intelNews

MI6 employee arrested for trying to sell documents

March 6, 2010 Leave a comment

Daniel Houghton

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
British authorities have detained a former MI6 employee after he was caught trying to sell classified documents to MI5 spooks posing as foreign agents. Daniel Houghton, 25, who was arrested on Monday at a central London hotel, worked for MI6 between September 2007 and May 2009. During the course of his employment, he apparently stole MI5 (and not MI6, as has been suggested) electronic documents, classified secret and top-secret, by copying them to CDs and DVDs. He then attempted to sell the material, which is said to relate to “techniques for intelligence collection”, for £2 million ($2.9 million), to MI5 agents posing as intelligence handlers of an unspecified foreign intelligence service. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with classified Secret, classified Top Secret, counterintelligence, Daniel Houghton, espionage, intelligence collection, lawsuits, London, MI5, MI6, Netherlands, News, UK

Italy busts arms smuggling network, arrests Iranian intelligence agents

March 5, 2010 Leave a comment

Masoumi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Italian authorities have announced the arrest of two Iranians and five Italians on suspicion of smuggling European-made weapons and explosives to Iran. Italian police said the Iranians involved in the operation, which breached an international embargo on Iran, are “believed to be members of the Iranian secret services”. They are Ali Damirchiloo, 55 (occupation unknown), and Hamid Nejad Masoumi, 51, an accredited journalist and Iranian state television correspondent, who has lived in Italy since 1995. Italian authorities have issued arrest warrants for two more Iranians, Hamir Bakhtiyari Reza and Bakhtiyari Homayoun, who are also believed to be intelligence agents and are thought to have managed to escape to Iran. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ali Damirchiloo, Bakhtiyari Homayoun, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Eastern Europe, Hamid Nejad Masoumi, Hamir Bakhtiyari Reza, intelligence covers, Iran, Italy, journalism, News, Operation SNIPER, Romania, Switzerland, UK, United Arab Emirates, weapons smuggling

News you may have missed #302 (NSA edition)

March 5, 2010 Leave a comment

Former NSA tech chief doesn’t trust cloud computing. Brian Snow, the former US National Security Agency technical director, told a conference that he doesn’t trust cloud services and bluntly admonished vendors for leaving software vulnerabilities unpatched, sometimes for years.
Former key NSA official relocates to Silicon Valley. Prescott Winter, formerly chief information officer and chief technology officer at the US National Security Agency, has joined ArcSight Inc., a Silicon Valley developer of security and compliance management tools for government and private industry. Revolving doors galore!
NSA cybersecurity role worries civil liberties groups. The Obama administration’s plan to bolster US cyber security calls for greater cooperation between private companies and the National Security Agency. But civil liberties advocates are sounding alarms about the NSA’s role, because of the secretive nature of the agency and its role in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 0 Former key NSA official relocates to Silicon Valley, 0 Former NSA tech chief doesn't trust cloud computing, 0 NSA cybersecurity role worries civil liberties groups, ArcSight, Brian Snow, civil liberties, cloud computing, cybersecurity, intelligence outsourcing, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Prescott Winter, United States

CIA technical expert arrested for pilfering equipment

March 5, 2010 Leave a comment

An analyzer

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A CIA communications technology specialist has been charged with selling CIA communications equipment to a private broker. FBI counterintelligence agents arrested Todd Brandon Fehrmann on February 26, several weeks after he sold $60,000-worth of equipment to Massachusetts-based Bizi International, Inc. Fehrmann’s CIA connection is concealed in the FBI affidavit, but The Washington Times says US government officials and even Fehrmann himself have now confirmed that he worked for the agency. The pilfered equipment appears to have included a dozen portable spectrum analyzers –handheld devices used to detect and gauge cell phone signals, among other things. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anritsu, Bizi International, CIA, counterintelligence, FBI, lawsuits, News, Paul Gimigliano, Rhode & Schwartz, spectrum analysis, telecommunications hardware, Todd Brandon Fehrmann, United States

News you may have missed #301

March 2, 2010 2 Comments

Six more arrested in Lebanon for spying for Israel. The Lebanese army has arrested at least six more people in southern and northern Lebanon, among them former army officers, on suspicion of spying sharing information about the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah with Israeli intelligence service Mossad. Dozens of alleged Israeli spy cells have been uncovered in Lebanon in recent months.
Survey of US spy agencies’ web presence. US intelligence agencies are using the Web to share information and engage the public. Some offer mobile versions and social networking tools –others badly need an update.
Danish journalist admits using job as cover to spy for Israel. Herbert Pundik, a Danish former newspaper editor, has admitted he used his journalism credentials to spy for Israel for a decade in the 1960s, saying he felt an obligation as a Jew.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 0 Danish journalist admits using job as cover to spy for Israel, 0 Six more arrested in Lebanon for spying for Israel, 0 Survey of US spy agencies’ web presence, Al-Alam spy ring, Denmark, espionage, Hezbollah, history, intelligence covers, Internet, Israel, journalism, Lebanon, Mossad, News, news you may have missed, United States

Al-Mabhouh was drugged, not electrocuted

March 1, 2010 1 Comment

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Members of an Israeli assassination squad, who killed a senior Hamas official last month in Dubai, drugged him with a strong anesthetic before suffocating him to death, according to a new police report. Initial accounts of the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in his luxury hotel room in the United Arab Emirates in the morning January 20, 2010, stated that he had been severely electrocuted, and then poisoned, before he was suffocated to death. But, according to Dubai Police deputy commander, Major General Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina, new forensic test reports suggest that, at the time of his death, the Palestinian official was under the influence of succinylcholine, a powerful muscle-relaxant and sedative, which is often dispensed to patients in emergency hospital wards, because of its rapid onset. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, Dubai, Hamas, Israel, Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina, Kidon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, News, Palestine, sedatives, succinylcholine, Syria, United Arab Emirates

News you may have missed #300

March 1, 2010 Leave a comment

Indonesian activists capture government spy. Activists of the United Indonesia Movement (GIB) have captured a military intelligence officer, identified only as E.S., who was allegedly spying on their plans to prepare an anti-government rally on Tuesday. Last August, the Indonesian government denied rumors it planned to begin spying on Mosques around the country.
Former Monaco head-spy recounts meeting with Prince Albert. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to Prince Albert II of Monaco, recounts how he was appointed to lead the principality’s intelligence service by the Prince himself.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 0 Former Monaco head-spy recounts meeting with Prince Albert, 0 Indonesian activists capture government spy, domestic intelligence, FBI, GIB (Indonesia), Indonesia, Indonesian military, Monaco, Monaco Intelligence Service, News, news you may have missed, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Robert Eringer, United Indonesia Movement

Australia investigates more alleged Israeli spies

March 1, 2010 Leave a comment

ASIO HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) is among a number of Western intelligence agencies investigating at least three dual Australian-Israeli citizens, who are suspected of being Israeli spies. Citing “two Australian intelligence sources”, the Sydney Morning Herald said that the investigation into the three suspects began last year and is not connected to the January 19 assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. At least three of the 26-member Mossad hit squad that killed al-Mabhouh used forged Australian passports to enter and exit the United Arab Emirates. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ASIO, assassinations, Australia, espionage, Iran, Israel, Israeli embassy in Australia, Kidon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, name changes, News, Syria

News you may have missed #299

February 27, 2010 Leave a comment

US lawmaker wants to stop CIA agents working second jobs. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) says she will offer an amendment to the Intelligence Reauthorization bill later this week that would put new rules into place on the practice of intelligence officers who take second jobs in the private sector.
Poland admits to aiding CIA. After human rights groups revealed evidence that showed CIA rendition planes landing in Poland in 2003, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency has admitted for the first time that Poland played a role in the controversial US program.
Former Romanian-German spy fired for secret past. German author Peter Grosz was fired on Thursday from his role as director of the theater festival in the German city of Oppenheim, following revelations that he had spied on fellow authors for Romania’s Securitate communist secret police during the 1970s. Large numbers of Romanian former intelligence agents now reside in Germany.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anna Eshoo, CIA, Cold War, Departamentul Securităţii Statului (Romania), extraordinary rendition, Germany, history, News, news you may have missed, Oppenheim (Germany), Peter Grosz, Poland, Polish Air Navigation Services Agency, Romania, Securitate (Romania), United States

News you may have missed #298

February 26, 2010 Leave a comment

Senior officers charged in Turkey coup plot. One of the world’s most important Muslim countries, which has been called the bridge between Europe and the Middle East, is witnessing a brutal clash between the Islamist government and the secular but anti-democratic military.
Cryptome online again after Microsoft backs down. On February 24, the freedom-of-information website Cryptome was removed from the Web for refusing to take down a leaked copy of the Microsoft Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook. But Microsoft’s move backfired, leading instead to widespread attention to (and republication of) the very document it tried to suppress.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with coup plots, Cryptome, Ergenekon, Microsoft, News, news you may have missed, Turkey

Israeli agents tried to obtain Australian passports in 2004

February 26, 2010 1 Comment

Ali Kazak

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Yesterday’s revelation, that three members of the Mossad hit squad that assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last January, used Australian passports, has shocked Australian public opinion. In reality, however, the Australian government had been warned in as early as 2004 that Israeli agents were trying to obtain Australian passports for use in international espionage operations. In March of that year, Ali Kazak, who was the Head of the General Palestinian Delegation to Australia and New Zealand, publicly revealed that Israeli Mossad agents had approached members of the Middle Eastern community in both countries, seeking to purchase usable passports. He even said that one Mossad agent active in Sydney had managed to acquire as many as 25 Australian passports before returning to Israel. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ali Kazak, assassinations, Australia, Eli Cara, forgery, Israel, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, New Zealand, News, travel documentation, Uriel Zoshe Kelman

News you may have missed #297

February 25, 2010 Leave a comment

Australia to use spy agency to combat human smuggling. The Australian government is preparing to afford increased powers to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), in order to direct its resources against human smuggling. Among the changes are proposals to alter the official government definition of “foreign intelligence”, so as to cover human smuggling practices.
Three Lebanese charged with spying for Israel. Lebanon’s military prosecutor indicted three Lebanese with spying for Israel on Wednesday, as part of a broader espionage investigation lasting nearly a year, in which at least 27 suspects have so far been detained.
Analysis: CIA and Pakistan work together, but do so warily. The CIA and its Pakistani counterpart, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, have a long and often tormented relationship. And even now, they are moving warily toward conflicting goals, with each maneuvering to protect its influence after the shooting stops in Afghanistan.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Al-Alam spy ring, Analysis, ASIO, Australia, CIA, human smuggling, ISI, Israel, Lebanon, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, United States

Ireland seeks Israeli spy who assembled forged passport data

February 25, 2010 Leave a comment

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
As the number of suspects involved in the assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh rose to 26 yesterday, Irish government sources said they suspect an Israeli agent in Dublin of orchestrating the acquisition of several Irish passports used in the assassination. Six of the 26 identified members of the Israeli hit squad who killed al-Mabhouh in Dubai last January used forged Irish travel documents to enter the United Arab Emirates from a variety of international locations. There are rumors in Dublin that at least three more forged Irish passports, which were utilized in the assassination operation, will soon be added to the growing list. According to Ireland’s Independent newspaper, the unnamed Dublin-based Israeli spy collected and collated most of the misleading information that was used to apply for the passports, under the names of real, living Irish citizens, all of whom have now been traced by Irish authorities. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Albert Reynolds, assassinations, diplomacy, Dubai, espionage, forgery, Hamas, Ireland, Israel, Jim Reynolds, Kidon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, News, Proinsias De Rossa, travel documentation, United Arab Emirates

News you may have missed #296

February 25, 2010 1 Comment

Al-Mabhouh assassination suspects’ travel routes (.pdf). The linked .pdf document contains a detailed diagram of the flight itineraries of the 26 members of Mossad who assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, on January 19, 2010.
Litvinenko story to be made into film. Hollywood director Mike Newell is preparing an adaptation of The Terminal Spy, a nonfiction book about the assassination of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was most likely killed by Russian FSB agents in London, in 2006.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alexander Litvinenko, assassinations, Dubai, FSB, Israel, KGB, Kidon, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, motion pictures, News, news you may have missed, Russia, United Arab Emirates

Son of senior Hamas official was Shin Bet informant

February 24, 2010 3 Comments

Yousef/Joseph

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The son of a senior Hamas official, who moved from the Gaza Strip to the United States in 2007, has said he was an informant for Israeli intelligence for at least a decade. Mosab Hassan Yousef, who legally changed his name to Joseph after converting to Christianity, is son of Hamas parliamentarian Sheikh Hassan Yousef. He told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that he was turned by Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence service, in 1997, after serving a year in an Israeli prison. The newspaper also spoke with Joseph’s Shin Bet handler, a “Captain Loai”, who said the Hamas official’s son was the agency’s most prized Hamas informant, and was given the operational alias GREEN PRINCE. Read more of this post