September | 2009 | intelNews.org

US spy agencies still lack foreign language experts

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Urdu script

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A US media outlet has finally followed up on the warnings, made by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last July, about the lack of trained foreign-language speakers in the US intelligence community. Following similar warnings by the US House intelligence panel in June, the Senate Intelligence Committee used the opportunity of its authorization (.pdf) of the 2010 intelligence budget to draw attention to “the continuing lack of critical language-capable personnel in the Intelligence Community, and the need to address this shortage”. According to The Washington Times, which noticed the Senate Committee’s brief but critical alert, US intelligence agencies remain “woefully short” of foreign-language speakers, let alone experts. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Arabic, Canada, Dari, Hindi, intelligence outsourcing, Kurdish, languages, News, Pashto, UK, United States, Urdu, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0091

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

McCain denies private agreement with CIA torture tactic. A recently released memo suggests that Republican US Senator John McCain, famous for his stance against torture, privately agreed with a CIA six-day sleep-deprivation technique.
CIA rejects further declassifications on torture-related material. The CIA said on Monday that it would release no more documents related to the Bush administration’s torture and detention policies, because disclosing the information “will threaten national security”. The ACLU called this an affront to the Obama Administration’s policies.
Taliban kill Afghan intelligence chief. Abdullah Laghmani, who headed the National Directorate for Security (NDS) was among at least 23 people, including a number of senior officials, killed in the suicide attack. This was one of the few times that the Taliban specifically targeted intelligence officials.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdullah Laghmani, ACLU, Afghanistan, assassinations, CIA, declassification, John McCain, National Directorate for Security (Afghanistan), News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, sleep deprivation, suicide bombings, Taliban, torture, United States

Document release offers new clues on MI5 activities

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

S. Wanamaker

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A batch of intelligence documents from the immediate post-World War II period released this week by Britain’s National Archives offer glimpses into previously unknown activities by MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service. One set of documents shows that the MI5 closely monitored liberal Americans who escaped McCarthyism by emigrating to the isles in the 1940s and 1950s. Among such targets was Sam Wanamaker, father of actor Zoe Wanamaker, who played in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone among other films. Her father left the US shortly before being called to testify in Senator Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee. He became an important figure in British theater, but was monitored by MI5, who at one point considered including him in a list of domestic radicals to be “interned” during a possible military confrontation with the USSR. Another set of documents shows that British spies spent years looking for Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary, in places such as Switzerland, Italy and Brazil. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Adolf Hitler, declassification, domestic intelligence, espionage, Germany, House Un-American Activities Committee, Iceland, Joe McCarthy, Martin Bormann, McCarthyism, MI5, News, Sam Wanamaker, UK, World War II, Zoe Wanamaker

Ex-CIA agent says Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has”

September 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Robert Baer

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Robert Baer, the retired CIA field officer whose bestselling memoir, See No Evil, formed the basis of the 2005 motion picture Syriana, has said that former Vice President’ Dick Cheney “damaged the CIA more than anybody has, including the press or the Department of Justice”. Speaking on PBS’ The Tavis Smiley Show, Baer claimed that Cheney was the leading proponent of the CIA’s torture program, which the Bush Administration “invented as we went along”, and which never provided any critical intelligence. Baer said that in some cases FBI interrogators resorting to torture tactics extracted false leads from detainees. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, Bush Administration, CIA, Dick Cheney, Iraq, Iraq War, News, Robert Baer, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0090

September 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA’s black sites, illuminated. The Los Angeles Times‘ Greg Miller provides a summary account of the descriptions of CIA secret prisons provided in the recently declassified CIA documents.
Russian agents try to influence Czech politicians, says intelligence report. BIS, the Czech counterintelligence service, has declassified a 2008 report stating that Russian intelligence agents in the country, such as the ones expelled earlier this month, “try to establish contacts with members of [the Czech] parliament, their assistants and employees of political parties’ foreign relations departments”.
South Korean arrested for collaborating with North Korean spy. The man, identified only as Kim, supplied travel documents, maps, and other information to a North Korean operative in Indonesia. South Korean intelligence sources may have leaked this case in order to sabotage the current thaw in North-South relations.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Czech Republic, Czech Security Information Service (BIS), declassification, espionage, Indonesia, News, news you may have missed, North Korea, Russia, secret prisons, South Korea, Southeast Asia

Comment: CIA Insiders Issue Torture Probe Warnings

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

A.B. Krongard

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Sensing that a government probe into its post-9/11 practices is around the corner, the CIA has employed its usual practice of issuing public warnings through friendly news outlets. Several Agency insiders appear to have simultaneously decided to break their customary silence. Speaking to The Washington Post, they sternly warned that “[m]orale has sagged at the CIA” because of the rumored government investigation into torture of detainees and other controversial intelligence projects.

Lockerbie bomber’s release was part of UK-Libyan oil deal, says paper

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Al-Megrahi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Negotiation difficulties between British Petroleum (BP) and the Libyan government over an oil exploration deal were resolved soon after London decided to authorize last month’s release of a man convicted for his role in the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster, The London Times said on Sunday. Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released on August 19 by British authorities on compassionate grounds and is now in Tripoli. The paper says that documents in its possession show that the decision to release al-Megrahi was the culmination of a two-year-long negotiation between the British and Libyan governments, as well as regional authorities in Scotland, where al-Megrahi was imprisoned. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, Africa, BP, British Petroleum, energy resources, Libya, Lockerbie air disaster, News, Pan Am Flight 103, Robert Baer, Scotland, UK

News you may have missed #0089

September 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

German intelligence negotiating on Israel’s behalf. Israel has asked Gemany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, to mediate in negotiations for the release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza since June 2006. Intelligence sources say a prisoner exchange deal may be imminent.
France to send more spies to Somalia. Days after the dramatic escape of a French spy from his militant captors in Somalia, the French government has announced its intention to station more operatives in the country.
Senior Russian military officer jailed for spying for Georgia. Authorities said Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Khachidze, who is an ethnic Georgian, passed Russian military secrets over the Internet to Georgian secret services in June and July 2008. Khachidze was allegedly recruited by Georgian intelligence in late 2007, while stationed on Georgian territory.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, BND, France, Gaza Strip, Georgia, Germany, Gilad Shalit, informants, Israel, Mikhail Khachidze, News, news you may have missed, Russia, Russian military, secret meetings, Somalia

Tinner nuclear smuggling ring documents may prove CIA connection

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Urs Tinner

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last January I wrote about Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer who worked under Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, and was said at the time to be leading “the world’s biggest nuclear smuggling ring”. In 2003, Tinner was arrested, along with his father Friedrich and brother Marco, in connection with an attempt to smuggle centrifuges into Libya. Many were surprised, however, when in 2008 Tinner was released from prison, after the CIA, whose tip led to his arrest in Germany, said it was not interested in prosecuting him. Earlier this year, Tinner went on Swiss television and acknowledged that he had worked as an informant for the CIA –some say he was recruited in as early as 2000. Read more of this post