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News you may have missed #0253

January 14, 2010 Leave a comment

Iran undecided on nukes, says US military spy chief. The US Pentagon’s top intelligence official, Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, has said what intelNews has been pointing out again and again, namely that the key finding of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran has not yet committed itself to nuclear weapons production, is still valid.
Nobel winner demands Germany uncover Romanian ex-spies. Herta Mueller, the Romanian-born German winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature, has called on Germany to find and prosecute former agents of Romania’s Securitate secret police, large numbers of whom have resettled in Germany after communism ended in Romania 20 years ago.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2007 NIE, Cold War, communism, Germany, Herta Mueller, intelligence analysis, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, literature, News, news you may have missed, NIE, nuclear proliferation, Romania, Ronald Burgess, Securitate (Romania)

Did Hamas penetrate US Consulate in Jerusalem?

January 14, 2010 Leave a comment

US Consulate

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
I was first alerted to this story by staff at the The Jerusalem Post on January 9, but I thought I would wait for follow-up stories in the US media before reporting it on this website. Strangely, none have appeared. The report reveals that, in 2006, a Palestinian working for the US Consulate in Jerusalem was fired because his late father had strong links with Hamas. But now the former employee, Azam Qiq, is suing the Consulate, claiming he was fired unlawfully without receiving severance pay. From 2003 to 2006, Qiq was an award-winning mechanic, whose job was to oversee the Consulate’s diplomatic car fleet. But in February of 2006, when Qiq’s father, Hassan Qiq, died, US Consulate workers noticed that several Hamas officials were in attendance at his funeral, which was apparently “lined with Hamas flags”. In the funeral service brochure, the deceased was described as a founding member of Hamas. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Azam Qiq, diplomacy, diplomatic penetration, Hamas, Hassan Qiq, Israel, Jerusalem, News, Palestine, United States, US consulate in Jerusalem

News you may have missed #0252

January 14, 2010 1 Comment

Released documents show Nixon team spied on Ted Kennedy. It appears that in 1971, President Richard Nixon ordered his aides to recruit Secret Service agents to spy on the movements of Senator Ted Kennedy.
Right-wing militias infiltrated Colombian spy agency in 1990s. The leaders of the right-wing AUC militia federation had infiltrated the highest levels of Colombia’s DAS intelligence agency by the beginning of the 1990s, Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper reported Monday, citing sources in the Inspector General’s Office.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with AUC (Colombia), Colombia, DAS (Colombia), declassification, Edward M. Kennedy, News, news you may have missed, Office of the Inspector General (Colombia), Richard Nixon, US Secret Service

Spanish spies remain active in UK territory of Gibraltar

January 13, 2010 Leave a comment

Gibraltar

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The British Crown has ruled Gibraltar since the early 1700s, but Spain has never ceased to claim national rights over the territory. Today, la Cuestión de Gibraltar (the Gibraltar question) is as critical an issue in Spanish-British relations as it has been for over 300 years. A recent article in Gibraltar’s English-language Panorama news site reminds us that, even though the two countries are NATO and European Union allies, Spanish intelligence agents remain active in the territory. It is true that the Rock is frequented by agents of Spain’s Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), who are mostly concerned with assessing economic and political life in the British possession. The article lacks sources, but its views are probably not far from the truth, considering Gibraltar’s immense geostrategic significance. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, assassinations, Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (Spain), colonialism, EU, Gibraltar, Morocco, NATO, News, Operation FLAVIUS, Provisional IRA, Spain, Special Air Service (UK), UK

News you may have missed #0251 (analysis edition)

January 13, 2010 1 Comment

Bomber’s betrayal shows spy challenge for West. The December 30 suicide attack that killed seven CIA agents in Khost, Afghanistan, shows that al-Qaeda is currently keener on killing Western spies than infiltrating them.
Christmas Day bomber affair was intel failure of the highest order. On Christmas Day, 2009, the US had 16 intelligence agencies, a czar for national intelligence and an intelligence budget of more than $75 billion. There was sufficient intelligence available to detect the Christmas Day bomber. However, US intelligence efforts were unimaginative, divided and diffuse, argues former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman.
Endemic failures in US intelligence gathering, analysis. Excellent summary analysis from Deutsche Welle on how endemic failures in communication and information gathering by US spy agencies are threatening to undermine Washington’s so-called “war on terrorism”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Analysis, CIA, double agents, Forward Operating Base Chapman, informants, intelligence analysis, intelligence failures, intelligence sharing, Khost, Melvin A. Goodman, news you may have missed, Nigeria, Pakistan, suicide bombings, UK, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, War on Terrorism, Yemen

More on Iranian physicist’s assassination

January 13, 2010 4 Comments

Blast site

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
American intelligence and State Department officials, some anonymous, have denied any connection with the assassination yesterday of Iranian physicist Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, in Tehran. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that Ali-Mohammadi was among several Iranian researchers who had regular contacts with Israeli and Arab physicists, through a United Nations-sponsored scientific collaboration project based in Amman, Jordan. The program, known as Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), was focused on non-nuclear physics applications in the medical industry and nanotechnology. To further complicate the issue, the Iranian opposition issued a report late last night saying that photographs taken at the scene of the bombing shortly after the blast, reveal the presence at the site of Abu Nasser Hossein, assistant to Manif Ashmar, who is Hezbollah’s public face in Iran. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abu Nasser Hossein, Amman (Jordan), Ardeshire Hassanpour, assassinations, Hezbollah, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Israel, Jordan, Manif Ashmar, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, News, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, United States, University of Tehran

News you may have missed #0250

January 12, 2010 Leave a comment

Pakistanis ask US to quit drone strikes. A Pakistani intelligence official has told the Associated Press that the response to the December 30 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents should not include intensifying unmanned drone strikes inside Pakistan. However, the CIA has reportedly “stepped up drone strikes” since the bombing.
Bush, Obama administrations guilty for neglecting info sharing. Thomas E. McNamara, former head of the US federal Information Sharing Environment, says the Bush and Obama administrations are both guilty of either losing interest or not focusing at all on promoting information sharing among often-secluded US government agencies.
China ends probe into Rio Tinto espionage case. Chinese prosecutors have now taken over the case of Stern Hu, the jailed boss of Anglo-Australian mining corporation Rio Tinto, after officials ended their investigation. Hu was arrested last July on espionage charges.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Australia, Bush Administration, China, CIA, energy resources, espionage, intelligence sharing, News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Predator drones, Rio Tinto, Stern Hu, Thomas E. McNamara, UK, United States, US Information Sharing Environment

BREAKING NEWS: Bomb blast kills Iranian physicist

January 12, 2010 Leave a comment

Dr. Mohammadi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
Iran’s state broadcaster has said a government physicist was “martyred” earlier this morning in a suspicious blast outside his home. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) news agency reports that police forces have sealed off the area around the Tehran residence of Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, whom it described as a “dedicated revolutionary professor”. Dr. Ali-Mohammadi was reportedly killed by a remotely controlled explosive device that was planted at the entrance of his residence. Iranian officials hint that the remnants of the device point to the work of “outside intelligence agencies”, and some implicate the Mossad. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ardeshire Hassanpour, assassinations, CIA, defectors, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Israel, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mossad, News, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Qum (Iran), Shahram Amiri, United States

Too much intelligence collection overwhelms US agencies

January 12, 2010 3 Comments

USAF drone

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The broad debate about America’s recent intelligence setbacks has centered on the view that US spy agencies do not share enough information with each other. Several days ago, however, Politico’s Laura Rozen noticed an important remark by an anonymous former intelligence official, buried in a longer piece in The Washington Post about the Christmas Day bomber. The official told the Post that “[t]he real story line internally [in the Christmas Day bomber affair] is not information-sharing or connecting dots […]. Information was shared. It was separating noise from chaff. It’s not that information wasn’t passed around, it’s that so much information is being passed. There’s an inherent problem of dealing with all the data that is sloshing around” (emphasis added). This view may in fact be closer to reality than the more dominant ‘turf war’ argument. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with airborne surveillance, information overload, intelligence overload, intelligence sharing, Laura Rozen, News, turf wars, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, US Air Force

News you may have missed #0249

January 11, 2010 Leave a comment

Analysis: Making Sense of the New CIA Battlefield in Afghanistan. “The military backgrounds of the fallen CIA operatives cast a light on the way the world of intelligence is increasingly muscling up and becoming militarized […]. This is no longer intelligence as anyone imagines it, nor is it military as military was once defined […]. And worse yet, from all available evidence, despite claims […] it seems remarkably ineffective”.
CIA planned to ‘rendition’ suspects in Germany in 2001. The CIA had 25 agents in Germany after the September 11 attacks and planned to illegally rendition al-Qaeda suspects without informing the German government. In the end, the plan was scrapped because of objections by the Agency’s German section.
French president appoints woman in charge of spy school. Nicolas Sarkozy is to create a ‘school for spies’, whose principal job will be to discourage French intelligence chiefs from spying on, and fighting against, one another. There are rumors that the school’s first director will be woman academic with no previous experience of espionage.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Analysis, CIA, extraordinary rendition, France, Germany, intelligence training, military, News, news you may have missed, Nicolas Sarkozy

CIA to continue working with Jordanians, despite suicide attack

January 11, 2010 1 Comment

GID logo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The vast majority of intelligence insiders, as well as intelligence observers, seem to agree that the CIA is determined to maintain its close links with Jordanian intelligence services, despite the December 30 suicide bombing that killed and injured 13 CIA personnel. Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil al-Balawi, who detonated a concealed bomb shortly after he was allowed into the US Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, had been recruited as a high-level informant by Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID). The Jordanian agency, which is known for its brutal interrogation tactics, is widely considered America’s most valuable intelligence partner in the Arab world. But the December 30 blunder, which resulted in the CIA’s second highest casualty disaster in its 63-year history, prompted some to question GID’s overall value. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, Forward Operating Base Chapman, General Intelligence Department (Jordan), Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, intelligence cooperation, Jordan, Khost, News, Phillip Knightley, suicide bombings, United States

Comment: CIA Deaths a Failure of Intelligence, Not Security

January 11, 2010 3 Comments

Khalil al-Balawi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Early on Thursday, rumors began spreading among intelligence observers that the December 30 suicide blast in Khost, Afghanistan, which killed seven and seriously injured six CIA personnel, went off in the open air, and not inside a gym on the base, as had previously been reported. Soon afterwards, an article written by CIA director Leon Panetta for the Sunday edition of The Washington Post, dated January 10, was published by the paper two days early. The op-ed is an apparent attempt by the CIA leadership to officially get the word out that suicide bomber Humam Khalil al-Balawi “was about to be searched by our security officers –a distance away from other intelligence personnel– when he set off his explosives”, according to Panetta. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, counterintelligence, Forward Operating Base Chapman, General Intelligence Department (Jordan), Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, informants, Jordan, Joseph Fitsanakis, Khost, Leon Panetta, Pakistah, spycraft, suicide bombings

News you may have missed #0248

January 10, 2010 Leave a comment

Cuba insists jailed US contractor is secret service agent. Cuban officials say that a US citizen working for Maryland-based international aid group Development Alternatives Inc., who was arrested in Havana last month, was actually recruiting local Cubans to spy on the government.
Analysis: Spying in Eastern Europe heats up again. The Cold War may be 20 years dead and buried, but it seems that the old East-West spying game is not only alive and kicking, but gaining vigor in places like Warsaw, Prague and Tallinn.
Obama designates new list of secrecy gatekeepers. The US president has designated over two dozen officials as “original classification authorities” (OCAs), who have the power to classify government information as Top Secret or Secret, and (in most cases) to delegate such authority to their subordinates. Importantly, the directive says that OCAs will lose their job if they fail to “receive training in proper classification […] at least once a calendar year”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Barack Obama, classified Secret, classified Top Secret, Cuba, Czech Republic, Development Alternatives Inc., Eastern Europe, espionage, Estonia, government secrecy, Havana (Cuba), News, news you may have missed, Original Classification Authorities, Poland

Analysis: Germany’s spies struggle to adapt to post-Cold War changes

January 9, 2010 Leave a comment

BND logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Nearly everyone in Germany recognizes that the global intelligence landscape has changed, almost beyond recognition, in the years since the end of the Cold War. Current challenges are far more underground in nature, far more flexible, far more unpredictable. The question is, has Germany’s primary intelligence agency, the BND, changed along with the times? The answer is not so simple. The BND continues to struggle immensely with bureaucratic inefficiency and substandard human and financial resources, explains Deutsche Welle‘s Peter Philipp. Even when it does produce useful intelligence, its advice is not always taken into consideration by German government officials, who tend to have their own opinions on political developments. “Most politicians do have their own view of the world order”, says former BND chief Hans-Georg Wieck, “so [we] must address the[m] in a way that makes them more likely to act on [our] information”. Philipp’s interesting editorial can be accessed here.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, BND, Germany, Hans-Georg Wieck, intelligence analysis, intelligence reform

News you may have missed #0247

January 8, 2010 Leave a comment

US government lowers threshold for inclusion on no-fly lists. According to senior US State Department officials, the government has already lowered the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list. CNN reports that suspects will now include citizens of the notorious Islamist country of Cuba….
CIA starts sharing data with climate scientists. This blog has kept an eye on the CIA’s Climate Change Center, which was established late last year. It now turns out the Agency had started monitoring climate change in 1992, under project MEDEA (Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis), but the program was shut down in 2001 by the Bush Administration. The Climate Change Center, therefore, represents the re-establishment of an earlier effort.
How the KGB tried to recruit an NBC News reporter. FBI files show that the Soviet KGB tried to recruit the late NBC News reporter Irving R. Levine, while he was stationed in Moscow in the 1950s.