News you may have missed #0154 [updated]

October 26, 2009 by Leave a comment

  • Breaking news: Castro’s sister says she spied for the CIA. Juanita Castro, Fidel and Raúl Castro’s sister, says she voluntarily spied for the CIA from 1961 to 1964, when she left the island for Miami. She said she met a CIA officer called “Enrique” at a hotel in Mexico City in 1961; she was then given the codename “Donna” and codebooks so she could receive encoded instructions from Washington.
  • Was Milan Kundera a communist police informant? Documents unearthed by Czech academics allegedly show that the Czech-born author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being denouncing a Western spy to Czechoslovakia’s StB secret police during his student days.
  • Afghans complain about US spy balloon. A US spy balloon (see previous intelNews coverage) flying over the city of Kandahar in Afghanistan, is prompting privacy complaints from residents.

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News you may have missed #0144

October 15, 2009 by 1 Comment

  • Cuban Five convict’s sentence cut to 22 years. As intelNews reported on October 12, Antonio Guerrero, a member of the Cuban Five spy ring, has had his life sentence cut to 22 years, following a successful appeal. Given the time he has already served since his 1998 arrest, and benefits for good behavior, Guerrero could be released in seven years. The Cuban Five were sentenced in 2001 for spying on the US for Cuba.
  • Was British MP a Czech agent during Cold War? A recently published book on MI5’s history by Cambridge historian Dr. Christopher Andrew has reignited rumors that Labour Party parliamentarian John Stonehouse worked as an agent for the Czech StB intelligence agency in the 1960s.
  • West German spies collected East German jokes during Cold War. West German spies diligently recorded popular East German jokes about communism during the Cold War, in an attempt to gain insights into the public mood, according to recently released intelligence files.

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Analysis: EU President’s alleged ties to Russian mafia

January 25, 2009 by 4 Comments

Vaclav Klaus

Vaclav Klaus

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
On December 22, 2008, intelNews reported former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Eringer’s allegations that the current European Union (EU) president was a Soviet collaborator during the Cold War and “may still be under the influence of Russian Intelligence”. The accused is no other than Vaclav Klaus, the former Prime Minster and current President of the Czech Republic, who in 1991 co-founded the country’s conservative Civic Democratic Party. A few days ago, Business New Europe published an extensive summary of Mr. Klaus’ “historical track record of unambiguous support for Russia [which makes some] wonder exactly whose interests he best serves”. The article references a 2003 exposé published in the Czech weekly magazine Respect in further detailing Mr. Klaus’ alleged ties to Russian organized criminal activity in the Czech Republic, which “go back to the early 1990s”. Read more of this post

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Incoming European Union President under influence of Russian intelligence, claims former FBI agent

December 22, 2008 by 1 Comment

Vaclav Klaus

Vaclav Klaus

Robert Eringer, the former FBI counterintelligence agent who now works for Prince Albert II of Monaco, has written a column for The Santa Barbara News Press, alleging that the incoming European Union (EU) president was a “long-term communist collaborator who may still be under the influence of Russian Intelligence”. The accused is no other than Vaclav Klaus, the former Prime Minster and current President of the Czech Republic, who in 1991 co-founded the country’s conservative Civic Democratic Party. Eringer cites “knowledgeable sources within the intelligence community” in alleging that Klaus was recruited by “Czech counterintelligence” (sic, probably refers to Czechoslovakia’s Státní bezpečnost –State Security, or StB) in 1962 to “spy against democratic reformers”. Read more of this post

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