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Comment: Is There a ‘DNA Problem’ in US Spying?

January 5, 2010 by intelNews 8 Comments

Sam Tanenhaus

By IAN ALLEN* | intelNews.org |
The controversy of the apparent ineffectiveness of US intelligence agencies to uncover the so-called Christmas Day bomb plot has reignited the discussion about the operational shortcomings of the US intelligence community. Sam Tanenhaus, editor of of The New York Times Book Review, has authored an interesting commentary, in which he delves into some of what he sees as the design deficiencies in American intelligence.

News you may have missed #0242

January 5, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US signs record US military aid to Israel. US President Barack Obama has just signed a massive 10-year deal for total of $30 billion to be given to Israel over the next decade (including $2.77 billion in 2010), funds that are mainly to be spent on US military hardware. But the Israelis are loudly complaining about the US also giving weapons to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Which group perpetrated suicide attack on CIA? Various Taliban factions in Pakistan and Afghanistan are competing for credit for the devastating attack on the CIA last week.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, CIA, Egypt, financial aid, Israel, Jordan, News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, suicide bombings, Taliban, United Arab Emirates, United States, weapons trade

Files reveal previously unknown UK-Soviet diplomatic scuffle

January 5, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Aubone Pyke

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A previously unknown fracas between two British diplomatic officials, their wives, and a team of Soviet intelligence agents, has been revealed in declassified British government reports. The documents, which were released last weekend, show that two employees of the British embassy in Moscow were detained, along with their wives, allegedly for photographing a Soviet military installation. The British diplomats were Lieutenant-Commanders Ian Clapham and Aubone Pyke, who was the embassy’s assistant military attaché. Escorted by their wives, the two officials were allegedly taking a tour of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), in February of 1979, when a group of “about 25” Soviet intelligence agents rapidly approached them. The agents proceeded to confiscate a cameral belonging to Pyke, after rapidly pulling down his trousers, an old trick aimed to prevent a suspect from running away. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Aubone Pyke, British embassy in the USSR, Cold War, counterintelligence, diplomacy, espionage, Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service (UK), history, Ian Clapham, James Callaghan, KGB, Leningrad (USSR), News, photographic intelligence, Saint Petersburg (Russia), UK, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, USSR

News you may have missed #0241

January 4, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

3 of 7 CIA agents killed in Afghanistan are identified. They are Scott Michael Roberson, 39, from Virginia, Jeremy Jason Wise, 35, from Ohio, and Harold E. Brown Jr., 37, also from Virginia.
Al-Qaeda greater now than on 9/11, says ex-CIA agent. The results of eight years of the so-called US “war on terrorism” are plain to intelligence insiders.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, CIA, Harold E. Brown Jr., Jeremy Jason Wise, News, news you may have missed, Scott Michael Roberson, suicide bombings, United States, War on Terrorism

Breaking news: CIA officers were killed by Jordanian double spy

January 4, 2010 by intelNews 2 Comments

Chapman FOB

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Ever since I posted “The Meaning of the Suicide Attack on the CIA” on this blog, I have been telling reporters who contacted me that the attack at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Chapman was probably carried out by a double agent. I dismissed claims on other websites that the bomber had been just a “potential recruit” who was “not required to go through full security checks [at Chapman FOB] in order to help gain [his] trust”. Instead, as I wrote on Saturday, I suggested that “the bomber was able to evade safety search standards [at the US base] by relying on a long-term informant-handler relationship with CIA personnel stationed at the outpost. This would lead to the strong possibility that the informant-turned-bomber had been groomed as a double agent from the very start by local Taliban operatives”. A news report has just appeared on NBC, which appears to confirm just that: namely that the suicide bomber had been “an al-Qaeda double agent” who was “arrested by Jordanian intelligence more than a year ago”, and turned over to the Americans by his Jordanian handlers, who believed he “had been successfully reformed”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, CIA, double agents, Forward Operating Base Chapman, General Intelligence Department (Jordan), Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, informants, Jordan, Jordanian royal family, News, Pakistan, Sharif Ali biin Zeid, suicide bombings, United States, Zarqa (Jordan)

Iran monarchists, foreign spies, behind suspicious news reports

January 4, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

M.R. Madhi

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
There is no question that the domestic security situation in Iran is critical, and that we may soon witness crucial political shifts in the Islamic Republic. At the same time, however, observers should be cognizant of what Politico’s Laura Rozen calls “a notable uptick […] in very fishy stories” forecasting the immediate end of the Islamic government by supposed radical Western-aligned forces. IntelNews has detected several such stories in recent days, such as this unconfirmed December 31 report in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which stated that the Iranian government was moving “[h]undreds of military forces and tens of armored vehicles towards Tehran”, something which never actually occurred. Two days earlier, a report in Dutch government-owned Radio Netherlands had suggested that members of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, including Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei, were preparing to abandon the country and seek political asylum in Russia. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ali Khamenei, ASIO, Australia, BOSCH, Czechoslovakia, informants, Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Laura Rozen, Maximilian Wechsler, Mohammad Reza Madhi, Netherlands, News, psyops, Russia, Supreme National Security Council (Iran), Thailand

News you may have missed #0240

January 3, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Major purge in Gambian security services continues. Ngorr Secka, the former deputy director general of Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency, has reportedly been arrested. The arrest marks the latest development in a major purge that began last July, after the chief of the country’s armed forces, Lt. Colonel Sainey Bayo, fled to the United States reportedly while being “investigated for supplying sensitive state secrets to an unnamed Western country”.
Jerusalem memorial may honor British Auschwitz spy. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem may honor Denis Avey, 91, who as a British prisoner of war in Monowitz (a.k.a. Monowice or Auschwitz III) prisoner camp, convinced Ernst Lobethall, a Jew held at nearby Auschwitz concentration camp, to give him his ID badge and concentration camp uniform. He then walked back to Auschwitz on two occasions, gathering valuable evidence about the Nazis’ Final Solution.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, Analysis, Auschwitz concentration camp, Denis Avey, espionage, Final Solution, Gambia, Gambian armed forces, Germany, history, Jerusalem, Monowitz concentration camp, National Intelligence Agency (Gambia), News, news you may have missed, Ngorr Secka, Poland, prisoners of war, Sainey Bayo, World War II, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

US court upholds NSA’s refusal to admit or deny wiretap data

January 3, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

The Glomar

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A US federal appeals court has concluded that the National Security Agency can refuse to admit or deny it possesses information about the US government spying on lawyers representing Guantánamo prison detainees. The decision by the 2^nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York relates to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request under a civil liberties lawsuit challenging post-9/11 warrantless surveillance operations by US agencies. The latter typically respond to most FOIA requests by confirming or denying possession of information relating to particular requests, and then by proceeding to either deny release, or release selected segments of the requested data. It is rare for an agency to refuse even to acknowledge the existence of information sought through FOIA. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, civil liberties, Cold War, domestic intelligence, FOIA, Glomar Explorer, Glomar response, government secrecy, Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp, Hawaii, history, intelligence legislation, lawsuits, maritime intelligence, New York, News, NSA, Project JENNIFER, United States, USSR, warrantless communications interception

News you may have missed #0239

January 2, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Iran denies secret deal to import Kazakh uranium. Iran and Kazakhstan have denied a report that they were close to clinching a deal to transfer to Iran 1,350 tons of Kazakh purified uranium ore. The IAEA has declined comment.
US travel security lapses to mark end of the line for DHS? The US Department of Homeland Security “is adrift and treated as an orphan by the rest of the [US intelligence] community but is so badly staffed by low quality people that no other agency will ever take them seriously”, according to an anonymous former senior US intelligence official.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, IAEA, intelligence reform, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Kazakhstan, News, news you may have missed, United States, US Department of Homeland Security

Analysis: The Meaning of the Suicide Attack on the CIA

January 2, 2010 by intelNews 2 Comments

Chapman FOB

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS* | intelNews.org |
The recent deaths of seven and the serious injury of another six CIA personnel in Afghanistan’s Khost province has undoubtedly shocked an Agency not used to mass casualties. But what exactly is the significance of Wednesday’s suicide attack at the Forward Operating Base (FOB) Chapman, and how will it affect the US military and intelligence presence at the Afghan-Pakistani border? Given that the CIA team at Chapman FOB could not have consisted of more than 15 to 20 agents, it would be logical to conclude that the attack virtually decimated the CIA presence in Khost. But the impact of this development on US operations in Afghanistan will be minimal, in contrast to operations inside Pakistan, which constituted the primary objective of the CIA team at Chapman FOB. Read article →

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, assassinations, CIA, double agents, Forward Operating Base Chapman, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, HUMINT, informants, Joseph Fitsanakis, Khost, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Predator drones, suicide bombings, Taliban, United States

News you may have missed #0238

January 1, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

The real story behind Nigerian bomber security lapses. “The real story line internally is not information sharing or connecting dots”, a former intelligence official said. “It was separating noise from chaff. It’s not that information wasn’t passed around; it’s that so much information is being passed” (Research credit to Politico‘s Laura Rozen).
Obama orders creation of declassification center. US President Barack Obama created by executive order Tuesday a National Declassification Center to oversee efforts to make once-secret government documents public. Among other things, the executive order eliminates the ability of intelligence officials to veto declassification decisions.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Barack Obama, declassification, government secrecy, intelligence analysis, intelligence cooperation, News, news you may have missed, United States, US National Declassification Center

News you may have missed #0237

December 31, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Christmas Day bomb plot exposes fissures in US spy community. As intelNews regulars know, turf wars between US intelligence agencies are nothing new. But lapses that allowed Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab to board a Detroit-bound plane with a bomb on Christmas Day, and the finger-pointing that followed, have raised questions about supposedly sweeping changes made to improve intelligence-sharing after the 9/11.
Mysterious life of Soviet spy couple unveiled. Soviet agents Mikhail and Yelizaveta Mukasey were legends among illegals –i.e. international spies operating without diplomatic credentials. Now the Russian government is carefully releasing information on their activities and missions, which ranged from the US to Israel, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, Czechoslovakia, espionage, history, illegal residents, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, Israel, Mikhail Mukasey, News, news you may have missed, Russia, turf wars, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, USSR, Yelizaveta Mukasey

For second time in history, CIA suffers 8 deaths in a day [updated]

December 31, 2009 by intelNews 4 Comments

US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, after the April 18, 1983 bombing

US Beirut mission

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Update: The CIA now says that seven, not eight, of the “Agency’s workforce” died in the Khost suicide attack. There is, however, some confusion as to the status of the bomber himself, with some Taliban sources in Afghanistan claiming he was already operating as a CIA informant.

Since it emerged last night that eight CIA agents were killed in a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan, intelNews has received several emails asking whether the deaths marked a horrific record for the US spy agency. The unnamed agents were reportedly killed along with at least one Afghan civilian at the US-operated Forward Operating Base Chapman, close to the Pakistani border. The CIA is not known for forwarding details on its agents who perish while on missions around the world. But there is at least one other known instance when the Agency lost eight of its operatives in one day: Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1983 US embassy bombing, Afghanistan, Beirut, CIA, Forward Operating Base Chapman, Hezbollah, history, Khost, Lebanon, News, Pakistan, suicide bombings, United States, US embassy in Lebanon

Controversy over head of Obama’s terrorism watch-list review

December 31, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

John Brennan

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A veteran CIA official appointed to review the US government’s defective terrorism watch-list system, was actually involved in designing it, and later helped sustain it through a lucrative private-sector contract. John O. Brennan was appointed by President Barack Obama on Sunday to head a “comprehensive interagency review” of travel security measures, after it was revealed that the father of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect, had notified the CIA about his son’s activities. It turns out, however, that not only was Brennan part of the US National Counterterrorism Center team that designed the terrorism watch-list system, but he also helped sustain it while heading the Analysis Corporation, a scandal-prone private contractor charged with overseeing the watch-list system. Politico’s Carol Lee and Laura Rozen are among the very few reporters who have connected the dots on Brennan. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis Corporation, Barack Obama, CIA, databases, intelligence outsourcing, John Brennan, News, surveillance, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, Umaru AbdulMutallab, United States, US National Counterterrorism Center

White House memo sides with CIA in inter-agency turf war

December 30, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
For several months now, I have been keeping tabs on a bitter inter-agency turf war between the CIA and the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Now a Los Angeles Times article by Greg Miller confirms what intelNews reported on November 18, namely that the White House has come down in favor of the CIA position in the dispute. The turf war began last July, when DNI Dennis Blair argued in a still-classified directive that his office, and not the CIA, as has been the case for over 60 years, should have a say in certain cases over the appointment of senior US intelligence representatives in foreign cities. But the White House refused to validate Blair’s request. So, in November, the Office of the DNI hit back by announcing it would be evaluating all “[s]ensitive CIA operations overseas” including all of the CIA’s active paramilitary and espionage operations abroad. Read more of this post