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Western companies sold phone spy equipment to Iran

April 15, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
For about a year now, political dissidents in Iran have suspected that the Iranian government’s ability to spy on private communications has intensified, covering for the first time cell phone and instant messaging exchanges. Last Monday it emerged that two European telecommunications hardware manufacturers are actually behind the Iranian government’s increased surveillance capabilities. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) sold Iran Telecom –Iran’s government-owned telecommunications provider– a sophisticated surveillance system, in the summer of 2008. NSN is an engineering partnership between Finland’s Nokia Corporation and German hardware manufacturer Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering firm. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ben Roome, civil liberties, communications interception, Finland, Germany, Iran, Iran Telecom, News, Nokia Corporation, Nokia Siemens Networks, Siemens AG, telecommunication service providers, telecommunications, wireless communications interception

CIA terminates secret prisons but rejects prosecutions

April 12, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Leon Panetta

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In a statement issued on Thursday morning, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said it will terminate its secret prison network and would “decommission” all of its overseas prison sites. The news was undoubtedly welcomed by many intelligence professionals who took issue with the use of techniques that President Barack Obama has described as “torture [that] betrayed American values, alienated allies and became a recruiting tool for al Qaeda”. Speaking to The New York Times, the director of Human Rights Watch’s Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program, Joanne Mariner, said the news was “incredibly heartening and important”. But she called for initiating criminal investigations against those at the CIA who implemented the institutionalization of torture. This is highly unlikely, however. In an email to CIA staff, the Agency’s new Director, Leon E. Panetta, repeated last week the standard CIA position that those responsible for implementing and carrying out torture during the Bush Administration “should not be investigated, let alone punished”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Barack Obama, CIA, Human Rights Watch, Joanne Mariner, Leon Panetta, News, secret prisons, torture, United States

Obama administration approves new spy satellite program

April 11, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Very few media outlets picked up last week news of an oral approval by Obama administration officials of a new spy satellite program that will further blur the line between private and US Pentagon satellite imagery provision. The new plan, provisionally called “2-plus-2”, is said to replace the fiasco of Boeing Corporation’s delayed and hugely over-budget Future Imagery Architecture reconnaissance project, which the DoD terminated in 2005. The DoD now appears poised to punish Boeing by awarding 2-plus-2 “to Lockheed without a competitive bidding process”, later this year. Under the new plan, whose initial budget Pentagon officials have refused to reveal, includes building from scratch two state-of-the-art satellites for Pentagon use. It also stipulates increased collaboration between the Pentagon and private satellite imagery providers, such as DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, who currently pocket approximately $25 million a month from the Pentagon. Notably, the new contract has a “guaranteed access” stipulation, which gives the Pentagon “top priority and the ability to direct the satellites if there is a war or another emergency”. The contract is subject to Congressional approval, but intelligence officials have said they are “confident it will pass”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2-pus-2, Boeing Corporation, DigitalGlobe, Future Imagery Architecture, GeoEye, intelligence outsourcing, Lockheed Martin, National Reconnaissance Office, News, satellite reconnaissance, United States, US DoD

Georgia war prompted Russian purchase of Israeli drones

April 10, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Much was made last week of an agreement between the Russian government and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to purchase three Israeli-made intelligence-gathering drones. The Israeli company will receive $50 million to supply the Russian military with three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), namely a Bird-Eye 400 mini, an I-view MK 150 tactical, and a Searcher MK II medium-range UAV. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the deal last Friday, saying it needed the new generation UAVs “to provide battlefield reconnaissance to the country’s armed forces”. What the Ministry didn’t say, however, is that it was prompted to purchase the Israeli-made drones after it saw its operations severely hampered by lack of aerial intelligence during the 2008 South Ossetia war last August. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 South Ossetia War, aerial reconnaissance, Bird-Eye 400 UAV, Israel, Israel Aerospace Industries, MK 150 UAV, MK II UAV, News, Russia, Russian Ministry of Defense, unmanned aerial vehicles, weapons trade

DC surveillance house still outside Russian embassy

April 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Secret camera

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Almost exactly a year ago, MSNBC’s Jim Popkin showed how easy it was to detect an FBI surveillance post at a house outside the Russian embassy in Washington, DC. The post operated out of what initially appeared to be a residential property located directly across from the Russian embassy building. Watching closely late in the afternoon, however, three video cameras could be seen operating from inside the three opaque skylights in the roof of the house. It took minimal background research for Popkin to confirm the FBI connection to the property. One of the Bureau’s counterintelligence agents associated with the operation, and listed as a resident of the property, had even identified himself as “clerk [but] really a spy” in a publicly available database. Now Cryptome has published recent photographs of the house, which confirm the earlier MSNBC story and show that the opaque skylights are still in place in the roof of the residential property. One of the photographs shows an empty lot by the side of the property, which readers with background in surveillance and will undoubtedly find intriguing.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with consular monitoring, counterintelligence, FBI, News, Russia, Russian embassy in the US, surveillance, United States, Washington DC

Intelligence sources say US electric grid hacked by foreign spies

April 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In yesterday’s edition, The Wall Street Journal quoted senior US intelligence sources, including former Homeland Security Department officials, who said that foreign spies have penetrated the electronic infrastructure of America’s electrical supply grid. The officials said the hackers, who have reportedly been traced to Russia and China, among other countries, do not currently appear intent on disrupting the system. Instead, they seem to be “on a mission to navigate [and map] the US electrical system and its controls”, allegedly so that they can sabotage it “during a crisis or war”. Interestingly, the discovery was reportedly made not by utility company technicians, but by US intelligence agents engaged in monitoring cyber-intrusions into the nation’s electronic infrastructure. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, computer hacking, cyberespionage, cybersecurity, energy networks, News, Russia, sabotage, United States, Yevgeniy Khorishko

Paper alleges US espionage links at Cairo’s American University

April 8, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
America’s image in Egypt has suffered in recent days, after one of Egypt’s largest newspapers claimed in a series of articles that the American University in Cairo (AUC) is conducting espionage work for the US Pentagon. On March 30, Egypt’s Al Masry Al Yawm newspaper said that the AUC, one of Egypt’s most prominent academic institutions, which was established 90 years ago, had signed a contract worth $605,000 with the US Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) to conduct research on “infectious diseases, applied research and development in Egypt”. Prompted by the article’s allegations, two representatives in the Egyptian People’s Assembly requested “an emergency meeting of national security and education officials to discuss espionage at the AUC”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Al Masry Al Yawm, American University in Cairo, Egypt, Mohamed Samir, News, United States, US Army, US DoD, US embassy in Egypt, US Naval Medical Research Unit, US Navy

Australian ex-intelligence agent tried for leaking documents

April 7, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Bali bombings

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The trial has begun in Australia of a former intelligence agent accused of conspiring to leak classified documents to the press. The prosecution is accusing James Paul Seivers, a former surveillance expert with the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), of photocopying secret intelligence reports about the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia, and leaking them to the Australian press, with the help of his co-tenant. The secret reports, which had been compiled a few weeks before the Bali bombings, contained warnings by American intelligence agents that jihadist groups in Indonesia were preparing large-scale attacks on popular tourist nightspots. The leaked documents were published in the Australian press and led to strong criticism of Australian intelligence authorities; the latter were widely seen as having failed to prevent the bombings, which killed over 200 people, among them 88 Australian citizens. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2002 Bali Bombings, ASIO, Australia, Francis Matthew O'Ryan, Indonesia, James Paul Seivers, News, The Australian, whistleblowing

US uses Kyrgyz base to spy, say Russians

April 7, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Rossiya TV

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Just as US officials entered one last round of negotiations to avert the scheduled evacuation of the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, Russian television has accused the US Pentagon of secretly using the base to spy on Moscow and Beijing. Government-owned Telekanal Rossiya aired during primetime last Sunday a documentary titled “Base”, which alleged that signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the Pentagon’s primary operational focus at Manas. Footage aired in the documentary showed several windowless buildings located around the perimeter of the Manas Air Base, said to contain components of a “multi-channel, multi-functional system of radio-electronic surveillance […] which controls entire Central Asia, parts of China and Siberia”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with China, Kyrgyzstan, Manas (Kyrgyzstan), News, Russia, SIGINT, Telekanal Rossiya, United States, US DoD

Dubai police say Russian parliamentarian ordered murder

April 6, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Yamadayev

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Police officials in the United Arab Emirates said last weekend that Chechnya’s ex-Prime Minister and “close ally of the Chechen president” was behind the March 31 assassination of a former Chechen separatist living in Dubai. Speaking to reporters, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, chief of Dubai’s police, said Adam S. Delimkhanov, who is currently a Member of Parliament in Russia, “is the man behind the assassination of Sulim B. Yamadayev”. Yamadayev was a Chechen rebel commander who fought against Moscow in the 1990s, but in 1999 switched sides and headed an elite pro-Moscow paramilitary squad that targeted the separatists. Last spring, however, after Yamadayev fell out with pro-Moscow Chechen President Ramzan A. Kadyrov, Moscow issued an arrest warrant against him for the 1998 abduction of a Chechen entrepreneur. Shortly after one of his brothers was shot dead in Moscow, Yamadayev moved to the United Arab Emirates. On March 31, however, less than four months after his relocation to Dubai, Yamadayev was shot several times in the head outside the Jumeirah Beach apartment complex in which he lived. He thus became the latest target in a recent wave of assassinations of former Chechen commanders by mysterious assailants, who many suspect are commissioned by the Russian intelligence services. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Adam S. Delimkhanov, assassinations, Chechnya, Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim, Dubai, Jumeirah Beach apartment (Dubai), Mahdi Lournia, Makhsud-Jan, News, Ramzan Kadyrov, Russia, Sulim B. Yamadayev, United Arab Emirates

French energy giant spying on Greenpeace?

April 4, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

ÉDF's Paris HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Two senior security officials at France’s state-owned electricity service provider are among several people charged by French authorities with spying on Greenpeace. News emerged last Tuesday that the heads of security at Électricité de France (ÉDF), Pierre Durieux and Pierre Francois, have had their offices raided and computers confiscated by French police, who are searching for the culprits of an extensive spying operation against the environmental organization. Three other people have been charged with membership in the spy ring, including Thierry Lorho, director of private investigations firm Kargus Consultant, as well as two unnamed individuals, one of whom is reportedly a “computer expert”. It appears that the five collaborated in efforts to remotely hack into computer servers and networks operated by Greenpeace France. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Électricité de France, computer hacking, cybersecurity, energy resources, France, Greenpeace, Kargus Consultant, News, Pierre Durieux, Pierre Francois, Thierry Lorho

Analysis: Strange Case of Philippine Spy in US Gets Stranger

April 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Aquino

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A Philippine former intelligence officer, who was arrested in New York for passing classified US documents to his Philippine contacts, has had his sentence reduced by a US court. Michael Ray Aquino was apprehended in 2005 and charged with collaborating with an FBI intelligence analyst who spied on the US. Aquino’s recent history is complicated. For several years, he worked for the (now defunct) Philippines National Police Intelligence Group (NPIG), where he quickly rose to the post of Deputy Director, under the Presidency of Joseph Estrada. In 2001, however, when Estrada was ousted from the Presidency amidst extensive corruption allegations, Aquino was one of several military and intelligence officials who were removed by the new government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Soon afterwards, Aquino was among several suspects charged with the politically motivated murder of Salvador “Bubby” Dacer, a well-known public relations manager who had helped oust Estrada. The ousted intelligence officer escaped justice by fleeing with his family to the US, in 2001. Read article →

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abu Sayyaf Group, Anne Roberts, assassinations, Barack Obama, espionage, FBI, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Joseph Estrada, Joseph Fitsanakis, Judge William Walls, Leandro Aragoncillo, Michael Ray Aquino, Moro ethnic group, NPIG (Philippines), Philippines, RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement, Salvador Dacer, Southeast Asia, United States, US Joint Civil Military Operation Task Force

An April Fools story from Robert Eringer

April 2, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Albert II

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In his latest blog entry, former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to Prince Albert II of Monaco, recounts an interesting story of deceit at the gaffe-prone Royal House of Monaco. According to Eringer, the tiny principality’s ruler, Prince Albert II, was recently fooled by an attractive 24-year-old blonde into believing she was the daughter of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The woman, whose name was Ekaterini (Catherine) was in fact Greek and spoke not a word of Russian. Eringer reports that the young woman convinced the Monegasque royal to patronize the local chapter of Green Cross International, an environmental action group she claimed to speak for. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Monaco, Monaco Intelligence Service, News, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Robert Eringer, Russia

Walesa accused again of being intelligence collaborator

April 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Lech Walesa

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last December, I reported on a book by two Polish academics, Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk, titled Secret services and Lech Walesa: A Contribution to the Biography (SB a Lech Wałęsa: Przyczynek do Biografii). In it, the two historians discuss what they call “compelling evidence” and “positive proof” that the country’s anticommunist former President, Lech Walesa, was a paid collaborator of Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), Poland’s Security Service, during the communist era. Now a new book by Polish historian Paweł Zyzak echoes these allegations. Citing sources “that prefer to remain anonymous”, the book, titled Lech Walesa: Idea and History (Lech Wałęsa. Idea i Historia), claims that the former Solidarność leader fathered an illegitimate child and collaborated with the SB in the 1970s. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, Eastern Europe, Edward Craczyk, Institute for National Remembrance, Lech Walesa, News, Paweł Zyzak, Piotr Gontarczyk, Poland, SB (Poland), Solidarity, Sławomir Cenckiewicz

Researchers discover gigantic cyberespionage operation

March 31, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Ronald Deibert

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A team of Canadian researchers claims to have discovered a large cyberespionage ring located mainly in China. The researchers say the ring has managed to infiltrate nearly 1,300 mainly government and corporate computers in at least 103 countries around the world. The report, entitled Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network, was compiled after a ten-month collaboration between Ottawa’s SecDev group and the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Although the report concludes that the cyberespionage ring is located mainly in China, it specifically rejects claims that GhostNet is inevitably a Chinese government operation, saying that there is no evidence that Beijing is behind the operation. University of Toronto associate professor Ronald Deibert suggested that the operation could potentially be the work of non-state pro-Chinese actors, or could be conducted by a profit-oriented group that sells the acquired information to whoever offers it the highest monetary compensation. “It’s a murky realm that we’re lifting the lid on”, said Dr. Deibert: “This could well be the CIA or the Russians”. Read more of this post