberry Fields.

Nearly a dozen current and former U.S officials described aspects of the program to The Associated Press. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the secret program publicly by name, even though it ended in about 2006.

Some of the men who passed through Penny Lane helped the CIA find and kill many top al-Qaida operatives, U.S. officials said. Others stopped providing useful information and the CIA lost touch with them.

When prisoners began streaming into Guantanamo Bay in January 2002, the CIA recognized it as an unprecedented opportunity to identify sources. That year, 632 detainees arrived at the detention center. The following year 117 more arrived.

"Of course that would be an objective," said Emile Nakhleh, a former top CIA analyst who spent time in 2002 assessing detainees but who did not discuss Penny Lane. "It's the job of intelligence to recruit sources."

By early 2003, Penny Lane was open for business.

Keep reading on NDTV >>

Félix Rodríguez, exagente de la CIA sobre los ultimos momentos del Che Guevara

Por David Cox, CNN

(CNN Español) – "Entré a la habitación. Me paré enfrente y le dije: 'Comandante lo siento. Yo he tratado'. Se puso blanco como un papel; sin embargo se recompuso y me dijo: ‘es mejor así. Yo nunca debí caer preso vivo'".

En el 46 aniversario de la muerte de Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Félix Rodríguez, el hombre que fue clave en su captura y ejecución, narra los pormenores de los últimos momentos de la vida del argentino.

En una entrevista con CNN en Español, Rodriguez, cubano-estadounidense y exagente de la CIA, revela detalles no conocidos acerca del 'Che', del asesinato de John Fitzgerald Kennedy, de su relación con el presidente argentino Juan Domingo Perón y su opinión sobre la dependencia que tiene de Venezuela del régimen cubano.

Sobre el final de la vida del 'Che', Rodríguez describe cómo estaba el líder guerrillero al momento de su captura y quién estuvo detrás de su muerte.

“Él estaba moralmente destruido (...) Tenemos que estar conscientes de que a él lo mandó a eliminar (Fidel) Castro. El 'Che' Guevara era pro-chino y era una cosa que Cuba no podía permitir porque dependía cien por cien de la Unión Soviética”, dice Rodríguez.

Esta hipótesis la desarrolla Rodríguez en función de los acontecimientos previos a la llegada del 'Che' a Bolivia. En primera instancia —explica el exagente— Guevara fue marginado luego de tener una pelea física con el embajador soviético en una recepción en la embajada cubana en El Cairo.

Además, para Rodríguez, varios factores indican que la presencia del revolucionario en Bolivia estuvo marcada por obstáculos deliberados: por un lado, "el transmisor que le mandan está roto"; adicionalmente, el líder del partido comunista boliviano —que había estado dos meses antes en Cuba— le retiró todo el apoyo al movimiento guerrillero del 'Che'; y, finalmente, retiraron al oficial de inteligencia cubano que viajó a Bolivia para darle apoyo "con el pretexto de que se le había vencido la visa", a pesar de que después se supo que "tenía la ciudadanía boliviana".

"O sea, realmente lo mandaron para eliminarlo", concluye Rodríguez.

Félix Rodríguez también involucra a Fidel Castro en el asesinato de John F. Kennedy, una acusación que el líder cubano ha negado en repetidas ocasiones. Según Rodríguez, aunque hubo otros elementos implicados en el homicidio del presidente estadounidense, el régimen de Cuba habría sido el ejecutor.

CNN en Español contactó a la Sección de Intereses de Cuba en Estados Unidos para obtener una declaración oficial sobre estos temas, pero aún no ha recibido respuesta.

’Secret’ CIA museum features Osama bin Laden’s AK-47

investigations

Slideshow:

John Makely / NBC News

Not open to the public but displayed inside CIA headquarters are artifacts from decades of intelligence gathering, including drones disguised as insects, a pigeon camera and Osama bin Laden's AK-47.

Launch slideshow

By Richard Engel and Robert Windrem
NBC News

The “coolest museum you’ll never see” has a new piece de resistance – the gun found next to the body of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan when Navy SEALs killed him in a midnight raid.

The AK-47 is a recent addition to a collection that’s among the toughest tickets in the country for museumgoers. Tucked into various hallways at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the museum displays the gadgets, artifacts and trophies of 70 years of spycraft, from World War II through the War on Terror.  Closed to the public, it had only been visited by employees and invited guests until NBC News recently became the first news organization allowed to bring in video cameras.

The Russian-made assault rifle, identified on a simple brass plaque as “Osama bin Laden’s AK-47,” shares a glass case with an al Qaeda training manual found in Afghanistan soon after 9/11.

Watch Richard Engel's report Wednesday on "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."

"This is the rifle that was recovered from the third floor of the Abbottabad compound by the assault team," said curator Toni Hiley. "Because of its proximity to (bin Laden) there on the third floor in the compound, our analyst determined it to be his.  It's a Russian AK with counterfeit Chinese markings."

Neither Hiley nor the agency will say how the AK-47 got to the museum, other than that the agency director at the time of the operation, Leon Panetta, "asked that it come into the museum collection," said Hiley. But one source told NBC News that it came from the "dark side" of the agency, the operations staff that worked with the SEALs on the May 2011 raid.

The agency also will not comment on the specifics of how the weapon was recovered or whether it was loaded when retrieved.

Tony Hiley, Director of the CIA Museum, shows NBC's Richard Engel what she considers one of the most unique pieces in the museum, the A-12 Oxcart plane, which was designed to be the successor to the U-2 spy plane. 

"I wasn't there," said Hiley. "So I can't confirm or deny exactly where the weapon was.  I just know that I have it in my museum and I'm happy to have it."

In the movie "Zero Dark Thirty," which was written in consultation with military and intelligence sources, a member of the assault team is shown grabbing the weapon from a shelf above bin Laden's bed in his third-floor bedroom moments after the al Qaeda leader’s death. 

Hiley said the weapon is in good working condition, but that the origin of the Chinese markings is a mystery. She said it’s not the weapon seen at Osama’s side in many propaganda videos.

The CIA’s private museum, which was started in the early 1990s, fills three corridors in two buildings at the CIA campus just outside Washington. Agency officials call it “the coolest museum you’ll never see.”

John Makely /NBCNews.com

CIA museum curator Toni Hiley holds an "insectothopter" created by the CIA's Office of Research and Development during the 1970s and intended to gather intelligence unobtrusively. Designed to look like a dragonfly, the insectothopter's tiny gas-powered engine moved its wings up and down. While flight tests were impressive, it proved difficult to control when any wind was present.

The museum traces the agency’s history, including its origin as the Office of Special Services (OSS), which aided resistance fighters and ran spy networks during World War II, and its years of clandestine operations during the Cold War. Artifacts include the shrapnel that struck a spy plane over North Vietnam, a silver dollar that holds microfilm and an underwater spy drone made to look like a catfish. The museum previously displayed many of the phony Hollywood accoutrements – a movie script, stationery, and company briefcase -- that a team of agents posing as filmmakers used in an audacious operation that rescued six Americans from Iran in 1979. The mission became the basis of the recent Academy Award-winning movie “Argo.”

Bin Laden’s gun is part of a new trove of artifacts, the spoils of the War on Terror. "I think for our people it's an acknowledgment that the hard work over that 10 years and partnership with other members of the intelligence community and partnership with the military was a success,” said Hiley. “This puts the punctuation point on 10 years of this agency and our intelligence community partners looking for bin Laden."

In addition to bin Laden’s gun, there's a brick from his compound in Abbottabad; a scale-model of the compound; a section of a wall that was part of the life-size mock-up of the compound used by the SEALs to train for the raid; and several al Qaeda training manuals found in Afghanistan, including a partially burned guide to firing surface-to-air missiles.

There’s also a chest filled with football-sized chunks of blue and white lapis lazuli stones, one of a dozen chests of the rare stones seized by the CIA in Afghanistan. Hiley referred to the trunks as "al Qaeda's ATM." Al Qaeda used the raw lapis lazuli, which goes for $200 to $1,200 a kilogram, to circumvent banks and pay its fighters.

The scale-model of the compound is identical to one the raid’s planners viewed in Director Panetta's office and the White House Situation Room. (The original is at the Pentagon.)

"It's as accurate as those hundreds of pieces of intelligence would permit," said Hiley, when asked if the spare tires in the yard matched intelligence reports. "Not only are they looking at that intelligence, they're going to the analysts and asking them, 'Was the wire this far apart?' So they're trying to get absolutely every single bit of truth into this model because they know the model will be used."

Nearby is a piece of the wall, topped with barbed wire, from a full-scale mock-up that the CIA constructed for SEAL training at a facility in Harvey Point, N.C. The life-size mock-up was destroyed not long after the May 2011 raid, but before it disappeared, an internet sleuth found satellite images.

NBC News

NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel interviews CIA museum curator Toni Hiley at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

As Hiley explained, the SEAL team planned its raid using the scale model, and then practiced the raid on the life-size mock-up. "I think we received the best feedback we ever could have hoped to when they all returned safely,” said Hiley. “They said, ‘We felt like we'd been there before.’”

“That's why these pieces are important. That's why they're in this museum."

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Related story

Behind the scenes at the CIA museum

Some images from the collection are viewable online via the agency’s website, so while the museum is off-limits to the public most of its contents are not unknown. There is, of course, another secret museum behind the not-so-secret” museum, a “classified collection” kept in a secret warehouse, from which curators will sometimes pull new items to display.

Asked if this classified collection was more like a police evidence locker or the basement of the Smithsonian, Hiley said it was like neither.

"Oh," she said, "it's much cooler than that."

Coming on Thursday: Among CIA museum's prizes, an American love letter on Hitler's stationery.

Edward Snowden: Whistleblower or spy?

foxnews

A Communist Party-backed newspaper in China is urging that country's leadership to obtain more information from the former CIA employee who leaked information about the U.S. surveillance programs before fleeing to Hong Kong.

The Global Times newspaper said in an editorial Friday that Edward Snowden should not be sent back to the U.S. because his revelations about secret American surveillance programs concern China's national interest.

The newspaper said that the Chinese government should not only consider Beijing's relations with the United States but also domestic public opinion, which the paper says would be unhappy if Snowden were sent back.

The Global Times said in the editorial, which ran in the paper's Chinese- and English-language editions, that Snowden could offer intelligence that would help China update its understanding of cyberspace and improve its position in negotiations with Washington.

 "Snowden took the initiative to expose the U.S. government's attacks on Hong Kong and the mainland's Internet networks. This concerns China's national interest," the commentary said. "Maybe he has more evidence. The Chinese government should let him speak out and according to whether the information is public, use it as evidence to negotiate with the United States openly or in private."

The paper said that the Chinese government should not only consider Beijing's relations with the United States but also the opinion of its domestic public, which the paper said would be unhappy if Snowden were sent back.

"We have realized the United States' aggressiveness in cyberspace, we have realized that nine Internet companies have assisted the U.S. government in intelligence outsourcing," said the paper known for a nationalist stance. "We have realized their hypocrisy in saying one thing and doing another, and we have realized their ruthlessness in doing what they please with no regard for other people."

"China is a rising power, and it deserves corresponding respect from the United States," it said.

Snowden alleged in an interview with the South China Morning Post newspaper Thursday that the NSA has been monitoring the Chinese University of Hong Kong and public officials and citizens in the city.

Snowden told the paper he believes there have been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally.

The 29-year-old reportedly also told the newspaper his plans for the immediate future, steps he claims the U.S. has taken since he broke his cover in Hong Kong, fears for his family as well as explosive details on U.S. surveillance targets.

On Thursday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chungying said China is a "major victim" of cyberattacks but did not lay blame.

Snowden is behind one of the biggest intelligence leaks in American history. The former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor who worked at the National Security Agency, hopped a flight to Asia on May 20 and has remained on the lam ever since.

The Associated Press reported Friday that the British government issued an alert to airlines around the world, urging them not to allow Snowden to board flights to the United Kingdom.

The alert, dated Monday on a Home Office letterhead, said carriers should deny Snowden boarding because "the individual is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK."

The Associated Press saw a photograph of the document taken Friday at a Thai airport. A British diplomat confirmed that the document was genuine and was sent out to airlines around the world.

In what is likely his final appearance as FBI director before the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller said Thursday that Snowden is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation.

In his three hours of testimony, Mueller defended the government's collection of millions of U.S. phone records, emails and other information as vital to the nation's national security.

"Every time that we have a leak like this — and if you follow it up and you look at the intelligence afterwards" — the terrorists "are looking at the ways around it," Mueller said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/14/china-newspaper-says-snowden-could-be-useful-to-china/#ixzz2WE2k1QfP

NSA whistle-blower who sought to 'inform the public' in surveillance risks decades in jail

foxnews

 A 29-year-old American who works as contract employee at the National Security Agency is the source of The Guardian's disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, the London newspaper reported Sunday.

The source of the bombshell leaks about the U.S. government gathering information on billions of phone calls and Internet activities risks decades in jail for the disclosures if the U.S. can extradite him from Hong Kong, where he says he has taken refuge after saying his sole motive was to “inform the public.”

Edward Snowden, 29, who claims to have worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA, allowed The Guardian and The Washington Post to reveal his identity Sunday. Snowden, in a video that appeared on the Guardian’s website, said two NSA surveillance programs are wide open to abuse.

"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhere," Snowden said. "I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal e-mail."

Snowden said he was a former technical assistant for the CIA and a current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, which released a statement Sunday confirming he had been a contractor with them in Hawaii for less than three months. Company officials have promised to work with investigators.

Snowden told the Guardian he believes the government could try to charge him with treason under the Espionage Act, but Mark Zaid, a national security attorney who represents whistle-blowers, told The Associated Press that that would require the government to prove he had intent to betray the United States. Snowden has said his “sole motive” was to inform the public and spur debate.

"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," Snowden told the Guardian.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided to the newspaper, Snowden wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."

Snowden told the Post he was not going to hide.

"Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest," he said in the interview published Sunday. Snowden said he would "ask for asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy."

Snowden is now staying in Hong Kong and seeking asylum outside the United States, possibly in Iceland, The Guardian reports.

If the reports are accurate, Snowden could face many years in prison for releasing classified information if he is successfully extradited from Hong Kong or elsewhere.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on Snowden's disclosure, saying the issue has been referred to the Justice Department.

However, the agency said: "Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law."

"The Department of Justice is in the initial stages of an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by an individual with authorized access," Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said in a statement late Sunday. 

New York Republican Rep. Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism and a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, said: "If Edward Snowden did in fact leak the NSA data as he claims, the United States government must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date. The United States must make it clear that no country should be granting this individual asylum. This is a matter of extraordinary consequence to American intelligence."

In a nearly 13-minute video that accompanied The Guardian story Sunday, Snowden says he has no intentions of hiding because he has done nothing wrong.

“When you’re in positions of privileged access … . You recognize some of these things are actual abuses,” Snowden said about his decision to be a whistle-blower. “Over time, you feel compelled to talk about it.”

The Guardian broke the story late Wednesday that the federal government was collecting phone call records from Verizon customers.

The Guardian and the Post followed with a series of reports about the calls being taken from other telecommunications companies and that the NSA and FBI have a Internet scouring program, code-named PRISM, that records Internet activities, all part of a post-9/11 effort to thwart terrorism.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Oval Office would not comment on Snowden before Monday.

Washington officials have acknowledged all branches of the federal government — Congress, the White House and federal courts — knew about the collection of data under the Patriot Act.

Still, the leaks have reopened the debate about privacy concerns versus heightened measure to protect against terrorist attacks. They also led the NSA to ask the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation.

Fox News confirmed the Obama administration took the first steps Saturday in a criminal investigation when officials filed a “crimes report.”

National Intelligence Director James Clapper has decried the leaks as reckless. And in the past days he has taken the rare step of declassifying some details about them to respond to media reports about counterterrorism techniques employed by the government.

“Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a ‘playbook’ of how to avoid detection,” Clapper said Saturday.

PRISM allows the federal government to tap directly into the servers of major U.S. Internet companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL, scooping out emails, video chats, instant messages and more to track foreign nationals who are suspected of terrorism or espionage.

The chief executives of Facebook and Google have said their companies were not aware of the data grab.

Officials say the government is not listening to any of the billions of phone calls, only logging the numbers.  

President Obama, Clapper and others also have said the programs are subject to strict supervision of a secret court.

Obama said Friday that the programs have made a difference in tracking terrorists and are not tantamount to "Big Brother." 

The president acknowledged the U.S. government is collecting reams of phone records, including phone numbers and the duration of calls, but said this does not include listening to calls or gathering the names of callers.  

"You can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience,” he said. “We're going to have to make some choices as a society."

However, the president said he welcomes a debate on that issue. 

The Guardian reported that Snowden was working in an NSA office in Hawaii when he copied the last of the documents he planned to disclose and told supervisors that he needed to be away for a few weeks to receive treatment for epilepsy.

Snowden is quoted as saying he chose Hong Kong because it has a "spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent" and because he believed it was among the spots on the globes that could and would resist the dictates of the U.S. government.

Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the United States that took force in 1998, according to the U.S. State Department website.

"The government could subject him to a 10- or 20-year penalty for each count," with each document leaked considered a separate charge, Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents whistle-blowers told the Associated Press.

Snowden is quoted as saying he hopes the publicity of the leaks will provide him some protection.

"I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets," Snowden told the Guardian.

Snowden was said to have worked on IT security for the CIA and by 2007 was stationed with diplomatic cover in Geneva, responsible for maintaining computer network security. That gave him clearance to a range of classified documents, according to the Guardian report.

"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/10/report-nsa-contract-worker-is-surveillance-source/#ixzz2Vqujm8Kz