River Notes
River Notes Intelligence Volume 6 Number 3 (Friday, March 28th, 2025)
Intelligence Cooperation (Liaison)
Spying in Plain Sight - Inside the Military Liaison Missions in East and West Germany (Video 60 min.)
BRIXMIS Activity
French Liaison Mission to Soviet High Command in Germany (Select English in drop-down box)
FBI Legal Attaqche (Video 35 min.)
The Merry Adventures of Two Military Attaches
Origins of FVEYES
FVEYES Agreement
FVEYES Legal Authorities
The Club of Berne
Kilowatt Group and MOssad
Behind Enemy LInes - A Marine in East Germany
Spies in Uniform - U.S. Military Liaison in East Germany
Further Information
Maximator : European Signals Intelligence Cooperation
Diary reveals birth of secret UK-US spy pact that grew into Five Eyes
Cold War USMLM
BRIXMIS
British MIlitary Liaison with Soviet Union in WWII
Military Attache Travel within the United States and Soviet Union
The FBI Abroad
United States Foreign Intelligence Relationships CRS
Deception in Intelligence Cooperation
River Notes Intelligence Volume 6 Number 2 (Friday, February 28th, 2025)
Submarine and Naval Communications in WWII
How A World War II Submarine Works (Video 30 Min)
Transatlantic Communications
Hawaiian Radio Communications
U.S. Naval Communications
U.S. Submarine Comms
Navy Cryptology at Midway
American SIGABA
U-Boat Communications
Goliath Transmitter
U-Boat Communications II
VLF Receiver (U-Boat Radio Room)
Japanese Radio Deception at Pearl Harbor
Japanese VLF Stations WWII
Japanese Communications
Japanese Radio
Communications and Radio
Intelligence CinCPOA 5-45
British Naval Communications Rugby
Station
Operation Sabre
Operation Foil
Station "C" and Fleet Radio Unit Melbourne (FR UMEL)Revisited
Further Information
Technical Intelligence From Allied Communications Intelligence
U.S. Communications Intelligence
Japanese Radios WWII
Japanese Submarine Campaigns WWII Video (44 min)
U-505
Signal Lamp Naval Comms
OP-20-Group
THE TYPE A KŌ-HYŌTEKI JAPANESE MIDGET SUBMARINE (Preserved at Pearl Harbor)
USS Pampanito Radio and tour (video)
Listening Post at Chopmist Hill (just because it is interesting)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 6 Number 1 (Friday, January 31st, 2025)
Soviet Era Nuclear Matters
Stalin’s Bunker
Soviet Atomic Program
George Koval
Cold War Atomic Intelligence
The FOBS Experiment
Ministry of Defence 12th Chief Directorate
Cheget: Russia’s Nuclear Football
The So-Called Suitcase Nukes
Soviet Perimiter System
Perimiter Command Missle System
Further Information
National Intelligence Bulletin on potential coup
Soviet Era Nuclear Command and Control Facilities
Early Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program
Tsar Bomb
History of Nuclear Hotlines
Russian Military Power 1986 (remember those old glossy's :-) )
Revealing Junk from Soviet Nuclear Bases
Photos Abandoned Soviet Bases
Russian Roulette PBS Frontline Russian Nuclear Complex
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 12 (Friday, December 27th, 2024)
Argentina’s “Dirty War”
Argentina’s “Dirty War”
Urban Guerrillas in Argentina
Argentine Peoples’ Revolutionary Army ERP
Argentine Police and Security Forces
Argentine Anticommunist Alliance
Jose Lopez Rega
The Field of Play
Argentine Secretariat of Intelligence
601 Intelligence Battalion
Argentine National Intelligence Center
Condor
Operation Condor
Minerva
Argentine Dirty War and Transition to Democracy
Argentina Declassification Project
Further Information
National Intelligence Bulletin on potential coup
On the One Hand - On the Other Hand - We Are Right Either Way Report :-)
American Casualty
Jacobo Timmermann
Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations - Argentina
Operation Condor Documents
Related Activity in Mexico
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 11 (Friday, November 22nd, 2024)
Imagery Intelligence
Lockheed Electra 12A Hiding In Plain Sight: Photomapping Nazi Germany (Video 12 min)
Early Aerial Reconnaissance
Sending The Memo
Outline for Oxcart
History of A12 Oxcart and U-2 Dragon Lady (Video - one hour)
AFIO Guide to Imagery Intelligence
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Celebrating Constance Babington Smith
Image Analysis During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Spies in Space
Protecting Satellite Reconnaissance Photos
Detecting molecules in Ariel low resolution transmission spectra
Israel’s new Ariel ELA-6992 Robotic Combat Task Force closes sensor-to-shooter loop for coordinated combat operations
Ariel Reconnaissance: Uncovering the Origins of the BBC’s Internal Communication – Source of the Month (May 2024)
Further Information
Federation American Scientists
IMINT
What happens to surplus KH-11s?
The Era Before KH-11
Cuban Missile Crisis Photos
Declassified Satellite Imagery
Image Analysis 1960s Lunar Probes
Telemetry Intelligence During The Cold War
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 10 (Friday, October 25th, 2024)
Intelligence in the American Indian Wars
Native American History Timeline
Native Intelligence
Iroquois Informers
Indian Scouts
Native American Scouts
Native American Tracking Skills (ten minutes)
Talking Without Words (twenty minutes)
Indian Code Talkers
Origins Navajo Code Talkers
Code Talkers in WWII
Code Talkers (Approx. One Hour)
Code Talkers as New Kind of Military Intelligence
Navajo Code Talkers
Intertribal Relations
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Slavery among Native Americans in the United States
Native American Land Battles: The Truth About Inter-Tribal Conflicts and Wars
Most Violent Native American Tribes: A Historical Perspective
Oxford Reference - Native American Wars
Native Contributions
Shadow Wolves
In Service to the United States
Further Information
Tribes in our region - The Chemakum
Everything You Know About The Indian Wars is Wrong
U.S. Indian Agency
Guide To Online Primary Sources: Native Americans
Historical Photographs
Maps Indian Wars
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 9 (Friday, September 27th, 2024)
Early Commercial Espionage
Timeline of Industrial Espionage
Definitions of Industrial Espionage
America’s History of Corporate Espionage
Spies Who Launched America’s Industrial Revolution
The Great British Tea Heist
Some Approaches to LImiting Industrial Espionage
Company Man ODNI
Nevernight Connection FBI
Chinese Efforts at Collecting Intellectual Property
Further Information
U.S. Economic Espionage Act
Countering State-Sponsored Cyber Espionage
Foreign Economic Espionage (dated)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 8 (Friday, August 30th, 2024)
Intelligence in the Boer War
Boer War
Boer War Intelligence
Signals communication in the South African War 1899-1902
Wireless During The Boer War
Telecommunications Boer War
John Ardagh (1840-1907): The Irish Intelligence scapegoat for Britain’s Anglo-Boer War debacles
British Intelligence Operations in Mozambique, August 1900
The Delagoa Bay Railway and the origin of Steinaecker's Horse
Blockade Through Other Means
Dr. Jamesons Raid
The Defense of Rokes Drift
Further Information
Eight Documentaries About the Boer Wars
Anglo Boer War
Museum of the Boer War
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 7 (Friday, July 26th, 2024)
Intelligence, Law Enforcement, and the Clandestine Art World
Antiquities Smuggling to Fund Terrorism
Antiquities Smuggling
ASEAN Antiquities Smuggling
Manhattan Antiquities Theft Task Force
Josephine Baker
“The Most Famous Art Detective in the World” – with ex-FBI Legend Robert Wittman
What Happens to Stolen Art After a Heist?
WWII Monuments Men
Monuments Men and Women Foundation
How INTERPOL Fights Cultural Crime
Literature, Public Intellectuals or Spies
The Mafia, Looted Antiquities, and the KGB
Money Laundering In The Art World
How To Steal A Masterpiece
Tracking Stolen Art for a Profit
The World's Most Stolen Painting (TED Talk)
Further Information
Registry of Looted Art in Europe 1933 - 1945
CIA Art
CIA Artist Deborah Dismuke (video 7 min)
Edna Andrade: From the OSS to Op Art
The FBI Art Theft Program
Stolen Works of Art Database
Really Nice Cross Cultural Annotated Bibliography on Deception (Second, 2006)
Also, a couple of options for your entertainment
Documentary films about art theft and forgery
Art heist (theft) and art forgery in movies
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 6 (Wednesday, June 28th, 2024)
Covert Communications
History of Secret Communications
Reading Other People’s Mail: AG Crypto
The Enduring Utility of Morse Code
Deadly Covert Communications Failure
Covert Communication: The Intelligibility and Credibility of Signaling in Secret
An Evaluation of Some Commonly Used Methods for Visualization of Secret Writing
Microdots in World War II
Signs and Countersigns
Knitting One, Message Two
FBI Radio
Cuban Agent Communications: Failure of a Perfect System
Dead Drops Video (7 Minutes)
Everything You Should Know About Numbers Stations
Enigma in Spain
Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher
Further Information
SRR-100
Burst Encoders
Spy Radio Sets
Cryptography
Covert Equipment
Numbers Stations and One-Time Pads
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 5 (Friday, May 31st, 2024)
Intelligence in the Spanish Civil War
War in Madrid: Images of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War Virtual Galleries
Servicio de Información Militar
The German Secret State Police in Spain: Extending the Reach of National Socialism
The Road to Dunkirk: British Intelligence and the Spanish Civil War
Juan Pujol Garcia
The Battle for Gibraltar
Soviet Agents in Republican Spain
Story of África de las Heras'
Radio Communication in the Spanish Civil War
Enigma in Spain
Further Information
How Soviet spies targeted George Orwell during the Spanish Civil War
U.S. Army Attaches and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939: The Gathering of TEchnical and Tactical Intelligence
The Spanish link in cracking the Enigma Code
Soviet Union and Spanish Civil War from International Brigade Trust - Communist
Soviet Participans in Spanish Civil War
Hemingway on Fascism in Spanish Civil War
Operation Felix and Spanish Neutrality
OSS X-2 Report on Spanish Secret Service Relations with Germans (via Cryptome)
BBC Six Video Documentary on Spanish Civil War
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 4 (Friday, April 26th, 2024)
Spies in the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1815)
Video Overview of the Napoleonic Wars (48 min)
Aerial Espionage during the Napoleonic Wars
The Special Chancellery
Russian Intelligence Versus Napoleon
British Military Intelligence during the Napoleonic Wars
Espionage During the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon's Spymaster
Timeline Documentary Video on Schulmeister
Further Information
Napoleonic Wars and the United States
Napoleonic Wars History and Maps
Smuggling and Privateers During the Napoleonic Wars
British and French Prisoners of War, 1793-1815
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 3 (Friday, March 29th, 2024)
Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT)
Introduction to MASINT (Spy Museum Video)
How NEST Can Work
Maritime Security and Underwater Surveillance Technology: Lessons from the Cold War
Nuclear MASINT
Memorable MASINT Moments: Cold War Victories
Telemetry Intelligence
Missile and satellite telemetry interception during the Cold War
Navy TELINT
Cold War Signals
ELINT at NSA
Soviet television reconnaissance satellites
Russian ELINT
The Hidden History of the Soviet Satellite-Killer
Little Wizards: Signals intelligence satellites during the Cold War
Cold War: GRAB II Elint Satellite
GRAB and POPPY first ELINT Satellites
Navy Spy Missions in Space
Cold Space (Podcast)
Secrecy and U.S. Satellite Reconnaissance, 1958-1976
Further Information
VII. MASINT: Measurement and Signatures Intelligence
The Cold War: History of the SOund SUrveillance System
U.S. Intelligence and the Detection of the First Soviet Nuclear Test, September 1949
OSI The Original Wizards of Langley (DS&T Predecessor)
CSI: Tennessee—Enter the World of Nuclear Forensics
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 2 (Friday, February 23rd, 2024)
Cold War Tradecraft
Cold War Intelligence
A Guide to Human Intelligene
Tools of Tradecraft: The CIA’s Historic Spy Kit
Russian Radio Sets
Some KGB Gadgets
Cold War Street Fashion
Additional Method and Technique Samples
Some Listening Devices
Moscow Rules
1958 Pre-Civil War Indonesia
The Classic First: The Italian Elections of 1948
National Security Council Directive 4-A
Major Problems of Italian Government Policy
F. Mark Wyatt Obit
Battle across Berlin
Cold War Numbers Stations
Travel Kit Concealment
Looking for the Shoelace Signal, He Walked into Traffic
Street Surveillance
OSS Field Manual - Still Useful During Early Cold War
OSS Sabotage Manual, WWII Era
Maybe a Grain or Two of Salt but Worth a Link
Further Information
Foot Surveillance: Not Directly Applicable But Principles Likely Similar
More Cold War Relevant Principles of Surveillance
Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957
Operation Trust (Pre-Cold War but Too Classic to Ignore
Diplomatic Couriers
PR Version of Field Tradecraft Course
River Notes Intelligence Volume 5 Number 1 (Friday, January 26th, 2024)
Intelligence in the Indonesian Civil War 1965
World War II and its Legacy
Indonesia 1937-1942: prelude to Japanese occupation
Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies
Archipelago of Death: The Brutality of Japanese and Dutch Counterinsurgency Operations in Indonesia
Notes on Indonesian Intelligence Organization 1945-1965
Zulkifli Lubis
1958 Pre-Civil War Indonesia
The Communist Position in Indonesia
1961 Deputy Directorate Plans Memo on Indonesia
Coup and Civil War
Indonesian Upheaval
The Gestapu Affair
‘Keep the Indonesian Pot Boiling’: Western Covert Intervention in Indonesia, October 1965–March 1966
Indonesian Communist Party
Foreign Office Intervention in Indonesia
Hugh Tovar COS Indonesia 1965
Aftermath
New Order in Indonesia
Lessons of the September 30th Affairs (from Studies in Intelligence)
Kopkamtib
KOPKAMTIB Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order
Further Information
Longer History of the Indonesian Communist Party
China and the Thirtieth of September Movement
Operation Haik Eisenhower Administration
The 1965 coup and reforms 1998: two critical moments in Indonesia-Malaysia relations during and after the Cold War
Research Study 1965 The Coup That Backfired
Kopkamtib Intelligence and Security Entities
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 12 (Friday, December 29, 2023)
Maritime Intelligence Collection
The National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office (NMIO)
Office of Naval Intelligence
National Underwater Reconnaissance Office
Naval Security Group
Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System
Surveillance Towed-Array Sensor System (SURTASS) (FAS)
New Whidbey Island Naval Air Station
Integrated Undersea Surveillance System
Upgrade of the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System
Navy TAGOS-25 Ocean Surveillance Shipbuilding Program
Triton Ad (USN owns a handful)
Key Contributors Wide Area Ocean Surveillance
Naval Ocean Surveillance System
Coast Guard Intelligence
Further Information
Intelligence Collection and the International Law of the Sea
OSINT on the Oceans
Enabling Maritime ISR through the ‘Family of Systems’ (from Joint Air Power Competence Centre, NATO Sponsored)
Space Review Ship Killers
U.S. Navy and National Reconnaissance During the Cold War
USS Jimmy Carter
History of Undersea Surveillance
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 11 (Friday, December 1, 2023)
Intelligence in the Ottoman Empire
Yıldız Intelligence Agency
The evolution of Ottoman-era secret services
Spies of the Sultan (Podcast)
Eşref Sencer Kuşçubaşı
Sultan Abdülhamid II's Secret Agent Network (1910) & One Victim's Ordeal (1908)
The Taba Affair
Special Organization Ottoman Empire (Armenia)
Special Organization Ottoman Empire II
Intelligence and Security in the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Murad IV
Further Information
The Efficacy of Ottoman Counterintelligence in the 16th Century
Knowing the ‘hereditary enemy’: AustrianHabsburg intelligence on the Ottoman Empire in the late sixteenth century
The Role of Military Intelligence in the Battle for Beersheba in October 1917
PBS Documentary on the Ottoman Empire
History of the National Intelligence Organization MIT (Note: links to Turkish government site)
The Jewish Spies Who Helped the British Defeat the Ottoman Empire in World War I
Knowing the ‘hereditary enemy’: Austrian-Habsburg intelligence on the Ottoman Empire in the late sixteenth century
Ottoman Intelligence and Security Terms Glossary
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 10 (Friday, October 27, 2023)
Early Russian Intelligence and Secret Police Services
Early Russian Espionage and Secret Police Activity
Chronology of Security System
Romanov era Okhrana ( Department for Protecting the Public Security and Order)
Okhrana Paris Operations
Tsarist Communications Intelligence WWI (via Cryptome (Original Source Studies Vol 22 Number 2, 1978, p29-38)
White Army Intelligence and Counterintelligence
The Russian Cheka
“Chekist in essence, chekist in spirit”: regular and political police in the 1930s
Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky (Video)
The Trust
Further Information
The Tsarist Secret Police in St Petersburg, 1906–1914 (ebook)
The Early Years of Zubatov's Experiment in Police-Supported Socialism In Late Imperial Russia
Trotsky
Video NKVD Hunt for Trotsky
More Complete Unpublished CIA Internal History of The Trust 1969 (begins page 19)
Proclamation establishing KGB 1954
Collaborators and Informant Networks 1920s - 1930s
Examples of NKVD Participation in Political Purges
Organization and Functions of the MGB
Pre-1945 COMINT efforts against the Soviet Union
Soviet Clandestine Communications Nets (1969 so a little off-topic but interesting)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 9 (Friday, September 22, 2023)
Intelligence in the 1973 Chilean Coup
What Really Happened In Chile - Jack Devine
CIA Activities In Chile
CIA Machinations in Chile
Australian Support Activities
Chilean National Intelligence Directorate
General Manuel Contreras
The other hidden hand: Soviet and Cuban intelligence in Allende’s Chile
DGI in Latin America
Before the rubble: Britain’s secret propaganda offensive in Chile (1960-1973)
Further Information
Backchannel Message From the Ambassador to the State Department, National Security Advisor, and Chile Chief of Station (Department of State, Office of Historian)
Rise and Fall of DINA
Orlando Letelier Assassination
Reading Condor's Mail
Covert Action in Chile 1963 - 1973
Review of Hostile Intent
Cuba’s Strategy in Latin America: Intelligence Estimates and the Historical Record
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 8 (Friday, August 25, 2023)
Administration and Management in Intelligence Organizations
How the IC Works
IC Directives, Policies and Reports
Profiles In Leadership DCI from Predecessor Organizations to Present
DNI
National and Defense Intelligence Budgeting
Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Evaluation Process
General Management and Administration
Executive Decision Making
Finding Leaders: Preparing the Intelligence Community for Succession Management
Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book
Intelligence Community Directives
Further Information
Intelligence Organizations and the Organization of Intelligence
Initial CIA Organization and Functions 1949
CIA Foundational Documents
Intelligence Community Programs, Management, and Enduring Issues
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 7 (Friday, July 21, 2023)
1970s Near East Terrorist Organizations and Intelligence
The 1967 War and Birth of Modern Terrorism
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Fifty Years After The Black September
Robert Ames: An Exemplary Officer
Sam Wyman: Another Legend.
Abu Nidal Organization
Salah Khalaf
The Shah's Lebanon Policy: The Role of SAVAKUnderstanding Ireland’s Troubles
Further Information
Murder in Khartoum — Remembering Ambassador Cleo Noel and DCM Curtis Moore
How Terrorist Groups End
Outlook For The Palestinians
PLO Factions
Anti-Israeli Terror Organizations 1968
Palestinians
Nasser and the Palestinians
PFLP-GC
Dawson's Field PFLP Hijackings
Remembering My Hijacking -Victim Experience (non-intel but well written)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 6 (Friday, June 30, 2023)
Intelligence During Ireland’s Troubles
Understanding Ireland’s Troubles
Understanding Ireland's Troubles
Michael Collins and Bloody Sunday
Problems with Command and Control in the IRA
Spycast "The IRA, The Troubles & Intelligence"
British Intelligence War Against the IRA (Video roughly one hour)
Stake Knife
MI-5 Activity During the Troubles (Irish View)
British Military Reaction Force in Northern Ireland
Loyalist Paramilitaries (1)
Further Information
IRA Green Book
Counterinsurgency Intelligence in a "Long War": The British Experience in Northern Ireland
Review: Army of Tribes
Profile of the Irish Republican Army
Loyalist Paramilitaries (2)
Ireland's J-2 Intelligence Service
IRA and Sinn Fein
MI-5 Backchannel Peace Talks
The Det
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 5 (Friday, May 19, 2023)
Intelligence Analysis
Defense Intelligence Plenary
Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence Community Tradecraft Lessons from SABLE SPEAR: The Application of an Artificial Intelligence Methodology in the Business of Intelligence
Coffee and Conversation with Linda Weissgold, Deputy Directorfor Analysis, CIA
Carmen Medina Thinking About Thinking
The Potential of Integrating Intelligence and Intuition
Analytic Culture In The U.S. Intelligence Community (2005)
Sherman Kent and the Profession of Intelligence Analysis
Are the Analytic Tradecraft Standards Hurting as Much as Helping?
Structured Analytic Techniques Government Edition
Intelligence Analysis (Military Approach)
Further Information
Sherman Kent’s Final Thoughts on Analyst-Policymaker Relations
Thinking and Writing Cognitive Science and Intelligence Analysis (1984)
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis - Heuer's Classic in the 1999 Version
Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning in the Intelligence Community, a Systematic Review of the Literature
Watching The Bear
Strategic Intelligence
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 4 (Friday, April 21, 2023)
Intelligence in the Chinese Civil War 1927-1949
Chinese Civil War (Video 29 min.)
Timeline of Chinese Civil War
Li Kenong (CCP) and the Practice of Chinese Intelligence
Japanese Intelligence Organizations in China (Strategic Services Unit 1946)
Japanese Arm Intelligence in North and Central China
Review: Spymaster - Dai Li (KMT) and the Chinese Secret Service
The Claws and Teeth of the Generalissimo
SACO Training Camps
OSS Detachment 202
Book: OSS in China Video (22 min.)
Dixie Mission
Dixie Mission Video (4 min. Advisory CGTN funded by PRC)
Further Information and Background
Chinese Intelligence Historiography
East Asians in Soviet Intelligence and the Chinese-Lenin School of the Russian Far East
The Comintern and CCP and KMT
Central Intelligence Group "Chinese Minorities In Asia"
Possible Developments In China 1948
The Noulens Affair (Comintern)
Chinese Communist Intelligence and Its Place in the Party 1926 - 1945 (Dissertation, long)
History of Chinese Communist Espionage (includes material from Revolutionary period)
Washington Headquarters Services Background - Ming and Nationalist Era Population Surveillance Activities
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 3 (Friday, March 31, 2023)
Intelligence in the Greek Civil War 1947-1949
Overview of the Greek Civil War
Civil War Overview (Video - 9 min.)
The Spark
Combined Monthly Intelligence Review - Greece
Insurgents’ Intelligence Network and Practices During the Greek Civil War
Central Intelligence Group - The Greek Situation
Consequences of Communist Control in Greece
Satellite Aid to Greek Communists
British Intelligence Services in Greece, 1940-1947
Further Information:
Military and Paramilitary: Men of the Gun and Men of the State - Military Entrepreneurship in the Shadow of the Greek Civil War (1946-1949); Paramilitary Forces in Greece, 1946-1949; U.S. Advisors and Greek Combat Leadership in the Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
Political: Propaganda in the Greek Civil War; British Foreign Policy in Greece, 1940-1949; Truman Doctrine - “Special Message to Congress on Greece and Turkey”; The Pawn that Would be King - Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
Miscellaneous: Central Intelligence Group; The Allies - Espionage in the Greek Civil War (Book); Getty Images from the Greek Civil War
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 2 (Saturday, February 25, 2023)
1970s Intelligence in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Safari Club; Larry Devlin, COS Congo (NPR Fresh Air Podcast)
South Africa: South African Bureau of State Security; ANC Agent 407: Olivia Forsyth (10 min. video); Story of Craig Williamson Security Branch; Sue Dobson Story (podcast); Commander Dieter Gerhardt; Note Silvermine Listening Post; Written Interview with Robert W. Hultslander, COS Luanda, Angola 1975
Rhodesia: Selous Scouts Intelligence Collection; Selous Scouts Pseudo-Operations; Rhodesian Intelligence Services; Dumiso DAbengwa, ZAPU Intelligence Chief
Further Information: Africa South of the Sahara (Long reference material.); Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone; South African Border Wars - Foreign Policy; Crisis in Angola: 1974-1975; South Africa’s National Security Management System; Rhodesian Experience: Lessons for Contemporary Counterinsurgencies (RAND); Documents on the Cuban Intervention in Angola; Soviet and Cuban Intervention in the Second Angolan War (some redaction).
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 2 (Saturday, February 25, 2023)
1970s Intelligence in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Safari Club; Larry Devlin, COS Congo (NPR Fresh Air Podcast)
South Africa: South African Bureau of State Security; ANC Agent 407: Olivia Forsyth (10 min. video); Story of Craig Williamson Security Branch; Sue Dobson Story (podcast); Commander Dieter Gerhardt; Note Silvermine Listening Post; Written Interview with Robert W. Hultslander, COS Luanda, Angola 1975
Rhodesia: Selous Scouts Intelligence Collection; Selous Scouts Pseudo-Operations; Rhodesian Intelligence Services; Dumiso DAbengwa, ZAPU Intelligence Chief
Further Information: Africa South of the Sahara (Long reference material.); Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone; South African Border Wars - Foreign Policy; Crisis in Angola: 1974-1975; South Africa’s National Security Management System; Rhodesian Experience: Lessons for Contemporary Counterinsurgencies (RAND); Documents on the Cuban Intervention in Angola; Soviet and Cuban Intervention in the Second Angolan War (some redaction).
River Notes Intelligence Volume 4 Number 1 (Friday, January 27, 2023)
Counterintelligence
Overview: To Catch a Spy - James Olson; The Ten Commandments of Counterintelligence; Toward a Theory of Counterintelligence; American Spies; Espionage against the US from the Cold War to the Present; Counterintelligence after Snowden; Jonna Mendez: Inside the CIA and The Moscow Rules
Further Information: Army Counterintelligence Investigative Procedures; National Counterintelligence and Security Center Strategic Plan 2018-2022; Insider Threat Mitigation Guide (CISA); Game of Pawns; FBI Operation Ghost Stories Surveillance Footage; DOD Counterintelligence Film - Checkpoint Charlie circa 1969.
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 12 (Friday, December 23, 2022)
Intelligence in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Overview: Overview of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on Eve of WWI (Long but covers materials); Intelligence Offices in the Habsburg Monarchy; Evidenzbureau; Andreas Figl and the Austrian Cipher Bureau; Serbian Intelligence: Dragkutin Dimitrijević and the Black Hand; Chetniks in the First Balkan War 1912-1913; The Redl Affair;
Related Reading (You will have to log in through your library for these supplemental options): Maxmilian Ronge: Master Spy; Andres Figl: World War I Austrian Codebreaker; A Hopeless Struggle: Austro-Hungarian Cryptology During World War I
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 11 (Friday, November 25, 2022)
Intelligence in the Roman Empire
Overview: Brief Overview of Roman Intelligence Collection; Frumentarii; Additional Frumentarii; Types of Personnel; The Caesar Cipher; Agentes in Rebus; Evidence for Roman Intelligence Services Along the Eastern Adriatic Coast
Videos: Summary on Roman Concepts of Military Intelligence; Surveillance and Security in the Roman Empire
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 10 (Friday, October 28, 2022)
India-Pakistan War Intelligence 1971
Overview: Brief Overview of Indo-Pakistan War 1971; Bangladesh war - The article that changed history; The South Asia Crisis and the founding of Bangladesh, 1971;
China, Russia, and the United States: Great Power Overview; Memorandum for President Nixon from Henry Kissinger; Subsequent Communication; Projects for East Pakistan Independence; Task Force 74 - U.S. Soviet Naval Confrontation in the Bay of Bengal; The Tilt - The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of 1971; Understanding of Chinese view; A view of Soviet stakes;
Indian and Pakistani Intelligence: Story of Col. Sajjad, Bengali in Pak Army who gave India secrets that helped win 1971 war; RAW- India’s External Intelligence Agency; How R&AW shaped India’s victory in the 1971 war; The Backroom ‘Kao’ Boys who helped in 1971; The ISI reaches East - Anatomy of a conspiracy; Pakistan lost the 1971 war but its project of Islamist violence won the larger conflict. (Opinion piece but outlines Pakistani Intelligence role.)
Further Information: Early Efforts to be a Learning Organization; West Pakistan and East Pakistan Cultural Differences; SIGINT in South Asia; India Pakistan Partition BBC Documentary; Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate - Covert Action and Internal Operations 1st Edition
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 9 (Friday, September 23, 2022)
Cyber Intelligence (Videos): Mike Burgess, Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) – Offensive cyber; Featured Keynote by Robert Hannigan, Former Director of GCHQ; Enhancing Cybersecurity Readiness in an Era of Digital Disruption (Former Chief Canadian Communications Security Establishment Shelly Bruce); Government Communications Security Bureau (New Zealand - Former Director Una Jagose at Tech & Privacy Forum); Government Keynote - Rob Joyce ( Now Director for Cybersecurity NSA); Bill Crowell (Former DDNSA): NSA’s approach to security during the emergence of Digital Communications Technologies; "Managing Risks in the Cyber Battle Space" - Mark Spangler - Director, NRO Cyber Security Operations Center, U.S. National Reconnaissance Office
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 8 (Friday, August 19, 2022)
Historical Potpourri: The Quest for Cryptologic Centralization and the Establishment of NSA, 1940-1952; Tribute to MG Ralph Canine, Founding Director of NSA; Early history of NSA; Modern NSA Overview; Voices from the Station - Evacuation of the US Embassy in Saigon; Sherman Kent and the Board of National Estimates - Collected Essays; The History of CIA’s Office of Strategic Research, 1967-1981; A Curator’s Pocket History of the CIA; 50 Years in Langley - Recollections of the Construction of CIA’s Original Headquarters Building; Cornerstone Artifact; Profiles in Leadership - Directors of Central Intelligence
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 7 (Friday, July 22, 2022)
Prague Spring 1968: Prague Spring Overview (10 min. video); Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia - 1968 (State Department); U.S. SIGINT Response - Prague Spring; Defense Intelligence Agency Intelligence Supplement Regarding USSR Electronic Countermeasures During Invasion of Czechoslovakia; Strategic Warning and Role of Intelligence - Invasion of Czechoslovakia; Third World Reaction to Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Additional Materials and Readings - Wilson Center Archive Primary Documents; George Washington University National Security Archive (Scroll down for primary documents.)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 6 (Friday, June 18, 2022)
Geospatial & Satellite Collection: NGA Overview; NGA Priorities 2020; History: Overhead Collection Forgotten Sacrifice; Coronoa Story; NRO History; GAMBIT Project KH-7 (NRO); HEXAGON Project KH-9 Big Bird (NRO); Related: Insectothopter (mid-1970s); Charlie and Charlene
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 5 (Friday, May 20, 2022)
Intelligence in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarian Revolution Background; Hungarian State Protection Authority (AVH); Overview- CIA Had Single Officer in Hungary 1956; First Look Response of U.S. Government to 1956 Hungarian Revolution; Factionalism in the Hungarian Workers (Communist) Party 1945-1956 (Current Intelligence Study Lightly Redacted); Various National Perspectives on the 1956 Hungarian Revolution;
Human Perspectives: Hungarian Revolution in Pictures; Hungarian Revolution - Personal Stories; Cardinal József Mindzenty in the U.S. Embassy; BBC Hungarian Revolution (20 Min. Video); House of Terror Museum (Old HQB of Hungarian AVH)
Additional Readings: Hungary 1956; Declassified Original Sources
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 4 (Friday, April 22, 2022)
French Intelligence in the Third Republic (1870-1940): Georges Boulanger - The Third Republic’s Spy Master?; Foreign Ministry Cipher Office; Military Intelligence in the Third Republic Levant; Alfred Dreyfus and the Dreyfus Affair; The Dreyfus Affair (Video 11 min.); The Dreyfus Affir - Enduring CI Lessons; Desvernine, Simple Cop? - The Story of a Little-KNown French Counter Spy; Planting the Espionage Tree - The French Military and the Professionalization of Intelligence at the End of the Nineteenth Century; Podcast - Marianne is Watching - The Modern French Surveillance State with Dr. Deborah Bauer.
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 3 (Friday, March 18, 2022)
HUMINT Collection: Podcasts: The Recruiter - Parts 1 & 2 - Modern Spycraft with Doug London; Videos: HUMan Intelligence in the Digital age - Global Agenda 2012; Human Intelligence Operations in the Age of AI; To Catch a Spy - James Olson;
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 2 (Friday, February 18, 2022)
Humor: Ed Mickolus Spy Humor; NSA Jokes; Signs that You Are Not Ready to be a Spy; Inside Get Smart; KGB Jokes; Soviet Humor; SNL Putin; Stratfor Humor
Further Reading - Spy Comedies (IMDB)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 3 Number 1 (Friday, January 14, 2022)
Vietnam: OSS in Vietnam; Cryptography During the French and American Wars in Vietnam; Remembering the Lessons of Vietnam Cryptologic Quarterly; U.S. Intelligence in Vietam; Early MACV Army Intelligence Support
Tet: Tet Declassified ODNI; Tet SIGINT; Pham Xuan An - The Spy Who Did Not Love Us; Tet Offensive Bibliography
Enemy Intelligence: The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship During the Vietnam War; Dr. Pierre Hautier; DRVN Strategic Intelligence Service
Further Reading
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 12 (Friday, December 17, 2021)
Prisoner of War (PoW) Camp Radios: Fort Hunt GIs Sent WWII Care Packages; Wireless for the Warrior, Volume 4, PoW Radio #9, Allied Germany/Italy; Wireless for the Warrior, Volume 4, PoW Radio #10, Allied country of Origin, Far East;
Clandestine Spy Radios: Crypto Museum; Hacking When It Counts - Spy Radios; A Dozen Vintage Spy Radios; U.,Sl Clandestine Radio Equipment; Paraset Radios; Further Reading
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 11 (Friday, November 19, 2021)
Private Intelligence Companies: Intelligence Outsourcing; Private Espionage; The World’s Most Powerful Private Security Companies; Corporate Espionage; Outsourcing Intelligence Analysis - Legal and Policy Risks; Further Reading
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 10 (Friday, October 15, 2021)
American Civil War Intelligence: Union States - Black Dispatches; Confederate States - The Confederate Secret Service; Communications and Cryptography - Civil War Communications and Cryptography, Confederate Cipher Disc, Cryptography in the Civil War; Union States - Civil War Ballooning, Telegraphy in the Civil War, U.S. Military Telegraph Corps, Internal Struggle—The Civil War, Civil War Signal Corps
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 9 (Friday, September 17, 2021)
The FBI’s Special Intelligence Service (SIS) 1940-1946): Special Intelligence Service; A Look Back - A Small Office with a Big Mission; Heroism in Hostile Territory - The Argentine Operations of the FBI’s SIS; World War II, Cold War, 1939-1953; The FBI in Latin America - The Ecuador Files; Crosby’s Luck - Stories from the Historical Committee, by Ray Batvinis; History of the S.I.S. Division, 1940-1946; Further Reading.
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 8 (Friday, August 20, 2021)
Bosnian Wars: Bosnian Declassified Records; Pakistan-Inter-Services Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bosnia, Intelligence, and the Clinton Presidency; Lessons from Bosnia - The IFOR Experience; Intelligence Sharing in Bosnia (Monograph); U.N. Intelligence in the Balkins; War Crimes in the Balkans; Yugoslavia-Dutch Srebrenica Report; Further reading
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 7 (Friday, July 16, 2021)
Soviet Espionage WWII: Red Orchestra - Die Rote Kapelle (A Soviet spy network operating in the Third Reich during World War II); Die Rote Kapelle - The CIA’s History of Soviet Intelligence and Espionage Networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945; The Black Orchestra - Die Schwarze Kapelle; Admiral Wilhelm Canaris; The Lucy Organization; Additional Sources
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 6 (Friday, June 18, 2021)
Japanese Intelligence: Kenpetai; Japanese Spies 1930-1945; Japanese Intelligence in WWII - Successes and Failures; Unit 731; Unit 731; Biological and Chemical Warfare Development; Post WWII: Public Security Intelligence Agency; Japan’s Evolving Intelligence Efforts; Director for Signals Intelligence; Developing Modern Japanese Intelligence Policy; General WWII Further Reading; Unit 731 Further Readings; Modern Japanese Intellgence Further Readings
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 5 (Friday, May 14, 2021)
Venona: Venona Introductory Materials, Venona Project Wikipedia, The Women Code Breakers Who Unmasked Soviet Spies, Manhattan Project Espionage, The Venona Story. Videos: Venona Earl Hanes, How the Russians Explored American Secrets. Additional Sources: Venona Project and Vassiliev Notebooks and Concordance, Counterintelligence Reader - Venona, In the Enemy’s House - Venona and the Maturation of American Intelligence.
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 4 (Friday, April 16, 2021)
Clandestine Radios In Support Of Espionage Operations And Behind The Lines Communications: The Beginnings of Radio Intercept WWI, Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America during WWII, Strategic Deception - The mystery of Undetected Radios, Clandestine Radios of WWII; Suggested Readings (Books, Videos)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 3 (Friday, March 19, 2021)
Agricultural Espionage: Agricultural Espionage, Chinese Agricultural Espionage, The Seeds of Espionage, Spies in the Field, Bill to Establish an Office of Intelligence within the Department of Agriculture, Chinese Talent in the Field, The Scientist and the Spy (Video Asia Society NY 1 hour), Suggested Readings
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 2 (Friday, February 19, 2021)
Vatican Intelligence Services: Holy Roman Spies (Video, 50 min.), World War I and Vatican Espionage, From Napoleon to the Second World War, Church of Spies World War II (C-Span Video, 60 min.), Espionage and the Catholic Church from the Cold War to the Present; Suggested Readings.
River Notes Intelligence Volume 2 Number 1 (Friday, January 15, 2021)
Alexander Orlov and NKVD Operations in the Spanish Civil War: Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov - Overview, NKVD in Spain, Going for the Gold, Testimony of Alexander Orlov before the Senate Judiciary Committee 87th Congress 1955, Orlov’s larger perspectives - The Theory and Practice of Soviet Intelligence
Note this issue includes a bibliography of books and articles related to Orlov, the Spanish Civil War, and other readings re/the Soviet Union under Stalin.
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 17 (Friday, December 18, 2020)
Her Majesty’s Friends: Sir Francis Walsingham, Spymaster to the Queen (Video), Women Spies in 17th Century England, Thurloe- Cromwell’s Spymaster, Charles II and Downing in America, Pitt and the Eighteenth Century
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 16 (Friday, December 4, 2020)
The Ministry for State Security: Stasi Introduction; Stasi Museum and Records Agency; Stasi Prison Berlin-Hohen schonausen; Fearsome or Futile - The Limits of Stasi Surveillance; Unofficial Informants; Brief Assessment on the Investigation Results Achieved in 1961 in Work on Crimes of Espionage
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 15 (Friday, November 13, 2020)
Strangers in the Ivory Tower: Game of Pawns (and Aftermath); Maria was a Busy Young Woman; Students who Work Late; Story of the Confucius Institutes; Protecting Our Own House
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 14 (October 30, 2020)
Halloween Grab Bag: The Intelligence Network of Queen Elizabeth I: Sir Francis Walsingham - Spymaster General of Queen Elizabeth I; Podcast - Spies of the Sultan - Ottoman Intelligence in the Early Modern Period; C-Span Video - Espionage and Intelligence Revolution in WWI; C-Span Video - Oster Conspiracy to kill Hitler 1938; TICOM - Target Intelligence Committee SIGINT WWII
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 13 (October 16, 2020)
SOE and Women in Intelligence: Gertrude Sangford Legendre - Never a Loose Cannon; Virginia Hill OSS; Women Spies of the SOE; Women Who Made D-Day Possible; OSS Exhibition Catalogue; Britain and the SOE; Jedburgh Video
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 12 (September 18, 2020)
Cartography: The Houghteam Maps; Maps with Essays of WWI; Maps of WWII; War Cartography; Geospatial Intelligence Agency YouTube Channel
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 11 (September 11, 2020)
September 11th Memorial Edition: Al Quaeda Intelligence 9/11; Saudi Arabia and 9/11; NSA and 9/11; Bin Laden Documents
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 10 (August 14, 2020)
Holocaust: Katyn Forest Massacre; Eavesdropping on Hell; OSS Dachau; OSS Officer Lerner
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 9 (July 17, 2020)
SIGINT, MASINT: CIA SIGINT; U.S. Satellite History; Sentient (NRO); Chinese Satellites; History of Russian SIGINT (Dated 2005 but for your consideration)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 8 (July 3, 2020)
Inter-War Intelligence: French Intelligence in the Third Republic; American Intelligence Assessments of Japanese Air Power; The First set of Five Eyes; Origins of FBI Counterintelligence; Intelligence Between the Wars
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 7 (June 12, 2020)
Moose and Squirrel Edition: Learn to Spell; Animal Crackers; Fortune Cookies; Edward Lee Howard…he pinky promised the FBI he would get in next week…he just needed to get a lawyer; PC-to-PC open wireless networking is dangerous, even when you’re pretty; Mail Misadventures - You can’t arrest me! I’m a spy!
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 6 (May 29, 2020)
Asian Organizations: Chinese Counterintelligence; Singapore Intelligence Division; Japan’s Intelligence Community; North Korean Ministry for State Security; Indian Intelligence Services
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 5 (May 15, 2020)
The Trust GPU 1921-1926; Russian Intelligence Services; Counterintelligence Risks in Intelligence Sharing; IWP Counterintelligence Cultures; Artificial Intelligence - A Counterintelligence Perspective
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 4 (May 1, 2020)
Numbers Stations: Numbers Stations - CONET Project; Audio File Examples of Numbers Stations; Agent Covert Communications Devices; Russian Buzzer; Low Tech Online; Digital Dead Drops
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 3 (April 17, 2020)
Some Historic Schools: Catoctin Mountain (connected Ft. Ritche) OSS Training Film “Undercover” by John Ford; Fort Ritchie History; Personal Narrative - Fort Holabird; On the Roof Gang
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 2 (April 10, 2020)
The National Security Implications of the Coronavirus Pandemic on HUMINT/SIGINT; National Center for Medical Intelligence; National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility; Good Case Tracking Sites (Johns Hopkins, Worldometer)
River Notes Intelligence Volume 1 Number 1 (April 3, 2020)
The History of the Honey Trap; The Secret History of the /Russian Consulate in San Francisco; Wired Magazine - Secret History of a Cold War Mastermind