Iranian authorities said to have photos of assassins of leading nuclear scientist

November 30, 2020 by Leave a comment

Mohamed AhwazeREPORTS IN BRITAIN AND Israel claim that Iranian authorities have visually identified the assassins who were allegedly involved in the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a nuclear scientist believed to have led Iran’s nuclear program. Fakhrizadeh was a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s elite paramilitary force. He was accused by the United States and Israel of leading the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program, whose existence Tehran strongly denies.

Fakhrizadeh was killed on Friday during an armed assault that took place in the eastern outskirts of Tehran. He was attacked by assailants using automatic rifles, as he and his wife were traveling to Absard, a town located 60 miles east of the Iranian capital. His wife is also believed to have been killed in the attack, which lasted no more than 3 minutes and took place in broad daylight. Iranian leaders have accused Israel of the attack, and some believe the Israelis may have been provided with assistance from the United States. Israeli and American officials have not confirmed or denied that they were involved in Fakhrizadeh’s assassination.

Late on Sunday, Mohamed Ahwaze (a.k.a. Mohamed Majed), an Iranian-born reported based in Britain, tweeted photographs of four men, who are allegedly believed by the Iranian authorities to have been involved in Fakhrizadeh’s assassination. Ahwaze said that Iranian officials were busily distributing the photographs of the four men at various hotels and restaurants across Iran, and were asking for information about the alleged culprits. A few hours prior to Ahwaze’s tweet, a report from the state-owned FARS news agency in Iran claimed that the country’s Ministry of Intelligence had confirmed the identities of the assassins and that the details would soon be released to the public.

Earlier on Sunday, Ahwaze claimed on Twitter that over 60 intelligence operatives were involved in Fakhrizadeh’s killing, with the vast majority having a logistical role in the operation. He added that Iranian military units and IRGC forces had deployed along the Iranian border with Iraqi Kurdistan, believing that Fakhrizadeh’s assassins would try to exit Iranian territory by crossing the border on foot. Numerous Israeli media outlets are now reporting the information tweeted by Ahwaze on Sunday. However, the Israeli government has refused to comment on the claims.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 30 November 2020 | Permalink

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A CIA paramilitary officer was killed in Somalia, reports claim

November 25, 2020 by Leave a comment

CIA memorial wallA PARAMILITARY OPERATIONS OFFICER serving in the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has reportedly been killed in Somalia. This is a rare occurrence for the clandestine agency, which has lost about 140 officers in its 73-year history. The New York Times, which first reported the news on Wednesday, said the officer had joined the CIA after serving in the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group, which is commonly known as SEAL Team Six. Upon joining the CIA, the late officer served in the Special Activities Center (formerly Special Activities Division), which is the Agency’s paramilitary section.

The identity of the officer has not been released, and it is unlikely that it will become known in the future. It is believed that the officer’s family has been notified. Citing “current and former US officials”, The Times said it was not known whether the officer had been killed while participating in a counterterrorism raid, or whether he had been targeted by al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda affiliate that is active in the Horn of Africa. Neither al-Qaeda nor al-Shabaab, have said anything about the alleged incident.

The US has been participating in a low-intensity war against Islamist militants in the region for over a decade. There are currently over 700 American military personnel in Somalia, most of whom provide training for the Somalian Armed Forces. But the CIA, as well as US Special Operations Forces personnel, are also known to carry out raids throughout the country. Additionally, the CIA, in association with the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has carried out dozens of drone strikes in Somalia in recent years.

In September of this year, Yahoo News reported that the CIA had lost four paramilitary operations officers in 2008. The four men allegedly died during a secret maritime operation off the coast of the Philippines, and their bodies were never recovered. According to the report, the four men were members of the CIA’s Maritime Branch, one of the three branches of the Special Operations Group, which works under the Special Activities Center. The agency never spoke publicly about the officers’ deaths, but allegedly notified their families, who were also invited to Langley for a private ceremony attended by the CIA’s leadership.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 25 November 2020 | Permalink

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Afghan spy chief warns drone warfare is Taliban’s new fighting method

November 24, 2020 by 1 Comment

TalibanTHE DIRECTOR OF AFGHANISTAN’S main intelligence agency warned on Monday that the Taliban are for the first time resorting to using drones in order to carry out attacks against the Afghan government. Groups such as the Islamic State in Syria, and Houthi rebels in Yemen, have been using modified drones to drop makeshift bombs on enemy targets since at least 2016. But the Taliban have not previously been known to make use of such weapons.

The information was shared by Ahmad Zia Shiraj, director of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), during an address to the Afghan parliament. Headquartered in Kabul, the NDS is Afghanistan’s primary domestic and foreign intelligence agency. It forms part of Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces, along with the branches of the Armed Forces and the police. Its director reports directly to the Office of the President of Afghanistan.

Speaking during a parliament session on Monday, Shiraj said that the Taliban have begun to use drones to drop explosives on targets. These are commercially available hobby drones, which are equipped with video cameras and designed for filming. The Taliban purchase these drones and modify them so that they can carry and release explosives, said Shiraj. He added that Taliban forces had used drones to carry out attacks in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, as well as in Paktia, on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Media reports in October claimed that the Taliban used a drone to drop a bomb on the headquarters of the Kunduz governorate, killing at least four people. The New York Times noted at the time that, if true, the use of a drone to carry out an attack could be the first in the 19-year war between the Taliban and the American-supported Afghan government, and called it “a worrisome shift” in tactics. On Monday, Shiraj did not mention specific attacks, but he did say that there had been more than one such incidents. He said that the NDS would pressure the Afghan government to stop the importation of commercial drones.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 24 November 2020 | Permalink

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Trump administration cancels parole for US Navy analyst who spied for Israel

November 23, 2020 by 3 Comments

Pollard - aA UNITED STATES NAVY analyst who spent 30 years in prison after being convicted of spying on the United States for Israel, is expected to receive a hero’s welcome in Israel in the coming days, after the administration of President Donald Trump lifted his parole restrictions that prevented him from leaving the country. Jonathan Pollard, a former intelligence analyst for the United States Navy, was released from an American prison in 2015, after serving a lengthy sentence for selling US government secrets to Israel.

Throughout Pollard’s time in prison, the government of Israel lobbied for his release, claiming that the convicted spy did not harm American interests, but was simply trying to help Israel. However, the US Intelligence Community and successive American presidents consistently rejected Israel’s claims, arguing that Pollard’s activities were severely detrimental to US interests. Pollard was eventually released after serving the entirety of his sentence.

Ever since his release, Pollard had been required to wear an ankle monitor at all times. His Internet browsing was strictly regulated by the US government and he was not permitted to leave his New York home after sunset. He was also not permitted to leave the US, and Washington had refused to allow him to move to Israel, for fear that the Israeli government would provide him with monetary rewards for his espionage.

But now Pollard is expected to travel to Israel soon, after the Department of Justice announced on Friday that his parole would not be renewed —a move that effectively allows Pollard to leave the United States for the first time since his imprisonment. His lawyer, Eliot Lauer, told an Israeli television station that Pollard would soon be departing for Israel, adding that he looked forward to “seeing our client in Israel”. On Saturday, a press statement issued from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated the lifting of Pollard’s parole restrictions, and said Israeli leaders “hope to see Jonathan Pollard in Israel soon”.

Pollard is expected to receive a hero’s welcome in Israel, where he has achieved celebrity status. He is especially revered by supporters of the center-right Likud party, which is currently led by Netanyahu. There are, however, many in Israel who see Pollard as an opportunist and have derided him publicly for accusing the state of Israel of abandoning him. Others in the Israeli intelligence community see the Pollard episode as deeply damaging to relations between the United States and Israel, and are critical of the decision to recruit Pollard, whose carelessness and brazen espionage style were bound to lead to his arrest sooner or later.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 23 November 2020 | Permalink

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British SIGINT agency criticized for ‘vanity project’ that went 83% over budget

November 20, 2020 by Leave a comment

GCHQBRITAIN’S SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE AGENCY has been severely criticized in a report for undertaking a pointless “vanity project” that exceeded its allocated funds by 83 percent and needlessly cut into its operational budget. The agency, known as the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is responsible for collecting signals intelligence (SIGINT) and protecting the information systems of the British government and Armed Forces.

In 2015, the country’s Conservative government announced the establishment of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), under the GCHQ, whose mission would be to protect Britain from cyber-espionage, cyber-terrorism and cyber-sabotage, among other cyber-security goals. Soon after the announcement was made, the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, appointed a planning committee whose chief priority was to decide where to house the NCSC. The decision was made to house it in London, rather than the GCHQ’s Cheltenham base in southwestern England, so as to place it in close proximity to government and business centers.

But the planning committee rejected an initial plan to house the NCSC in Canary Wharf, one of London’s primary business districts, located on the Isle of Dogs. The reasons were that Canary Wharf is not close to the Palace of Westminster —Britain’s seat of government— and that Canary Wharf would be “very unpopular” with NCSC personnel. Instead, the committee chose Nova South, a luxury building situated near London’s Victoria station, which is one of the world’s most expensive urban areas. The government’s National Security Adviser, Mark Lyall Grant, rejected the Nova South option, arguing it would be too costly without adding any real benefits to the NCSC’s operations. But in May of 2016 Osborne overruled Grant’s decision and unilaterally decided to house the NCSC at Nova South.

Now a report (.pdf) from the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee has described Osborne’s role in the decision-making process as “highly unsatisfactory”, and his choice to house the NCSC at Nova South as “unacceptable”. According to the report, Osborne viewed the NCSC’s location as “a pet project” that prioritized image over cost and operational effectiveness. The result was that the NCSC housing project “considerably over-shot the funds originally allocated”, by over 80 percent. What is worse, according to the report, the money shortfall has been affecting the GCHQ’s operational budget by nearly £3 million ($4 million) a year since 2016.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 20 November 2020 | Permalink

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Opinion: Mishandled analysis of 1982 Tyre attack had implications for US, France

November 19, 2020 by 2 Comments

1983 Beirut barracks bombings

BETWEEN 1982 AND 1983, 450 defense personnel and civilians from Israel, the United States and France were killed in Lebanon as a result of four consecutive terrorist attacks conducted by Hezbollah. For years, questions have been raised whether these attacks could have been prevented.

In 2000, a senior Israel Security Agency (ISA) official wrote a report on the huge explosion in the Israeli compound in Tyre, Lebanon, in 1982. Based on the available intelligence, he reached a firm conclusion: it was a suicide bombing by a Shiite terrorist inside a booby-trapped vehicle, and not a gas balloon explosion, as was officially claimed. Requests to publish the new report with the recent conclusions were denied by ISA senior officials, for reasons that remain unknown. This prompted questions and strong doubts among counterterrorism experts and the Israeli the public, about whether the initial report from 1982 was actually a serious mistake of judgement, or even a cover-up.

Twenty years later, in November 2020, an investigative article was published in Israel by Ronen Bergman, which shed light on new details indicating a high probability that the attack in Tyre was a Hezbollah terrorist attack and not a result of an explosion of gas balloons. The article stated that in 1982 Israeli authorities, especially the ISA, were not ready to admit that their intelligence missed the attack and did not stop it in time. As a result, lessons were not learned regarding the immediate need to strengthen the security of foreign compounds in Lebanon against possible threats from Hezbollah. In 1983 Hezbollah used the same modus operandi of car bombs to attack US and French forces in Beirut and later the —then new— Israeli compound of Tyre.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-nephew is in CIA custody, report claims

November 18, 2020 by Leave a comment

Kim Jong-nam murderTHE HALF-NEPHEW OF North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who disappeared in 2017 and has not been seen since, is in the custody of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to a new report. The missing man’s name is Kim Han-sol. He is the son of the late Kim Jong-nam (pictured), the eldest son of Kim Jong-il and grandson of Kim Il-Sung, who founded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1948. A critic of North Korea’s rulers, Kim lived in self-exile in the Chinese territory of Macau, and split his time between China, Singapore and Malaysia.

In February of 2017, Kim Jong-nam was assassinated in audacious attack at a busy airport in Malaysia by two women who used a poisonous substance to murder him in broad daylight. Suspicions fell immediately on the North Korean government, and many assumed that his two children and wife would be next. The family, who lived in Macau at the time, frantically made plans to leave for the West and seek political asylum there. To make it more difficult for potential assassins to find them, Kim Jong-nam’s family members made the decision to separate and take different routes to Europe.

As intelNews has reported before, Kim Jong-nam’s eldest son, Kim Han-sol, sought and received protection from an obscure North Korean dissident group, which calls itself Cheollima Civil Defense and is also known as Free Joseon. Cheollima Civil Defense, whose members support on principle anyone who challenges the regime in Pyongyang, helped Kim’s family relocate to the West, allegedly with assistance from China, the United States and Holland.

However, unlike Kim Jong-nam’s wife and youngest son, Kim Han-sol never made it to Europe, and his whereabouts remain unknown. Now a new report in The New Yorker magazine claims that Kim Han-sol flew from Macau to Taiwan, escorted by Cheollima Civil Defense members. From there, he was scheduled to take a flight to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where Cheollima Civil Defense members and Dutch activists were waiting for him. But he never emerged from the arrivals gate. According to The New Yorker, that was because a team of CIA officers intercepted Kim Han-sol in Taiwan and took him under US custody.

The magazine claims Kim Han-sol remains under US custody to this day, but does not clarify whether that is a voluntary arrangement on the part of the North Korean exile. It is also not clear if Kim Han-sol’s mother and brother are with him, or if they are aware of his whereabouts. It is believed that Kim Jong-nam’s income came from a North Korean government slush fund that he was managing in Macau, and that much of the fund came from illicit sources. It is possible that Kim Han-sol was also involved in running that fund, which would explain the CIA’s interest in him.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 November 2020 | Permalink

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Danish spy service helped US collect intelligence on NATO allies, report claims

November 17, 2020 by 3 Comments

DDIS Denmark

A SECRET COOPERATION BETWEEN Danish and American intelligence agencies enabled the United States to collect intelligence on some of its closest European allies, according to a new report. Affected countries include Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, and Holland, according to Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and Danmarks Radio, Denmark’s public-service broadcaster. The two media outlets say they spoke to “several independent sources” who confirmed the allegations.

The revelations appear to be connected with the surprise firing of Lars Findsen, director of the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE, or DDIS in English), in August of this year. It was reported at the time that Findsen was fired following a series of whistleblower revelations. However, almost nothing was released by the Danish government about the precise nature of the revelations. It was claimed that the revelations concerned “improper intelligence collection practices”.

It now appears that the whistleblower revelations concerned a secret intelligence collection agreement struck between the DDIS and the US National Security Agency (NSA) in 2008. According to the agreement the NSA would help the DDIS tap a number of fiber optic Internet cables that pass through Danish territory, in return for being given access to the content of intercepted traffic. This collaboration was physically facilitated at a data-processing center located on the Danish island of Amager, south of the Danish capital Copenhagen, which was allegedly built for that purpose.

In 2015, however, a Danish whistleblower approached the Danish Oversight Board, known as TET, which is responsible for supervising the work of Denmark’s intelligence agencies. The whistleblower alleged that the Amager data-processing center had been used by the NSA to spy on Danish targets, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, a list of the keywords used by the NSA between 2012 and 2015 to flag Internet traffic allegedly suggests that the governments of Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and Holland were also targeted.

The revelation has prompted a heated political discussion in Denmark, while Norwegian, Swedish and Dutch authorities have launched investigations into the alleged spying. Some in Denmark are now calling for the Minister of Defense, Trine Bramsen, to release to the public a four-volume report produced by the TET about the alleged DDIS-NSA collaboration.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 17 November 2020 | Permalink

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More details emerge about alleged killing of al-Qaeda #2 in Iran by Israeli spies

November 16, 2020 by 3 Comments

Abu Mohammed al-Masri

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAYS it has confirmed a claim made last week by The New York Times, according to which an Israeli assassination team killed al-Qaeda’s deputy leader in a daring operation inside Iran in August. The paper said on November 13 that Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, who went by the operational name Abu Muhammad al-Masri, had been assassinated in Tehran on August 7. He was the deputy leader of al-Qaeda, and was wanted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation for helping plan the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

On Sunday, the Associated Press said it was able to corroborate the The Times’ story with “four current and former US [intelligence] officials”, one of whom had “direct knowledge of the operation” and another, a former CIA officer, had been briefed about it. The news agency said the operation was carried out by Israel, acting on information given to it by the US. The Americans gave the Israelis information about al-Masri’s whereabouts in Iran, as well as the cover he was using to avoid detection.

Al-Masri was killed by a team of Israeli assassins while driving his car in a quiet street in the suburbs of Tehran, according to The Times. The assassins, who were riding on motorcycles, shot him with guns equipped with silencers. Al-Masri’s daughter, Maryam, who was riding with him in the car, was also killed. This was part of the plan, said the Associated Press. Al-Masri’s daughter was also the widow of Hamza bin Laden, the son of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Hamza bin Laden was killed in 2019 by the US at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the Associated Press, US intelligence planners believed Maryam was “being groomed for a leadership role in al-Qaeda” and “was [already] involved in operational planning”.

Iranian media portrayed the incident as the murder of Habib Daoud, a Lebanese professor of history, who was gunned down in the Iranian capital along with his daughter by unknown suspects. In reality, said the Associate Press, the father and daughter were killed by the Kidon, (“tip of the spear” in Hebrew), an elite assassination unit within Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 16 November 2020 | Permalink

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Senior Homeland Security officials resign, reportedly under White House pressure

November 13, 2020 by Leave a comment

Department of Homeland Security DHS

TWO SENIOR OFFICIALS AT the United States Department of Homeland Security have resigned, reportedly after coming under pressure to do by the White House. The resignations may point to the latest incidents in an ongoing string of firings and resignations in the US intelligence and national security communities, part of a concerted effort by President Donald Trump.

The more senior of the two DHS officials who have resigned as of today is Bryan Ware, DHS assistant director for cybersecurity. Ware served at the DHS’s cybersecurity wing, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA was created by the Trump administration two years ago, when the president signed into law the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act. The mission of the young agency is to streamline cybersecurity efforts across government agencies and departments, in order to improve the government’s cybersecurity protections.

Ware’s resignation coincided with a rare announcement by top officials at CISA, which called the US presidential election of November 3 “the most secure in American history”. The officials, who are members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) Executive Committee, added that “[t]here is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised”. The announcement appeared to be a refutation of claims made by President Trump and his supporters that the election was marred by significant irregularities.

The DHS assistant secretary for international affairs, Valerie Boyd, also resigned as of today. In her resignation letter, Boyd states that her “belief that people of character should support the institution of the Presidency […] has been tested many times these past few years”. In his farewell letter to colleagues, Ware states that his departure from the DHS came “too soon”, indicating that the decision to resign was not his own. Several sources suggest that both Ware and Boyd were pressured to resign by White House aides close to President Trump.

Reporters said last night that officials at the White House, the DHS and the CISA did not respond to requests for comment about the two DHS officials’ resignations. There were also rumors last night that CISA director, Chris Krebs, would be fired by President Trump in a matter of days.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 13 November 2020 | Permalink

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Senior US Republicans split on whether CIA director Gina Haspel should be fired

November 12, 2020 by 1 Comment

Gina Haspel

SENIOR FIGURES IN THE United States Republican Party appear to be split on whether President Donald Trump should fire Gina Haspel, the first female director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who has been serving in that capacity since 2018. According to The New York Times, Haspel is on a list of senior intelligence and national security officials that the embattled American president plans to fire in the coming days. He already fired key defense officials this week, including the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, as well as the Pentagon’s head of policy and director of intelligence.

Trump administration insiders, who want to see Haspel gone, are aware that Trump will not be president for much longer, and are thus pushing for her immediate termination, said The Times. They blame Haspel for not stopping the CIA whistleblower who filed a complaint about the president’s July 2019 telephone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. The complaint led to Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives. Haspel had no role in that incident, but senior Trump loyalists believe she could have stopped the complaint before it reached the office of the US Intelligence Community’s Inspector General.

Haspel is also accused by Trump loyalists of not following the directives of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, under John Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee who serves as the most senior intelligence officer in the US government. The CIA and the ODNI have not seen eye-to-eye since the latter’s founding in 2005. Additionally, unlike Haspel, who rose through the ranks of the Intelligence Community, Ratcliffe had no intelligence experience before this year, when he was appointed by Trump to lead the ODNI. It is believed that his status as an outsider has made it difficult for him to exercise leadership in the close-knit Intelligence Community.

But other senior Republicans have rallied around Haspel. They are said to include the powerful Senator Mitch McConnell, who on Tuesday met with Haspel in his office on Capitol Hill. The closed-door meeting between McConnell and Haspel alarmed the Trump inner circle, with Donald Trump, Jr., calling the CIA director a “trained liar” and accusing those Republicans who support her of undermining his father. The CIA declined to comment on the story.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 13 October 2020 | Permalink

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In unusual move, US spy agencies say they won’t share intelligence with Biden for now

November 11, 2020 by 9 Comments

ODNI DNI

THE COORDINATING AGENCY OF the United States Intelligence Community has said it will not share national security information with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden until he has been officially “ascertained”. The term refers to a process described in the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, which provides instructions for the orderly and peaceful transition of power in the US.

The process of transition includes giving the American president-elect access to the same national security information that the sitting president has access to. This process, described as “uncontroversial” by observers, has been followed without fail since at least 1963, when the Presidential Transition Act became law. However, in a statement published on Tuesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said it would not support “a potential presidential transition” until “ascertainment of the candidate” by the administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) has been completed.

The GSA, an independent US government agency with a personnel force of over 12,000, chaired by Emily Murphy, must sign an official letter of “ascertainment” before the transition of power becomes official. However, this has not yet happened, as the sitting US president, Donald Trump, is refusing to concede the election, citing irregularities and fraud. The ODNI said on Tuesday that it would “not have contact with any transition team until notified by the GSA administrator”.

Furthermore, Biden has not been given access to the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), an analytical compendium of timely information that is produced by the US Intelligence Community every morning. The Democratic Party candidate for president confirmed that he had been given no access to the PDB, which typically requires authorization by the sitting president. In a separate development, it was reported on Tuesday that the State Department is refusing to facilitate telephone calls between Biden and leaders of foreign countries, as is typical during the presidential transition process.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported late on Tuesday evening that the White House instructed US federal agencies to continue preparing the Trump administration’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which is due in February —three weeks after Trump is scheduled to depart the White House, based on the election projections of every major US news network.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 11 November 2020 | Permalink

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UK spy agency to launch offensive cyber operation against anti-vaccine propaganda

November 9, 2020 by 2 Comments

GCHQ

BRITAIN’S SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE AGENCY is preparing to launch a major offensive cyber operation against state-sponsored propaganda aimed at undermining research on the COVID-19 vaccine. According to the London-based Times newspaper, which published the information about the purported cyber operation, it will be aimed mostly against disinformation campaigns coming out of Russia.

The alleged disinformation campaigns appear to be targeting research taking place at Oxford University, which seeks to create an effective vaccine against the novel coronavirus. A main theme in these campaigns promotes the claim that the vaccine will turn those who take it in to chimpanzees. Dozens of memes around this theme are said to have flooded Russian social media websites, with English-language translations making the rounds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Times reports that the British government considers shutting down the alleged Russian disinformation campaign a strategic priority, which grows in significance the closer British scientists get to their goal of creating a successful vaccine against the pandemic. London has therefore ordered the British Army’s 77th Brigade, which specializes in information operations, to launch an online campaign that will counter deceptive narratives about a potential vaccine against the coronavirus.

Whitehall has also mobilized the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s signals intelligence agency, which focuses on cyber-security, to launch offensive operations against the sources of the disinformation, says The Times. The paper cites a government source as saying that the spy agency will be using tools originally developed to monitor and incapacitate websites and other online platforms used by the Islamic State for recruitment.

According to the paper, the operational mandate of the 77th Brigade and GCHQ prevents them from tackling disinformation and misinformation originating from ordinary social media users, rather than state agencies. Additionally, the offensive cyber campaign cannot target websites that are based in Britain’s so-called Five Eyes allies, namely Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Instead, British spies are required to notify their Five Eyes counterparts, so they can take action instead.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 09 November 2020 | Permalink

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Austrian government signals major overhaul of spy service, following Vienna attack

November 6, 2020 by Leave a comment

BVT AustriaAUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SIGNALED on Thursday the beginning of a major overhaul of the country’s intelligence community, in response to this week’s terrorist attack in Vienna, which killed four people. Another 20 people were wounded by a lone gunman, who used an automatic weapon to spread panic in the Austrian capital before he was shot dead by Austrian police.

The gunman was later identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, an Austrian citizen of Albanian extraction, who was born in North Macedonia and held citizenship there too. The shooter was known to Austrian authorities, as he had been previously convicted of trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State. He had been imprisoned as an Islamic radical, but had been released after allegedly duping Austrian judges, who believed he had reformed.

In the days following the attack, it emerged that Slovakian authorities had notified Austrian security agencies in July that Fejzulai had tried to purchase ammunition in Slovakia. On Wednesday, Austria’s Director General for Public Security, Franz Ruf, said that Austrian intelligence authorities “sent questions back to Bratislava”, but then there had been a “breakdown” in the system. Austrian Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer added that “something apparently went wrong with the communication in the next steps”.

Nehammer and others, including Austrian Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, called for the establishment of an independent commission to examine the Fejzulai case and “clarify whether the process went optimally and in line with the law”. The Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said on Thursday that the country did not have “all the legal means necessary to monitor and sanction extremists”, adding that he would initiate the creation of a panel that would supervise a “realignment” of the intelligence agencies. He was referring to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, known by the initials BVT. He did not provide details.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 06 November 2020 | Permalink

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COVID-19 is changing the map of cyber-crime activity, says British spy agency

November 5, 2020 by Leave a comment

GCHQ - IA

THE CYBER-SECURITY BRANCH of Britain’s signals intelligence agency has said in a new report that the coronavirus pandemic is changing the map of cyber-crime by illicit actors, including state-sponsored hackers. The unclassified report was released on Tuesday by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is the cyber-security branch of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Founded over a century ago, the GCHQ is responsible for, among other things, securing the communications systems of the British government and the country’s armed forces.

In its latest Annual Review, the NCSC warns that “criminals and hostile states” are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic in order to challenge the national security of Britain and its allies. In an introductory note included in the report, NCSC director Jeremy Fleming says that the balance of cyber-threats has changed in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. According to the report, British cyber-security agencies saw a 10% rise in serious cyber-threat incidents in 2020. More than a third of these incidents were related to COVID-19, and many targeted Britain’s healthcare sector.

The report suggests that attacks against the British National Healthcare Service and vaccine research facilities constitute a rapidly emerging cyber-espionage risk. The majority of these attacks were carried out by state-sponsored actors, including Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 29, which is also known as “Cozy Bear” and “The Dukes”. According to Western intelligence services, APT29 is a Russian state-sponsored cyber-espionage outfit, which has been known to target facilities involved in the development of coronavirus-related vaccines.

Other cyber-threat actors have no connections to foreign governments, but are instead motivated by profit. The NCSC said it had managed to disrupt over 15,000 campaigns by cyber-criminals to use coronavirus as a bait in order to trick unsuspecting Internet users into downloading malicious software or providing personal information online. Some cyber-criminal networks contacted clinics and other businesses who were in desperate need of personal protective equipment, coronavirus testing kits, and even purported cures against the virus, said the NCSC. Some of these unsuspecting victims were offered fictitious quantities of coronavirus-related equipment, which were never delivered.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 05 November 2020 | Permalink

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