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News you may have missed #0276

February 2, 2010 Leave a comment

CIA mum on Panetta’s trip to Israel. Politico’s Laura Rozen reports that the CIA director met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Mossad chief Meir Dagan. But nobody in Washington or Jerusalem will say precisely what was discussed. Why is it that every time Panetta flies to Israel, it has to be a covert visit?
CIA raises language requirements for senior staff. “Under the new policy”, said CIA director Leon Panetta, “promotions to SIS [Senior Intelligence Service] for most analysts and operations officers will be contingent on demonstrating foreign language competency. If an officer is promoted to SIS and does not meet the foreign language requirement within one year, he or she will return to their previous, lower grade”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Benjamin Netanyahu, CIA, Ehud Barak, Israel, languages, Leon Panetta, Meir Dagan, Mossad, News, news you may have missed, secret meetings, United States

Israel blamed for killing of Hamas official in Dubai

February 2, 2010 1 Comment

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The Palestinian group Hamas says Israeli agents are behind the murder of one of its most senior commanders, whose body was discovered two weeks ago in a luxury Dubai hotel. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, co-founder of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, was an important mediator in weapons procurement for the Palestinian group, which has controlled the Gaza strip since 2006. On January 19, al-Mabhouh arrived in the United Arab Emirates on a commercial flight from Damascus, Syria, where he had lived for the past several years. Interestingly, he was apparently traveling under his real name, and was unaccompanied by his usual bodyguard detail, which —intelNews hears– has led to speculation that al-Mabhouh was somehow lured to Dubai. His body was discovered by staff at the luxury Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel the following morning. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel, assassinations, Damascus (Syria), Dubai, Gaza Strip, Hamas, Israel, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Mossad, News, Palestine, poisoning, Syria, United Arab Emirates

News you may have missed #0276

February 1, 2010 Leave a comment

Canadian government rejects ex-KGB agent’s deportation appeal. Vic Toews, Canada’s newly installed minister for public safety, has rejected a fresh appeal by former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov to be allowed to remain in Canada. Lennikov, who has been living in Canada with his wife and teenage son since 1992, is described by Canadian authorities as “a threat to […] national security”.
Analysis: CIA and intelligence community mythologies. Former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman, currently senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, offers a very informative checklist of what he calls “the mythology that surrounds the [US] intelligence enterprise”. Worth reading.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Canada, CIA, deportations, KGB, Melvin A. Goodman, Mikhail Alexander Lennikov, News, news you may have missed, Russia, United States, Vic Toews

Taliban will negotiate with US, says Mullah Omar’s former handler

February 1, 2010 3 Comments

Colonel Imam

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The $36-billion-worth military surge plan, spelled out by US President Barack Obama last October, is already underway in Afghanistan. But Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar, who in the 1980s handled and trained the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar on behalf of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, says the US/NATO surge is a waste of time and money. Instead, Brigadier Tarar, also known in Central Asia as the legendary Colonel Imam, says the US should strive for a political settlement with the Taliban, by directly negotiating with Mullah Omar. He also told McClatchy Newspapers that the new NATO strategy of so-called “reintegration”, whereby low-ranking Taliban insurgents will be offered steady income and personal protection in return for renouncing Mullah Omar, the Taliban and al-Qaeda, will fail. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Colonel Imam, ISI, Mullah Mohammad Omar, News, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Sultan Amir Tarar, Taliban, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0275

February 1, 2010 1 Comment

Over 3,000 paid informants work for Colombian security apparatus. This according to the country’s Defense Minister, Gabriel Silva, who said that the 3,000 are paid monthly and are among “2.2 million cooperating civilians” (whatever this means).
Interview with Canadian ambassador who worked for the CIA. Iran’s Press TV has published the first part of an extensive interview with Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, who recently admitted that he secretly worked for the CIA in the late 1970s, after the US embassy in Iran was taken over by students during the Islamic Revolution.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1979 Iranian Revolution, Canada, Canadian embassy in Iran, CIA, Colombia, Gabriel Silva, informants, Iran, Ken Taylor, News, news you may have missed, United States, US embassy in Iran

Obama extends ‘war on terrorism’ theater to Yemen

February 1, 2010 2 Comments

Sa’dah rebels

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Think what you like about Barack Obama. The fact is, his administration is currently overseeing the most rapid expansion in the nine-year history of Washington’s so-called ‘war on terrorism’. The operations theater of this ever-expanding war now includes territories deep inside Pakistan (not just near the Afghan borderlands), as well as parts of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. With respect to the latter, intelNews is one of a handful of specialized outlets that began paying attention to US involvement there before the US airstrikes of last December, which in the eyes of the Arab world, formalized America’s military presence in the country. As predicted at the time, the strikes, which were accompanied by a Saudi military invasion of Yemen, became a rallying cry for both Sunni and Shiite Islamists in the Yemen-Saudi border, and have caused increased activity by both Shiite (Sa’dah insurgency) and Sunni (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP) militants. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Ali Abdullah Saleh, AQAP, Barack Obama, CIA, Joint Special Operations Command, JSOC, News, NSA, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Sa'dah insurgency, Saudi Arabia, United States, War on Terrorism, Yemen

News you may have missed #0274

January 31, 2010 Leave a comment

Japanese reporter cleared of 1974 espionage charges. A Japanese newspaper correspondent in South Korea, whose life was ruined in 1974, after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of helping fund North Korean espionage activities, has been acquitted in a retrial.
CIA interrogated al-Qaeda suspect in Poland, claims UN. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, suspected of the 2000 al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole, was interrogated in a secret CIA prison in northern Poland, claims a UN report. Similar allegations have also been leveled against 12 nations, among them EU states such as Romania and Lithuania.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, CIA, Japan, lawsuits, Lithuania, News, news you may have missed, North Korea, Poland, retrials, Romania, secret prisons, South Korea

News you may have missed #0273

January 30, 2010 Leave a comment

Tinner nuclear spy ring worked for CIA, documents confirm. IntelNews has been reporting for more than a year that 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”, was in fact a CIA informant. Now documents submitted in a Swiss federal court appear to confirm Tinner’s CIA connection.
Son of Georgia’s former president charged with spying for Russia. Some say that Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia’s first post-communist president, was assassinated in 1993. Now his son, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, has been formally charged with “collaborating with Russian intelligence services”. The former president’s son’s arrest appears to be the latest episode in an ongoing intelligence war between Russia and Georgia.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Qadeer Khan, CIA, espionage, Georgia, informants, News, nuclear espionage, Russia, Switzerland, Tsotne Gamsakhurdia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia

Analysis: Landrieu-Gate is Scary, but it’s No Watergate

January 29, 2010 Leave a comment

Stan Dai

By J. FITSANAKIS and I. ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The arrests by US Marshals of four self-described conservative activists, who were caught trying to tamper with the telephone lines of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu’ New Orleans office, have caused outcry in liberal and silence in conservative blogs. Most political allies of the four young men have been scrambling to denounce them, and the few who haven’t, have tried to play off the case as an ill-conceived political prank that got out of hand. Considering that America’s political culture still reels from the effects of Watergate (1972-1974), and the far more serious COINTELPRO (1956-1971), it would be criminal neglect on behalf of the FBI to treat the Landrieu incident as a “prank”. At the same time, however, Landrieu-gate is no Watergate. Neither the target nor the operational tactics and institutional affiliations of the four men involved in the case resemble anything remotely akin to either Watergate or COINTELPRO. Keep reading →

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, CIA, COINTELPRO, communications interception, DNI, domestic intelligence, FBI, Georgetown University, Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence, intelligence recruitment, James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel, Louisiana, Mary Landrieu, New Orleans (Louisiana), operation STELLAR WIND, Richard Nixon, Robert Flanagan, Stan Dai, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), Trinity Washington University, US General Services Administration, warrantless communications interception, Watergate, wiretapping

News you may have missed #0272

January 29, 2010 1 Comment

Outcry in Turkey over revealed coup plot. Turkish daily Taraf has revealed a military coup plot, which included detailed plans to trigger chaos in the country with the ultimate goal of a military takeover. This appears to be a new plot, not associated with the ongoing Ergenekon coup plot investigation.
US jails Sri Lankan LTTE operatives. A US federal court has sentenced Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam and Sahilal Sabaratnam to 25 years in prison for trying to purchase almost $1 million worth of high-powered weaponry for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which the US considers a terrorist organization.
Czechoslovakian spy lookout to be opened to public. The bell tower on St. Nicholas’ Church in Prague, where 20 years ago the Czechoslovakian secret police, the StB, kept a hidden lookout on activities outside nearby embassies, especially that of the US, is to be opened to the public later this year.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, coup plots, Czechoslovakia, Ergenekon, history, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE, News, news you may have missed, Prague (Czech Republic), Sahilal Sabaratnam, Sri Lanka, StB (Czechoslovakia), Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, Turkey, United States, US embassy in Czechoslovakia, weapons smuggling

US report sheds light on mysterious Chinese front company

January 29, 2010 2 Comments

Lev Leviev

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A new report by a US Congressional commission sheds light on a mysterious Chinese corporate group, which intelligence observers have long-suspected to be a front company for Chinese spy agencies. Named after the street address of its headquarters, the Hong Kong-registered 88 Queensway Group is noted for its dynamic investments around the world, particularly in Africa, where the Chinese government has been extremely active in recent years. But new information (.pdf) compiled by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission of the US Congress, alleges that the 88 Queensway Group “falsely represents itself as a private business when it actually is [an arm of the] Chinese intelligence community [and] public security apparatus”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 88 Queensway Group, Africa, Angola, Argentina, Arkady Gaydamak, China, economic espionage, France, front companies, Helder Battaglia, Hong Kong, Israel, Lev Leviev, News, Pierre Falcone, Russia, United States, US Congress, US Congress US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Venezuela

News you may have missed #0271 (analysis edition)

January 28, 2010 2 Comments

Analysis: The Women of the CIA. Former CIA agent Valerie Wilson says the recent massacre of CIA agents in Khost, Afghanistan, shows that it is “time to recognize that women play a vital role in ensuring our national security and that they are very much on the frontlines, taking all the same risks but recognized and credited much less than their male counterparts” at the CIA.
Analysis: Google and the democratization of espionage. Roland Dobbins, a solutions architect with the Asia Pacific division of Arbor Networks, explains why the recent Google-China hacking affair is a perfect example of how the botnet has enabled what he calls “the democratization of espionage”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Analysis, Arbor Networks, botnets, China, CIA, computer hacking, cyberespionage, Google, intelligence recruitment, Khost, news you may have missed, Roland Dobbins, Valerie Plame-Wilson

US officials sought ‘national security’ clause to keep bailout details secret

January 28, 2010 Leave a comment

SEC logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
US officials in charge of regulating securities exchanges sought to apply a ‘national security’ clause to information relating to the government’s bailout of giant insurance company American International Group (AIG). Emails obtained by Reuters show that, in November of 2008, the New York Federal Reserve (NYFR), which administered the bailout, collaborated with AIG in requesting that US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officials apply “special security procedures” to shield bailout-related information from public scrutiny. Instead of dismissing the –possibly illegal– request, SEC officials advised NYFR and AIG to publicly file heavily redacted versions of the documents in question, and request “confidential treatment” for the redacted portions, citing ‘national security’ clauses. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with AIG, American International Group, corporate secrecy, Darrell Issa, economics, FOIA, government secrecy, national security, New York Federal Reserve, News, Securities and Exchange Commission, US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

News you may have missed #0270

January 27, 2010 Leave a comment

S. Korean court orders damages in alleged spy case. Lee Soo-geun was a senior North Korean government apparatchik, who defected to the South and joined its intelligence service in 1967. Later, however, when he attempted to flee to a third country, he was arrested by South Korean counterintelligence agents, charged with working as a double agent, and shot. But now a court in Seoul has concluded that Lee’s confession was extracted by force, and has ordered that damages be paid to Lee’s niece, who was imprisoned for allegedly helping him.
Belarus reshuffles KGB leadership. Last week, Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko carried out a major reshuffle in the country’s State Security Committee (KGB), a surprise move which affected all KGB deputy chairs and regional department heads. Retired KGB lieutenant colonel Valery Kostka explains the reasoning behind the reshuffle.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Cold War, defectors, double agents, history, KGB (Belarus), lawsuits, Lee Soo-geun, News, news you may have missed, North Korea, South Korea, Valery Kostka

Comment: Are Clinton’s Cyberattack Protests Hypocritical?

January 27, 2010 1 Comment

Hillary Clinton

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS* | intelNews.org |
The Chinese have accused the US government of hypocrisy in criticizing Beijing for its alleged role in organized hacking attacks, which recently drove Google to abandon its operations in China. Speaking last Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued that “[c]ountries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation”. But a subsequent editorial in government-owned The People’s Daily essentially said that China is not the only country that engages in cyberwarfare; the US does it too. Is this true? Most likely, yes. Read more of this post