DOGE breach of US Treasury data may harm CIA intelligence assets, officials warn

February 8, 2025 13 Comments

Department of the TreasuryUNITED 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 resigned from DoGE, following allegations that he had authored a series of racist tweets. However, last Friday Musk announced on X that he would rehire Elez.

According to The Washington Post, a senior Treasury employee filed a memorandum to Secretary Bessent, warning that any form of access to the department’s payment system by DoGE employees would “pose an unprecedented insider threat risk” to government secrets. The memo reportedly focused specifically on payments made by Treasury to human intelligence sources, which are typically recruited and handled abroad by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and other agencies of the United States Intelligence Community. Such payments are made to foreign assets who collect intelligence on behalf of American agencies, or Americans who work in an intelligence capacity without the use of diplomatic cover.

According to Newsweek, which followed up on the story, the memo noted that the Treasury Department employs several methods to disguise payments made to human intelligence sources. However, these methods remain vulnerable to detection by “people with the requisite know-how”, which would allow these assets to be identified and could place their lives in danger. As a result, DoGE’s access to the classified database posed an “unprecedented insider threat risk”, according to the memo. It advised Secretary Bessent to “suspend [DoGE’s] access immediately and conducting a comprehensive review of all actions [DoGE employees] may have taken on these systems”.

On Saturday a federal judge in the district of Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction that bars DoGE from accessing any Treasury Department databases that contain personally identifiable information. The injunction also instructs DoGE personnel to surrender back to Treasury all information they have obtained so far. A hearing to decide the next steps in the case is due to occur on February 14.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 08 February 2025 | Permalink

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Ex-intelligence officials warn against building new casino near US spy agencies

January 27, 2025 8 Comments

ODNI DNIA 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.

Part of the Washington metropolitan area, Tysons is adjacent to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center headquarters. It is also only a handful of miles from the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which is located in nearby Langley, Virginia. Several major government contractors have offices in Tysons, including BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Palantir Technologies, and Deloitte.

A bipartisan group of local lawmakers, headed by State Senate Majority Leader Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), have proposed a bill that seeks to examine the possibility of building a casino complex in Tysons. The casino would be part of a mixed-use development that would include upscale apartments, a luxury hotel, and a concert venue. Supporters of the bill argue that the proposed development would bring jobs to the area and would elevate the quality of life of Tysons residents.

But the proposed plan is being resisted by a group calling itself National Security Leaders for Fairfax. The newly formed group is reportedly led by Anne Gruner, former deputy director of the CIA’s Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, and Sally Horn, who served as a senior director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Last December, the group authored a letter [PDF] to local government officials, arguing that the existence of a casino in Tysons could potentially aid the machinations of foreign spies.

The letter decries “[t]he proximity of a Tysons casino to a significant population of government, military, and contract officials with access to highly secretive government intelligence, diplomatic, and defense information”. It cautions that, not only would a casino “attract organized crime —casinos always do— but also adversarial intelligence services looking to recruit those with such access whom they hope to blackmail”.

Gambling addiction has long been considered a vice that could endanger holders of security clearances, because it poses risks to their financial stability and personal integrity. Excessive gambling can lead to debt, which may make individuals vulnerable to coercion, bribery, or exploitation by adversaries seeking access to classified information. The behaviors associated with problem gambling —such as deception, secrecy, or desperation to recover losses— can potentially undermine the trustworthiness and reliability required for maintaining a security clearance.

But those who support the plan for the casino complex dismiss such claims. They argue that there are already several other casinos in the area and that building one more in Tysons would not alter the security dynamics. State Senator Surovell told The Washington Post, which reported about the proposed casino last week: “We already have a massive slots parlor 45 minutes west in West Virginia, [an] MGM [casino] right over the river [in Maryland] and sports gaming on every phone in the state”.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 27 January 2025 | Permalink

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Is Trump signaling possible CIA covert operations against drug cartels?

January 21, 2025 1 Comment

CJNGTHERE WERE REPORTS LATE on Monday that United States President Donald Trump was considering authorizing covert operations by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against drug cartels. During his inaugural address on Monday afternoon, Trump said he would be “designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations”. Later the same day, the incoming president signed an executive order to that effect.

According to US law, the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation may be applied to non-US organizations which participate in activities that fall under the US Department of State’s definition of terrorism. Historically the FTO list has included leftwing militant groups, armed nationalist or separatist organizations, as well as Islamist violent extremist groups.

In some cases, FTO organizations have actively participated in the manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs. However, they are distinguished from purely criminal organizations by the overarching political motives that guide their activities. In contrast, drug cartels are primarily motivated by financial profit and tend to engage in politics only to the extent that doing so will boost their money-making ability.

While signing his executive order on Monday evening —one of nearly a hundred he signed that day— President Trum said he would instruct his administration “to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gang criminal networks” from the US and Mexico.

According to some observers, the FTO designation is “a strong indication” that the new US president plans to issue a presidential finding —a classified directive issued by the commander-in-chief— authorizing the CIA to engage in covert action targeting the drug cartels. A number of Trump allies have reportedly compiled a list of targeted cartels, which are located mostly in Mexico. They include notorious criminal organizations, such as the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Gulf Cartel.

Additionally, the FTO designation might constitute the first step toward an American military presence inside Mexico, or missile strikes directed against designated FTO strongholds, including drug production and storage facilities. In November of last year, there were reports in the American media claiming that key figures in the incoming Trump administration were contemplating launching a military invasion of northern Mexico.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 21 January 2025 | Permalink

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Italian spy chief’s sudden resignation described as ‘seismic development’

January 13, 2025 1 Comment

Elisabetta BelloniTHE SUDDEN RESIGNATION OF Italy’s spy chief last week was described by some news outlets as a “seismic development” in the domestic political scene of the Group of Seven (G7) member state. In May 2021, the  then-Prime Minister Mario Draghi appointed Elisabetta Belloni to lead the Department of Information for Security (DIS). The widely respected career diplomat thus became the first woman to lead an Italian intelligence agency.

Previously Belloni held positions in the Directorate-General for Political Affairs and Security of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy. She also served in several Italian embassies in Europe, notably Bratislava and Vienna. Belloni is commonly viewed as a career civil servant who has successfully served under various political administrations, without expressing any political preferences. Throughout her career, Belloni has refused to espouse partisan political views, which has only increased the respect with which she is viewed.

There is no known history of friction between Belloni and Giorgia Meloni, a rightwing populist who emerged as Italy’s first woman prime minister in October 2022. On the contrary, Belloni was viewed as an administrator who had gained Meloni’s trust. However, a report last week by the center-left La Repubblica newspaper claimed that Belloni detested Meloni’s constant interference in security affairs and found it difficult to truly gain the prime minister’s trust. The newspaper claimed that the spy chief tended her resignation on a phone call with the prime minister, telling close associates that she “couldn’t take it any more”.

In a subsequent interview published in the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Belloni said that “last few months of her mandate [had] been a real war of attrition”. Given the key position that Belloni held in the Italian cabinet, her sudden resignation has reignited the discussion about the phenomenon of executive overreach in Italian politics, as non-political career officials are resigning or being pushed out and are replaced by political appointees.

Meanwhile the prime minister announced last Thursday that she would appoint Vittorio Rizzi as Belloni’s successor in the DIS. A law enforcement official with a background in cybersecurity, Rizzi is currently serving as deputy director of the Internal Intelligence and Security Agency (AISI), the domestic security agency of Italy. He was appointed to that role by Meloni in September 2024.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 13 January 2025 | Permalink

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Germany charges three dual German-Russian nationals with espionage

January 6, 2025 2 Comments

Grafenwoehr Training Area GermanyTHE 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.

Dieter S. appears to be the central suspect in this case. Following his arrest by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, he was found to have participated in military operations of the secessionist Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine. By that time, German authorities had already charged him with being in contact with an individual known to be a member of Russian intelligence, who operated as his handler.

According to the indictment, throughout his interactions with his Russian handler, Dieter S. repeatedly made it known that he was willing and able to carry out acts of sabotage against security-related installations in Germany, on behalf of the Russian Federation. He also offered to carry out arson attacks and use explosives against transportation facilities and infrastructure, such as railway lines, which were used by the German state to transport military supplies to Ukraine.

Subsequently, Dieter S. was instructed by his Russian handler to collect intelligence about potential targets in southeastern Germany. He thus engaged in systematic surveillance activities targeting the Grafenwoehr Training Area, a United States Army military training base located near Grafenwöhr, in eastern Bavaria. Grafenwöhr is the largest training facility maintained by the United States in Europe. Since 2022, it has been used to instruct Ukrainian troops on how to operate American-built tanks.

Dieter S. is also believed to have conducted surveillance at several loading stations used by the German and American militaries, as well as the facilities of private-sector contractors to the German military. In his surveillance operations, Dieter S. was assisted by Alex D. and Alexander J. All three men took photographs and videos of the targeted facilities. The collected material was eventually passed on to Dieter S.’s Russian handler.

Official charges against the three suspects were filed before the State Security Senate of the Munich Higher Regional Court on December 9. They were publicized by the office of the Federal Public Prosecutor General on December 30. A trial date is now pending.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 06 January 2025 | Permalink

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Report claims India behind ‘methodical’ assassination campaign deep inside Pakistan

January 2, 2025 1 Comment

Research and Analysis Wing RAW IndiaA 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 report, which was published on Tuesday, the covert assassination program is the work of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s primary external intelligence agency. It was allegedly authorized by India’s popular and controversial Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has also been overseeing its implementation since he was re-elected to office in 2021.

Since 2023, intelNews has covered/ the high-level dispute between India and Canada, after Ottawa uncovered an extensive Indian assassination program targeting Sikh separatist leaders on Canadian soil. Last month, intelNews guest editor Dr. Stephan Blancke analyzed the mounting concern across the European Union about Indian covert activities that target members of the Indian expatriate community on European soil. But The Washington Post report touches on a potentially new dimension of India’s assassination program, which focuses on Pakistan.

According to the report, Prime Minister Modi has been fully supporting RAW’s targeted killings program since at least 2021. In the ensuing years there have been six assassinations inside Pakistan that bear the hallmarks of RAW operations. These operations have been carried out through a “sophisticated network” of intermediaries in the Middle East —particularly in Dubai— who command compartmented teams of surveillance operatives, hitmen, as well as logisticians. Payments are allegedly facilitated through informal hawala networks managed by Middle Easterners, Afghans, and others.

Many of those killed have been current and former members of militant Pakistani-aided groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, who have been designated terrorist organizations by most Western nations. For this reason, the West, including the United States, have been hesitant to accuse India of breaking international law. The Washington Post report claims that the Pakistanis have expressed their frustration to the United States, through Nadeem Anjum, director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency. In 2022, Anjum reportedly informed William Burns, director of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency, about the Indian assassination program. However, no notable action was taken by the United States in response to Anjum’s revelations, the article claims.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 02 January 2025 | Permalink

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Israel reportedly trying to recover spy’s remains from Syria

December 16, 2024 2 Comments

Eli CohenISRAELI 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.

The spy agency utilized Cohen’s fluency in Arabic and Spanish and sent him to Argentina, where he built his intelligence cover under the name Kamel Amin Thaabet. He pretended to be a Syrian businessman whose family had immigrated to Argentina in the 1920s. While in Argentina, Cohen became an active member of the Arab and Syrian diasporas and joined the Syrian Ba’ath Party.

In 1962, shortly before Ba’athist officers seized power in Syria, the Mossad instructed Cohen to relocate to Damascus. While there, Cohen became a well-known socialite with close connections to the administration of Syrian President Amin al-Hafiz. However, in 1965, Cohen’s espionage was uncovered by Syrian counterintelligence, who utilized technical countermeasures provided by Soviet intelligence. Cohen was convicted of espionage and publicly executed by hanging in Damascus on May 18, 1965.

Since Cohen’s execution, the Syrian state has rejected requests to reveal the location of his tomb and the whereabouts of his remains. On at least two instances, Israel, which views Cohen as a national hero, has offered to exchange Syrian and other Arab prisoners of war in return for the spy’s remains, but Damascus has rebuffed these offers. There are rumors that Syrian authorities regularly relocate Cohen’s remains so as to prevent Israel from covertly retrieving them.

According to reports from Middle Eastern media, since the fall of the administration of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israeli officials have been in negotiations to gain access to Cohen’s remains. The negotiations are allegedly taking place between Israeli government representatives and former members of the Assad regime, who have knowledge of the whereabouts of the late spy’s remains. In a television interview last week, Eli Cohen’s widow, Nadia, implied that Mossad Director David Barnea is personally involved in the ongoing negotiations.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date:16 December 2024 | Permalink

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Analysis: The fate of Russia’s military bases in Syria seems highly uncertain

December 9, 2024 1 Comment

Khmeimim Air Base SyriaTHERE 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 announced on Russian state media that the Kremlin had extended Bashar al-Assad and his family political asylum “on humanitarian grounds”. Attention quickly turned to the fate of the Russian embassy in the capital Damascus and the Russian military facilities in Tartous and Khmeimim.

It is difficult to overstate the strategic significance of the Russian military facilities in Syria, some of which date as far back as 1971, when Hafez al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad’s father, assumed power in the country. The Russian naval base in Tartous is currently the only Russian military 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.

Likewise, the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria’s Latakia province is home to dozens of Russian fighter jets, which have been stationed there since 2015, ostensibly in order to protect the Syrian government from the Islamic State. However, Russia regularly uses the Khmeimim Air Base to transport troops and war materiel to Africa, and to project air power in the Mediterranean, through the presence of several bomber aircraft. The latter can be found, not only in the Khmeimim Air Base, but also in the Syrian military airports of Homs and Palmyra.

But these two military airports are now in the hands of the Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces that have captured much of Syria in the past two weeks. It is doubtful that the Russian Aerospace Forces will be able to use them from now on. Moreover, there are reports that Moscow will be forced to engage in a strategic withdrawal of the entirety of its military forces from Syria within hours, if not days.

On Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a dismissive statement claiming that, although Russian troops in Syria had been placed on high alert, “no serious threat to their security” had been detected. According to the Reuters news agency, the Russian government had been in communication with the leadership of the HTS leadership for several days. As a result of this communication, an agreement had allegedly been struck, which guaranteed “the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria”. Read more of this post

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White House holds emergency meeting with telecoms over ‘massive’ Chinese breach

November 25, 2024 1 Comment

VerizonTHE WHITE HOUSE HELD an emergency meeting on Friday with senior telecommunications industry officials to discuss the fallout from a Chinese cyber espionage operation described as “massive” by experts. The existence of the operation was revealed last month by Microsoft engineers, who claimed that it was orchestrated by Salt Typhoon, a Chinese government-linked hacker group.

On Thursday, following a briefing provided by intelligence officials, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), who chairs the United States Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, referred to the Chinese breach as “far and away the most serious telecom hack in [American] history”. Warner added that the volume of data the Chinese hackers were able to collect on “important American officials” was alarming, but that the extent of the intrusion was significantly broader than initially thought and compromised the privacy of telephone users across the United States.

According to reports, the breach affected a host of American telecommunications service providers (TSPs), including the three largest —T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. The initial breach compromised the system employed by the TSPs to facilitate communications interception requests by government agencies following the issuance of court warrants. Eventually, however, the hackers were eventually able to exploit antiquated software and hardware in the United States’ national telecommunications network in order to target a wide array of users.

The extent of the damage caused by the breach remains unknown, as very little about it has been shared by the White House or the telecommunications industry. Nevertheless, it appears that the hackers selected telephone service users with senior current or former posts in government, including President-Elect Donald Trump. The hackers were reportedly able to access the metadata, and even content, of all unencrypted telephone calls and text messages to and from these users.

Friday’s meeting at the White House was reportedly convened by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and co-led by Anne Neuberger, who is serving as Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology. The names of telecommunications industry executives that attended the closed-door meeting were not provided to the media.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 25 November 2024 | Permalink

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Review calls for Europe-wide intelligence agency to prevent hybrid attacks

November 4, 2024 4 Comments

European Commission report coverA 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.

Ursula von der Leyen, who presides over the EU’s powerful executive branch, known as the European Commission, assigned the review last March. It was led by Sauli Niinistö, former president of Finland, who was tasked with providing a set with proposals aimed to enhance the resilience of the EU in the face of current threats in the tactical and strategic domains. The final report, available here in PDF, was made publicly available in Brussels on Wednesday.

Among several recommendations, the report proposes the establishment of a “fully fledged intelligence cooperation service at the EU level”, which could serve the EU’s urgent “strategic and operational needs”. Such needs include countering espionage threats within EU institutions, as well as devising Europe-wide networks of defense against sabotage targeting EU critical infrastructure. Part of the new agency’s mission should be to prevent foreign intelligence services from operating “anywhere in the EU”, the report said.

In her public statement upon receiving the report, President von der Leyen stated that the EU should begin to think pre-emptively, rather than reactively, about conventional and unconventional threats to its security. Such a process should begin through “improving the flow of information gathering and intelligence gathering”, initially through existing EU-wide security bodies, such as the European Union Intelligence and Situation Centre (EU-IntCEN) and the European Centre for Information Policy and Security (ECIPS).

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 04 November 2024 | Permalink

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Possible Russian role probed in incendiary devices found in Britain and Germany

October 21, 2024 2 Comments

DHLAUTHORITIES IN BRITAIN AND Germany are reportedly investigating the possibility that the Russian intelligence services may be behind two fires that occurred in shipping warehouses last summer. The fires occurred in late July in facilities belonging to DHL, a German logistics firm headquartered in Bonn.

On September 1, the German government issued a warning about unknown suspects allegedly shipping “unconventional incendiary devices” throughout Europe. The warning referenced a fire that occurred at a DHL logistics center in the east German city of Leipzig. Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) warned at the time that “further incendiary incidents” were anticipated, but provided no further details.

Late last week, British newspaper The Guardian reported that an incident like the one that occurred in Leipzig had taken place in a DHL warehouse in Minworth, a suburb of the city of Birmingham, located in the British Midlands region. In subsequent reporting, the paper alleged that British and German authorities have been investigating a link between the two incidents. Moreover, authorities are reportedly probing the possibility that the incidents may be part of a wider campaign by Russian military intelligence to sabotage Western European transportation and shipping networks.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian media revealed on Friday that a suspect had been arrested in Lithuania in connection with the two fires in Britain and Germany. The reports suggested that the two incendiary devices had been shipped from Lithuania by the same individual. However, there have been no updates about who may be behind the apparent sabotage campaign.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 21 October 2024 | Permalink

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Spain and US reject claims they planned to assassinate Venezuelan officials

September 16, 2024 1 Comment

Nicolás MaduroTHE GOVERNMENTS OF SPAIN and the United States have strongly rejected allegations they were involved in an operation that aimed to kill leading Venezuelan officials, including the country’s President Nicolás Maduro. The allegations were made by a senior Venezuelan cabinet minister, following the arrests on Sunday of three Americans, as well as two Spanish and one Czech citizens. The six men have been charged with plotting to destabilize the Venezuelan government by killing Maduro and other top officials.

The allegations against the six foreign men were aired on live television by the Venezuelan Minister of the Interior Diosdado Cabello, who is a close ally of Maduro. Cabello accused the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of “leading this operation” with the participation of special forces troops. The Venezuelan official went on to claim that at least one of the American citizens who were arrested over the weekend is a member of the US Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs.

Cabello referred to the six men as “mercenaries” with prior service in Colombia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He added that they had been in contact with “French mercenaries in Eastern Europe” who had supplied them with “hundreds of weapons”. Cabello told reporters that Venezuelan authorities had seized over 400 rifles when they arrested the six men. The Venezuelan cabinet minister also claimed that the two Spanish citizens were employees of National Intelligence Center, Spain’s primary intelligence organization.

Late yesterday, however, Spanish officials issued strong denials of Cabello’s allegations. One Spanish government spokesperson told the Agence France Presse news agency that Madrid “denied and categorically rejected” Venezuela’s claims. Meanwhile, a statement issued by the US Department of State rejected as “categorically false […] any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro”. The French and Czech governments had yet to issue any official statements as of late last night.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported yesterday that the Spanish government has requested that Venezuelan authorities provide details of the detainees and that the Spanish embassy in Caracas is seeing to gain access to the two Spanish detainees.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 16 September 2024 | Permalink

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Dutch prime minister bans wireless devices from meetings to ward off espionage

September 2, 2024 2 Comments

Dick SchoofTHE NETHERLANDS’ NEW PRIME minister has officially banned the use of all wireless devices from cabinet meetings, reportedly to defend against espionage operations from foreign actors. The move comes following warnings by Dutch intelligence services that the country is being targeted by Russian and Chinese spies with more intensity than at any time since the Cold War.

The current Dutch government, led by the far-right Freedom Party (PVV), was formed following the general election of November 2023. Although the PVV, headed by populist Geert Wilders, emerged as the leading political force in the Netherlands with 23% of the vote, it found it difficult to form a governing coalition. In June of this year, following lengthy negotiations, a rightwing coalition was formed between the PVV, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), and the New Social Contract (NSC).

A key feature of the agreement was that none of the individual parties’ leaders, including Wilders, could serve as prime minister. Instead, the three parties settled on Dick Schoof as a form of compromise. The 67-year-old Schoof led the Netherlands’ Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1999 until he was appointed to head the Ministry of Security and Justice in 2010. From 2013 to 2018, he became the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism —the Netherlands’ main counter-terrorism unit, which operates as part of the Ministry of Security and Justice.

In 2018, Schoof was appointed director-general of the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), the nation’s primary intelligence agency. The AIVD is tasked with foreign and domestic duties, as well as signals intelligence. Prior to his prime ministerial post, the culmination in Schoof’s career as a public servant came with his appointment as secretary-general of the Ministry of Justice and Security, in 2020. In 2021, after 30 years of being a member, Schoof officially left the Labor Party (PvdA), the Netherlands’ mainstream social-democratic, left-of-center political party. In subsequent public comments he appeared to endorse the PVV, but never officially joined it.

Speaking to reporters last week, Schoof said he was “taking a different approach” to security at cabinet meetings, which was “based on his former job in the intelligence community”. He added, “maybe I have a bit more experience with that sort of thing” and stressed that banning wireless devices from cabinet meetings was “a completely natural measure” for him. Members of the Dutch cabinet “agreed immediately” with the new measure, said the new prime minister.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 02 September 2024 | Permalink

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At least four Russians released in prisoner exchange with West are verified ‘illegals’

August 5, 2024 2 Comments

SVR hqAT LEAST FOUR OF the eight Russians released by the United States and its allies last week, in exchange for 16 people held in Russian prisons, are verified ‘illegals’ —the term used to describe Russian non-official-cover intelligence personnel. All four operated using third country identity documents, including passports. In every case but one, these identity documents had been illegally acquired.

In intelligence parlance, the term ‘illegals’ emerged during the Cold War to describe Russian intelligence personnel who operated without any formal association with Russian diplomatic facilities. In many cases, these operatives used third country passports. This enabled them to operate with an unusual degree of flexibility and evade the attention of rival intelligence services. At the same time, however, the absence of diplomatic credentials prevented these operatives from claiming diplomatic immunity if caught. It thus exposed them to the possibility of lengthy prison terms upon discovery.

THE TWO GRU ILLEGALS

Among the prisoners exchanged last week was Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov. Rubtsov was born in the Soviet Union as the grandson of a Spanish evacuee, who had been taken to Moscow as a child by the leftist Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. At the age of 9, Rubtsov moved with his mother to Spain, where he had his name legally changed to Pablo González Yagüe and grew up in Catalonia and the Basque Country. He was arrested in Poland in 2022 and charged with participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland on behalf of the Main Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, which is commonly known as GRU.

IntelNews has previously reported on the case of Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin, who was also released and returned to Russia on Thursday. Mikushin lived for several years in Canada and Norway using a Brazilian passport under the name of José Assis Giammaria. When he was arrested by Norwegian authorities, Mikushin was working as a researcher on arctic security affairs for the Arctic University of Norway. Among other things, Mikushin was a volunteer researcher for a UiT GreyZone, a scholarly project that studies contemporary hybrid threats and grey zone warfare. Like Yagüe, Mikushin is also believed to have been employed by the GRU.

THE TWO SVR ILLEGALS

Arguably the most unusual case of illegals among those unveiled last week is that of Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva. The couple moved from Argentina to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, in 2017. They brought with them their two young children, a boy and a girl, both of whom appear to have been born in Argentina. Artem Dultsev’s Argentinian passport bore the name Ludvig Gisch, born in 1984 in the West African country of Namibia. Dultsev posed as an information technology executive. His wife, Anna Dultseva, who operated an art gallery, used the cover name Maria Rosa Mayer Munos and went by Mayer. Read more of this post

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Ex-CIA analyst accused of spying for South Korea had prior warnings from FBI, CIA

July 22, 2024 3 Comments

NIS South KoreaA FORMER INTELLIGENCE ANALYST for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who is married to a high-profile columnist for The Washington Post, remains under arrest for allegedly spying for South Korea. According to an indictment unsealed last Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, the former CIA analyst is Sue Mi Terry, 54, of New York. Terry is a naturalized American citizen born in Seoul, South Korea, who grew up in Virginia and received a PhD from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Terry joined the CIA in 2001 but resigned in 2008, allegedly “in lieu of termination” because her employer “had ‘problems’ with her contact with” officers from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). After leaving the CIA, Terry worked briefly for the National Security Council and the National Intelligence Council, before transitioning to academia. Her most recent post was that of a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she became known as an exert on East Asian affairs with a focus on the Korean Peninsula. For over a decade, Terry has made frequent appearances on television and radio, as well as on several podcasts. She is married to the Washington Post columnist Max Boot.

The Department of Justice accuses Terry of failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and deliberately conspiring to violate that law, thus effectively operating as an unregistered agent of a foreign power. The indictment claims that Terry was gradually recruited by the NIS, beginning in 2013, two years after she stopped working for the United States government. Terry allegedly continued to work for the NIS for a decade, during which she was handled by NIS intelligence officers posing as diplomats in South Korea’s Washington embassy and permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.

It is alleged that throughout that time Terry provided her NIS handlers with access to senior US officials, disclosed “nonpublic US government information” to the NIS, and promoted pro-South Korean policy positions in her writings and media appearances. In return, Terry is alleged to have received luxury goods, free dinners at expensive restaurants, and nearly $40,000 in “covert” funding, nominally to operate a public policy program on Korean affairs. It is worth noting that, according to the unsealed indictment, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned Terry that she should be wary of being approached by NIS officers seeking to offer her funding. Read more of this post

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