2010 May « intelNews.org

UK barring replacement of London’s Mossad resident

May 5, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

Mossad seal

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The British government is officially preventing the replacement of Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s London representative, after it expelled his predecessor six weeks ago. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced the expulsion in March, in response to the use of at least 12 forged British passports by a Mossad hit squad, whose members traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, last January, to assassinate Hamas weapons procurer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. According to Israeli media, the British Foreignand Commonwealth Office has requested written assurances from Israel that it will refrain from using British travel documents in future intelligence operations. But the Israeli government is so far refusing to comply with Britain’s request, claiming that doing so would amount to “an admission of culpability” in the assassination of al-Mabhouh. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with assassinations, diplomatic expulsions, Dubai, forgery, Hamas, Israel, Israeli embassy in the UK, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, MI6, Mossad, News, travel documentation, UK, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Arab Emirates

News you may have missed #343

May 5, 2010 by intelNews Leave a Comment

Taliban leader H. Mehsud reportedly not dead. Last February US and Pakistani officials claimed a CIA airstrike had killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the largest faction of the Pakistani Taliban. But it now appears that Mehsud is alive and well.
Analysis: Operation MINCEMEAT and the ethics of spying. The New Yorker‘s Malcolm Gladwell on operation MINCEMEAT, a World War II British deception plan, which helped convince the German high command that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia in 1943, instead of Sicily.
US DoJ announces FISA court appointment. Judge Martin L.C. Feldman, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, has been appointed to a seven-year term on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court, which reviews (and invariably approves) government applications for counterintelligence surveillance and physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with 0 Analysis: Operation MINCEMEAT and the ethics of spying, 0 Taliban leader H. Mehsud reportedly not dead, 0 US DoJ announces FISA court appointment, Analysis, assassinations, CIA, deception operations, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Germany, Hakimullah Mehsud, history, Louisiana, Martin L.C. Feldman, News, news you may have missed, Operation MINCEMEAT, Pakistan, Predator drones, Taliban, UK, US Department of Justice, World War II

US asked for Egypt’s spy help on Algerian nuclear reactor

May 5, 2010 by intelNews Leave a Comment

Cover page

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A US consular document, acquired by a leading Algerian newspaper, reveals that Washington asked Egypt’s help in collecting intelligence on the Algerian nuclear energy program. The document, which dates from May 1991, was drafted by officials in the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt; it is not known how it came to the possession of Algerian daily Ennahar, which published it on Tuesday. It contains a summary of a May 1991 meeting in Cairo between Richard Clarke, who was then the US Department of State’s deputy secretary for political and military affairs, and a senior Egyptian official whose name is in redacted in the document, but appears to have been Amr Moussa, Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs at the time. The document, which is classified ‘top secret’, reports that the US delegation asked the Egyptians to help them gather information on Algeria’s Es Salam nuclear reactor, located in the city of Ain Oussera, in the province of Djelfa, in north-central Algeria. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with Africa, Ain Oussera (Algeria), Algeria, Algerian nuclear program, Amr Moussa, Cairo (Egypt), China, Djelfa (Algeria), Egypt, Es Salam nuclear reactor, News, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Richard Clarke, United States, US embassy in Egypt

News you may have missed #342

May 4, 2010 by intelNews Leave a Comment

Kuwaitis want Iranian envoy expelled over spy ring. Several Kuwaiti parliamentarians have called on the government to expel the Iranian ambassador over an alleged Iranian spy ring that was busted in Kuwait last week.
Mystery behind ex-ISI officer’s killing in Pakistan. Former Inter-Services Intelligence directorate officer Khalid Khawaja was known as a fervent supporter of the Taliban. So why did the Asian Tigers, a Taliban sect kidnap him and kill him? Some say the killing was actually India’s work.
Honey trap caused Indian diplomat to spy for Pakistan. It seems that Madhuri Gupta, a second secretary at the Indian high commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, who was arrested for working for Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, had a “relationship of personal affection” with an aide of her Pakistani handler.

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with 0 Honey trap caused Indian diplomat to spy for Pakistan, 0 Kuwaitis want Iranian envoy expelled over spy ring, 0 Mystery behind ex-ISI officer's killing in Pakistan, Asian Tigers (Pakistan), diplomatic expulsions, honey traps, India, Indian embassy in Pakistan, Iran, Iranian embassy in Kuwait, ISI, Khalid Khawaja, Kuwait, Madhuri Gupta, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Taliban

Analysis: Experts question legality of CIA drone strikes

May 4, 2010 by intelNews Leave a Comment

Predator drone

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A number of prominent American legal scholars have voiced concerns about the legality of the targeted killings by the CIA of suspected Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Speaking last week before the National Security and Foreign Affairs subcommittee of the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, some of the experts warned that the killings may constitute war crimes. Among them was Loyola Law School Professor David Glazier, who reminded subcommittee members that the CIA remotely navigated drone pilots are not legally considered combatants, and thus employing them to carry out armed attacks “fall[s] outside the scope of permissible conduct”. He also warned that “under the legal theories adopted by our government in prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, these CIA officers as well as any higher-level government officials who have authorized or directed their attacks are committing war crimes”. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with Afghanistan, American University, Analysis, assassinations, CIA, David Glazier, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Harold Koh, Kenneth Anderson, Loyola Law School, Loyola University, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, University of Notre Dame, US Department of State, US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #341

May 3, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

Russian court rejects ‘spy’ scientist’s appeal. A Russian court has rejected an appeal for the release of academic Igor Sutyagin, former division head in the Russian Academy of Sciences’ USA and Canada Institute, who is serving a 15-year sentence for allegedly passing state secrets to foreign officials.
Ex-CIA agent’s arrest in VA was eventful, say sources. We reported earlier this week that Andrew M. Warren, the CIA’s Algiers station chief, who is accused of having drugged and raped two Algerian women at his official residence, was arrested at a Norfolk, Virginia motel, after he failed to show up for a court hearing. It now appears that Warren “had a gun in his waistband [...] and officers used a taser to subdue him”.
Documents show CIA thought Gary Powers had defected. Declassified documents show the CIA did not believe that Gary Powers, who piloted the U2 spy plane shot down over Russia in 1960, causing the U2 incident, had been shot down. Instead, the agency spread the rumor that Powers “baled out and spent his first night as a defector in a Sverdlovsk nightclub”!

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with 0 Documents show CIA thought Gary Powers had defected, 0 Ex-CIA agent's arrest in VA was eventful say sources, 0 Russian court rejects 'spy' scientist's appeal, 1960 U-2 incident, academic freedom, Algeria, Andrew M. Warren, CIA, CIA Algiers station, Cold War, defectors, espionage, Francis Gary Powers, history, Igor Sutyagin, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Norfolk (Virginia), Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific intelligence, United States, USSR, Virginia

Alleged Iranian spy cell busted in Kuwait

May 3, 2010 by intelNews Leave a Comment

Al-Qabas website

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A leading Kuwaiti newspaper has claimed that government agencies captured members of an alleged Iranian spy cell in the Gulf state. Citing “senior intelligence sources”, Al-Qabas daily said that Kuwaiti counterintelligence officers arrested at least seven men last week, and are looking for up to seven others, in connection with an extensive espionage ring operating on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The Revolutionary Guards are an independent administrative and paramilitary institution in Iran, tasked with –among other things– exporting the Iranian Revolution abroad. They handle most of Iran’s intelligence operatives around the world, who, according to some observers, number in the tens of thousands. Read more of this post

Filed under A specialized intelligence blog written by experts Tagged with counterintelligence, espionage, Iran, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Kuwait, News, Persian Gulf, Sulaibiya (Kuwait)

News you may have missed #340

May 2, 2010 by intelNews Leave a Comment

West Bank urged to drop Israeli cell phone companies. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is urging Palestinians to stop using the Israeli cellular companies Pelephone, Orange, Cellcom and Mirs. The official reasons are economic (Israeli companies don’t pay taxes to the PA), but the real reasons are probably related to communications security.
US police wiretaps up 26 percent in one year. The number of wiretaps authorized by US state and federal judges in criminal investigations jumped 26 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a report released Friday by the Administrative Office of the US Courts.
Taliban group executes high-profile ex-ISI spy. Khalid Khawaja, one of two Pakistani former Inter-Services Intelligence directorate officers captured by a Taliban splinter group, named Asian Tigers, has been found dead. The other ex-ISI official, Sultan Amir Tarar, a.k.a. Colonel Imam, who was Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s former handler, remains in captivity.