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Mystery surrounds arrest of renegade CIA agent in Indonesia

January 18, 2010 by intelNews 2 Comments

Bogor, Indonesia

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
In January of 2008, a man with an American accent appeared at a passport office in the popular West Java tourist resort of Bogor, Indonesia, and applied for an Indonesian passport. But his inability to speak Bahasa Indonesia triggered the suspicion of passport officials, who subsequently discovered that his Indonesian birth certificate was faked. He was arrested on the spot, but it took nearly a year for Indonesian authorities to ascertain the man’s real identity: he was Bob Marshall, a 61-year-old American-born former CIA agent who allegedly went renegade on the Agency in 1974. For the past 35 years, Marshall has reportedly been cited in dozens of countries, operating a worldwide arms smuggling and check-fraud network. There are rumors at Interpol that Marshall has made use of no fewer than 40 passports during this time, some of which he acquired while working for the CIA. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bob Marshall, Bogor (Indonesia), check fraud, CIA, forgery, Indonesia, Interpol, News, renegade spies, travel documentation, United States, weapons smuggling, West Java (Indonesia)

News you may have missed #0257 (assassinations edition)

January 18, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Who tried to kill the Israeli diplomats in Jordan? “Whoever placed the bomb targeting the two armored embassy vehicles on their way from Jordan to the Allenby Bridge, last Thursday, appears to have had very good intelligence. They knew that many Israeli diplomats, who normally live in Amman without their families, usually depart for Israel for the weekend on Thursday afternoon, and they knew how to identify the two-car convoy”.
Iran insists in Israeli link to Mohammadi assassination. Last week’s assassination of Iranian scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was carried out in a “Zionist style”, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said in his first direct comment on the killing.
Pakistanis urge US to stop drone attacks. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has renewed calls on the US to stop its CIA-operated targeted assassinations, using unmanned Predator drone attacks on Pakistani soil, as they “kill civilians and ruin its efforts to isolate militants sheltering with tribes in the border region”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Amman (Jordan), assassinations, CIA, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, Yousuf Raza Gilani

News you may have missed #0256

January 17, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Descendant of Richard Sorge’s accomplice receives Soviet-era award. The 81-year-old niece of Yotoku Miyagi, a Japanese accomplice of famous German-born Comintern spy Richard Sorge, has been awarded the Soviet Order of the Patriotic War medal in a ceremony at the Russian embassy in Tokyo, Japan. The medal was originally granted in 1965, but Miyagi was unable to collect it, as he had been executed, along with Sorge, by the Japanese in 1944.
Analysis: Alleged US spy’s arrest in Cuba affects bilateral relations. Cuban officials say that a US citizen working for Maryland-based aid group Development Alternatives Inc., who was arrested in Havana last month, was actually recruiting local Cubans to spy on the government. This development means that initial hopes for better US-Cuban relations after Barack Obama’s election success may be fading.
CIA, DoD drone attacks in Afghanistan intensify under McChrystal. Under the command of US and NATO forces by US Army general Stanley McChrystal, unmanned drone strikes in Afghanistan have been steadily increasing. A good question to ask is who is in charge of similar strikes in Pakistan, which are also on the increase.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Barack Obama, CIA, Comintern, Cuba, Development Alternatives Inc., diplomacy, espionage, history, Japan, NATO, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, Richard Sorge, Russian embassy in Japan, Sorge spy ring, Stanley McChrystal, Tokyo, United States, US DoD, USSR, World War II, Yotoku Miyagi

Analysis: Should US spy agencies learn from France?

January 16, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

J.L. Bruguiere

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
What precisely is wrong with the US intelligence system? I have read several good analyses lately, all sparked by the disastrous Christmas holiday week, which included the Christmas Day bomber fiasco and the killing of seven CIA personnel in Afghanistan. One is written by ex-CIA operations officer Charles Faddis, who argues that the Agency’s central deficiency is that it places emphasis on process, rather than on mission accomplishment. Another, broader, analysis is authored by Ron Capps, the US Pentagon’s former director of human intelligence/counterintelligence operations in Afghanistan, who suggests that the way to break down bureaucratic walls between US intelligence agencies is to publish more unclassified reports. The most interesting commentary, however, is written by Paris-based Jean-Louis Bruguière, a French former Magistrate who led counterterrorism investigations from 1981 to 2007. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Analysis, Charles "Sam" Faddis, CIA, France, immigration intelligence, intelligence cooperation, intelligence reform, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, Ron Capps, suicide bombings, terrorism, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, US DoD

Jordanian opposition seeks to end Jordan’s CIA links

January 15, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Khalil al-Balawi

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
Earlier this month we reported on the excellent analysis by Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah about the view from Jordan on the December 30 suicide bombing in Afghanistan. He suggested that the immediate impact of the bombing, which killed at least seven CIA agents and a senior Jordanian intelligence official, was the revelation of Jordan’s covert CIA connection. The latter, “while relatively well-known before, has now been put out in the public sphere for all to see –especially the Arab street”, he wrote. This is precisely what appears to be happening. The Jordanian government is coming under pressure by opposition groups to end its cooperation with American military and intelligence services operating in Arab and Muslim lands. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, Hammam Said, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, Islamic Action Front (Jordan), Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood (Jordan), Nasser Judeh, News, Pakistan, Samir Rifai, suicide bombings, United States

News you may have missed #0254 (activism edition)

January 15, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US activists file lawsuit over domestic spying. Anti-war activists in Washington State are suing military analyst John Towery and police officials for allegedly infiltrating and spying on two antiwar groups in Olympia. The suit also names the City of Olympia and a US Coast Guard employee.
Antiwar activist to stage sit-in at CIA HQ. American political activist Cindy Sheehan says she intends to stage a sit-in in front of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on January 16, to protest the Agency’s unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan. Sheehan, whose son was killed in the Iraq War in 2004, attracted international attention for her extended protest at a makeshift camp outside President George Bush’s Texas ranch.
Is there legal basis for CIA drone strikes in Pakistan? We at intelNews have asked this question before. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is asking it also, and has requested to see the US government’s estimates of civilian casualties caused by the strikes.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, CIA, Cindy Sheehan, civil liberties, domestic intelligence, Iraq War, John Towery, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, political activism, Predator drones, United States, US Coast Guard, Washington state

News you may have missed #0251 (analysis edition)

January 13, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

Bomber’s betrayal shows spy challenge for West. The December 30 suicide attack that killed seven CIA agents in Khost, Afghanistan, shows that al-Qaeda is currently keener on killing Western spies than infiltrating them.
Christmas Day bomber affair was intel failure of the highest order. On Christmas Day, 2009, the US had 16 intelligence agencies, a czar for national intelligence and an intelligence budget of more than $75 billion. There was sufficient intelligence available to detect the Christmas Day bomber. However, US intelligence efforts were unimaginative, divided and diffuse, argues former CIA analyst Melvin Goodman.
Endemic failures in US intelligence gathering, analysis. Excellent summary analysis from Deutsche Welle on how endemic failures in communication and information gathering by US spy agencies are threatening to undermine Washington’s so-called “war on terrorism”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Analysis, CIA, double agents, Forward Operating Base Chapman, informants, intelligence analysis, intelligence failures, intelligence sharing, Khost, Melvin A. Goodman, news you may have missed, Nigeria, Pakistan, suicide bombings, UK, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, War on Terrorism, Yemen

News you may have missed #0250

January 12, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Pakistanis ask US to quit drone strikes. A Pakistani intelligence official has told the Associated Press that the response to the December 30 suicide bombing that killed seven CIA agents should not include intensifying unmanned drone strikes inside Pakistan. However, the CIA has reportedly “stepped up drone strikes” since the bombing.
Bush, Obama administrations guilty for neglecting info sharing. Thomas E. McNamara, former head of the US federal Information Sharing Environment, says the Bush and Obama administrations are both guilty of either losing interest or not focusing at all on promoting information sharing among often-secluded US government agencies.
China ends probe into Rio Tinto espionage case. Chinese prosecutors have now taken over the case of Stern Hu, the jailed boss of Anglo-Australian mining corporation Rio Tinto, after officials ended their investigation. Hu was arrested last July on espionage charges.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Australia, Bush Administration, China, CIA, energy resources, espionage, intelligence sharing, News, news you may have missed, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Predator drones, Rio Tinto, Stern Hu, Thomas E. McNamara, UK, United States, US Information Sharing Environment

BREAKING NEWS: Bomb blast kills Iranian physicist

January 12, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dr. Mohammadi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
Iran’s state broadcaster has said a government physicist was “martyred” earlier this morning in a suspicious blast outside his home. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) news agency reports that police forces have sealed off the area around the Tehran residence of Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, whom it described as a “dedicated revolutionary professor”. Dr. Ali-Mohammadi was reportedly killed by a remotely controlled explosive device that was planted at the entrance of his residence. Iranian officials hint that the remnants of the device point to the work of “outside intelligence agencies”, and some implicate the Mossad. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ardeshire Hassanpour, assassinations, CIA, defectors, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Israel, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mossad, News, nuclear espionage, nuclear proliferation, Qum (Iran), Shahram Amiri, United States

News you may have missed #0249

January 11, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

Analysis: Making Sense of the New CIA Battlefield in Afghanistan. “The military backgrounds of the fallen CIA operatives cast a light on the way the world of intelligence is increasingly muscling up and becoming militarized […]. This is no longer intelligence as anyone imagines it, nor is it military as military was once defined […]. And worse yet, from all available evidence, despite claims […] it seems remarkably ineffective”.
CIA planned to ‘rendition’ suspects in Germany in 2001. The CIA had 25 agents in Germany after the September 11 attacks and planned to illegally rendition al-Qaeda suspects without informing the German government. In the end, the plan was scrapped because of objections by the Agency’s German section.
French president appoints woman in charge of spy school. Nicolas Sarkozy is to create a ‘school for spies’, whose principal job will be to discourage French intelligence chiefs from spying on, and fighting against, one another. There are rumors that the school’s first director will be woman academic with no previous experience of espionage.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Analysis, CIA, extraordinary rendition, France, Germany, intelligence training, military, News, news you may have missed, Nicolas Sarkozy

CIA to continue working with Jordanians, despite suicide attack

January 11, 2010 by intelNews 1 Comment

GID logo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The vast majority of intelligence insiders, as well as intelligence observers, seem to agree that the CIA is determined to maintain its close links with Jordanian intelligence services, despite the December 30 suicide bombing that killed and injured 13 CIA personnel. Jordanian doctor Humam Khalil al-Balawi, who detonated a concealed bomb shortly after he was allowed into the US Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, had been recruited as a high-level informant by Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID). The Jordanian agency, which is known for its brutal interrogation tactics, is widely considered America’s most valuable intelligence partner in the Arab world. But the December 30 blunder, which resulted in the CIA’s second highest casualty disaster in its 63-year history, prompted some to question GID’s overall value. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, Forward Operating Base Chapman, General Intelligence Department (Jordan), Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, intelligence cooperation, Jordan, Khost, News, Phillip Knightley, suicide bombings, United States

Comment: CIA Deaths a Failure of Intelligence, Not Security

January 11, 2010 by intelNews 3 Comments

Khalil al-Balawi

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Early on Thursday, rumors began spreading among intelligence observers that the December 30 suicide blast in Khost, Afghanistan, which killed seven and seriously injured six CIA personnel, went off in the open air, and not inside a gym on the base, as had previously been reported. Soon afterwards, an article written by CIA director Leon Panetta for the Sunday edition of The Washington Post, dated January 10, was published by the paper two days early. The op-ed is an apparent attempt by the CIA leadership to officially get the word out that suicide bomber Humam Khalil al-Balawi “was about to be searched by our security officers –a distance away from other intelligence personnel– when he set off his explosives”, according to Panetta. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, counterintelligence, Forward Operating Base Chapman, General Intelligence Department (Jordan), Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, Humam Khalil al-Balawi, informants, Jordan, Joseph Fitsanakis, Khost, Leon Panetta, Pakistah, spycraft, suicide bombings

News you may have missed #0247

January 8, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US government lowers threshold for inclusion on no-fly lists. According to senior US State Department officials, the government has already lowered the threshold for information deemed important enough to put suspicious individuals on a watch list or no-fly list. CNN reports that suspects will now include citizens of the notorious Islamist country of Cuba….
CIA starts sharing data with climate scientists. This blog has kept an eye on the CIA’s Climate Change Center, which was established late last year. It now turns out the Agency had started monitoring climate change in 1992, under project MEDEA (Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis), but the program was shut down in 2001 by the Bush Administration. The Climate Change Center, therefore, represents the re-establishment of an earlier effort.
How the KGB tried to recruit an NBC News reporter. FBI files show that the Soviet KGB tried to recruit the late NBC News reporter Irving R. Levine, while he was stationed in Moscow in the 1950s.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, CIA, CIA Center on Climate Change, climate change, Cold War, Cuba, declassification, history, informants, Irving R. Levine, KGB, Moscow (Russia), News, news you may have missed, no-fly lists, Project MEDEA, US Department of State, USSR

News you may have missed #0246

January 8, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

No immediate firings expected over US intel failures. Should some US intelligence officials lose their jobs over the three recent security failures, i.e. the Ford Hood shooting, the Christmas Day bomber, and the Forward Operating Base Chapman suicide bombing? It doesn’t look like it.
Tajikistan sentences alleged Uzbek spy. The Tajik government has sentenced Tajik citizen Boymurod Anarov to 20 years behind bars for gathering “information about energy projects in Tajikistan” on behalf of Uzbek intelligence. Last July, the government leveled similar charges against the director of the country’s Vostokredmet uranium-reprocessing plant.
Nozette first came to FBI attention in 2002. Maryland scientist Stewart Nozette, who is accused of giving classified defense information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, was under suspicion of breaching top-secret protocols as early as 2002, according to court documents.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, Boymurod Anarov, Central Asia, CIA, espionage, FBI, Fort Hood, Forward Operating Base Chapman, Israel, Killeen (Texas), scientific intelligence, Stewart David Nozette, suicide bombings, Tajikistan, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, Uzbekistan, Vostokredmet uranium-reprocessing plant (Tajikistan)

Comment: Is CIA Lying About its Blackwater Contacts?

January 8, 2010 by intelNews 11 Comments

Blackwater logo

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
After CIA director Leon Panetta revealed last summer that private contractor Blackwater was part of a covert CIA hit squad, tasked with summary killings and assassinations of al-Qaeda operatives, the CIA vowed to sever its contacts with the trigger-happy security firm. But did it do so? It doesn’t look like it. Last November, it became known that the company, (recently renamed Xe Services) remains part of a covert CIA program in Pakistan that includes planned assassinations and kidnappings of Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects. More recently, it was revealed that two of the seven Americans who died in the December 30 bomb attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, were actually Blackwater employees subcontracted by the CIA.