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Comment: Major changes in Australian, NZ spy agencies

May 14, 2010 1 Comment

Kevin Rudd

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
This website has been keeping tabs on the ongoing transformation of New Zealand and Australian intelligence agencies. Recent media reports from both countries indicate that the changes, many of which are still underway, will mark the broadest reorganization in New Zealand and Australian intelligence agencies’ operational focus and mission in over half a century. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #350

May 14, 2010 Leave a comment

Gulf authorities still silent on Iranian spy ring. The Kuwaiti government has banned local media from commenting on the recent busting of an alleged Iranian spy ring, and Gulf leaders still refuse to comment on the issue.
NSA head confirmed as chief of US Cyber Command. US Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, has been promoted to four-star general and will now head the US Pentagon’s new Cyber Command, as well as the NSA.
Venezuela to release more alleged Colombian spies. Three more of the eight alleged Colombian spies, who were arrested by Venezuelan government forces last month, are to be released. Four others were released on April 12, which leaves in custody only one of them, Luis Carlos Cossio, who has dual Colombian and Canadian citizenship.

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Analysis: Europe Offers Different Counterterrorism Approach

May 13, 2010 Leave a comment

Counterterrorism

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
I have in the past posed the intriguing question of whether US intelligence agencies should learn from the French approach to counterterrorism. This issue has now come up again in an interesting Washington Post essay, which examines the different approaches to Islamic militancy by American and European intelligence organizations. Some of these differences are undoubtedly contextual: there are no First Amendment rights in Europe, and European law enforcement and intelligence organizations enjoy a somewhat wider legal latitude in which to operate domestically. Moreover, the Europeans, especially the French and the British, have a longer experience than the Americans in dealing with armed insurgencies. But there are also critical differences in tactics. Importantly, the European approach to Islamic militancy has not only been more pro-active than the American, but also a lot more discreet and clandestine. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #349

May 13, 2010 1 Comment

New spy agency won’t spy…says Fiji government. Fiji’s head of defense, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, has argued that the proposed National Intelligence Agency will not be a spy organization. According to news reports, he is adamant that the use of the word “spying” is inappropriate to describe the agency’s mission.
Ex-CIA analyst lashes out at Ignatius. Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, currently senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, has accused The Washington Post’s David Ignatious of being a “chief CIA apologist”.

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Israel arrests prominent Arabs on Hezbollah spying charges

May 12, 2010 Leave a comment

Omar Sayid

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Israeli authorities have arrested two prominent Arab-Israeli political activists, accusing them of spying on behalf of Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah. The arrestees are Omar Sayid (or Sayeed), who campaigns on behalf of Israeli-Arab political party Balad, and Amir Makhoul, who heads Ittijah. This Haifa-based group, known as the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations, aims to combat alleged cases of discrimination against Arab-Israelis. Sayid was arrested by members of the Israeli police and intelligence agency Shin Bet on April 24, and Makhoul was arrested on May 6. But the Israeli media were not allowed to report on the arrests until late last Sunday, due to Israeli censorship laws enforced in “national security investigations”. Nevertheless, news of the arrests began circulating almost immediately on Arab electronic media outside of Israel, and the Israeli government was eventually forced to lift the gag order, upon learning that hundreds of Haifa residents were preparing a demonstration on Monday in support of the two arrestees. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #348

May 12, 2010 Leave a comment

US knew Guatemalan Army was behind notorious 1982 massacre. Declassified documents released on May 7 show that US officials knew the Guatemalan Army was responsible for the 1982 Dos Erres massacre, one of Guatemala’s most shocking human rights crimes.
New presiding judge in US FISA court. Three years after he was first appointed to serve on the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), John D. Bates has taken over as the presiding judge. Last week, Judge Martin Feldman was appointed to serve on the secretive court, which reviews (and invariably approves) government applications for counterintelligence surveillance and physical search.
UAE security sector benefits from al-Mabhouh assassination. Business for security companies in the United Arab Emirates has been brisk, with some companies reporting a 40% increase in business, as hotels spend millions bolstering their security systems. Some attribute this to last January’s killing in Dubai of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, by a Mossad hit squad.

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India blacklists Chinese phone companies over spying concerns

May 11, 2010 1 Comment

Huawei HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The government of India has officially barred a number of Chinese telephone equipment providers from operating in India, citing their strong links with the Chinese military. At the center of the move is Huawei Technologies, one of China’s largest telephone equipment manufacturers. Several intelligence insiders see the company, based in Shenzen, China, as a covert arm of the intelligence wing of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The company, which has business concerns in several countries around the world, has attracted the attention of American, British and Australian counterintelligence agencies, among others. In early 2008, the US government prohibited Huawei’s purchase of a significant amount of shares in US network security equipment maker 3Com, which supplies telecommunications hardware to the US Department of Defense. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #347

May 11, 2010 Leave a comment

CIA drones now target non-listed targets in Pakistan. It used to be the case that the CIA unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan were directed at confirmed Taliban senior operatives. But an American official has said that the CIA does “not always have their names”. Instead, the Agency targets them based on their “actions over time” that make it “obvious that they are a threat”.
Democrat Senator presses Obama for more NSA powers. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) is pressing the Obama Administration to give the National Security Agency more power to oversee privately owned portions of the Internet. Speaking on Thursday, Mikulski complained that “we don’t know who the hell is in charge” over the security of private networks.
Lebanese officer charged as Israel spy may get death. A Lebanese prosecutor has requested the death penalty for Gazwan Shahin, an army colonel charged with having provided Israel’s spy agency with pictures, information and coordinates of Lebanese civil and military posts during and after the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

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Analysis: An Economic Security Role for European Spy Agencies?

May 10, 2010 2 Comments

Economic spying

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last February, Spain’s intelligence service began investigating alleged suspicious efforts by foreign financial speculators to destabilize the Spanish economy. According to newspaper El País, the Spanish government asked the country’s Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) to probe links between speculative moves in world financial markets and a series of damaging editorials “in the Anglo-Saxon media”. There are indications that the National Intelligence Service of Greece (EYP) is following in the CNI’s footsteps. In February, when Athens and Brussels began to realize the magnitude of the financial crisis threatening the European common currency, several news outlets suggested that the EYP was cooperating with Spanish, Irish and Portuguese intelligence services in investigating a series of coordinated speculative attacks on money markets, most of which allegedly originated from London and Washington. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #346 (Iran spy ring edition)

May 10, 2010 Leave a comment

Iran denies connection with Bahrain spy ring. Tehran’s Ambassador to Bahrain has dismissed reports about Iran’s alleged involvement in a spy ring in Bahrain. There are reports that the ring was in contact with a similar outfit in the nearby state of Kuwait.
Kuwait media banned from reporting on alleged spy ring. The government of Kuwait has banned the country’s media from reporting on an extensive espionage ring allegedly operating on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, which was uncovered earlier this month.
Saudi minister denies Kuwait visit linked to Iran spy ring. Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister of defense, has denied a rumored connection between his recent visit to Kuwait and the alleged busting of an Iranian spy ring there.

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Mossad agent in Dubai assassination also wanted in New Zealand

May 7, 2010 2 Comments

Barkan

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
An Israeli Mossad officer wanted by New Zealand authorities is among five suspects recently identified and named by Dubai police in connection with the assassination of a Hamas official. The officer, Zev William Barkan, has been identified as a major suspect in last January’s assassination of Hamas weapons procurer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in a luxury Dubai hotel. In 2004, Barkan was one of three Mossad agents who engaged in an aborted attempt to acquire a New Zealand passport, using the birth certificate of Auckland resident Tony Resnick. New Zealand authorities managed to arrest Barkan’s two associates, Uriel Zoshe Kelman and Eli Cara, both from Israel; but Barkan and Resnick managed to escape arrest by flying to Sydney, Australia, before fleeing to Israel. The case caused a major –albeit temporary– rift in New Zealand-Israel relations. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #345

May 7, 2010 Leave a comment

Mossad assassins fled Dubai through Johannesburg. South African State Security external branch head Moe Shaik has admitted that two Israeli Mossad agents flew to the Oliver R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg from Dubai, after assassinating Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January.
New CIA deputy director sworn in. CIA Director Leon Panetta swore in his new deputy director Michael J. Morell at a private ceremony yesterday morning at CIA headquarters. A 30-year veteran of the Agency, Morell succeeds Steve Kappes, a veteran officer in the CIA’s clandestine service.
Indian researcher detained for spying in Estonia. An unnamed Indian female doctoral researcher was detained by Estonia’s KaPo secret police over suspicion of technological espionage, according to media reports.

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News you may have missed #344

May 6, 2010 Leave a comment

CIA base in Afghanistan hit again. A suicide car bomber killed one civilian and wounded two security guards at the entrance to the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman, in Afghanistan’s Khost province. It is the same base where Jordanian suicide bomber Humam Khalil al-Balawi killed seven CIA officers in December of 2009.
Fiji to set up new spy agency. The government of Fiji plans to re-establish its intelligence agency, ten years after it was disbanded by Labour Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. The new organization will be called the National Intelligence Agency of Fiji.
MI5 and MI6 must release Guantánamo records, says judge. MI5 and MI6 have been told by a British judge that they cannot use secret evidence to defend themselves from civil damages claims brought by six former detainees in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, including Binyam Mohamed.

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Recording of candid speech by Blackwater CEO leaked

May 6, 2010 2 Comments

Erik Prince

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A recording of a relatively recent candid speech given by Erik Prince, the media-shy owner of Xe Services (formerly known as Blackwater), has been obtained by The Nation magazine. The extensive recording was made on January 14, during a private talk given by Prince at the University of Michigan before a sympathetic invitation-only audience consisting of military veterans, ROTC commanders and cadets, as well as business entrepreneurs. In his talk, Prince, who last December admitted having worked as a CIA asset, advocated for the employment of private contractors by the US Pentagon to combat insurgents and “Iranian influence” in countries such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. Writing for The Nation, Jeremy Scahill focuses on Princes views, as he conveyed them in his talk. Read more of this post

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UK barring replacement of London’s Mossad resident

May 5, 2010 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