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

Israeli secret agents guarding Palestinian President, Prime Minister

August 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Mahmoud Abbas

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Israeli agents of Shin Bet are guarding Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on their trips around some parts of the West Bank, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz revealed last week. The report comes days after jeeps with agents from the VIP security unit of Israel’s secret service were observed escorting Abbas during his visits to Palestinian villages located in so-called “Area C”, a region of the West Bank that continues to remain under Israeli control, in accordance with the 1993 Oslo Accords. Both Palestinian and Israeli officials have confirmed this peculiar arrangement, which is bound to add to the animosity between the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government said that the same procedures are in effect when foreign officials visit Area C, and that it guards the Palestinian Authority President whenever he visits Israel.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1993 Oslo Accords, Area C (West Bank), Fatah, Gaza Strip, Hamas, Israel, News, Palestine, Palestinian National Authority, Salam Fayyad, Shin Bet, West Bank

Taliban execute Mehsud’s family members on espionage charges

August 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Baitullah Mehsud

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Four relatives of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were reportedly arrested last week by Taliban militants, who suspect them of having informed Pakistani and US intelligence about Mehsud’s whereabouts. Pakistani and US officials say they are almost certain that Mehsud was killed in an unmanned drone air strike (probably remotely operated by the CIA) earlier this month. Mehsud’s family members arrested by the Taliban include his father-in-law, Ikramuddin Mehsud, his son, Ziauddin Mehsud, his brother, Saeedullah Mehsud, and his nephew, Iqbal Mehsud. Earlier today, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, told reporters that the Taliban have executed Mehsud’s family members, listed above, after “confirming” their espionage activities. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team, assassinations, Baitullah Mehsud, CIA, Hakimullah Mehsud, Ikramuddin Mehsud, Iqbal Mehsud, Lahore (Pakistan), News, Pakistan, Predator drones, Rehman Malik, Saeedullah Mehsud, Taliban, War on Terrorism, Ziauddin Mehsud

News you may have missed #0076

August 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Revealing CIA report published today. The CIA is expected to come under some of its toughest scrutiny for years, after the publication today of a report detailing the agency’s use of mock executions, and the threatening of detainees with power drills and guns during interrogations.
North Korean spy director meets South Korean officials. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met a delegation of visiting North Korean officials on Sunday, including Kim Yang Gon who heads the United Front Department (UFD), an intelligence agency under the Korean Worker’s Party (KWP) of the DPRK.
Changes imminent at South African spy agency. The administration of President Jacob Zuma intends to move to restructure South Africa’s National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the country’s primary domestic spy organization. In July, a former member of South Africa’s ministerial Review Commission on Intelligence warned that a steadily declining culture of accountability in the country’s spy services is threatening the country’s constitutional order.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, intelligence reform, Kim Yang Gon, Korean Workers' Party (North Korea), Lee Myung-bak, National Intelligence Agency (South Africa), News, news you may have missed, North Korea, South Africa, South Korea, torture, United Front Department (North Korea), United States, War on Terrorism

Former Colombian spy director surrenders in assassination probe

August 23, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Maza Marquez

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Miguel Maza Marquez, a fugitive from justice who briefly directed Colombia’s Administrative Department of Security (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, or DAS) in the late 1980s, has turned himself in at a DAS academy. His arrest was ordered in June by the office of the Colombian Attorney General, in connection with the 1989 assassination of reformist Colombian politician Luis Carlos Galán. Galán, who was the leading presidential candidate at the time of his assassination, gained his popularity by declaring himself an enemy of Colombia’s drug cartels, such as those led by Pablo Escobar and Gonzalo Rodríguez. On August 18, 1989, Galán was shot in the face during a pre-election rally in Soacha, on the outskirts of Bogota. Prosecutors investigating his assassination allege that Maza Marquez, whose Department was responsible for Galán’s bodyguards, intervened to make suspicious changes to Galán’s security detail on the night of his assassination. Some say that Maza Marquez was acting on orders from notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar himself.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with assassinations, Bogota (Colombia), Colombia, Colombian Liberal Party, corruption, DAS (Colombia), Gonzalo Rodríguez, Luis Carlos Galán, Miguel Maza Marquez, narcotics trade, News, Pablo Escobar

News you may have missed #0077

August 23, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Army documents reveal Mexican military’s role in massacre. Newly declassified documents from the US Defense Intelligence Agency describe the Mexican Army’s role in backing paramilitary groups in Chiapas at the time of the Acteal massacre. The massacre involved the killing of 45 people attending a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic indigenous townspeople, including a number of children and pregnant women, who were members of the pacifist group Las Abejas (“The Bees”).
Tamils in the UK continue fundraising despite spy fears. Members of the Tamil community in Oxford, England, have vowed to continue fundraising despite fears that the Sri Lankan government is spying on them.
Major purge at Bulgarian intelligence agency. More key officials of Bulgaria’s State National Security Agency (DANS) have submitted their resignations after its director, Petko Sertov, was recently replaced. Sertov was allegedly axed because Bulgaria’s “American partners were said to have lost faith” in him.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1997 Acteal Massacre, Bulgaria, Chiapas state (Mexico), DANS (Bulgaria), DIA, espionage, Las Abejas, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mexican Army, Mexico, News, news you may have missed, Petko Sertov, Sri Lanka, UK, United States

Lithuania also hosted CIA black sites, says ABC News

August 22, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dick Marty

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
After Poland and Romania, the former Soviet republic of Lithuania has been identified by US information outlet ABC News as another European nation that secretly hosted CIA prisons after 9/11. ABC News reporter Matthew Cole says former CIA officials told him that the Lithuanian government provided the CIA with a building located in suburban Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, with the understanding that it would be used as a so-called black site for secretly detaining high-value al-Qaeda suspects. The CIA reportedly used the building to detain up to eight suspects for over a year each, until December of 2005, when public rumors about the existence of the prison forced the CIA to abandon it. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, CIA, Dick Marty, Eastern Europe, extraordinary rendition, Lithuania, News, Paul Gimigliano, secret prisons, Switzerland, United States, Vilnius (Lithuania), War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0076

August 22, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Australia’s domestic spy agency considers FBI model. There are reports that Australia’s domestic spy agency could be expanded to become more like its US counterpart, the FBI.
Weapons manufacturers planted spy on Swiss anti-military group. The Group for Switzerland without an Army, a campaign group calling for Switzerland to disband its military, has accused the weapons industry of planting a spy within its membership.
Retired Lebanese security official “confesses” to spying for Israel. Lebanon’s counterespionage operations continue after Mahmoud Qassem Rafeh, a 62-year-old retired Internal Security Forces official, has allegedly confessed to having “collaborated with Israeli intelligence agents” between 1993 and 2006.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Al-Alam spy ring, ASIO, Australia, corporate espionage, domestic intelligence, espionage, FBI, ISF (Lebanon), Israel, Lebanon, Mahmoud Qassem Rafeh, News, news you may have missed, Switzerland, The Group for Switzerland without an Army, United States, weapons trade

News you may have missed #0075

August 21, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Release of Libyan convicted bomber raises questions. To some, Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was released by British authorities a few days ago on compassionate grounds, isn’t the Lockerbie bomber, but a scapegoat being used to hide the truth.
Analysis: Killing The KGB myth. Western pundits and journalists like to throw around the idea that Russia is currently being run by veterans of the Soviet era KGB. But a check of the public record quickly reveals that this is not so.
Second ranking US intelligence official to visit Philippines. After a recent visit to the Philippines by CIA director Leon Panetta, the US has dispatched to the country a second ranking intelligence official “to discuss with key officials anti-terrorism and development efforts”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, Analysis, CIA, KGB, Leon Panetta, Libya, Lockerbie air disaster, News, news you may have missed, Pan Am Flight 103, Philippines, Russia, Southeast Asia, UK, United States

Comment: Blackwater’s role in CIA ops runs deep

August 21, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

Blackwater/Xe

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
North Carolina-based military and intelligence contractor Xe had a major role in the CIA’s rumored post-9/11 assassination program and is active today in the Agency’s Predator drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The New York Times and The Washington Post cited “government officials and current and former [Xe] employees” in revealing that the CIA worked briefly with Xe –formerly known as Blackwater– in the context of a top-secret program to locate and murder senior al-Qaeda leaders. According to The Washington Post, Blackwater’s role in the operation was far from consultative, and included “operational responsibility for targeting terrorist commanders [and awards worth] millions of dollars for training and weaponry”. The New York Times alleges that Blackwater’s central role in the operation was “a major reason” in CIA director Leon Panetta’s decision last June to inform Congress about the program, which CIA had kept hidden from Congressional oversight for seven years. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, assassinations, black operations, Blackwater, CIA, intelligence outsourcing, intelligence oversight, Iraq, John Kiriakou, Joseph Fitsanakis, Leon Panetta, national security, Pakistan, Porter Goss, Predator drones, R.J. Hillhouse, Taliban, United States, US Congress, War on Terrorism, Xe

FBI investigates attorneys for trying to identify CIA torturers

August 21, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Washington Post and The New York Times are reporting three military attorneys at Guantánamo Bay have been questioned by the FBI for allegedly showing pictures of CIA operatives to prisoners accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks. In some cases, the pictures were taken surreptitiously outside the operatives’ homes. The lawyers were apparently trying to identify agents who may have been involved in torturing prisoners at US jails overseas. But US military officials say the lawyers could have broken laws shielding the identity of classified intelligence. The FBI investigation is reportedly headed by John Dion, head of the US Justice Department’s counterespionage section. Dion has worked on several high-profile national security cases, including the prosecution of Aldrich H. Ames, the CIA double agent who spied for the USSR. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, Aldrich H. Ames, Anthony Romero, CIA, FBI, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, John Adams Project, John Dion, lawsuits, News, torture, United States, US Department of Justice, USSR, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0074

August 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Captured Real IRA operative tried to buy weapons in Lithuania. An Irishman accused of attempting to buy weapons for the Real IRA in Lithuania appeared in court on Tuesday, in Lithuania’s first terrorist trial.
CIA lawyers accused of “deception” in contract dispute. Only three weeks after a federal judge ruled that CIA lawyers committed fraud in a lawsuit, another top agency lawyer is being accused of unethical conduct in another case.
Western spy agencies develop “terrorist Facebook”. Western spy agencies are turning to complex social network analysis. They plan to amass intelligence on a large range of people, even those who seem obscure or irrelevant, and feed it into a computer which will use an algorithm to investigate associations or connections that could be missed by a human.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Facebook, lawsuits, Lithuania, Michael Campbell, News, news you may have missed, Real IRA, RIRA, social networking, United States, War on Terrorism, weapons trade

Australian diplomats targeted by fake email

August 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

David Irvine

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Australian government has issued a warning to its diplomats around the world about a fake email, which it says could be part of an organized cyberespionage campaign. The email began appearing in Australian diplomatic staff’s email inboxes late last month. It is titled “Australia-China Free Trade Agreement Negotiations Update” and its sender(s) reportedly targeted Australian diplomats specializing in Australia’s economic and security relations with China. The email’s title and focus has led some observers to speculate that it originated from groups with Chinese intelligence connections. But the Australian government remains silent on the matter, saying simply that the source of the suspicious email “is under investigation”. Earlier this month, David Irvine, the recently appointed director of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, identified cyberespionage as “a growing national security risk”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ASIO, Australia, China, computer hacking, cyberespionage, David Irvine, News

Israel, Azerbaijan, tight-lipped on rumored reconnaissance deal

August 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Ilham Aliyev

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The Israeli and Azerbaijani governments are apparently keeping quiet about rumored plans to jointly manufacture unmanned drone aircraft and spy satellites. Representatives of Israel’s reconnaissance and aeronautics industry were among dozens of Israeli business leaders who joined last June’s state visit to Azerbaijan by Isarel’s President Shimon Peres. It was the first-ever visit to the Caspian Sea state by an Israeli head of state. Soon after the end of the visit, there were rumors in the Israeli press that Tel Aviv had managed to convince Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, after four years of negotiations, to approve the construction of a manufacturing plant in Azerbaijan that will construct unmanned drone surveillance aircraft. Moreover, Israel was said to have agreed to help Azerbaijan construct a TecSAR all-weather satellite reconnaissance system. Azerbaijan, which borders with Russia, Iran, Armenia and Georgia, is one of the few predominantly Muslim countries that maintain bilateral relations with Israel.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with aerial reconnaissance, Azerbaijan, Caspian Sea, energy resources, Ilham Aliyev, Israel, News, satellite reconnaissance, Shimon Peres, TecSAR

News you may have missed #0073

August 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Homeland Security denies involvement in domestic spying case. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that reports on antiwar groups gathered by John Towery, an undercover Army spy in Washington state, did not make their way into DHS intelligence data banks.
Sudan’s new spy chief speaks to the press. Mohamed Atta Al-Moula Abbas, who replaced Salah Gosh as head of Sudan’s National Security and Intelligence Services last week, has spoken publicly for the first time.
US special operations forces can’t exploit intelligence. US special operations forces are successfully collecting valuable operational intelligence materials in the field, but can’t exploit and disseminate those materials, according to a new report.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with domestic intelligence, informants, John Towery, Mohamed Atta Al-Moula Abbas, National Security and Intelligence Services (Sudan), News, news you may have missed, Salah Gosh, Sudan, United States, US Army, US Department of Homeland Security, US Special Forces, Washington state

News you may have missed #0072

August 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Analysis: Government secrecy alive and well under Obama. The Obama administration has not reduced the volume of security and safety-related US government information that is withheld from the public.
Emirates to go after former French spy. Malika Karoum, the former Dutch intelligence agent, is not the only ex-spy to have fallen out with Dubai’s oil-rich elite. The city’s police force says it will issue an arrest warrant for Herve Jaubert, a former French spy convicted in absentia of embezzling $3.8million, after he fled the country in a rubber dingy. He now lives in the US.
Was US man caught in FSB honey trap operation a CIA agent? It doesn’t appear so, say some Cryptome correspondents.