Intelligence sources say US electric grid hacked by foreign spies

April 9, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In yesterday’s edition, The Wall Street Journal quoted senior US intelligence sources, including former Homeland Security Department officials, who said that foreign spies have penetrated the electronic infrastructure of America’s electrical supply grid. The officials said the hackers, who have reportedly been traced to Russia and China, among other countries, do not currently appear intent on disrupting the system. Instead, they seem to be “on a mission to navigate [and map] the US electrical system and its controls”, allegedly so that they can sabotage it “during a crisis or war”. Interestingly, the discovery was reportedly made not by utility company technicians, but by US intelligence agents engaged in monitoring cyber-intrusions into the nation’s electronic infrastructure. Read more of this post

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Paper alleges US espionage links at Cairo’s American University

April 8, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
America’s image in Egypt has suffered in recent days, after one of Egypt’s largest newspapers claimed in a series of articles that the American University in Cairo (AUC) is conducting espionage work for the US Pentagon. On March 30, Egypt’s Al Masry Al Yawm newspaper said that the AUC, one of Egypt’s most prominent academic institutions, which was established 90 years ago, had signed a contract worth $605,000 with the US Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) to conduct research on “infectious diseases, applied research and development in Egypt”. Prompted by the article’s allegations, two representatives in the Egyptian People’s Assembly requested “an emergency meeting of national security and education officials to discuss espionage at the AUC”. Read more of this post

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Australian ex-intelligence agent tried for leaking documents

April 7, 2009 by Leave a comment

Bali bombings

Bali bombings

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The trial has begun in Australia of a former intelligence agent accused of conspiring to leak classified documents to the press. The prosecution is accusing James Paul Seivers, a former surveillance expert with the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), of photocopying secret intelligence reports about the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia, and leaking them to the Australian press, with the help of his co-tenant. The secret reports, which had been compiled a few weeks before the Bali bombings, contained warnings by American intelligence agents that jihadist groups in Indonesia were preparing large-scale attacks on popular tourist nightspots. The leaked documents were published in the Australian press and led to strong criticism of Australian intelligence authorities; the latter were widely seen as having failed to prevent the bombings, which killed over 200 people, among them 88 Australian citizens. Read more of this post

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US uses Kyrgyz base to spy, say Russians

April 7, 2009 by Leave a comment

Rossiya TV

Rossiya TV

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Just as US officials entered one last round of negotiations to avert the scheduled evacuation of the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, Russian television has accused the US Pentagon of secretly using the base to spy on Moscow and Beijing. Government-owned Telekanal Rossiya aired during primetime last Sunday a documentary titled “Base”, which alleged that signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the Pentagon’s primary operational focus at Manas. Footage aired in the documentary showed several windowless buildings located around the perimeter of the Manas Air Base, said to contain components of a “multi-channel, multi-functional system of radio-electronic surveillance [...] which controls entire Central Asia, parts of China and Siberia”. Read more of this post

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Dubai police say Russian parliamentarian ordered murder

April 6, 2009 by 1 Comment

Yamadayev

Yamadayev

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Police officials in the United Arab Emirates said last weekend that Chechnya’s ex-Prime Minister and “close ally of the Chechen president” was behind the March 31 assassination of a former Chechen separatist living in Dubai. Speaking to reporters, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, chief of Dubai’s police, said Adam S. Delimkhanov, who is currently a Member of Parliament in Russia, “is the man behind the assassination of Sulim B. Yamadayev”. Yamadayev was a Chechen rebel commander who fought against Moscow in the 1990s, but in 1999 switched sides and headed an elite pro-Moscow paramilitary squad that targeted the separatists. Last spring, however, after Yamadayev fell out with pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan A. Kadyrov, Moscow issued an arrest warrant against him for the 1998 abduction of a Chechen entrepreneur. Shortly after one of his brothers was shot dead in Moscow, Yamadayev moved to the United Arab Emirates. On March 31, however, less than four months after his relocation to Dubai, Yamadayev was shot several times in the head outside the Jumeirah Beach apartment complex in which he lived. He thus became the latest target in a recent wave of assassinations of former Chechen commanders by mysterious assailants, who many suspect are commissioned by the Russian intelligence services.  Read more of this post

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French energy giant spying on Greenpeace?

April 4, 2009 by 1 Comment

ÉDF's Paris HQ

ÉDF's Paris HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Two senior security officials at France’s state-owned electricity service provider are among several people charged by French authorities with spying on Greenpeace. News emerged last Tuesday that the heads of security at Électricité de France (ÉDF), Pierre Durieux and Pierre Francois, have had their offices raided and computers confiscated by French police, who are searching for the culprits of an extensive spying operation against the environmental organization. Three other people have been charged with membership in the spy ring, including Thierry Lorho, director of private investigations firm Kargus Consultant, as well as two unnamed individuals, one of whom is reportedly a “computer expert”. It appears that the five collaborated in efforts to remotely hack into computer servers and networks operated by Greenpeace France. Read more of this post

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Analysis: Strange Case of Philippine Spy in US Gets Stranger

April 3, 2009 by Leave a comment

Aquino

Aquino

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A Philippine former intelligence officer, who was arrested in New York for passing classified US documents to his Philippine contacts, has had his sentence reduced by a US court. Michael Ray Aquino was apprehended in 2005 and charged with collaborating with an FBI intelligence analyst who spied on the US. Aquino’s recent history is complicated. For several years, he worked for the (now defunct) Philippines National Police Intelligence Group (NPIG), where he quickly rose to the post of Deputy Director, under the Presidency of Joseph Estrada. In 2001, however, when Estrada was ousted from the Presidency amidst extensive corruption allegations, Aquino was one of several military and intelligence officials who were removed by the new government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Soon afterwards, Aquino was among several suspects charged with the politically motivated murder of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer, a well-known public relations manager who had helped oust Estrada. The ousted intelligence officer escaped justice by fleeing with his family to the US, in 2001. Read article →

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An April Fools story from Robert Eringer

April 2, 2009 by Leave a comment

Albert II

Albert II

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In his latest blog entry, former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to Prince Albert II of Monaco, recounts an interesting story of deceit at the gaffe-prone Royal House of Monaco. According to Eringer, the tiny principality’s ruler, Prince Albert II, was recently fooled by an attractive 24-year-old blonde into believing she was the daughter of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The woman, whose name was Ekaterini (Catherine) was in fact Greek and spoke not a word of Russian. Eringer reports that the young woman convinced the Monegasque royal to patronize the local chapter of Green Cross International, an environmental action group she claimed to speak for. Read more of this post

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Walesa accused again of being intelligence collaborator

April 1, 2009 by Leave a comment

Lech Walesa

Lech Walesa

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last December, I reported on a book by two Polish academics, Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk, titled Secret services and Lech Walesa: A Contribution to the Biography (SB a Lech Wałęsa: Przyczynek do Biografii). In it, the two historians discuss what they call “compelling evidence” and “positive proof” that the country’s anticommunist former President, Lech Walesa, was a paid collaborator of Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), Poland’s Security Service, during the communist era. Now a new book by Polish historian Paweł Zyzak echoes these allegations. Citing sources “that prefer to remain anonymous”, the book, titled Lech Walesa: Idea and History (Lech Wałęsa. Idea i Historia), claims that the former Solidarność leader fathered an illegitimate child and collaborated with the SB in the 1970s. Read more of this post

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