Groundbreaking book on international spying now online

June 1, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Nicky Hager’s groundbreaking book Secret Power: New Zealand’s Role in the International Spy Network, is now freely available as an eBook on the writer’s personal website. The book, originally published in 1996, first revealed the existence of the UK-USA Security Agreement (reportedly also known as AUSCANZUKUS) a peculiar intelligence-sharing arrangement between the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which has existed since World War II. Secret Power focused on New Zealand’s role in the agreement and also documented the US-managed ECHELON, a signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection and analysis network that serves as an intelligence-sharing platform between the UK-USA signatories. Hager, who is widely considered to be New Zealand’s leading investigative journalist, has written several books since Secret Power, including Secrets and Lies and The Hollow Men. His personal website is available here.

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W. German cop behind fatal 1967 shooting was a spy, documents show

May 30, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On June 2, 1967, West German police opened fire on leftist students demonstrating against a visit to Berlin by the Shah of Iran. One of the shots fired by the police killed student protester Benno Ohnesorg. His killing was dubbed in Germany “the shot that changed the republic”. It had a major role in radicalizing the West German student movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s and directly sparked the creation of the militant student organization Red Army Faction –also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group. But a group of researchers working at Germany’s Office of the Federal Commissioner Preserving the Records of the Ministry for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (BStU), led by archivist Marianne Birthler, now claim they have discovered that the West German police officer who fired the shot that killed Ohnesorg was actually an East German spy. Read more of this post

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IntelNews reviews Secret Wars, by Gordon Thomas

May 29, 2009 by Leave a comment

Secret Wars

Secret Wars

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
IntelNews is pleased to present a review of Gordon Thomas’ book Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence (St. Martin’s Press, 2009), a useful historical narrative of MI5 and MI6, the publication of which coincides with the centennial year of Britain’s intelligence and security services. The book’s strength rests on Thomas’ skilled storytelling, which, coupled with some interesting new information, will appeal to both popular enthusiasts and scholarly devotees of intelligence history. Please click here to read the review. IntelNews is interested in reviewing both popular and academic publications on the politics of espionage and intelligence, intelligence history, analysis, terrorism and counterterrorism, as well as foreign policy, among other subjects. Authors, editors and publicists may contact intelNews for more information.

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Analysis: CIA loyal only to itself, says former agent

May 29, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Judging from emails we have received, several intelNews readers have noticed the absence from this website of any mention of the recent imbroglio between Nancy Pelosi and the CIA. There are several important reasons for the absence of this story (not least is this site’s focus on under-reported intelligence news), but the most crucial is its “news unworthiness” –for lack of a better term. All parties involved in the dispute appear to be primarily jockeying for political currency, which, in the opinion of this writer, makes for a sad spectacle. A few days ago, however, there surfaced an interesting editorial on the subject by Ishmael Jones. This is the pseudonym of a longtime CIA agent, who resigned from the Agency in good standing and now routinely publishes professional memoirs and critical position papers on intelligence reform. Read more of this post

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CIA Director acknowledges, defends drone strikes in Pakistan

May 27, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
CIA Director Leon Panetta made an extremely rare public acknowledgement of the CIA unmanned drone strikes in Pakistan, while speaking recently before the Pacific Council on International Policy. Panetta was speaking in reaction to a May 17 article in The New York Times by David Kilcullen, former counterinsurgency adviser to US Army General David Petraeus, and Center for a New American Security fellow Andrew Exum. Kilcullen and Exum joined intelNews in its March 15 condemnation of the illegal and counterproductive CIA airstrikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have killed hundreds of civilians in recent months. Read more of this post

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German security group sees rise in industrial, commercial spying

May 26, 2009 by 1 Comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A major German corporate security group has echoed recent warnings by the German government that foreign industrial and commercial espionage in Germany is on the increase. Last week, the general manager of the German Association for Security in Industry and Commerce (ASW), Dr. Berthold Stoppelkamp, told German newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that the targeting of German research and commercial enterprises by mainly Chinese and Russian agents is so extensive that it usually costs the German economy over €20 billion per year, and it may be costing as high as €50 billion per year since 2007. Dr. Stoppelkamp said that, although these covert activities are government-managed, they aim to assist individual Chinese or Russian firms competing against German companies for international contracts. Read more of this post

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UK report concludes security services not to blame for 7/7 attacks

May 25, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The second installment of an extensive evaluation of the intelligence background to the July 7, 2005, bombings in London, has been published by Britain’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). The parliamentary committee, whose cabinet-appointed members have access to highly classified material, have concluded that Britain’s foremost counterintelligence agency, MI5, which is also known as the Security Service, as well as the Special Branch, lacked the resources necessary to detect and foil the 7/7 attacks. The report, which is publicly available online in a heavily censored version, reveals that MI5’s resources enabled it to provide “reasonable” intelligence coverage of no more than one in every 20 militant suspects . Read more of this post

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Suspicious silence continues in case of missing Polish signals officer

May 23, 2009 by 2 Comments

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
When we at intelNews first took note of the mysterious disappearance of Stefan Zielonka, on May 7, we decided to delay posting information about the case until more news came our way. Sadly, it hasn’t. The case of the disappearance of Stefan Zielonka, senior signals officer with Polish military intelligence, remains as mysterious as it was on May 7. Zielonka’s colleagues at Poland’s Military Intelligence Services (SWW, formerly known as Military Information Services or WSI) became suspicious after he failed to return to work following a two-week sick leave. News outlets have since reported that Zielonka “was suffering from depression and had trouble both at home and at the office”. Read more of this post

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Comment: CIA operations in Pakistan will continue despite DoD involvement

May 21, 2009 by 2 Comments

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last week, when news emerged that the US will be expanding its unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan, I received several reader emails arguing that the CIA air operations inside Pakistan will soon be over. These expectations are unrealistic. Washington has decided to deploy a separate fleet of drones under military command, which will be deployed alongside, not in replacement of, CIA Predator drones. There appear to be at least three reasons –perhaps as many as four– for this development. Read more of this post

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Analysis: Major Colombian wiretap scandal explained

May 20, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Last April, Colombia’s Administrative Department of Security (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, or DAS) suffered one of the most extensive purges in its history, when 22 of its detectives were fired in connection with an investigation into illegal wiretapping against several public figures in Colombian political life. Those targeted by the illegal wiretappers included Supreme Court judges, prominent journalists, as well as the chief of the Colombian National Police, former president Cesar Gaviria, and even the minister of defense Juan Manuel Santos. Investigative reporter Joseph Huff-Hanon has produced what in this writer’s opinion is the best English-language analysis of the political dimension of the Colombian wiretap scandal. Read more of this post

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Unlike AIPAC lobbyists, retired DoD official to face charges

May 19, 2009 by 1 Comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In a development that one observer described as “the tip of the iceberg with insider threats” at the US Pentagon, a retired official with the US Department of Defense has been charged with conspiracy to communicate classified information to a foreign agent. The US Department of Justice alleges that James Wilbur Fondren, Jr., 62, was part of a spy ring that operated on US soil under the supervision of Chinese government officials, whom Fondren supplied with several classified documents for over three years, beginning in 2004. According to US government prosecutors, six years after retiring from his high-level post at the US Pacific Command’s Washington Liaison Office, Lieutenant Colonel Fondren offered his private consulting services to Tai Shen Kuo, a Taiwanese-American handled by an intelligence agent of the People’s Republic of China. Read more of this post

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CIA silent on rumors of Panetta’s secret visit to Israel

May 18, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Several news outlets have pointed to The London Times as the source of the revelation that CIA Director Leon Panetta secretly visited Israel earlier this moth. In reality, the source of the report is not The Times, but Israel National Radio, which aired the news early on Thursday morning. The report was promptly picked up by Agence France Presse (AFP) and issued in French and English later on the same day. According to AFP, US President Barack Obama sent Panetta to Jerusalem in search of high-level assurances from the new Israeli government of President Benjamin Netanyahu, that Israel “would not launch a surprise strike on Iran”. The same report stated that Panetta received assurances from both President Netanyahu and Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, that “Israel does not intend to surprise the US on Iran”. It is important to note that the Israelis’ assurances pertain solely to their obligation to notify Washington prior to launching a strike on Tehran, and in no way rule out such an attack. Therefore they fall significantly short of US requirements. Read more of this post

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CIA, still bitter about Cheney, rejects application to release memos

May 16, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On April 20, former US Vice-President Dick Cheney urged the CIA to declassify several internal documents that “showed the success” of the Agency’s torture program against captured members of al-Qaeda. Several weeks earlier Cheney had actually applied to the US National Archives and Records Administration for the release of two internal documents pertaining to the torture controversy. But on Thursday, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano issued an official letter rejecting Cheney’s application, because “the two memos […] were relevant to pending litigation” against the Agency. The CIA official assured reporters that the decision to reject Cheney’s application was made “[f]or that reason –and that reason only”. But insiders tell intelNews that Cheney’s clout with the CIA has been severely diminished, following his failure to come to the Agency’s rescue after a departing President Bush blamed the CIA for producing “false intelligence” on Iraq. Read more of this post

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US whistleblowing legislation gets little media attention

May 15, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Unlike American news outlets, the US intelligence community is paying a lot of attention right now to HR 1507, known as the 2009 Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. The act is currently making the rounds at two US House of Representatives committees, namely the Oversight and Government Reform and the Homeland Security committee. There was an interesting debate yesterday morning at the Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing, where proponents and opponents of HR 1507 focused on the bill’s provisions protecting the rights of whistleblowers in the intelligence and security services. Under current legislation (the 1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, or ICWPA), there is a large gap separating the rights of intelligence and security whistleblowers from those of other government employees. Read more of this post

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UK activist reveals police attempt to recruit her as a paid informant

May 8, 2009 by 1 Comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The London Sunday Times has aired a brief interview with Matilda “Tilly” Gifford, a British environmental activist who last week accused British police officers of trying to recruit her as a paid informant to spy on protest groups. Gifford, whose activist pursuits have repeatedly brought her to the attention of British police, was approached by two unnamed police officers at a Strathclyde Police station in Glasgow, Scotland, and was asked to perform undercover work on behalf of law enforcement. Unbeknownst to the police, however, Gifford was recording the recruiting conversation using a concealed mobile phone. With the help of fellow activists, Gifford secretly videotaped a subsequent meeting with Strathclyde Police officers, who had been led to believe she was genuinely interested in participating in undercover work. Read more of this post

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