January 22, 2009
by intelNews
Judge Walker
By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Ever since September 2004, when they were taken to court accused of terrorist links by the US government, the directors of Al-Haramain, a Saudi-based Islamic charity with offices in Oregon and Missouri, have suspected their telephones were tapped under the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Their suspicions were confirmed last July, when US government prosecutors mistakenly gave the charity’s legal team a classified document showing that the FBI had indeed tapped the group’s office phones. The group’s legal team used the classified document as a basis to sue the Bush Administration, claiming that warrantless wiretapping violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). On January 5, 2009, the presiding Judge, Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker, ruled that Al-Haramain’s legal challenge of the legality of the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping scheme could indeed go ahead. Moreover, he asked the US government “to consider declassifying the secret evidence” relating to Al-Haramain’s prosecution. It has now emerged that the Bush Administration wrote to Judge Walker asking him to reverse his ruling. The communication (.pdf) was apparently dispatched to Judge Walker at 10:56 p.m. on Monday, January 19, 2009 –that is, 64 minutes prior to the end of the Administration’s last full day in power. In the filing, Judge Walker is pressed to reverse his January 5 decision and prevent the disclosure of the secret evidence he has requested the government to provide. The next hearing for the case has been scheduled for this coming Friday.
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World’s most prolific nuclear arms smuggler admits CIA link
January 23, 2009 by intelNews 8 Comments
Urs Tinner
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On October 4, 2003, Italian authorities, acting on a tip by the CIA, inspected a Libya-bound German ship anchored at Taranto, Italy. The ship was found to be carrying several centrifuges for use in Libya’s uranium enrichment program. The discovery led to the uncovering of the role of Dr. Abdul Qadeer (A.Q.) Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, in subcontracting his nuclear knowhow to North Korea, Iran and Libya. It also led to the uncovering of Urs Tinner, a Swiss engineer who worked under A.Q. Khan, and was said at the time to be leading “the world’s biggest nuclear smuggling ring”. Tinner was eventually arrested along with his father Friedrich and brother Marco, both members of Tinner’s ring, and extradited to Switzerland. Strangely, however, he was never charged and was in fact released from detention last December, with the blessings of the CIA, who did not wish to see him prosecuted. Now Swiss TV station SF1 has announced the scheduled airing of a documentary, in which the freed Tinner will acknowledge that he tipped the CIA about the German ship in Taranto and A.Q. Khan’s nuclear subcontracting. Read more of this post
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abdul Qadeer Khan, CIA, informants, Iranian nuclear program, Libyan nuclear program, News, North Korean nuclear program, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Switzerland, Tinner nuclear smuggling ring, Urs Tinner