Circa 1989, the Naval Investigative Service Command published a booklet on significant espionage cases.  Also included was a discussion of double agent operations and details of three successful operations.   Checkout the booklet by clicking here.

• Did you know the first American tried in peacetime under the World War I Espionage Act was a Navy Yeoman caught spying for the Japanese in 1936?
• Everyone knows Jonathan Pollard was employed by ONI/NIS when he spied for Israel. But do you know the other three ONI employees that were found guilty of espionage?
• Did you know that some of these cases were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and established legal precedent?

Click here and see the 63 individuals we have identified as being arrested for espionage. Did we miss any?

As the 56th Anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is observed next week, we have published 63 documents about Oswald’s emotional issues, discipline and discharge from the USMC, travel to the Soviet Union, renunciation of his U.S. citizenship, and contact with pro-Cuban and socialist organizations. See some of the early post assassination FBI reporting which emphasized the need to leave no stone unturned. See the actual documents and investigative reports. Click here

Learn more about NCIS and its predecessor organizations at http://ncisahistory.org/

Prior to shooting President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald had married a Russian woman, traveled to Russia and renounced his U.S. citizenship.  As a former Marine and Marine Reservist, he was investigated by the Marine Corps, Naval Intelligence and the FBI.  His half-brother was interviewed by AFOSI.  See the investigative documents.

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, ONI policy was to limit collection to technical information that would assist the Navy in improving the capabilities of the fleet rather than to gather intelligence of an operational nature.  ONI had eight officers and eight civilians, and 75 percent of their time was spent in clipping and filing newspaper articles.

Beginning in 1916, the war in Europe induced a rapid expansion in ONI.  Counterintelligence, in which ONI had not previously been involved, received the greatest emphasis.  It was reasoned that the Allies were already producing intelligence for the support of operating forces, but that the U.S. Navy was very vulnerable internally to German acts of sabotage. Strong security measures were needed quickly.

When the Armistice was declared on 11 November 1918, there were 306 naval reservists plus 18 civil service clerks and messengers serving in ONI.  [Beyer comment:  It is believed that these numbers do not include the contract special agents assigned to branch intelligence offices.]

Following the war, ONI dropped back to an office force of forty-two in 1920 and returned to its prewar interests in all maritime countries.  Most of its counterintelligence responsibilities were terminated.

(Source:  Packard, Wyman H., Captain, USN (Ret.), A CENTURY OF US NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1996.)