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

CIA whistleblower’s memo on Peru declassified after eight years

August 6, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

V.L. Montesinos

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A memorandum drafted in 2001 by a CIA officer, detailing assistance illegally provided by the CIA to the former chief of Peruvian intelligence, has been declassified following an eight-year court battle. In the memorandum, CIA employee Franz Boening argued that the Agency violated US law by providing material and political assistance to Vladimiro Ilich Montesinos Torres, a graduate of the US Army’s School of the Americas and longtime CIA operative, who headed Peru’s Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (SIN) under the corrupt administration of President Alberto Fujimori. Fujimori is now in prison, as is Montesinos himself. But in 2001, the CIA Inspector General, to whom Boening’s memorandum was addressed, took no action in response to the officer’s allegations. What is more, the CIA proceeded to classify Boening’s memorandum, claiming that its disclosure “reasonably could be expected to cause damage to national security”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alberto Fujimori, censorship, CIA, CIA Inspector General, corruption, declassification, Franz Boening, government secrecy, informants, lawsuits, News, Peru, Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (SIN), United States, US Army School of the Americas, Vladimiro Montesinos, whistleblowing

News you may have missed #0058

August 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Were Americans in Iran spying or in wrong place at wrong time? Officials in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region said Sunday that the three, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal, were tourists who inadvertently crossed into Iran on Friday while hiking in the region. But the head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee said on government-run Arabic television that the three came as spies.
British lawmaker challenges US threats to suppress CIA torture evidence. Conservative British parliamentarian David Davis is on a visit to the United States to speak with US lawmakers about the case of Binyam Mohamed.
Al-Qaeda will pose a threat for 20 years, says Dennis Blair. The US Director of National Intelligence has said al-Qaeda will continue to rely mostly on conventional explosives in its attacks.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Qaeda, Binyam Mohamed, CIA, David Davis, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, espionage, Iran, Iranian Parliament National Security Committee, Joshua Fattal, Kurdistan, News, news you may have missed, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, torture, UK, UK House of Commons, United States, War on Terrorism

Mysterious “CIA spy in Iran” calls for stronger US policy

August 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A mysterious CIA informant, who claims he worked for the CIA inside the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the 1980s, has called for “a strong Western hand” against the Iranian government. In an article published earlier today in The Christian Science Monitor, the informant, who uses the pseudonym “Reza Kahlili”, says that defending “what remains of democracy and freedom in Iran” is one of the West’s “most important decisions of our era”. “Kahlili” makes vague mentions of working “for years alongside” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, “as a CIA spy working undercover […], starting in the 1980s”. In arguing for a stronger Western stance against Iran, “Kahlili” alleges that, in the 1980s, unnamed European governments made secret pacts with the Iranian government, allowing them “to assassinate opposition members abroad without interference, as long as European citizens were not at risk”, in exchange for steady supplies of Iranian oil. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, informants, Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, News, Reza Kahlili, United States, Wally (codename)

News you may have missed #0057

August 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

India says Pakistani intelligence smuggling counterfeit currency. The Indian government has accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of “flooding the [Indian] market with counterfeit currency notes”.
Building plans show magnitude of proposed NSA building. A draft environmental assessment obtained by a television station in Utah gives some idea of the magnitude of a proposed NSA intelligence facility to be built at Camp Williams. Plans call for approximately 1.5 million square feet of building space.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with bribing, Camp Williams (Utah), Christian evangelism, Christianity, CIA, counterfeiting, India, Iran, Iraq, Mossad, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Pakistan, United States, Utah

Russians helped Lebanon bust Israeli spy ring, claims site

August 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

FSB agent

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Israeli website DEBKAfile claims that the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is the primary counterintelligence force behind the busting of the Al-Alam spy ring in Lebanon, which intelNews has been monitoring since February, when it first erupted. The website, known for its contacts with intelligence circles, says that it was Russian, not French, surveillance technology that helped uncover the spy ring. The article cites “Western intelligence sources in the Middle East”, who apparently revealed that a specialist FSB unit was commissioned by Hezbollah, the Shia Islamic political and paramilitary organization that controls large parts of Lebanon, to root out the massive spy ring. The unit then proceeded to do so “with the help of super-efficient detection systems”, DEBKAfile claims. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Al-Alam spy ring, counterintelligence, espionage, FSB, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanese Internal Security Forces, Lebanon, News, Russia

News you may have missed #0056

August 4, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

South Korean spy agency seeks increased access to financial intelligence. The National Intelligence Service is pushing for legal revisions that will allow it to access information on financial transactions of over 20 million won (US$16,000) without a warrant. The agency claims the new powers will help track down “terrorism-related funds”.
Nepal to create new spy agency. The Maoist Nepali government is preparing to set up a powerful intelligence body that will be directly accountable to the Prime Minister. IntelNews hears that Indian government advisors are actively involved in setting up the new agency, which will “gather information on foreign intervention in Nepal”.
Peru’s Defense minister denies alleged espionage against Chile. Rafael Rey has denied any participation by Peru’s government in the case of Business Track, a company accused of telephonic and electronic interception to Chilean Army officers.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Chile, communications interception, economic espionage, ELINT, India, National Intelligence Service (South Korea), Nepal, News, news you may have missed, Peru, Rafael Rey, South Korea, telephony, terrorism

Charges finally announced in Colombia wiretap scandal

August 4, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Alvaro Uribe

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Colombia’s chief prosecutor has finally announced criminal charges against ten former government officials accused of spying on political opponents of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. As intelNews reported in April, Colombia’s Administrative Department of Security (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, or DAS) suffered one of the most extensive purges in its history, when 22 (later joined by 11 more) of its detectives were fired for illegally wiretapping several public figures. Those targeted by the wiretaps included the chief of the Colombian National Police, minister of defense Juan Manuel Santos, former President Cesar Gaviria, supreme court judges, prominent journalists, union leaders and human rights campaigners. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alvaro Uribe, Cesar Gaviria, Colombia, Colombian Chief Prosecutor’s Office, Colombian National Police, communications interception, DAS (Colombia), Jorge Noguera, Jose Miguel Narvaez, Juan Manuel Santos, News, political policing, surveillance, warrantless communications interception, wiretapping

NSA looking to build 5.8 million square feet by 2029

August 4, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NSA HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US National Security Agency filed a notice in last month’s Federal Register, laying out a 20-year plan to construct 5.8 million square feet of new working and storage space on its Fort George G. Meade headquarters, and staff it with 11,000 people. The Baltimore Business Journal and The Baltimore Sun, which first spotted the notice, said the NSA will not say how many of the 11,000 jobs will be new. The Sun asked the gigantic agency, which already employs over 25,000 people around Baltimore alone, for more details on its plans. But the NSA, which is tasked by the US government with worldwide communications surveillance as well as communications security, merely repeated the information contained in the Federal Register, saying it needs new buildings to “meet mission growth requirements” and to “consolidate” its output. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anne Arundel county (Maryland), Baltimore, Fort George G. Meade, James Bamford, Maryland, Matthew M. Aid, News, NSA, San Antonio (Texas), Texas Cryptology Center, The US Federal Register, United States, Utah

News you may have missed #0055

August 4, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Top Sri Lanka government officials spied for Tigers. Sri Lankan authorities say that some top government officials serving in the north of the country are facing arrest over allegedly feeding intelligence to the LTTE. The revelation follows the arrest last week of the LTTE’s intelligence chief.
Three Americans arrested in Iran are not spies, says ABC News. The news outlet claims the detainees are two writers and an environmental worker. Interestingly, all three are based in the Middle East and are fluent in Arabic.
Rio Tinto spy allegations would stand in Australia, say Chinese. Liu Jieyi, a vice minister with the international department in the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, tells ABC Radio that allegations of bribery and stealing state secrets against Stern Hu would stand in Australia as well as China.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Australia, bribing, Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, China, corporate espionage, economic espionage, espionage, Iran, Joshua Fattal, Kurdistan, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Liu Jieyi, LTTE, News, news you may have missed, Rio Tinto, Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, Stern Hu, United States

News you may have missed #0054

August 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Stasi files reveal covert war against Western musicians. Files kept by the former East German secret police indicate that they were worried about rock concerts held within listening distance of East Berlin neighborhoods by Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
Greece arrests Muslim minority member for ‘spy photos’. The man was arrested last weekend on charges of spying for Turkey, following the confiscation of hundreds of photographs from his home, most of which depict Greek military facilities. Greece’s State Intelligence Service (EYP) had been monitoring his activities for nearly a year.
Head of Bulgaria’s national security agency resigns. Petko Sertov, director of Bulgaria’s State Agency for National Security (DANS) has handed his resignation, allegedly after 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 Bruce Springsteen, Buglaria, Cold War, culture, DANS (Bulgaria), Eastern Europe, espionage, EYP (Greece), Greece, Greek Muslims, Michael Jakson, music, News, news you may have missed, Petko Sertov, photographic intelligence, Pink Floyd, State Intelligence Service (Greece), Turkey

Al-Qaeda may have infiltrated Britain’s MI5, says lawmaker

August 3, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Patrick Mercer

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The chairperson of Britain’s House of Commons subcommittee on counter-terrorism has raised the possibility that MI5, the country’s premier domestic intelligence agency, has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda operatives. MP Patrick Mercer (Con.) revealed on Saturday that he had been told MI5 had expelled as many as six British Muslim recruits after red flags were raised about their backgrounds. He has since called upon Home Secretary Alan Johnson “to detail how far down the recruitment process the men had got before they were weeded out” by MI5 vetting officers. There are allegations that some of the six potential recruits had been trained in al-Qaeda-run camps in Pakistan, while others had “unexplained gaps in their curricula vitae”. No response has so far been issued by the British government, but The Daily Telegraph has quoted an “unnamed senior security source”, who has denied the allegations.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Alan Johnson, British Muslims, double agents, intelligence vetting, MI5, News, Pakistan, Patrick Mercer, UK, UK House of Commons, UK House of Commons Subcommittee on Counterterrorism

News you may have missed #0053

August 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

[UNCONFIRMED] Saudi opposition group claims Prince Bandar under house arrest. Saad al-Faqih, head of the Saudi opposition group Islamic Reform Movement, claims that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom’s former ambassador to the United States, and a close ally of the Bush family and former CIA leadership, is under house arrest after reportedly trying to “provoke 200 agents working for the Saudi security service to stage a coup against King Abdullah”.
Ukrainian diplomat expelled from Russia named. An Ukrainian source has named one of the two Ukrainian diplomats to be expelled by Russia as part of the tit-for-tat row as Igor Berezkin. The expulsions follow a similar move by Ukrainian authorities who requested that Russia’s consul general in Odessa, Alexander Grachev and a senior counselor at the Russian embassy, Vladimir Lysenko, leave Ukraine over accusations that they had been involved in work in violation of their diplomatic status (i.e. espionage).
Book claims Secret Service took psychic’s advice. Ronald Kessler claims in a new book that the US Secret Service changed a motorcade route for the first President George Bush based on a psychic’s vision that he would be assassinated.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Alexander Grachev, assassinations, Bandar bin Sultan, coup plots, diplomatic expulsions, espionage, George Bush Sr., Igor Berezkin, Islamic Reform Movement, News, news you may have missed, Odessa, Ronald Kessler, Russia, Russian consulate in Odessa (Ukraine), Russian embassy in the Ukraine, Saad al-Faqih, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, US Secret Service, Vladimir Lysenko

CIA director says Congress should let go of CIA’s past actions

August 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Leon Panetta

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
CIA director Leon Panetta has criticized Congress for its “focus on the past” that “threatens to distract the CIA from its crucial core missions”. In an editorial published last weekend in The Washington Post, Panetta says he is becoming “increasingly concerned” that “wrong judgments” made by the Bush Administration after 9/11 have damaged the broad agreement between the executive and legislative branches of the US government about the CIA’s role and activities. But the CIA director says the “sincerity or the patriotism” of Bush Administration officials should not be questioned, as they “were trying to respond as best they could” in the aftermath of 9/11. Instead, Panetta argues for learning “lessons from the past without getting stuck there”, and warns that “classified information that shapes […] conversations” between the CIA and Congress must be protected. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, Bush Administration, Chile, CIA, extraordinary rendition, intelligence oversight, Leon Panetta, Melvin A. Goodman, News, Richard Helms, Salvador Allende, torture, United States, War on Terrorism

Expert warns of generational gap in Western intelligence services

August 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Security expert Kevin O’Brien has given an interview to Reuters news agency, in which he warns of “serious generational differences and disparities between [intelligence] managers’ and analysts’ cognitive outlooks”. The gap between older, “Generation Y” intelligence employees and the “digital generation”, is rapidly becoming apparent, as twenty-something spies and analysts are entering the intelligence job market in large numbers. O’Brien says the new generation of recruits features strong cyber skills and thinking habits shaped online. What is more, the way these new recruits process information poses “a generational test” for Western espionage organizations, which are desperately trying to deepen their knowledge and understanding of online-savvy and progressively more transnational militant groups. O’Brien’s interview, and his latest paper on the subject, can be accessed here.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with cybersecurity, generation Y, intelligence analysis, intelligence management, Internet, Kevin O'Brien

News you may have missed #0052

August 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Expert says US Army’s spying on activists was illegal. Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert at Yale Law School, says the spying by the US Army against two activist groups in Washington state, which was revealed earlier this week, appears to violate the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that prohibits the use of the US Army for conventional law enforcement activities against civilians.
German court rules spy services withheld information –again. Germany’s highest court has concluded that the government illegally withheld information from investigators probing into alleged spying on parliamentarians by Germany’s intelligence services (BND). Last week the BND was found to have withheld information from a parliamentary inquiry into the BND’s role in the detention of two Muslims from Germany at a US prison in Afghanistan.
Nearly 2.5 million have US government security clearances. The US Government Accountability Office estimates that 2.4 persons currently hold security clearances for authorized access to classified information. This number does not include those “with clearances who work in areas of national intelligence”.