Swedish spy agency investigates drone sightings at three nuclear power plants
January 18, 2022 Leave a comment
SWEDEN’S DOMESTIC SECURITY AGENCY said it had taken over from the police an investigation into sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, at three nuclear power plants. On Monday, the Swedish Security Service, known by its Swedish acronym, SAPO, confirmed earlier reports that a large-size drone had been spotted on Friday by security guards over the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant. The facility is located just short of 95 miles north of Sweden’s capital, Stockholm. It is known as the country’s largest producer of electricity, generating one sixth of its electricity supply.
Later, however, reports emerged about sightings of what appeared to be surveillance drones over Sweden’s two other nuclear power plants—namely the Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant, located on Sweden’s southeastern Baltic Sea coast, and the Ringhals Nuclear Power Plant, which is situated on the Värö Peninsula, on Sweden’s western coast. According to reports, the drones appeared to be large enough to withstand the gale force winds that were blowing over much of Sweden at the time. The drones disappeared without trace, and Swedish authorities say they have no suspects so far.
On Monday, SAPO said that it had assumed control of the probe into the drone sightings, “in order to be able to investigate the incidents in more detail”. In a report last weekend, the Reuters news agency pointed out that the drone sightings occurred a day after the Swedish military began patrolling the city of Visby, on the island of Gotland. According to Reuters, the patrols were sparked by “increased tensions” between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Like its neighboring Finland, Sweden is not a member of NATO, but there have been frequent calls in recent months for it go join, in light of renewed tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 January 2022 | Permalink
AUTHORITIES IN ISRAEL CLAIM they busted a ring of spies for Iran, which was composed solely of middle-aged Jewish women. The Israel Security Agency, known as Shin Bet, said on Thursday that it had arrested four Jewish women, all of them Iranian-born Israeli citizens. The four women were charged with espionage against the state of Israel. The Shin Bet described the case as “serious” and as part of a broader plan by Iran to build a sophisticated espionage network inside the Jewish state.
IN A CASE THAT observers have described as “unprecedented”, the recently dismissed director of Denmark’s external intelligence agency has been charged with committing acts of treason against the state. Lars Findsen directed the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE, or DDIS in English) from 2015 until his sudden dismissal in 2020. Prior to that, he directed the DDIS’ domestic counterpart, namely the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or DSIS. As intelNews 
A FEW MONTHS AFTER France’s establishment of an agency to combat foreign disinformation, Sweden has announced the creation of a new government authority, whose mission is to defend against disinformation by foreign actors. Based in Karlstad, a city 200 miles west of Stockholm, the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency (PDA) was formally established on January 1. Its 
IN A SIGN OF WIDENING disagreements within the government of Kazakhstan, the once supremely powerful head of the country’s internal intelligence agency has been fired. He was subsequently arrested by his own agency for alleged treasonable acts. Karim Masimov (or Massimov) served twice as prime minister of Kazakhstan under his political mentor, former President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev, who is traditionally referred to as the “father of the nation” kept Masimov in his inner circle of confidants throughout his nearly 30-year rule.
A RESIDENT OF NEW York has been charged by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation with engaging in espionage operations on behalf of the government of Egypt, according to court documents unsealed on Thursday. The FBI claims that the spy “tracked and obtained information regarding political opponents” of Egypt’s ultra-authoritarian president, retired General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. El-Sisi took power in Egypt in a military coup d’etat in 2013, which was followed by heavily staged election in 2014. With most of the opposition refusing to participate, the election resulted in a victory for the Egyptian strongman with 97% of the vote.
ISRAEL’S PRIMARY EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE agency, the Mossad, was likely behind a series of mysterious bombings in 1981, which targeted German and Swiss engineering firms believed to be aiding the Pakistani nuclear program, according to new exposé by a leading Swiss newspaper. Several bomb attacks targeted a number of engineering firms in Switzerland and what was then West Germany in 1981. Alongside these attacks, there were threatening telephone calls that targeted West German and Swiss engineers.
DOCUMENTS RELEASED LAST WEEK by the National Archives of Ireland show the extraordinary support given by the government of Libya to Irish republican separatists in Britain during the 1970s and 1980s. The previously classified documents were released last Tuesday by Ireland’s National Archives, which is the country’s official repository of state records. According to reports, the 
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CENTRAL FIGURES OF POLAND’S opposition coalition, which narrowly lost the 2019 parliamentary election, had their cell phones hacked with a surveillance software used by the country’s spy services, according to a new report. A major target of the hacks was Krzysztof Brejza, a member of the lower chamber of the Polish parliament and campaign director of the Civic Coalition, a centrist-liberal alliance. In the parliamentary election of 2019, the Civic Coalition challenged the all-powerful Law and Justice Party (PiS), which has ruled Poland for much of the past decade.
A UNITED STATES ARMY veteran and government informant, who infiltrated the white supremacist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan for over a decade, has spoken publicly about his work for the first time. The informant’s birth name is Joseph Moore, but in 2018 he changed it in order to evade detection by KKK members who might be tempted to track him down. Today the 50-year-old former Army sniper lives with his wife and four children somewhere in Florida, 
TURKISH POLICE ARRESTED A man reported to be an American diplomat, allegedly for selling a forged passport to a Syrian refugee who then attempted to use it in order to travel from Turkey to Germany. The incident was 
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Chinese officials reward fishing crews for finding underwater spy devices
January 19, 2022 by Joseph Fitsanakis 2 Comments
Tuesday’s rewards were handed out by state officials in Jiangsu, a largely coastal region in China’s east. It is located north of Shanghai and is among the most densely populated provinces in the country. According to Xinhua, local officials held a “Special Commendation and Reward Symposium for Coastal National Security and People’s Defense Lines”. During the ceremony, state officials reportedly commended and rewarded 11 fishing crew members and 5 land-based personnel for “salvaging and turning over” a number of “suspicious underwater” devices. The latter were described in the article as “reconnaissance devices” that had been “secretly deployed by foreign countries” in China’s territorial waters.
The report relayed an incident that prompted the initial discovery of a “device shaped like a torpedo”. The latter was collected by a member of a fishing crew and turned over to the Ministry of State Security (MSS). The device was reportedly found to pose “a national security risk”, as it had likely been deployed by “a new type of marine unmanned underwater vehicle, developed by a major country”. This alleged underwater vehicle is said to deploy reconnaissance devices that “can measure hydrological data and environmental parameters around China’s coasts”, according to the report. The report did not specify the name of the “major country” that is allegedly behind these devices.
The Xinhua report said that fishing crews in Jiangsu have found 10 underwater surveillance devices since 2020, and included a photograph of a display containing images of some of these devices. It claimed all were “foreign made”. The report concluded by congratulating the fishing crews for turning in the devices to the MSS, and urging more fishing crews to come forward with similar discoveries, so as to claim sizeable monetary awards and receive public commendations.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 19 January 2022 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, Chinese Ministry of State Security, Jiangsu Province (China), maritime surveillance, News, South China Sea