Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying | intelNews.org

Comment: CIA Insiders Issue Torture Probe Warnings

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

A.B. Krongard

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Sensing that a government probe into its post-9/11 practices is around the corner, the CIA has employed its usual practice of issuing public warnings through friendly news outlets. Several Agency insiders appear to have simultaneously decided to break their customary silence. Speaking to The Washington Post, they sternly warned that “[m]orale has sagged at the CIA” because of the rumored government investigation into torture of detainees and other controversial intelligence projects.

Lockerbie bomber’s release was part of UK-Libyan oil deal, says paper

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Al-Megrahi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Negotiation difficulties between British Petroleum (BP) and the Libyan government over an oil exploration deal were resolved soon after London decided to authorize last month’s release of a man convicted for his role in the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster, The London Times said on Sunday. Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released on August 19 by British authorities on compassionate grounds and is now in Tripoli. The paper says that documents in its possession show that the decision to release al-Megrahi was the culmination of a two-year-long negotiation between the British and Libyan governments, as well as regional authorities in Scotland, where al-Megrahi was imprisoned. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, Africa, BP, British Petroleum, energy resources, Libya, Lockerbie air disaster, News, Pan Am Flight 103, Robert Baer, Scotland, UK

News you may have missed #0089

September 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

German intelligence negotiating on Israel’s behalf. Israel has asked Gemany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, to mediate in negotiations for the release Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza since June 2006. Intelligence sources say a prisoner exchange deal may be imminent.
France to send more spies to Somalia. Days after the dramatic escape of a French spy from his militant captors in Somalia, the French government has announced its intention to station more operatives in the country.
Senior Russian military officer jailed for spying for Georgia. Authorities said Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Khachidze, who is an ethnic Georgian, passed Russian military secrets over the Internet to Georgian secret services in June and July 2008. Khachidze was allegedly recruited by Georgian intelligence in late 2007, while stationed on Georgian territory.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, BND, France, Gaza Strip, Georgia, Germany, Gilad Shalit, informants, Israel, Mikhail Khachidze, News, news you may have missed, Russia, Russian military, secret meetings, Somalia

Tinner nuclear smuggling ring documents may prove CIA connection

September 1, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Urs Tinner

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last January I wrote about Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer who worked under Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, and was said at the time to be leading “the world’s biggest nuclear smuggling ring”. In 2003, Tinner was arrested, along with his father Friedrich and brother Marco, in connection with an attempt to smuggle centrifuges into Libya. Many were surprised, however, when in 2008 Tinner was released from prison, after the CIA, whose tip led to his arrest in Germany, said it was not interested in prosecuting him. Earlier this year, Tinner went on Swiss television and acknowledged that he had worked as an informant for the CIA –some say he was recruited in as early as 2000. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Qadeer Khan, CIA, Germany, Libyan nuclear program, News, nuclear proliferation, Swiss Ministry of Justice, Tinner nuclear smuggling ring, Urs Tinner, weapons smuggling

News you may have missed #0088

August 31, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US state governors receiving suspicious laptops. Why are state governors’ offices in West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming and Washington, receiving laptops which they have not ordered? Could there be a connection with malicious emails received recently by several US local officials?
Blackwater training foreign mercenaries in the Philippines. US military contractor Blackwater is now training mercenaries for covert operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. The Philippine government is denying it. What does Leon Panetta, who visited the country not long ago, know about this?
Swiss government agency is able to wiretap Skype. What about NSA? A Swiss software developer who released what he claims is the source code of a program for tapping into encrypted Skype communications, had previously sold it to the Swiss Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (UVEK) “to use in remote surveillance activities”. Does this mean that the NSA has been wasting its money?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Blackwater, communications interception, computer hacking, Energy and Communications, Leon Panetta, mercenaries, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Philippines, Skype, Swiss Department of the Environment, Switzerland, Transport, United States, VOIP

Arab Israeli accused of spying for Hezbollah

August 31, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Gabi Ashkenazi

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Israeli authorities have indicted an Arab Israeli for spying on the country’s military chief, on behalf of Lebanese group Hezbollah. In the indictment, presented earlier this morning, 23-year-old Rawi Sultani is accused of having informed Hezbollah of his membership in the same fitness club as Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, in the town of Kfar Saba, as well methods of access into the club. Sultani is said to have attended a pro-Hezbollah summer camp in Morocco in the summer of 2008, where he allegedly told Hezbollah operatives about his proximity to Ashkenazi. Israeli authorities accuse Sultani of having travelled to Poland, several months later, where he met another Hezbollah operative with the purpose of supplying him with information about security arrangements at the fitness club, as well as Ashkenazi’s training routine. Sultani’s defense team denies the charges, and claims that the 23-year-old Arab citizen of Israel did not realize he was volunteering the information to agents of Hezbollah.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Arab Israelis, Gabi Ashkenazi, Hezbollah, informants, Israel, Israeli military, Kfar Saba (Israel), Lebanon, Morocco, News, Poland, Rawi Sultani

CIA documents reveal secret aspects of Vietnam War

August 30, 2009 by intelNews 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

News you may have missed #0087

August 30, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Lithuania will probe claims of secret CIA prisons. Lithuania has promised to investigate recent allegations that it hosted a secret CIA prison for al-Qaeda suspects on the outskirts of the capital Vilnius.
Book Review: Spycraft. Science News has published a review of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, by Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, with Henry Robert Schlesinger.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, book news and reviews, CIA, H. Keith Melton, Henry Robert Schlesinger, Lithuania, News, news you may have missed, Robert Wallace, secret prisons, United States, Vilnius (Lithuania), War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0086

August 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

New book examines history of Finnish domestic intelligence. The history of SUPO, Finland’s Security Police, is detailed in a new book by Professor Kimmo Rentola of Turku University.
Ex-KGB agent doesn’t regret sanctuary decision. Mikhail Lennikov is still living in a Vancouver church, defying an order of expulsion from Canada on national security grounds.
CIA used Canadian research for torture. The US Central Intelligence Agency used Canadian research to determine how cold they could make a detainee in water, newly released documents show.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with book news and reviews, Canada, CIA, Cold War, deportations, Finland, history, KGB, Mikhail Alexander Lennikov, News, news you may have missed, SUPO (Finland), torture, USSR, Vancouver (Canada)

Analysis: Assessing the record of Russian espionage

August 29, 2009 by intelNews 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

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Cold War, counterintelligence, Czech Republic, espionage, Estonia, FSB, KGB, KGB First Chief Directorate, Roman Kupchinsky, Russia, SVR (Russia), USSR

News you may have missed #0085

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

How the ACLU got the CIA agents’ photos. As intelNews reported earlier this week, the ACLU has been trying to identify CIA agents who participated in torture of detainees, by taking surreptitious pictures outside the operatives’ homes. It is worth noting that uncovering the identities of CIA officers is legal, so long as it is based on publicly available records.
Russian espionage case is bigger than initially thought, say Czech officials. Intelligence authorities in the Czech Republic say the two Russian agents who were recently expelled from the country last week were not primarily interested in the US missile defense shield.
US spy community builds Wikipedia-style database. Intellipedia, the intelligence community’s version of Wikipedia has grown markedly since its formal launch in 2006. It now averages more than 15,000 edits per day and is home to 900,000 pages and 100,000 user accounts.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, CIA, Czech Republic, databases, espionage, Intellipedia, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Russia, torture, United States, US Missile Defense Shield, Wikipedia

Has Skype’s VOIP encryption been broken?

August 28, 2009 by intelNews 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.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with communications interception, computer hacking, cryptology, Internet, NSA, Skype, telecommunications, VOIP

News you may have missed #0084

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Cargo ship with Israeli weapons destined for Philippines seized. The arms were apparently destined for “rebel groups or criminal organizations”. No word yet from the Israeli government.
Even more CIA documents to be disclosed. Word comes that, in response to pending requests from the ACLU, more CIA documents about Bush-era interrogations and detentions could be released as early as Monday.
Double spy’s son admits guilt. Nathaniel James Nicholson, youngest son of Harold James Nicholson, who in 1997 became the highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of spying on behalf of a foreign agency, pleaded guilty Thursday to collecting cash from Russian officials who owed his father for selling CIA secrets in the 1990s.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Bush Administration, CIA, declassification, double agents, Harold James Nicholson, interrogation techniques, Israel, lawsuits, maritime surveillance, Nathaniel James Nicholson, News, news you may have missed, Philippines, Russia, United States, weapons smuggling

News you may have missed #0083

August 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Indonesian police denies plan to spy on mosques. Indonesian authorities have denied the rumored existence of a plan to monitor religious sermons during Ramadan.
Reiss was nuclear spy, claim Iranians. Clotilde Reiss, a French student who was arrested in Iran last July, was involved in nuclear espionage, according to Iran’s ambassador to Paris, Seyyed Mehdi Mirabutalebi.
Canada still trying to deport Indian spy. Canada has been trying since last December to deport an Indian man for espionage, since he arrived at Vancouver International Airport under a false identity.
Somali militants use many tactics to woo Americans. Details are emerging about how Somali militants have lured young American men, including as many as 20 from Minnesota, back to their homeland to join the jihad.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Canada, Clotilde Reiss, deportations, France, India, Indonesia, Indonesian Muslims, Iran, Iranian embassy in France, News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, Seyyed Mehdi Mirabutalebi, Somalia, The Party of Youth (Somalia), United States, Vancouver (Canada), Vancouver International Airport

News you may have missed #0082

August 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

The spy who prayed. Profile of As’ad Said Ali, deputy chief of Indonesia’s National Intelligence Agency, who is actively involved in Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization.
Shadowy Turkish group used journalists as spies. Ergenekon, a shadowy ultranationalist network with strong links to the Turkish armed forces, which planned to topple the Turkish government, used journalists to spy on its high-profile targets, according to court documents.
CIA sacked Baghdad station chief after deaths. The CIA removed its station chief in Iraq and reorganized its operations there in late 2003, following “potentially very serious leadership lapses” that included the deaths of detainees in US custody.