Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying
August 30, 2009 Leave a comment
August 29, 2009 Leave a comment
August 29, 2009 Leave a comment
R. Kupchinsky
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Roman Kupchinsky has penned an article for The Prague Post, in which he examines the recent expulsion of two Russian spies from the Czech Republic as part of a broader decline in Russian intelligence operations. The Jamestown Foundation analyst explains that Vladimir Putin’s campaign to rebuild the Russian espionage activities abroad to their former glory has not borne fruits. Rather, the gradual decay in Russia’s global intelligence presence, which began in the early 1980s, continues to mire the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). The SVR is the successor to the KGB’s First Chief Directorate (PGU), which was responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection. Although Kupchinsky’s view is shared by a many Western intelligence observers, some remain skeptical. Read more of this post
August 28, 2009 Leave a comment
August 28, 2009 2 Comments
NSA HQ
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
I have explained before that the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies have found it impossible to intercept Skype’s instant messaging and voice traffic. Like other voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) communications providers, Skype uses technology that converts audio signals to data, and transports them through most of the Internet infrastructure in binary, rather than audio, format. Furthermore, Skype uses very complex algorithms to encrypt its customers’ communications. Skype has repeatedly pointed to the technical complexities of VOIP communications, arguing that it is often technically impossible to facilitate communications interception requests by government authorities. There are rumors among communications interception specialists that the NSA is offering billions to anyone who can come up with a reliable eavesdropping model for Skype. Remarkably, on August 25, a Swiss software developer released what he claims is the source code of a program for tapping into encrypted Skype communications. I don’t know whether the source code (essentially a trojan) is effective. He claims it is. If this is confirmed, then several people in Fort George F. Meade, Maryland, will be really close paying attention.
August 28, 2009 Leave a comment
August 28, 2009 Leave a comment
August 27, 2009 Leave a comment
August 27, 2009 Leave a comment
Hotel Sahafi
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
One of two French intelligence agents arrested by a Somali militia in July has escaped, after allegedly killing three of his captors. Somali military officer Farhan Asanyo told British newspaper The Daily Mail that the Frenchman approached government soldiers in Mogadishu early yesterday morning, identified himself and said he had escaped. He was then taken to the Presidential Palace in Mogadishu, where he now remains. The French Foreign Ministry has disputed Asanyo’s account, saying that the French intelligence agent escaped without resorting to violence and without a ransom having been paid by Paris. Read more of this post
August 27, 2009 3 Comments
CIA HQ
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA appears to have been stripped of its senior role in America’s post-9/11 interrogation program, as the Obama Administration announced this week the creation of a new interrogation unit. The new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) will be an elite interagency squad, which will report to the National Security Council and answer directly to the White House. But, according to several insiders, the unit will be housed at the FBI, and not the CIA. The two agencies have been fighting a bitter turf war after 9/11. Officials at Langley view this development as a severe blow to the Agency, which the Bush Administration had tasked with overseeing America’s post 9/11 interrogation program. Read more of this post
August 27, 2009 Leave a comment
August 26, 2009 Leave a comment
August 26, 2009 Leave a comment
CIA report cover
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
It will take some time before the world’s media and other interested parties manage to comb through the recently released report (.pdf) by the CIA inspector general, as well as a host of other newly declassified documents pertaining to the Agency’s post-9/11 interrogation program. The volume of data is so extensive that some news outlets are apparently requesting assistance from readers. The report on the CIA’s counterterrorism detention and interrogation activities between 2001 and 2003 is not new. It was originally produced in May of 2004 and was released in 2008 by the Bush Administration, in a heavily redacted version. Although the current release is less heavily redacted, several observers have questioned the wisdom of remaining redactions (the National Security Archive has published a useful side-by-side comparison of the Bush and Obama Administration versions of the report). Read more of this post
August 26, 2009 Leave a comment
intelNews.org 
CIA documents reveal secret aspects of Vietnam War
August 30, 2009 Leave a comment
CIA report cover
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The CIA has released a six-volume internal history of its involvement in Vietnam prior to and during the Second Indochina War (usually referred to in the US as the Vietnam War). The release of the documents’ is the long-awaited result of a Freedom of Information Act request by intelligence historian and National Security Archive research fellow John Prados. The documents, which are available online in the National Security Archive’s Electronic Briefing Book No. 283, detail the CIA’s activities in Vietnam from the early 1950s, and provide what appears to be the most complete account to-date of the Agency’s operations during the US war in South and North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Read more of this post
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cambodia, CIA, Cold War, coup plots, declassification, history, informants, John Prados, Kennedy Administration, Laos, News, Ngo Dinh Diem, Ngo Dinh Nhu, North Vietnam, Second Indochina War, South Vietnam, United States, Vietnam, Vietnam War