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Mystery surrounds conviction of alleged Belgian spy in Morocco

July 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Belliraj

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A court in Sale, Morocco, has sentenced to life a Belgian national of Moroccan origin, who Belgian media claim was a “golden informant” for the Belgian secret services. Moroccan authorities arrested Abdelkader Belliraj, 50, in early 2008, and charged him with a plethora of criminal offenses, including armed robbery, money laundering and arms smuggling. More importantly, Belliraj is accused of participating in at least six killings carried out in Belgium by Abu Nidal in the 1980s and early 1990s, supplying arms to the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, and leading a militant group aiming to overthrow the government of Morocco. Interestingly, however, in March of 2008, Belgian newspaper De Tijd reported that Belliraj had acted as an invaluable informant for Belgium’s State Security Service (SV/SE) and had recently supplied information that helped foil a bomb attack in a Western European country. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdelkader Belliraj, Abu Nidal Organization, Alain Winants, Algeria, Belgium, double agents, informants, Islamic Salvation Front (Algeria), money laundering, Morocco, News, SV/SE (Belgium), War on Terrorism, weapons smuggling

News you may have missed #0046

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

CIA documents reveal Chilean candidate’s ties to Pinochet. CIA documents declassified last Friday allegedly point to ties between the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera, who lost the 2005 elections to Chile’s current President, Michelle Bachelet.
US officials claim increased intelligence sharing with Pakistan. In a report that reads too much like a Pentagon public relations briefing, UPI reports that increasing US-Pakistani intelligence cooperation is “yielding results” along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Augusto Pinochet, Chile, CIA, Cold War, intelligence sharing, Michelle Bachelet, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Sebastián Piñera, United States, War on Terrorism

Analysis: Can Obama’s inter-agency interrogation unit overcome turf-wars?

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The task force set up by President Barack Obama to reform US interrogation policies will shortly be unveiling its long-awaited report. There are rumors in the US intelligence community that the report will call for a new inter-agency interrogation unit that will combine experts from several US military and intelligence agencies, including the CIA and FBI. But in a well-argued article in Time magazine, Bobby Ghosh asks the important question of whether such a plan is represents mere wishful thinking, by ignoring the “brief and bleak” history of inter-agency cooperation on interrogation. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abu Zubaida, al-Qaeda, Analysis, CIA, FBI, interrogation techniques, Obama Administration, Pakistan, torture, turf wars, United States, US DoD, War on Terrorism, Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn

Documents reveal CIA meddling in Japanese elections

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Taketora Ogata

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Researchers from three Japanese universities have unearthed US documents that detail CIA activities to monitor and influence Japanese politics in the early 1950s. Dubbed “The Ogata File”, the five-volume, 1,000-page document collection, which was declassified in 2005, relays CIA efforts to assist the electoral campaigns of Japanese conservative politician Taketora Ogata. Ogata led the Japan Liberal Party in the early 1950s and in 1955 was instrumental in merging his party along with other conservative groups into the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Cold War, declassification, diplomacy, history, Ichiro Hatoyama, informants, Japan, Japan Democratic Party, Japan Liberal Party, Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), News, Operation POCAPON, Shigeru Yoshida, Southeast Asia, Taketora Ogata, The Ogata File, United States, USSR

News you may have missed #0045

July 28, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Ex-CIA, -NSA director defends warrantless wiretapping. Michael Hayden, who was director of the CIA from 2006 to 2009 and of the NSA from 1999 to 2005, has penned an article in The New York Times, in which he says that the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program helped the US intelligence community “connecting the dots, something for which we were roundly criticized after Sept[ember] 11 as not sufficiently doing”.
US House intelligence panel member calls for new Church Committee. Rush Holt (D-NJ) a senior member of the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has called for a resuscitation of the Church and Pike investigations into intelligence practices of the 1970s.
BBC radio launches series on MI6. The BBC’s Radio 4 has launched today a new three-part series examining the 100-year history and operations of MI6, Britain’s foremost external intelligence agency. The programs, which can also be listened to online, include interviews with senior intelligence officers, agents and diplomats.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 9/11, Church Committee, CIA, MI6, Michael Hayden, News, news you may have missed, NSA, operation STELLAR WIND, Rush Holt, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), UK, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, US House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence (Pike Committee), US Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, War on Terrorism, warrantless communications interception, wiretapping

News you may have missed #0044

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Attorney behind CIA lawsuit gives interview. Brian C. Leighton, the attorney representing former Drug Enforcement Agency officer Richard A. Horn, who claims that CIA agents illegally wiretapped his conversations, has given an interview to The Merced Sun-Star.
Germany accuses China of industrial espionage. A senior German counterintelligence official has said Germany is under attack from an increasing number of state-backed Chinese spying operations that are costing the German economy tens of billions of euros a year. Similar claims were made in May.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Brian C. Leighton, Burma, China, CIA, DEA, espionage, Germany, industrial espionage, Internet, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Rangoon (Burma), Richard A. Horn, wiretapping

Fifth man in German Islamist cell may have been Turkish spy

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Attila Selek

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The missing fifth member of an Islamist cell in Germany, which is accused of trying to target Western targets in the country, had connections with Turkish intelligence, according to unconfirmed German media reports. Four members of the group were arrested in 2007 while allegedly planning bomb attacks on US military bases in Germany. Two of them, Fritz Gelowicz and Martin Schneider, are German converts to Islam, while two others, Adem Yilmaz and Attila Selek, are of Turkish descent. But German news magazine Focus revealed on Saturday that Selek, who is accused of having ties with al-Qaeda, claimed in his trial last month that the group’s fifth man, who is still at large, had ties with Turkish intelligence. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Adem Yilmaz, al-Qaeda, Attila Selek, Fritz Gelowicz, Germany, Martin Schneider, Mevlut K., MİT (Turkey), News, Turkey

News you may have missed #0043

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Iran government fires intelligence minister. Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie was fired on Sunday. No reason has officially been given for the dismissal.
What the CIA hid from Congress. Jane Harman was a member of the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2003 to 2006. Now she has authored an article in The Los Angeles Times, in which she comes out in support of the new House and Senate intelligence authorization bills.
Satellite photos of NSA’s new cryptology center in San Antonio, courtesy of TerraServer and Cryptome. See here for previous intelNews coverage of this data-mining facility in Texas.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, intelligence oversight, Iran, Jane Harman, News, news you may have missed, NSA, San Antonio (Texas), Texas Cryptology Center, United States, US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

US spy services hiding true employee numbers, says Senate panel

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has voiced disapproval of the high numbers of contractors employed by America’s intelligence organizations, and has censured US intelligence agencies for hiding their actual personnel numbers. The criticism follows a Congressional testimony last week by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair, who claimed that the intelligence community has come up with its own definition of inherently governmental. The term refers to government jobs that are too sensitive to be outsourced. In his presentation, Blair revealed that private contractors now constitute 25% of the entire US intelligence force in all 16 agencies of the US intelligence community, but he said this share shrunk by 3 % last year, as the intelligence agencies revised their definition of jobs that cannot be outsourced. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, inherently governmental jobs, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, intelligence outsourcing, intelligence oversight, News, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

NSA spying more aggressive than ever, says Bamford

July 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

James Bamford

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has for the first time in its history appointed a “director of compliance”, whose office will supervise the lawfulness of NSA’s communications surveillance and other spy activities. The Agency, America’s largest intelligence organization, which is tasked with worldwide communications surveillance as well as communications security, has appointed John DeLong to the new post. But in a new column for Salon magazine, James Bamford argues that the gigantic agency is still overstepping its legal framework in both domestic and international spying. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, communications interception, data mining, domestic intelligence, James Bamford, John DeLong, News, NSA, NSA Director of Compliance, operation STELLAR WIND, surveillance, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), Texas Cryptology Center, United States, Utah

News you may have missed #0042

July 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Postcards containing Cold War spy messages unearthed. The postcards, containing chess moves, were posted in 1950 by an unidentified man in Frankfurt, thought to have been an undercover agent, to Graham Mitchell, who was then deputy director general of MI5. The problem is, researchers are not quite sure whether the cryptic text on the postcards is based on British or Soviet codes, because Mitchell was suspected of being a secret Soviet agent at the time.
Is NSA actively mapping social networks? There are rumors out there that NSA is monitoring social networking tools, such as Tweeter, Facebook and MySpace, in order to make links between individuals and construct elaborate data-mining-based maps of who associates with whom.
US Senate bill would disclose intelligence budget. The US Senate version of the FY2010 intelligence authorization bill would require the President to disclose the aggregate amount requested for intelligence each year. Disclosure of the budget request would enable Congress to appropriate a stand-alone intelligence budget that would no longer need to be concealed misleadingly in other non-intelligence budget accounts.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with cloud computing, Cold War, cryptology, data mining, double agents, espionage, Facebook, Frankfurt (Germany), government secrecy, Graham Mitchell, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, MI5, MySpace, News, news you may have missed, NSA, social networking, Twitter, UK, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, USSR

Senate intelligence panel takes sides in DNI-CIA dispute

July 25, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In a report issued last Thursday, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has come out in support of the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in its dispute with the CIA over who should appoint CIA station chiefs abroad. This blog has kept tabs on the bureaucratic turf war, which erupted last May, when DNI Dennis Blair argued in a still classified directive that his office should have a say in certain cases over the appointment of CIA’s senior representatives in foreign cities. Former CIA officials have denounced the directive, which would allow the appointment of non-CIA personnel to the position, as “simple insanity”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, Leon Panetta, News, Robert Baer, turf wars, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

News you may have missed #0041

July 25, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Ex-CIA analyst scolds Ignatius for defending CIA’s assassination program. Melvin A. Goodman, author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA, calls The Washington Post‘s David Ignatius “the mainstream media’s leading apologist” for the CIA.
Tajikistan uranium factory boss accused of espionage. The Tajik government has detained Shavkat Bobojonov, director of its Vostokredmet uranium-reprocessing plant, considered by many a strategic facility, of spying for neighboring Uzbekistan.
US says it focuses “new intelligence effort” on Taliban. The US Pentagon says it is consolidating into a unified effort “for the first time” data from several intelligence sources, including unmanned drones and other aircraft, intercepted messages, and ground troops.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, David Ignatius, espionage, military intelligence, News, news you may have missed, Predator drones, Shavkat Bobojonov, Tajikistan, Taliban, United States, US DoD, Uzbekistan, Vostokredmet uranium-reprocessing plant (Tajikistan)

News you may have missed #0040

July 24, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Top court scolds German government over spy secrecy. Angela Merkel’s government has been rebuked by Germany’s most senior court for withholding information from a parliamentary inquiry into the role of Germany’s intelligence service (BND) in the detention of two Muslims from Germany at a US prison in Afghanistan.
Man implicated in Israeli spy affair says US government “tainted by anti-Semitism”. Larry Franklin, the former Defense Department analyst accused by the US government of handing classified US military information to two American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists, has told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that “some of the agencies of the US administration, and in particular the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are tainted by anti-Semitism”.
Defense contractors preparing private cyberwarriors? US Defense contractors such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and others, are moving into the lucrative realm of cyberwarfare.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, AIPAC, BND, cyberwar, defense industry, espionage, FBI, German Muslims, Germany, Israel, Lawrence Anthony Franklin, News, news you may have missed, United States

Obama administration denies UN access to Guantánamo, CIA prisons

July 24, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Guantánamo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US government has turned down calls by United Nations human rights monitors for access to the US Pentagon’s Guantánamo Bay prison camp and to CIA prison sites around the world. It is the second time that Obama administration officials have declined this request by UN monitors, despite the administration’s rhetorical commitment to increasing its collaboration on human rights issues with the international agency. Commenting anonymously to The Washington Post, which is one of a handful of US news outlets that are running this story, US government officials said that the Obama administration “support[s] the work of the UN human rights researchers”, but is “constrained in releasing information on sensitive intelligence matters”. The news comes ten days after unconfirmed reports that the US Department of Justice is considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the use of torture by US intelligence agencies after September of 2001.