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News you may have missed #0191

November 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Peru-Chile spy dispute deepens. Not only was senior Peruvian Air Force officer Victor Ariza Mendoza, who was arrested in Lima last Saturday, a spy for Chile, but there were six other individuals involved in the ring, according to Peruvian authorities. Peru has even asked Interpol to get involved in the affair.
UN-Iran in secret nuclear negotiations, says paper. The London Times has alleged that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency is secretly negotiating a deal to persuade world powers to lift sanctions against Iran and allow Tehran to retain the bulk of its nuclear energy program, in return for co-operation with UN inspectors.
Analysis: The real spy war between CIA and DNI. For months, the CIA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence fought an intense and acrimonious turf battle over covert action oversight and access to White House officials. Now new details are emerging about deeper and more sensitive conflicts between the two agencies, including which agency is responsible for oversight of the CIA’s controversial and classified Predator drone program.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, assassinations, Chile, CIA, DNI, espionage, IAEA, Interpol, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, News, news you may have missed, Peru, Predator drones, secret meetings, turf wars, United Nations, United States, Victor Ariza Mendoza, Victor Ariza Mendoza spy ring

News you may have missed #0190

November 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Indicted Liberian leader continues to allege CIA complicity. Former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, who is being tried at The Hague for war crimes, said his rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, exchanged information with the CIA, and continued to do so into his presidency. Talylor has made similar allegations before, but the US media is ignoring it.
Debate on who should protect US computer networks continues. Cyber experts and intelligence officials continue to debate about whether the National Security Agency is the best-suited US agency for protecting the country’s critical computer networks from cyberattacks.
Case of Pakistani ‘spy’ arrested in India gets thicker. A Pakistani man arrested in India just as he was set to board a flight to Saudi Arabia, using a fake passport, “was a leader of some bigger ring spread across central and western Uttar Pradesh”, according to Indian officials. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has arrested two more individuals in connection with the case.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Aamir Ali, Africa, Charles Taylor, CIA, cybersecurity, cyberwar, Delhi Police, espionage, First Liberian Civil War, India, Liberia, News, news you may have missed, NPFL (Liberia), NSA, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, travel documentation, Uttar Pradesh (India)

CIA-DNI turf war enters new phase

November 18, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA may have won a lengthy turf battle against the office of the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), but the war between the two agencies continues. As intelNews reported last July, the dispute started when DNI Dennis Blair argued in a still-classified directive that his office, and not the CIA, as has been the case for over 60 years, should have a say in certain cases over the appointment of senior US intelligence representatives in foreign cities. A few days ago, when the White House finally came down in favor of the CIA, the imbroglio appeared to be ending. But now the DNI has hit back by announcing it will be evaluating all “[s]ensitive CIA operations overseas” including all of the CIA’s active paramilitary and espionage operations abroad. 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, turf wars, United States

One third of Pakistani spy budget comes from CIA, say officials

November 17, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

ISI HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
As much as one third of the annual budget of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has come from the CIA in the last eight years, according to a new report in The Los Angeles Times. The paper says that even more US dollars have been supplied to the ISI through a secret CIA monetary rewards program that pays for the arrest or assassination of militants wanted by Washington. The payments reportedly began during the early years of the George W. Bush administration, and are now continuing under the Obama administration, despite “long-standing suspicions” that the ISI and the Pakistani military maintain close links with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and elsewhere. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Bush Administration, CIA, intelligence cooperation, intelligence funding, intelligence sharing, ISI, News, North Carolina, Obama Administration, Pakistan, Taliban, United States, War on Terrorism

News you may have missed #0187

November 17, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Cambodia arrests Thai for spying on exile leader. Cambodian authorities said the man, Siwarak Chothipong, who works for the Cambodia Air Traffic Service, spied on the flight itinerary of visiting former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been living in exile since a 2006 military coup in Thailand. The Thai government has rejected the charge.
CIA’s Panetta to visit India, Pakistan. CIA director Leon Panetta will visit Pakistan and India for three days, starting on November 20. IntelNews will be keeping an eye on his visit.
Former Monaco spymaster says prince invokes immunity. More on the saga of former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer, who until recently was spymaster to prince Albert II of Monaco, and is now suing him for €360,000 ($542,000) in alleged unpaid income. Eringer’s lawyers have accused Albert of invoking head-of-state immunity, “an absolute defense used by dictators around the world to avoid accountability in US courts”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cambodia, Cambodia Air Traffic Service, CIA, espionage, head-of-state immunity, India, lawsuits, Leon Panetta, Monaco, Monaco Intelligence Service, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Robert Eringer, Siwarak Chothipong, Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, United States

Book claims CIA turned blind eye on Pakistan’s post-9/11 terror links

November 16, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

J.L. Bruguiere

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A new book by France’s former leading investigating magistrate on counterterrorism affairs alleges that the CIA allowed the Pakistani army to train members of a notorious Islamist militant group, even after 9/11. In the book, entitled Ce que je n’ai pas pu dire (The Things I Would Not Utter), Jean-Louis Bruguiere says the US spy agency was aware that Pakistani army trainers worked with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani group responsible for a series of sophisticated strikes in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The former magistrate bases his allegations on official testimony provided by Willy Brigitte, a French citizen from Guadeloupe, who was arrested in Australia in 2003, in connection with Lashkar-e-Taiba activities there. Soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan, Brigitte traveled to Pakistan aiming to join the Taliban insurgency, but was unable to cross the Pakistani-Afghan border. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 2008 Mumbai attacks, Afghanistan, Australia, CIA, France, Guadeloupe, India, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, Lahore (Pakistan), Lashkar-e-Taiba, News, Pakistan, Pakistani armed forces, Punjab (Pakistan), Taliban, terrorism, United States, War on Terrorism, Willy Brigitte

News you may have missed #0183

November 14, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Did US Rep. Hoekstra compromise a secret NSA spy program? Rep. Peter Hoekstra (MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence panel, may have inadvertently compromised a sensitive National Security Agency email collection program while commenting on allegedly intercepted emails sent and received by Fort Hood shooter Malik Nadal Hasan.
Blog requests readers’ help to examine released documents. Wired magazine’s Threat Level blog has issued a request for readers to help pore over thousands of US government documents relating to the proposed immunity for telephone companies involved in the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The documents were released following a FOIA lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
An opportunity in Cuba for CIA field agents? They’d have to pose as McDonald’s restaurant workers.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, communications interception, Cuba, Electronic Frontier Foundation, FOIA, Fort Hood, Malik Nadal Hasan, McDonald's Corporation, News, news you may have missed, NSA, Pete Hoekstra, telecommunication service providers, United States

CIA reportedly wins turf battle with DNI office

November 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Leon Panetta

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA has reportedly won a turf battle with the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), after the White House came down in support of the CIA position on Thursday. This blog has kept tabs on the dispute, which started 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 senior US intelligence representatives in foreign cities. Former CIA officials publicly denounced the directive, which would allow the appointment of non-CIA personnel to these positions for the first time in 60 years, as “simple insanity”. Since then, various actors have sided with the two antagonists, with the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence committee supporting the DNI and Vice President Joe Biden backing the CIA’s position. But the stalemate reportedly ended on Thursday, after the White House ruled that the CIA, not the DNI, should appoint senior US intelligence representatives abroad. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, CIA, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, Joe Biden, Leon Panetta, News, Obama Administration, turf wars, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Lawsuit exposes rumored CIA-NRO turf war

November 12, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

NRO logo

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
After the CIA’s ongoing turf wars with the FBI and the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DCI), a new federal lawsuit appears to substantiate rumors of another turf war, this time between the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Eric Feldman was recently removed from his position as inspector general of the super-secretive NRO, the agency that builds and operates the US government’s spy satellites, after he was found to have filed for the same travel expenses on two separate reimbursement accounts. But he now claims that his removal was part of a conspiracy by “senior officials in the CIA” to get rid of him. In his lawsuit, Feldman names former CIA inspector general John Helgerson and CIA agent Anthony Cipparone, who Feldman says “had a personal vendetta against him [because he] had passed him over for his deputy assistant position”. The former NRO inspector general claims Cipparone and Helgerson, along with other CIA officials, managed to terminate his position by illegally leaking information from the internal investigation into his reimbursement filings, in an attempt “to hurt his reputation”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Anthony Cipparone, CIA, corruption, DNI, Eric Feldman, FBI, George Tenet, John Deutch, John Helgerson, lawsuits, News, NRO, Obama Administration, satellite reconnaissance, turf wars, United States

News you may have missed #0178

November 11, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Israel uses Facebook to spy on Arab, Muslim youth, claims article. A French-based Israeli-interest magazine claims psychologists working for the Israeli government are using online social networking sites like Facebook to profile and spy on Muslim and Arab users.
Nepal paper alleges secret US-India spy meeting. Nepalese newspaper The Weekly Telegraph has alleged that the Indian embassy in Nepalese capital Kathmandu has been selected to host a meeting between agents of the CIA and members of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
UK to require record-keeping of all personal communications, despite privacy concerns. All British telecommunications companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited, despite mounting privacy concerns over the requirement.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, databases, Facebook, Indian embassy in Nepal, intelligence analysis, Israel, Nepal, News, news you may have missed, privacy, RAW, social networking, telecommunication service providers, UK

New CIA TV ads try to recruit Arab-, Iranian-Americans

November 11, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

CIA ad

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA is preparing to launch two new television commercials in an attempt to increase Arab-American and Iranian-American CIA recruits. The commercials will specifically target US cities with significant Middle Eastern populations, such as Detroit and Newark. They will be premiered at a private screening on November 18 in Dearborn, Michigan, which is often described as “the heart of Michigan’s large Middle Eastern community”. The move follows a recent public-relations visit to Michigan by CIA director Leon Panetta, aimed at improving the tense relations between the US intelligence community and Muslim groups in the state. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Arab-Americans, Arabic, CIA, Dearborn (Michigan), Detroit, Farsi, intelligence recruitment, Iranian-Americans, languages, Leon Panetta, Michigan, New Jersey, Newark (New Jersey), News, United States

CIA documents shed light on eventful 1956 Soviet visit to Britain

November 10, 2009 by intelNews 2 Comments

Hugh Gaitskell

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A batch of declassified CIA reports obtained by the BBC sheds light on the diplomatic angle of a historic and eventful Soviet high-level visit to Britain in 1956. In April of that year, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, and Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, arrived in Britain aboard Russian warship Ordzhonikidze, which docked at Portsmouth harbor. Their eight-day tour of Britain marked the first-ever official visit by Soviet leadership to a Western country. The tour ended badly, however, after a botched CIA/MI6 undersea operation, aiming to explore the then state-of-the-art Ordzhonikidze, ended in the disappearance of MI6 diver Lionel “Buster” Crabb. The body of Crabb, one of several MI6 agents involved in the operation, was never recovered. In 2007, Eduard Koltsov, a retired Russian military diver, said he killed a man he thinks was Crabb, as he was “trying to place a mine” on the Soviet ship. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Cold War, Conservative Party (UK), declassification, Eduard Koltsov, history, Hugh Gaitskell, Labour Party (UK), Lionel Crabb, MI6, News, Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Bulganin, Ordzhonikidze (ship), UK, United States, USSR

News you may have missed #0174

November 9, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

West feared German reunification in 1989, documents show. The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago caused major anxiety in not only Eastern, but also Western capitals, to the point of outright opposition to a possible German unification, according to documents published last Friday by the National Security Archive.
Convicted CIA agents also in Norway. At least two of the 22 (not 23, as the article mistakenly states) CIA agents convicted last week for the 2003 abduction from Italy of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, were also active in Norway, according to Norwegian daily Stavanger Aftenblad.
Shin Bet tried to recruit alleged Israeli terrorist. Jack Teitel, an American-born Jewish settler who was recently arrested for allegedly having murdered two Palestinians, was asked by Israel’s internal intelligence agency to inform on extremist Israeli groups after the attacks, the agency said Friday.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with abductions, Berlin Wall, CIA, Cold War, declassification, Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, German reunification, Germany, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, history, informants, Israel, Italy, Jack Teitel, lawsuits, News, news you may have missed, Norway, Palestine, Shin Bet, United States

CIA-DNI turf war over embassy posts continues

November 9, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Joe Biden

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
This blog has kept tabs on the latest US bureaucratic turf war between the CIA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). It started last May, when when DNI Dennis Blair argued in a still-classified directive that his office should have a say in certain cases over the appointment of senior US intelligence representatives in foreign cities. Former CIA officials publicly denounced the directive, which would allow the appointment of non-CIA personnel to these positions for the first time in 60 years, as “simple insanity”. The turf war appeared to be close to an end in July, when the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence came out in support of the DNI, arguing that “some locations may give rise to circumstances where th[e CIA station chief’s] responsibility is best met by an official with expertise derived from another I[ntelligence] C[ommunity] element”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, Joe Biden, Leon Panetta, News, turf wars, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Wendy Morigi

News you may have missed #0171

November 7, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Court date for US couple accused of spying for Cuba. Walter and Gwendolyn Myers, who were arrested by the FBI last summer on charges of spying for Cuba for over 30 years, have a court appearance scheduled for Thursday. Meanwhile, the judge overseeing their case is trying to decide how to make evidence available for their trial while protect US intelligence sources and methods.
CIA responds to declassification request…20 years later. The CIA has finally released a small number of documents relating to Manucher Ghorbanifar, a shady weapons trader who mediated between Washington and Tehran during the Iran-Contra scandal. The declassification comes two decades after the Agency was asked to release the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Kalmanovic was Shin Bet informant, says Ha’aretz. It is well known that Shabtai von Kalmanovic, who was gunned down in downtown Moscow on Monday, had worked for the Soviet KGB. He confessed as much and was jailed in Israel in the 1980s for spying. But Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that Kalmanovic was also “a Shin Bet [Israel’s internal security service] informant”. In a new article, the paper says Kalmanovic “was a low-level informer for the Shin Bet” before his arrest for spying for the KGB.