Analysis: Taliban knew about US Special Forces presence in Pakistan

February 22, 2010 by 6 Comments

Bombed site in Shahi Koto, Pakistan

Bombed site

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
There has been remarkably little coverage in the US media of the deaths earlier this month of three US Special Forces operatives in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, who were killed in a bomb attack in the city of Shahi Koto. Most of the few analyses that have commented on the importance of this event have focused on the inevitable revelation that US troops are indeed active in Pakistan. But what about the intelligence angle? It appears that the bombing, which took place outside a newly built girls’ school in the town, was in fact aimed at the US troops, and that the attackers were aware of their supposedly secret presence in the area. The operation was therefore carefully targeted, and the suicide bomber appears to have patiently waited for the arrival of the Pakistani Frontier Corps five-vehicle convoy to arrive at the school. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #293

February 22, 2010 by Leave a comment

  • US DHS monitors websites. According to a document released by the US Department of Homeland Security, Cryptome, Wired‘s Danger Room blog, and WikiLeaks, are among websites the DHS systematically monitors “in order to provide situational awareness and establish a common operating picture”. IntelNews wants to take this opportunity to say ‘hi’ to members of the DHS lurking around.
  • Russian spy lived in Dayton, stole secrets. Iowa-born and -bred communist and US Army engineer, George Koval, was a master at blending in. And, as it turns out, he was also a master spy for the Soviet Union. He did just that while working on the Manhattan Project in Dayton for six months in 1945.
  • Niger army suspends constitution. No word yet in Niger about the elections promised by the military coup plotters who appear to have staged a successful coup. For those who may not know, in international politics, Niger means uranium –lots of it. It’s also worth asking what ten agents of Bulgaria’s counterterrorism unit were doing in Niger on the day of the coup.

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Analysis: Google-NSA partnership part of broader trend

February 22, 2010 by Leave a comment

Google

Google

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
We reported last week the apparent alliance between the Google Corporation and the US National Security Agency, which is the main US government organization tasked with communications interception, as well as communications security. The partnership, which began soon after Google’s decision to close down its venture business in China, where its operations came repeatedly under cyber-attack, has caused considerable controversy among civil liberties advocates. But an op-ed in the US-based Federal News Radio website describes it as the beginning of a new trend, which is likely to intensify. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0292 (al-Mabhouh assassination edition #3)

February 21, 2010 by 4 Comments

  • Former Mossad spy says Israel killed al-Mabhouh. Victor Ostrovsky, who worked for the Mossad in the 1980s, says the assassination of Hamas official Mahmound al-Mabhouh last month in Dubai has all the earmarks of a Mossad operation, and was likely sanctioned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
  • UK denies knowledge of Hamas murder plot. The British Foreign Office has denied a news report that the British intelligence service was told in advance that Israeli agents planned to assassinate senior Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, using British passports.
  • Anglo-Israeli intelligence co-operation is now in jeopardy. Britain has cut its ties with Mossad in the past –after its London station chief carelessly mislaid a sackful of forged British passports– and will do so again unless Israel can provide a credible defense of its actions, says The Daily Telegraph‘s Con Coughlin.

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Mossad has long history of assassination operations

February 21, 2010 by 6 Comments

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The recent assassination of Hamas military official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has sparked a public debate about the history of the Kidon (formerly known as Caesarea), Mossad’s elite assassination unit. Several participants in this debate frequently mention the infamous Black September killings of the 1970s (operation BAYONET), which exterminated almost every original member of the Palestinian group that perpetrated the massacre of the Israeli athletes in the 1972 summer Olympic Games in Munich. In reality, however, these operations were not conducted by the Kidon, but by a separate unit outside Mossad’s operational structure, created specifically for this purpose. The same applies to other extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, which are usually perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0291 (al-Mabhouh assassination edition #2)

February 20, 2010 by Leave a comment

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Dubai CCTV footage reveals spy craft details

February 20, 2010 by 3 Comments

CCTV footage of two Kidon assassination squad members in Dubai

CCTV footage

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The closed-circuit television footage from the January 19 assassination of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh reveals –among other things– interesting details of spy craft in action. Prominently featured is the use of fake wigs, beards and other facial hair, which the Mossad assassination team members employed in order to disguise themselves. Spies, therefore, really do use fake beards, moustaches, glasses, as well as other props in ground operations, known as ‘light disguise’ in espionage lingo. The obvious reason for such props is disguising the visual identity of the operative from potential witnesses. But there are other reasons too, such as evading facial recognition systems, which tend to rely on cheekbone and jaw-line coordinates. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0290 (al-Mabhouh assassination edition #1)

February 19, 2010 by 6 Comments

  • Al-Mabhouh assassination done by amateurs, says ex-Mossad agent. Rami Igra, a former high-ranking Mossad official said that Israel could not have been involved in the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, because it was so unprofessionally carried out.
  • Fatah spies also involved in al-Mabhouh assassination. IntelNews pointed out a few days ago that at least two Palestinians were possibly connected with the plot to kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Three have now been formally indicted, one of whom, Ahmad Hasnin, is a Fatah intelligence operative.
  • US link to al-Mabhouh assassination? Authorities in the United Arab Emirates are probing five US-issued credit-card accounts, which officials say were used by five of the 11 suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. The credit cards, issued by a US-based financial institution, were used to buy travel-related items, such as plane tickets, connected to the alleged assassination operation.

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Pune attack tests India-Pakistan intelligence collaboration

February 18, 2010 by 2 Comments

The German Bakery, Pune, India

The attack target

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
There is intense speculation about a possible breakdown in Indian-Pakistani intelligence relations, following last week’s bomb attack in the Indian city of Pune, which killed at least nine and seriously injured close to 60 people.  The attack, which presents operational similarities with the 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia, targeted The German Bakery, a popular restaurant in the town, on a Saturday night. It is perhaps worth noting that the bomb, which was concealed in a backpack under a restaurant table, exploded almost next door to the Osho Meditation Resort, which US authorities say was scouted as a potential Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT) soft target by David Headley. The American-born Headley was arrested by the FBI in October for having links to LeT. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0289

February 18, 2010 by Leave a comment

  • UK spies worry about human rights lawsuits. Intelligence officers at Britain’s MI5 and MI6 are allegedly being diverted from counter-terrorism work to sift through thousands of documents relating to former terrorism detainees, who are suing the security services for breaching their human rights. The article makes it look like it is the torture victims’ fault for pursuing their rights. But in reality, MI5 and MI6 should have known better than to allow and participate in extralegal torture.
  • Bangladesh arrests alleged Burmese spies. Bangladesh coast guards have arrested eight citizens of Myanmar on suspicion of spying. Photographs of Bangladesh Navy warships and security installations were found in their possession, according to the country’s police chief.

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Spanish intelligence probe ‘financial attacks’

February 17, 2010 by Leave a comment

CNI seal

CNI seal

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Spain’s primary intelligence agency is actively probing alleged links between speculative moves in world financial markets and a series of editorials in “the Anglo-Saxon media”, which Madrid says have sought to undermine market confidence in Spain’s economy. Spanish newspaper El Pais says the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) has been asked by Spain’s government to investigate whether “there is something more behind the campaign” to destabilize the Spanish economy, which, if successful, would add tremendously to the financial challenges currently facing the Eurozone. The El Pais article hints at suspicions among many in the European Union that countries not currently participating in the Euro common currency zone may be trying to subvert the Euro through a series of well-timed media reports questioning the financial stability of the European Union. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0288

February 17, 2010 by Leave a comment

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Answers to questions about al-Mabhouh’s assassination

February 17, 2010 by 5 Comments

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh

Al-Mabhouh

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The intelNews email inbox is literally bulging with messages about the recent assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the co-founder of Hamas’ military wing, who was found dead in Dubai last month. Here are brief answers to a selection of readers’ questions. Q. Is there any doubt that Mossad was behind the assassination? A. Almost none. By no means was Israel al-Mabhouh’s sole enemy. In fact, his killing caused little distress among Fatah’s leadership, and at least two Palestinians are believed to have assisted in the assassination. Nevertheless, the operation has all the hallmarks of a state-sponsored action, something particularly evident in the sophisticated travel documentation forgery involved. Moreover, the tactics of the hit squad, its composition, as well as its methods, point almost directly to the Mossad.  Q. Were those passports real, or not? If not, who are the people in the photos? The eleven known members of the hit squad utilized British, Irish, German, and one French (the squad leader) passports. Read more of this post

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News you may have missed #0287

February 16, 2010 by Leave a comment

  • India still trying to get access to Headley. Congratulations to The New York Times, for managing to publish a feature-length article about the constant requests by Indian intelligence officials to interrogate David C. Headley, currently held in a US prison, without probing why the US is refusing to facilitate these requests. The American-born Headley was arrested in October for having links to Islamic extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. There are rumors in India and Pakistan that Headley is in fact a renegade CIA informant.
  • Spanish double agent sentenced to 12 years. Roberto Flórez García, a former employee of Spain’s National Intelligence Center (CNI), was arrested in September for giving classified documents to Russian intelligence, via Petr Melnikov, political attaché at the Russian Embassy in Madrid. This was Spain’s first treason conviction since returning to democracy in 1978 after decades of military dictatorship.

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CIA declassifies controversial submarine recovery project

February 16, 2010 by Leave a comment

Glomar Explorer

Glomar Explorer

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
I have written before about the CIA’s controversial 1974 project to recover a Soviet submarine that had sunk in 1968, in 17,000 feet of water, about 750 miles northwest of Hawaii. The project involved the infamous ship Hughes Glomar Explorer and was led by CIA agent Christopher Fitzgerald, who died last year. But the CIA recovery team nearly caused a nuclear explosion when the submarine split while being raised, and its body hit the ocean floor. Now the CIA has for the first time declassified a substantial document relating to the project, codenamed AZORIAN. The document is a lengthy article first published in 1985 in the mostly classified CIA research journal Studies in Intelligence, written by an unnamed CIA team member who participated in the recovery effort. Read more of this post

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