Taiwan jails soldiers guarding president’s office for spying for China
March 31, 2025 2 Comments
FOUR TAIWANESE SOLDIERS WITH access to “extremely sensitive” secrets have received jail sentences for spying for Chinese intelligence, as Taiwanese authorities have warned of a sharp rise in Chinese espionage cases. Three of the soldiers had been detailed to the security of the Office of the President, while the fourth soldier was a member of staff at the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense’s Information and Telecommunications Command.
According to the prosecution, the soldiers made use of their personal mobile phones to photograph “internal military information” they had access to. They then shared the photographs with their Chinese intelligence handlers. In return for their services, their handlers compensated the soldiers by paying them between $7,000 and $20,000 each. The espionage arrangement between the soldiers and their handlers lasted between 2002 to 2024, the court heard.
No information was shared during the open-door portion of the court case about the type of information that the four soldiers were accused of having shared with their Chinese handlers. But the prosecution alleged that the digital photographs given to the Chinese contained information that the four alleged spies had acquired while working in “extremely sensitive and important units” of the Taiwanese military. At the conclusion of the court case, the court sentenced the soldiers to between 70 and 84 months in prison for violating Taiwan’s national security law. In sentencing the accused, the judge said they had engaged in acts that “betrayed the country and endangered national security”.
Meanwhile, the Taiwanese National Security Bureau announced late last week that the number of people who were prosecuted for involvement in Chinese espionage in 2024 broke all recent records for the second year in a row. Specifically, there were 10 prosecutions for Chinese espionage in 2022, 48 in 2023, and 64 in 2024. Many of those caught spying for China were either active or former members of the Taiwanese military. These individuals were deliberately targeted by Chinese intelligence officers because they had knowledge of Taiwanese military secrets, the National Security Bureau said.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 31 March 2025 | Permalink
BRITISH MEDIA REPORTED THE death on Saturday of Oleg Gordievsky, arguably the most significant double spy of the closing stages of the Cold War, whose disclosures informed the highest executive levels of the West. Having joined the Soviet KGB in 1963, Gordievsky became increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system of rule following the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia.
THE EUROPEAN UNION IS considering building its own military satellite network in an effort to reduce or eliminate its reliance on American satellite capabilities, according to reports. The London-based Financial Times newspaper 
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION HAS revoked the accreditation of two British diplomats over espionage allegations, while also accusing the United Kingdom of sabotaging the United States’ “peace plan” for Ukraine. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that the diplomatic expulsions involved two British men, a diplomat stationed at British embassy in Moscow, as well as a spouse of another British diplomat.
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS have raised concerns that allowing Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE) access to Treasury Department databases could expose human intelligence assets operating abroad. On January 31, newly installed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave two DoGE employees, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, read-only access to the Treasury Department’s payment system. Elez, 25, subsequently 
A GROUP OF FORMER United States government officials have warned against plans to build a new casino in a part of northern Virginia that is home to several intelligence agency facilities. The proposed casino would be built in Tysons, also known as Tysons’ Corner, an unincorporated community of about 30,000 residents, located between McLean and Vienna, west of the nation’s capital.
THERE WERE 
THE SUDDEN RESIGNATION OF Italy’s spy chief last week was 
THE OFFICE OF THE Federal Prosecutor in Germany has charged three dual German-Russian citizens with acts of espionage on behalf of Russia, with the intent of harming the national security of the German state. In compliance with German privacy laws, the three espionage suspects have been publicly identified only by their first names and last name initials. They are: Dieter S., Alex D., and Alexander J.
A NEW REPORT IN The Washington Post newspaper claims that the Indian government is behind a “methodical assassination program” that has been targeting individuals deep inside India’s nuclear arch-rival Pakistan. According to the 
ISRAELI OFFICIALS ARE REPORTEDLY trying to recover the remains of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who was hanged in Syria in 1965, after his espionage activities were discovered. Born in Alexandria in 1924, Cohen was an Egyptian Jew, whose family immigrated to Israel after 1949. After joining the Mossad, Israel’s primary external intelligence agency, Cohen became a katsa, or case officer.
THERE ARE CONFLICTING REPORTS about the fate of Russia’s military bases in Syria, following the complete collapse of the 54-year-long Assad dynasty. Late on Sunday it was 
facility outside of the former Soviet Union. Furthermore, it constitutes the sole warm-port fueling and repair facility that is exclusively available to the Russian Navy. It is home to the Russian naval group in Syria, which consists of a submarine and five warships.
THE WHITE HOUSE HELD an emergency meeting on Friday with senior telecommunications industry officials to discuss the fallout from a Chinese cyber espionage operation 
A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED REVIEW of the European Union’s intelligence readiness to face conventional and hybrid threats has called for the establishment of a dedicated Europe-wide intelligence agency. Such an agency must rely on EU member states “trust[ing] each other” in order to confront increasingly aggressive espionage, sabotage, and other types of threats by outside actors like Russia, the report said.
intelNews.org 
Reuters publishes details about alleged Russian airline sabotage plot
April 7, 2025 4 Comments
It is now understood that the explosions occurred on July 19, 20 and 21, 2024, and that at least two of them took place in facilities belonging to DHL, a German logistics firm headquartered in Bonn. Affected facilities are reportedly located in Leipzig, Warsaw, and Birmingham. All three explosions were caused by rudimentary incendiary devices hidden inside commercial shipments. European officials said at the time that the explosions were part of a broader wider campaign by Russian intelligence to sabotage Western European transportation and shipping networks.
Now the Reuters news agency claims that the explosions were meant to test security systems in preparation for a major sabotage operation. The operation aimed to detonate explosive mechanisms in mid-air on cargo flights from Europe to the United States and Canada. Moreover, a fourth incendiary device, which was found at a Warsaw shipping facility, failed to explode and has been forensically examined by bomb experts, Reuters said. Citing “interviews with more than a dozen European security officials”, including a person familiar with the case in Poland, the news agency said it was able to provide “the most granular account yet of the alleged plot”.
The report claims the incendiary devices were concealed inside pillows, bottles of cosmetics, and sex toys. They were ignited with the use of remote timers taken from cheap Chinese electronic goods. Once detonated, the timers sparked explosions with the help of gelled flammable cocktails that included compounds such as nitromethane—a highly flammable liquid chemical used in industrial applications. All ingredients used in the incendiary devices, including nitromethane, are easily accessible to consumers at a relatively low cost.
According to Reuters, the procedures followed in the DHL attacks fit the profile of similar operations that have been carried out in recent years by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Forces’ General Staff, known as GRU. Such procedures include hiring disposable agents, most of which are not Russian citizens, for one-off operations. In the case of the DHL attacks, the agents were allegedly hired on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram and paid with the use of cryptocurrencies, or in cash.
Among the alleged suspects in the case is a Ukrainian man identified by Reuters as Vladyslav Dekravets, who was recruited in southern Poland and is now facing extradition to Poland from Bosnia. Another suspect, identified in the Reuters report as Alexander Bezrukavyi, allegedly packaged parcels containing sneaker shoes for shipment to the United States and Canada. The shipments were intended to help the GRU “gather information about parcel-processing methods and timing”. During the operation, the two men came in contact with individuals who appeared to be GRU officers, using the cryptonyms WARRIOR and MARY.
The DHL cases remain at a pre-trial stage in several European countries, Reuters said. They involve the pending extradition of suspects from elsewhere in Europe. The trials are going to feature evidence gathered from criminal investigators and intelligence agencies, according to the report.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 07 April 2025 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alexander Bezrukavyi, DHL Group, Germany, GRU, News, Poland, Russia, sabotage, transportation security, UK, Vladyslav Dekravets