Cold War | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0237

December 31, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Christmas Day bomb plot exposes fissures in US spy community. As intelNews regulars know, turf wars between US intelligence agencies are nothing new. But lapses that allowed Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab to board a Detroit-bound plane with a bomb on Christmas Day, and the finger-pointing that followed, have raised questions about supposedly sweeping changes made to improve intelligence-sharing after the 9/11.
Mysterious life of Soviet spy couple unveiled. Soviet agents Mikhail and Yelizaveta Mukasey were legends among illegals –i.e. international spies operating without diplomatic credentials. Now the Russian government is carefully releasing information on their activities and missions, which ranged from the US to Israel, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, Czechoslovakia, espionage, history, illegal residents, intelligence cooperation, intelligence sharing, Israel, Mikhail Mukasey, News, news you may have missed, Russia, turf wars, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, United States, USSR, Yelizaveta Mukasey

News you may have missed #0236

December 30, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Airline bomb plotter’s father warned CIA about his son. Dr. Umaru AbdulMutallab, the father of Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect, visited the US embassy in Nigeria in November, where he told a CIA agent that he believed his son was under the influence of religious extremists and had traveled from London, England, to Yemen.
New book details Stasi spying on Günter Grass. A new book, entitled Guenter Grass im Visier: Die Stasi-Akte (Günter Grass in the Crosshairs: The Stasi Files), is to be published in March in Germany. Among other things, it will detail spying operations against the Nobel Prize-winning author by the East German secret police, the Stasi.
Former Albanian spymaster claiming benefits in Britain. Ilir Kumbaro, Albania’s former spymaster, is wanted by authorities for having kidnapped and tortured three men in his homeland. But after falling out with officials there, he fled to Britain in 1996, where he has lived for 13 years using the alias Shaqa Shatri.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, Albania, book news and reviews, CIA, Cold War, Günter Grass, German Democratic Republic, Ilir Kumbaro, literature, News, news you may have missed, Nigeria, Shaqa Shatri, Stasi (GDR), terrorism, UK, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, Umaru AbdulMutallab, United States, Yemen

News you may have missed #0232

December 25, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Ahmadinejad says US fabricated nuclear documents. The Iranian President dismisses this document on Iran’s alleged nuclear intentions as “fabricated and distributed by the US”.
US to recognize Honduran elections despite low turnout. The Honduras Supreme Electoral Tribunal says that less than 50% of voters participated in the country’s November 29 election, which was boycotted by ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. But the United States has said it will recognize the new government regardless of the low turnout.
Interviewing Kim Philby and drinking with the KGB. Tribune magazine’s web editor recalls how he tried to get an interview with British defector to the USSR Kim Philby, and how he nearly became a source for the KGB, in the process.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, coup plots, defectors, forgery, H.A.R. "Kim" Philby, history, Honduras, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, KGB, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Manuel Zelaya, News, news you may have missed, United States, USSR

News you may have missed #0224

December 17, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Parts 6 and 7 of CIA defector’s writings now available. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer has published the sixth and seventh installments (chapters 2 and 3 of “The Spy’s Cookbook”) of the writings of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who defected to the USSR in 1985 (see here for previous intelNews coverage). In part six, Howard writes about the methodology of visiting (among other places) the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, DC. In part seven, he advises that the only time a double agent’s handlers should call the agent’s home is to tell him or her to “get out and leave the country!”.
Congressional vote on US PATRIOT Act delayed. The US House of Representatives tabled on Wednesday legislation to reform US domestic surveillance law. The Senate is likewise expected to delay the matter. The delays will automatically extend provisions of the PATRIOT Act that would otherwise expire at year’s end.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, defectors, domestic intelligence, Edward Lee Howard, history, intelligence legislation, Interests Section of the Republic of Cuba in Washington DC, News, news you may have missed, Robert Eringer, United States, US Congress, US House of Representatives, US Senate, USA PATRIOT Act, USSR

A veteran British envoy on diplomacy, sex and espionage

December 17, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Christopher Meyer

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
British newspaper The Daily Mail has published a well-written and entertaining essay by a longtime UK government envoy, explaining the close links between diplomacy, sex and espionage. Sir Christopher Meyer, a career diplomat with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, served in several countries during his career, including the Soviet Union and Spain, as well as in Germany and the United States, where he was ambassador from 1997 to 2003. He argues in his article that “sex and diplomacy have long been bedfellows”, and recounts some of his personal experiences in the former USSR, where he began his 35-year diplomatic career in 1968, as “an innocent, unmarried 24-year- old”. He arrived in Moscow along with Sir Duncan Wilson, Britain’s ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1971. Sir Christopher is bold enough to recount that Sir Duncan’s predecessor, Sir Geoffrey Harrison (ambassador from 1965 to 1968), “had to leave [Moscow] in a hurry, having fallen for the charms of his Russian maid –trained and targeted, of course, by the KGB”. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, British embassy in the US, British embassy in the USSR, Cold War, diplomacy, eavesdropping, Germany, Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service (UK), history, honey traps, KGB, NATO, Sir Christopher Meyer, Sir Duncan Wilson, Sir Geoffrey Harrison, Spain, UK, United States, USSR

News you may have missed #0221

December 15, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Part 5 of CIA defector’s writings now available. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer has published the fifth installment of the writings of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who defected to the USSR in 1985 (see here for previous intelNews coverage). In this part, Howard explains why Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), was a “good town for covert operations” and the KGB’s “favorite pad for launching agents into Western Europe”.
African Union investigates officials of spying. Two officials from the African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) and the United Nations Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA) are reportedly under investigation for passing on sensitive information on AMISOM and Somalia to the US Defense Intelligence Agency and the South African Secret Service.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Africa, African Union, African Union Mission for Somalia, AMISOM, Bratislava (Slovakia), Cold War, Czechoslovakia, defectors, DIA, Edward Lee Howard, espionage, history, KGB, News, news you may have missed, Robert Eringer, Slovakia, Somalia, South African Secret Service, United Nations, United Nations Support Office for AMISOM, United States, UNSOA, USSR

News you may have missed #0219

December 14, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Kennedy considered supporting 1963 coup in S. Vietnam, documents show. New audio recordings and documentation unearthed by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, show that US President John F. Kennedy supported a military coup against the US-backed South Vietnamese regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, even though he recognized the planned coup had no chance of a political success. See previous intelNews coverage for more Vietnam War-related declassified items.
Speak Farsi? Israel’s Shin Bet is interested. Israel’s Shin Bet internal intelligence agency is advertising jobs for speakers of the Iranian language Farsi. Israeli intelligence agencies appear to have similar problems with those faced by their US counterparts.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Cold War, coup plots, declassification, Farsi, history, intelligence recruitment, Iran, Israel, John F. Kennedy, languages, News, news you may have missed, Ngo Dinh Diem, Shin Bet, Vietnam, Vietnam War

News you may have missed #0218

December 13, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Pentagon joins CIA drone war in Pakistan (yes, we know). Wired magazine’s Noah Shachtman (Danger Room blog) reports that the US military is gradually joining the CIA’s unmanned drone war in Pakistan –but this is old news, Noah.
Part 4 of CIA defector’s writings now available. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer has published the fourth installment of the writings of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who defected to the USSR in 1985 (see here for previous intelNews coverage). In this part, he advises the reader to “never wear a disguise past police or immigration unless it is a dire emergency”.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Cold War, defectors, Edward Lee Howard, history, KGB, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, Predator drones, United States, US DoD, USSR

News you may have missed #0214

December 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Cuban Five member’s prison term cut to 30 years. A Miami court has reduced the earlier prison sentence of yet another member of the Cuban Five. Ramon Labanino has had his original sentence of life imprisonment cut to 30 years. The Cuban Five were sentenced in 2001 for spying on US soil for Cuba.
Part 3 of CIA defector’s writings now available. Former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer has published the third installment of the writings of Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who defected to the USSR in 1985 (see here for previous intelNews coverage). Did you know that “KGB officers always preferred Malév (Hungary’s national airline) whenever they crossed to [Western] Europe”?

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Cuban Five, defectors, Edward Lee Howard, espionage, history, Hungary, KGB, lawsuits, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Miami (Florida), News, news you may have missed, Robert Eringer, United States, USSR

EU foreign minister’s husband shunned KGB approaches in 1980s

December 8, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Peter Kellner

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The husband of the recently appointed European Union minister for foreign affairs has acknowledged that the KGB tried to cultivate a relationship with him in the 1980s. Peter Kellner, who now presides over influential British polling company YouGov, is married to Baroness Ashton of Upholland (born Catherine Margaret Ashton), who assumed the prominent EU post on November 19. Intelligence documents show that British domestic intelligence agency MI5 had tagged Kellner and his wife as “communist sympathizers”, because of their anti-apartheid activism and long-term involvement with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, considered a “subversive” movement within the intelligence services. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1984 Labour Party National Conference (UK), Alexander Lebedev, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, Blackpool (UK), Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Catherine Margaret Ashton, Cold War, defectors, diplomatic expulsions, domestic intelligence, double agents, EU, history, KGB, Labour Party (UK), MI5, MI6, National Reserve Bank (Russia), News, Oleg Gordievsky, Peter Kellner, political activism, Russia, The New Statesman and Society, UK, USSR, YouGov, Yuri Kudinov

Writings by CIA defector Edward Lee Howard published

December 7, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

E.L. Howard

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
An extensive article on spy tradecraft, written by CIA case officer Edward Lee Howard, after he defected to the Soviet Union in 1985, has been published for the first time. Howard, the only intelligence agent known to have been trained by both the CIA and the Soviet KGB, joined the CIA in 1980, but began collaborating with the KGB in 1983, after the CIA fired him for repeatedly failing to pass a polygraph test. After he was exposed by Vitaly Yurchenko, a KGB officer who allegedly defected to the US in Rome, Italy, Howard employed his CIA training to evade FBI counterintelligence agents and escape to Russia, where he lived until his death in 2002. In the early 1990s, the FBI tried to lure Howard to capture, using, among others, Bureau counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer. Eringer befriended Howard and, as part of the luring operation, commissioned the former CIA agent to write a book entitled Spy’s Guide to Central Europe. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with CIA, Cold War, counterintelligence, defectors, Edward Lee Howard, FBI, history, KGB, Moscow (Russia), News, polygraph examinations, Robert Eringer, Rome (Italy), Spy's Guide to Central Europe, spycraft, United States, US embassy in Italy, USSR, Vitaly Yurchenko

News you may have missed #0206

December 5, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

UK sets up counter-hacking unit. Britain’s Office of Cyber Security has formed Computer Emergency Response Teams to deal with “more than 300 cyber attacks a year”. It will operate out of the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Australia may be moving in the same direction.
Czech artist denies having spied on US diplomats. Joska Skalnik a famous Czech artist and anti-communist dissident, has denied allegations he spied on US diplomats in Prague on behalf of StB, the country’s communist secret service during the Cold War.
Ex-Shin Bet chief hints Israel won’t strike Iran without US consent. Avi Dichter, former head of Israel’s domestic spy service, the Shin Bet, told an Australian audience that it is “up to the US to take the lead in international efforts to confront Iran on the nuclear issue. This should be a role for superpowers and Israel is not a superpower”, he said.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Australia, Avi Dichter, Cold War, cyberespionage, cybersecurity, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, GCHQ, Iran, Israel, Joska Skalnik, News, news you may have missed, Office of Cyber Security (UK), Office of Cyber Security Computer Emergency Response Teams (UK), Shin Bet, StB (Czechoslovakia), UK, United States, US embassy in Czechoslovakia

Iraqi agents planned to bomb US radio station, claim Czech spies

December 3, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

RFE old Prague HQ

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Czech counterintelligence officials have alleged that Iraqi agents planned in 2000 to attack the Prague headquarters of US government-funded radio station broadcasting to Iraq, among other countries. Intelligence observers may remember that, in April of 2001, the Czech government expelled Iraqi diplomat Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani Ibrahi, who was caught photographing the headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). RFE/RL is a radio station established by the US government during the Cold War, to broadcast anti-communist messages to Eastern Europe. It began broadcasting to Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries in 1998. Now Jan Subert, a representative of the Czech Security Information Service (BIS), has alleged that Ibrahi’s expulsion was connected to a secret plan by Iraqi agents to silence RFE/RL’s Iraqi program by attacking the station with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and machine guns, from an apartment building across the street from RFE/RL’s downtown Prague headquarters. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani Ibrahi, Cold War, Czech Republic, Czech Security Information Service (BIS), diplomatic expulsions, Eastern Europe, Iraq, Iraqi embassy in the Czech Republic, Jan Subert, News, propaganda, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, RFE/RL, United States

Analysis: The role of spies in Latin America

December 1, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Latin America

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
These days it’s a full-time job keeping up with intelligence news coming out of Latin America. In recent weeks alone, there were major spy scandals involving the busting of an alleged Colombian espionage ring in Venezuela, the acknowledgment by Bogotá that it spied on Ecuador, and the ongoing high-level intelligence scandal that some say may cause recalls of diplomats between Chile and Peru. So what is going on in Latin America? How widespread is espionage in the continent and is it on the rise? The BBC’s Juan Paullier has consulted several regional and international experts for his well-written analysis on the subject. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cold War, Colombia, domestic intelligence, Ecuador, espionage, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela

News you may have missed #0199

November 30, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Author insists Sir Hollis was Soviet agent. Last month, Professor Christopher Andrew, author of the recently published In Defense of the Realm, an authorized history of MI5, dismissed allegations that Sir Roger Hollis, former head of MI5, had been a KGB agent. But intelligence author Chapman Pincher insists that “Hollis ha[d] been so deeply suspected of being a Soviet spy […] that he had been recalled from retirement for interrogation” in London.
ACLU supports lawsuit against FBI by alleged informant. The American Civil Liberties Union has joined Craig Monteilh, who says he was an undercover FBI informant, in a lawsuit demanding sealed court records identifying him as a spy be made public.