UPCOMING MEETINGS

2025

January 18, 2025:   Bill Hall

February 15, 2025:  Cancelled!

March 15. 2025:  Colonel (Ret.) Joseph R. Connell and David W. Morrison

April 19, 2025: Robert (Bobby) Charles

May 17, 2025:  Ambassador Ronald

Neumann 

June 21, 2025:  David P. Hunt

September 13, 2025: Cancelled

October 2025:  Cancelled

November 15, 2025:  Bill Hall

January 17, 2026: Dr. Christopher Heurlin

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS

The Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) was incorporated in 1975 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-political, educational association for current and former intelligence professionals and supporters of the US intelligence community. The Association is based in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

AFIO’s mission is to build a public constituency for a sound, healthy and capable U.S. intelligence system. The focus is on education fostering an understanding of the important role of intelligence in National Security and nurtures interest by students in careers in the many fields used by U.S. Intelligence Agencies. This includes the role of supporting intelligence activities in U.S. policy, diplomacy, strategy, security, and defense.

In addition, AFIO focuses on understanding the critical need for effective counterintelligence and security against foreign, political, technological, or economic espionage, as well as covert, clandestine and overt counter-terrorist or criminal operations threatening US security, the national infrastructure or corporate and individual safety.
AFIO’s mission has special significance in today’s international diplomatic and business environments.

Membership and subscription:
To join or subscribe go to: www.afio.com

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to build a public constituency for a sound, healthy and capable U.S. intelligence system. Our focus on education fosters an understanding of the important role of intelligence in National Security and nurtures interest by students in careers in the many fields used by U.S. Intelligence Agencies. This includes the role of supporting intelligence activities in U.S. policy, diplomacy, strategy, security and defense.

In addition, AFIO focuses on understanding the critical need for effective counterintelligence and security against foreign, political, technological or economic espionage, as well as covert, clandestine and overt counter-terrorist or criminal operations threatening US security, the national infrastructure or corporate and individual safety.

AFIO’s mission has special significance in today’s international diplomatic and business environments.

All Maine Chapter of Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) meetings are OPEN and the GENERAL PUBLIC is encouraged to attend. All are welcome to hear our speakers, who are primary source experts, express their views and opinions.

Maine Chapter’s effort is to help us all become better informed on the speakers’ subject matter; to become more knowledgeable on the facts behind current media headlines. We have also had foreign nationals give presentations on their perspective and opinions on their country or specific incidents.

The Chapter’s mission is to promote to the general public why it is important, necessary, to have a strong and effective intelligence capability as USA’s first line of defense. Please come and help us accomplish our mission.

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AFIO MEETING: March 21, 2026
2:00 p.m.
International Warfare: Drug Wars Supply and Demand

We are pleased to announce our March 21 Speaker Program featuring internationally recognized photojournalist Jonathan Alpeyrie, who will travel to Maine to speak with us in person.

Mr. Alpeyrie was born and raised in France and has covered 14 wars throughout his career. In 2013, he was kidnapped by Syrian rebels, and in 2015 he was wounded in Ukraine by artillery fired by pro-Russian forces. His years reporting from conflict zones have given him rare, firsthand insight into geopolitical instability, organized violence, and the human realities behind global headlines.

His presentation will draw from his powerful body of work, Drug Wars: Supply and Demand, a six-year exploration of the international narcotics trade across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. Rather than relying on abstract statistics or distant analysis, Mr. Alpeyrie documents the landscapes and communities where production, trafficking, and demand intersect--revealing how economics, policy, and human resilience shape one of the most urgent global challenges of our time.

What distinguishes his work is a visual and narrative sensibility forged through decades covering wars, revolutions, and humanitarian crises. His photography does not sensationalize crime; instead, it captures the quiet tension of cartel-controlled towns, the fatigue of investigators at dawn, and the everyday humanity of those living amid instability. Paired with thoughtful analysis, his work challenges us to reconsider what the “war on drugs” means in the twenty-first century—not as a simple battle between law enforcement and criminals, but as a complex, evolving conflict affecting communities, institutions, and international policy.

While Mr. Alpeyrie is not a trained intelligence officer, his depth of field experience provides him with a keen understanding of cultural structure, power dynamics, and the global forces that link supply and demand.

AFIO members, guests, and prospective members are welcome to attend. A question-and-answer period will follow the presentation.
We hope you will join us on March 21 for what promises to be a compelling and timely presentation.

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