intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0158

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Former Los Alamos scientist is no spy, say physicists. US scientists familiar with the work of P. Leonardo Mascheroni, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear physicist whose house was recently searched by the FBI, insist he is not a spy. Mascheroni says he was told by the FBI that he is suspected of possible involvement in “nuclear espionage”.
Analysis: The West’s intelligence deficit on Iran. The fact is that neither a single intelligence agency nor the collective wisdom of the Brits, Israelis, French and Americans, has given Western countries a full picture of what is going on either in Iran’s nuclear program or in the minds of the leadership in Tehran.
Australia hires more spies. The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) has said in its annual security review that “hostile intelligence agencies” are increasingly using the Internet to gather intelligence from Australian government computer networks. Interestingly, ASIO also noted that the number of its staff members increased from 1492 in 2008 to 1690 today.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ASIO, Australia, FBI, France, intelligence penetration, intelligence recruitment, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Israel, Los Alamos National Laboratory, News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, P. Leonardo Mascheroni, UK, United States

Venezuela announces arrest of Colombian “spies”

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Cardenas

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The government of Venezuela announced yesterday the arrest of an undisclosed number of Colombian intelligence agents, who were allegedly “captured carrying out actions of espionage”. The announcement was made by the Venezuelan deputy foreign minister, Francisco Arias Cardenas, who claimed that the detainees were all members of Colombia’s scandal-prone and soon-to-be-dismantled DAS intelligence agency. Cardenas gave no further details yesterday, but said that the Venezuelan government would “soon produce evidence” to back up its claims. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with bribing, Colombia, coup plots, DAS (Colombia), espionage, Francisco Arias Cardenas, Hugo Chávez, News, Rafael García, Venezuela

Breaking news (or is it?): Karzai’s brother on CIA payroll

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Wali Karzai

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Citing “current and former American officials”, The New York Times said last night that Ahmed Wali Karzai, notorious drug lord and younger brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, “gets regular payments from the CIA. Understandably, the Times report is making headlines all over the world today, though it’s not exactly a revelation. IntelNews readers have known about Wali Karzai’s spy connection since September 17 (respect to The Washington Post‘s Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who first alerted us to it). That aside, there are four main new pieces of information in the Times article. First is the allegation that the CIA has financially sustained Wali Karzai ever since the initial US invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001. Second, Karzai appears to function as a “landlord” to the CIA force in southern Afghanistan, providing it with facilities and logistical support. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai, CIA, Hamid Karzai, informants, Kandahar Strike Force, News, Obama Administration, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0157

October 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US providing Pakistan with airborne intelligence. The Los Angeles Times reports that the US military is providing intelligence and surveillance video from unmanned aircraft to the Pakistani army in its operations in South Waziristan. If this is true, it marks the deepest American involvement yet in a Pakistani military campaign.
French ‘trial of the century’ is over. The “Clearstream” trial, dubbed as “trial of the century” or “France’s Watergate”, which involved senior members of the country’s political and intelligence elite, has ended. The judgment will not be delivered for several months.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with airborne surveillance, Clearstream Bank, France, intelligence sharing, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, South Waziristan, United States

News you may have missed #0156

October 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NGOs worry African spy services. A memo authored by African spy service representatives at the third annual conference of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA), has acknowledged what most intelligence services in developing countries already know: that many “volunteers” of Western non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are in fact intelligence operatives using their NGO status as a cover.
Nozette admitted guilt in fraud charges last January. New information shows that Stewart D. Nozette, who was arrested and charged last week under the US Espionage Act, pleaded guilty in January to overbilling NASA and the Pentagon more than $265,000 for consulting services.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, CISSA, Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa, corruption, Israel, lawsuits, NASA, News, news you may have missed, NGO, Stewart David Nozette, sting operations, United States, US DoD

Swedish journalist, author, admits KGB ties

October 27, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Jan Guillou

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
One of Sweden’s most famous journalists has admitted having had ties with the KGB in the 1960s and 1970s. Jan Guillou, a veteran newspaper correspondent known in Sweden for his hugely popular spy novels, admitted meeting with a KGB handler after allegations surfaced in a Swedish newspaper. Stockholm-based daily Expressen said it had in its possession several declassified files belonging to Sweden’s security service (SAPO), which revealed that Guillou was recruited by the KGB in 1967. The files are reportedly based on the testimony of the late Arne Lemberg, Guillou’s friend and fellow-reporter, who told SAPO that Guillou held regular meetings with KGB rezident in Stockholm Yevgeny Ivanovich Gergel. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Arne Lemberg, Cold War, declassification, espionage, informants, Jan Guillou, KGB, News, SAPO (Sweden), secret meetings, Social Democratic Party (Sweden), Soviet embassy in Sweden, Sweden, US embassy in Sweden, USSR, Vietnam War, Yevgeny Ivanovich Gergel

Israel mum on mysterious devices found in Lebanon

October 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

One of the devices

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Israel has refused to either confirm or deny it planted a number of communications interception devices that were uncovered last week by security forces in southern Lebanon. Responding to a “request for clarifications” issued by the United Nations, the Israeli government said simply that “collecting intelligence in southern Lebanon will continue as long as the government in Beirut is not in full control of its territory”, an obvious reference to Hezbollah, the Shia Islamic political and paramilitary organization that controls large parts of Lebanon. Three the devices were found last week, attached to a telecommunications cable on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Houla. Interestingly, two of the devices self-destructed by exploding as Lebanese security personnel were approaching. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with communications interception, espionage, Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanese Armed Forces, Lebanese Internal Security Forces, Lebanon, News, Syria, United Nations

News you may have missed #0155

October 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NSA confirms rumors of new Utah data center. IntelNews readers have known about this since last July. Despite the new center, NSA still cannot process all the information it intercepts. But officials told a press conference on Friday that the Agency “has no choice but to continue enhancing its data processing efforts”.
UK intel agents to train West Bank security forces. Britain is sending intelligence officers from MI5 and MI6 to the West Bank, to train the Palestinian Authority’s Mukhabarat intelligence agency. According to The Daily Mail, the move is aimed to “stop a wave of brutal torture by Palestinian security forces”. How ironic is it, then, that both MI5 and MI6 are currently under investigation by British police for complicity to torture?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Camp Williams (Utah), communications interception, databases, intelligence training, MI5, MI6, Mukhabarat (Palestine), News, news you may have missed, NSA, Palestine, Palestinian National Authority, torture, UK, United States, Utah, West Bank

News you may have missed #0154 [updated]

October 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Breaking news: Castro’s sister says she spied for the CIA. Juanita Castro, Fidel and Raúl Castro’s sister, says she voluntarily spied for the CIA from 1961 to 1964, when she left the island for Miami. She said she met a CIA officer called “Enrique” at a hotel in Mexico City in 1961; she was then given the codename “Donna” and codebooks so she could receive encoded instructions from Washington.
Was Milan Kundera a communist police informant? Documents unearthed by Czech academics allegedly show that the Czech-born author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being denouncing a Western spy to Czechoslovakia’s StB secret police during his student days.
Afghans complain about US spy balloon. A US spy balloon (see previous intelNews coverage) flying over the city of Kandahar in Afghanistan, is prompting privacy complaints from residents.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, airborne surveillance, CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, declassification, Donna, Enrique, Fidel Castro, informants, Juanita Castro, Kandahar (Afghanistan), literature, Mexico, Mexico City (Mexico), Miami (Florida), Milan Kundera, News, news you may have missed, privacy, Raúl Castro, StB (Czechoslovakia), surveillance, United States

Prince Albert’s former spymaster airs Monaco’s ‘dirty secrets’

October 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Prince Albert II

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last April I wrote that former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to prince Albert II of Monaco, was completing a book on his experiences in the tiny principality, a project he began after leaving his post. But that’s not all. Eringer has now sued the prince for €360,000 ($542,000) in alleged unpaid income, including a severance pay package. The London Sunday Times, which has “obtained” a copy of Eringer’s lawsuit, says that the document “lays bare some of [Monaco’s] dirtiest secrets”. Among them are Eringer’s claims that he investigated activities in Monaco by Russian and Italian mobsters, that he was asked to “assist” a young woman who was romantically involved with prince Albert, and that he went after video evidence showing “a woman performing a sex act on the prince” at his 40^th birthday party. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, FBI, France, Italy, lawsuits, Monaco, Monaco Intelligence Service, News, organized crime, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Robert Eringer, Russia, Thierry Lacoste, United States

Analysis: Is US supporting suicide terrorists in Iran?

October 26, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Jundullah men

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Jundullah, a militant anti-regime Sunni group in Iran, claimed responsibility last week for an October 18 suicide attack that killed 42 people, including five senior members of the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards corps. Tehran blamed the attack, which is part of a wider low-intensity guerilla war in the country’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, on the work of covert American, British and Pakistani operatives. Should the Iranian allegations be taken seriously? IntelNews has written before about Washington’s complex relationship with Jundullah and the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), two of several armed groups officially deemed terrorist by the US State Department. In 2007, ABC News went so far as to claim that Jundullah “has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005″. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Bush Administration, CIA, covert operations, Iran, Jundullah, Mujahedeen-e Khalq, Robert Baer, separatism, suicide bombings, terrorism, United States

News you may have missed #0153

October 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

More on Nozette’s 2009 mystery trip abroad. The affidavit of Stewart David Nozette, who was arrested last Monday for attempting to sell classified US government information to an undercover FBI agent, reveals that “[o]n or about January 6, 2009, [the scientist] traveled to a different foreign country”, carrying with him two thumb drives, which he failed to bring back with him. Where did he go, and why?
Armenia charges former army officer with spying for Azerbaijan. Armenian Army officer Gevorg Airapetian and a “foreign national” were arrested in a “special operation” by Armenian authorities earlier this week, and charged with spying for Azerbaijan. Some suspect Russian involvement, believing the Azerbaijanis to have acted as intermediaries between Airapetian and Moscow.
US spy chief Blair calls for spy cooperation. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair called Wednesday for a better-coordinated effort within the US intelligence community. But he said nothing about recent reports that intelligence officials shut down a Web-based unclassified e-mail system, which had been heralded as an important step in information sharing between members of the US intelligence community.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, espionage, FBI, Gevorg Airapetian, intelligence cooperation, News, news you may have missed, nuclear espionage, Russia, scientific intelligence, Stewart David Nozette, United States

News you may have missed #0152

October 25, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Madoff befriends Israeli-handled spy in prison. According to legal papers filed last Tuesday, Bernard Madoff, imprisoned for masterminding one of history’s largest financial frauds, is sharing a cell with Jonathan Pollard, an American convicted of selling military secrets to Israel over two decades ago.
Polish undercover agent has cover blown. An undercover agent of Poland’s controversial Anti-Corruption Agency (CBA), known simply as Tomek K. (a.k.a. Tomasz Malecki or Tom Piotrowski) has had his cover blown after seducing Polish television star Weronika Marczuk-Pazura during an anti-corruption investigation. Whoever said undercover work was boring?
Finnish former prime minister says KGB tried to recruit him. In his political memoirs published last week, Paavo Lipponen, who was Finland’s prime minister from 1995 to 2003, reveals the Soviet KGB tried unsuccessfully to recruit him in 1966 and again in the early 1970s.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anti-Corruption Agency (Poland), Bernie Madoff, CBA (Poland), Cold War, corruption, Finland, honey traps, informants, intelligence recruitment, Israel, Jonathan Jay Pollard, KGB, News, news you may have missed, Paavo Lipponen, Poland, Tom Piotrowski, Tomasz Malecki, Tomek K., USSR, Weronika Marczuk-Pazura

FBI targets US nuclear scientist who contacted Venezuelan official

October 25, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

P.L. Mascheroni

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A team of FBI agents has raided the house of a former Los Alamos nuclear scientist who has spent two decades criticizing Washington’s nuclear weapons and energy agenda. The agents seized several computers, cameras, cell phones and paper files from the home of Dr. P. Leonardo Mascheroni, a 74-year-old Argentinean-born nuclear scientist who became a US citizen while working at the US Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. After leaving Los Alamos, in 1988, Dr. Mascheroni has campaigned in favor of inertial confinement fusion (commonly known as laser fusion) as a means of producing low-cost energy and of testing nuclear weapons without resorting to underground explosions. Following the FBI raid at his house, Dr. Mascheroni held a press conference where he claimed he was told by the FBI that he was suspected of possible involvement in “nuclear espionage”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Argentina, espionage, FBI, Hugo Chávez, inertial confinement fusion, laser fusion, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, News, nuclear espionage, P. Leonardo Mascheroni, scientific intelligence, United States, US Department of Energy, Venezuela

News you may have missed #0151

October 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Musicians protest use of their songs in Guantánamo torture. A group of musicians, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, REM, Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Roseanne Cash, Billy Bragg, the Roots, and many more, have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantánamo.
More information on CIA’s interest in monitoring Internet sites. Noah Shachtman, contributing editor at Wired magazine and editor of Danger Room, speaks on the CIA’s funding of a private software company specializing in monitoring online social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.
Lithuania to investigate CIA secret prison allegations. Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, has called for an official investigation into recent allegations that the CIA housed a secret prison for al-Qaeda suspects in Lithuania for more than a year, beginning in 2004.