News you may have missed #0222
December 15, 2009 Leave a comment
- UN investigates claims Iran using Taiwan as nuclear conduit. United Nations officials are investigating intelligence claims that Iran has established a smuggling network using front companies in Taiwan to acquire equipment that it could use to make nuclear weapons.
- Blackwater tied to secret CIA raids, say employees. “There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency”, said one former top CIA officer. IntelNews regulars will remember that we described last summer’s revelations of Blackwater’s participation in US special operations as “just the tip of the iceberg”.
intelNews.org 
Lithuania’s spy chief resigns over secret CIA prison probe
December 17, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment
Malakauskas
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The director of Lithuania’s intelligence service unexpectedly resigned on Monday, reportedly in connection with a parliamentary investigation into a reputed CIA secret prison site in the country. IntelNews regulars will remember that last November ABC News cited CIA officials in alleging that the Lithuanian government provided the CIA with an unmarked building located in Lithuanian capital Vilnius, with the understanding that it would be used as a so-called black site for secretly detaining high-value al-Qaeda suspects. Lithuanian government officials denied the allegation, but promised to set up a high-level probe into the matter. But the members of the parliamentary committee that was established to examine the ABC News revelations soon found themselves shunned by Lithuanian intelligence officials. According to the committee head, Arvydas Anusauskas, the parliamentarians were offered ambiguous answers or no answers at all by Lithuanian secret service agencies. Read more of this post
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Arvydas Anusauskas, CIA, Eastern Europe, extraordinary rendition, intelligence oversight, Lithuania, News, Paul Gimigliano, Povilas Malakauskas, resignations, secret prisons, State Security Department (Lithuania), United States, Vilnius (Lithuania), War on Terrorism