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FBI targets US nuclear scientist who contacted Venezuelan official

October 25, 2009 2 Comments

P.L. Mascheroni

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A team of FBI agents has raided the house of a former Los Alamos nuclear scientist who has spent two decades criticizing Washington’s nuclear weapons and energy agenda. The agents seized several computers, cameras, cell phones and paper files from the home of Dr. P. Leonardo Mascheroni, a 74-year-old Argentinean-born nuclear scientist who became a US citizen while working at the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. After leaving Los Alamos, in 1988, Dr. Mascheroni has campaigned in favor of inertial confinement fusion (commonly known as laser fusion) as a means of producing low-cost energy and of testing nuclear weapons without resorting to underground explosions. Following the FBI raid at his house, Dr. Mascheroni held a press conference where he claimed he was told by the FBI that he was suspected of possible involvement in “nuclear espionage”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Argentina, espionage, FBI, Hugo Chávez, inertial confinement fusion, laser fusion, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, News, nuclear espionage, P. Leonardo Mascheroni, scientific intelligence, United States, US Department of Energy, Venezuela

News you may have missed #0151

October 24, 2009 Leave a comment

Musicians protest use of their songs in Guantánamo torture. A group of musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, REM, Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, Billy Bragg, the Roots, and many more, have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantánamo.
More information on CIA’s interest in monitoring Internet sites. Noah Shachtman, contributing editor at Wired magazine and editor of Danger Room, speaks on the CIA’s funding of a private software company specializing in monitoring online social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.
Lithuania to investigate CIA secret prison allegations. Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, has called for an official investigation into recent allegations that the CIA housed a secret prison for al-Qaeda suspects in Lithuania for more than a year, beginning in 2004.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Billy Bragg, black operations, CIA, Cuba, Dalia Grybauskaite, Fickr, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Jackson Browne, Lithuania, music, National Campaign to Close Guantánamo, News, news you may have missed, Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, REM, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, social networking, the Roots, Tom Morello, torture, Trent Reznor, Twitter, United States, War on Terrorism, YouTube

Mysterious self-destructing devices found at Lebanon-Israel border

October 24, 2009 Leave a comment

One of the devices

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Lebanese authorities have revealed the discovery last week of three communications interception devices near the Israel-Lebanon border. Interestingly, two of the devices self-destructed by exploding as Lebanese security personnel were approaching. Members of the Lebanese Armed Forces decided to detonate a third device, fearing that it too might explode at any moment. The three devices were attached to a telecommunications cable on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Houla. Israeli officials have so far refused to address the accusation of the Lebanese government that the devices were planted by Israeli spies. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2006 Lebanon War, communications interception, espionage, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanese Armed Forces, Lebanese Internal Security Forces, Lebanon, News, Syria

News you may have missed #0150

October 23, 2009 Leave a comment

Israel’s inside intelligence. If only Israeli security services were as open as the CIA and other US spy agencies, lament Israelis.
Nozette and nuclear rocketry. Here are some of the reasons why the case of scientist Stewart D. Nozette, who was arrested and charged earlier this week under the US Espionage Act, is distressing on several levels.
Perle calls DoD spying whistleblower “a nutcase”. Richard Perle, chairperson of the US Defense Advisory Board under the Bush administration, has called Sibel Edmonds “a nutcase; certifiable”. Last August, Edmonds, a former FBI translator, alleged that Turkish spies had bugged, blackmailed and bribed US politicians, her FBI unit, the State Department, the Pentagon and Congress.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, espionage, FBI, intelligence oversight, intelligence reform, Israel, MİT (Turkey), News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, President's Defense Advisory Board (US), Richard Perle, scientific intelligence, Sibel Edmonds, Stewart David Nozette, Turkey, US Congress, US Department of State, US DoD, whistleblowing

Dozens of MI5 agents to testify in Real IRA trial

October 23, 2009 Leave a comment

RIRA gunmen

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Over 30 agents of MI5, Britain’s primary domestic intelligence agency, will be anonymously giving evidence at a scheduled trial of three men arrested in connection with a Real IRA international gun smuggling operation. The men, Paul Anthony John McCaugherty, Dermot Declan Gregory, and Desmond Paul Kearns, all from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, were arrested after a yearlong infiltration operation by MI5, involving the use of informants and surveillance equipment. The latter resulted in nearly 90 hours of recorded conversations, which the court said will take “months to transcribe”. Additionally, 35 MI5 agents have so far applied to give evidence in court, their identity concealed behind screens. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with County Armagh, Dermot Declan Gregory, Desmond Paul Kearns, informants, lawsuits, Liam Campbell, Lithuania, MI5, Michael Campbell, Netherlands, News, Northern Ireland, Paul Anthony John McCaugherty, Real IRA, sting operations, surveillance, UK, Vilnius (Lithuania), weapons smuggling

Mexican agency spied on Nobel laureate author Márquez

October 23, 2009 Leave a comment

Márquez

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Mexico’s defunct Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) intelligence agency spied on Colombian-born Nobel laureate author Gabriel García Márquez, according to revelations published in El Universal newspaper. The Mexican daily aired declassified documents allegedly showing that the DFS tapped the author’s home telephone, systematically monitored his whereabouts, and kept a “bulging file” on him spanning several decades. The monitoring began in 1967, when Márquez moved from Colombia to Mexico, and continued until at least 1985. The apparent reason for the spying is that the Mexican state considered the best-selling author of Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude to be a communist sympathizer and even “a Cuban agent”. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0149

October 23, 2009 Leave a comment

Why is CIA fighting to keep JFK documents sealed? For years, the CIA has fought in US federal courts to keep secret hundreds of documents detailing the relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and a CIA anti-Castro front group. The Agency says it is only protecting legitimate secrets. But some researchers are questioning this.
Up to 320 Pakistani civilians killed in US drone war. As many as 320 innocent civilians may have been killed in the CIA-led US drone war in Pakistan, according to an analysis by the New America Foundation. That’s about a third of the 1,000 or so people slain in the robotic aircraft attacks since 2006. Previous research has shown that approximately 80% of the airstrikes have failed to kill what the US Pentagon calls “high value targets”.
Analysis: What are the risks of the CIA’s covert drone program? “It’s easy to understand the appeal of a ‘push-button’ approach to fighting al-Qaeda, but the embrace of the Predator program has occurred with remarkably little public discussion, given that it represents a radically new and geographically unbounded use of state-sanctioned lethal force. And, because of the CIA program’s secrecy, there is no visible system of accountability in place, despite the fact that the agency has killed many civilians inside a politically fragile, nuclear-armed country with which the US is not at war”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, CIA, Cuba, declassification, Fidel Castro, front groups, government secrecy, John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, War on Terrorism

Analysis: US Scientist’s Espionage Arrest Raises Questions

October 22, 2009 Leave a comment

Nozette

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Stewart David Nozette, who was arrested by the FBI on October 19, on charges of sharing classified US government data with a man he believed was an Israeli government officer, is to remain in jail. The reason given by the US federal judge in charge of the case is that Nozette might flee to Israel if not confined. However, unlike the case of former US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard, who was jailed in 1987 for spying on the US for Israel, the government of Israel is said to have had no role in Nozette’s attempted espionage. The FBI itself admits that it “does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under US laws in this case”. This is because Nozette shared classified US government data with an undercover FBI officer posing as a handler of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. But if this is so, then two important counterintelligence questions are raised: first, how did the FBI know to lure Nozette with an agent posing as an Israeli –as opposed to a Russian or Chinese– handler? Second, why would Nozette flee to –and presumably be protected by– Israel, even though the government of Israel was not involved in this case, according to the FBI? Keep reading →

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US spy agencies invest in Internet-monitoring company

October 21, 2009 Leave a comment

In-Q-Tel logo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture-capital investment arm, is funding a private software company specializing in monitoring online social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. The company, Visible Technologies, unleashes web crawlers that scan and sift through over half a million Internet sites a day, looking for open-source intelligence (OSINT) of interest to its customers. The latter receive real-time updates of Internet activity, based on specific sets of keywords they provide. Noah Shachtman, of Wired’s Danger Room blog, correctly notes that In-Q-Tel’s latest investment is indicative of a wider trend within US intelligence agencies to enhance their foreign OSINT collection and analysis. Incidentally, the US Pentagon has shown similar interests since 2006. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Donald Tighe, In-Q-Tel, intelligence analysis, Lucid Imagination, News, open source intelligence, OSINT, social networking, surveillance, United States, US DoD, Visible Technologies

Iran government spying on ex-pat dissidents, says Germany

October 20, 2009 Leave a comment

Manfred Murck

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A German intelligence official has said Iranian government agents are actively spying on Iranian dissidents living in Germany. Speaking to the Panorama program on Germany’s ARD state-owned television station, Manfred Murck, deputy director of the Hamburg branch of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s primary domestic intelligence service, said his department is aware of Iranian intelligence activity targeting Iranians living in Germany. “We know that the Iranian (secret) service has its people circulating in demonstrations. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Germany), Germany, Hamburg (Germany), immigration intelligence, Iran, Iranian embassy in Germany, Manfred Murck, News, surveillance

Mossad declassifies a document for the first time in its history

October 20, 2009 Leave a comment

Mossad logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
For the first time in its existence, the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, has released a document from its secret archive. The secretive spy agency agreed to release its official founding charter in the context of a year-long legal battle with two Israeli daily newspapers, Yedioth Ahronoth and Ha’aretz. Last year, the two papers filed a petition with Israel’s High Court of Justice, claiming that the Mossad, as well as Israel’s internal spy agency Shin Bet, and the country’s Atomic Energy Commission, were not adhering to Israel’s archive laws. According to the petition, the three agencies were breaking the law by “maintaining their own archives and keeping them closed to the general public”. The High Court of Justice is still deliberating the case, but Mossad recently approached Ha’aretz and offered to voluntarily release its founding charter. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Atomic Energy Commission (Israel), David Ben-Gurion, declassification, High Court of Justice of Israel, Israel, Mossad, News, Shin Bet

News you may have missed #0148

October 20, 2009 Leave a comment

Secret special service held to commemorate 100 years of MI5 and MI6. The Queen has attended an unpublicized special service at London’s Westminster Abbey to mark the centenary of MI5 and MI6. It appears that the heads of the security and intelligence services were present for the unique ceremony in the cloisters of the Abbey. The service was also attended by prime minister Gordon Brown, foreign secretary David Miliband, and home secretary Alan Johnson, among others.
Canadian court ends spy services’ free rein in deporting foreigners. The Federal Court has dealt the government another setback in its attempts to deport alleged terrorists, based on the controversial security-certificate provision, which allows the government to use secret evidence in order to detain and deport foreigners. Thus, the deportation from Canada of Moroccan-born Adil Charkaoui has been halted. Last July another deportation case, that of Hassan Almrei, a Syrian immigrant who was arrested in 2001 on suspicion of belonging to an Islamist-tied forgery group, was also halted on similar grounds.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Adil Charkaoui, Alan Johnson, Canada, CSIS (Canada), David Miliband, deportations, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Federal Court of Canada, forgery, Gordon Brown, Hassan Almrei, lawsuits, MI5, MI6, News, news you may have missed, security certificates (Canada), UK, Westminster Abbey (London)

Senior Afghan official says Pakistan aided Kabul suicide bombing

October 19, 2009 Leave a comment

ISI HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A senior advisor to the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistani intelligence services of aiding suicide bombers strike targets in Afghan capital Kabul and other areas in Afghanistan. Speaking last week to Reuters news agency, Davood Moradian, senior policy aide in the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, alleged that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency systematically helps “anti-Western militants” in Afghanistan mount attacks against civilian and military targets alike. Moradian hinted that the ISI assistance to the militants is sanctioned by senior officials in the Pakistani government. The latter view it as a means to “arouse Western concern for stability” in Pakistan, which may in turn translate into increasing Western financial aid poring to the country, said Moradian. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 Indian embassy in Kabul bombing, Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan, Davood Moradian, Hamid Karzai, India, Indian embassy in Afghanistan, ISI, News, Pakistan, suicide bombings, United States

MI5 chief defends use of intelligence extracted through torture

October 19, 2009 Leave a comment

Jonathan Evans

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In an unprecedented public speech, the director of MI5, Britain’s national counterintelligence agency, said the intelligence extracted by torturing suspects after 9/11 had stopped “many attacks” on Western and other targets. Last January, Jonathan Evans, who was named director of MI5 in April 2007, gave the first-ever media interview by an MI5 director in history. Last Thursday, he made history once again by giving the first-ever public speech by an MI5 chief. Speaking at the University of Bristol, England, Evans said MI5 was right to cooperate after 9/11 with US and other intelligence agencies, even if those agencies were known to routinely extract information from detainees through torture. In doing so, he revealed that MI5’s own knowledge of al-Qaeda was “inadequate” at the time of 9/11, and that the agency “had to get overseas help at the time”. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0147

October 19, 2009 Leave a comment

Major purge in Gambian intelligence services. The Gambian government gave no official reasons for the dismissal of 27 officers from the country’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA). But local media said the dismissals were aimed to end bitter internal turf wars that have affected NIA’s performance.
US Congress bars release of more torture photos. US House and Senate members have approved legislation that would permit the Pentagon to withhold photographs if it determines that their disclosure “would endanger citizens of the US, members of the US Armed Forces, or employees of the US government deployed outside the US”. The ACLU said that “the suppression of these photos will ultimately be far more damaging to our national security than their disclosure would be”.
Russia jails alleged Georgian spy. A Russian military court has jailed Russian Army sergeant Jemal Nakaidze for nine years, for passing secrets to Georgia during a war between the two countries last year. See here for more on the recent tug-of-war between Russia and Georgia.