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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

Russia jails man for passing military secrets to US Pentagon

October 16, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Iskander missile

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A Serb national was given an eight-year sentence by a Russian court earlier today, for allegedly passing classified information on Russian defense projects to an agent of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Agents with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, arrested the 61-year-old man, named Aleksandar Georgijevic, at a Moscow airport in 2007, as he was reportedly trying to leave Russia. They accused him of giving secret documents to Farid Rafi, whom the Russians claim was “working in the interests of the intelligence agency of the US defense ministry”. Georgijevic’s trial took place behind closed doors. But Russian media report that he began collecting classified information in as early as 1998, focusing primarily on the Russian military’s R-500 supersonic cruise missile, as well as the Iskander, Blokada and Khrizantema-C tactical missiles. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Aleksandar Georgijevic, Blokada missile (Russia), DIA, espionage, Farid Rafi, FSB, informants, Iskander missile (Russia), Khrizantema-C missile (Russia), military intelligence, Moscow (Russia), News, R-500 missile (Russia), Russia, Serbia, United States, US DoD, Viktor Kalyadin

CIA to deploy in record numbers in Afghanistan

September 21, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

CIA HQ

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The CIA is preparing to deploy record numbers of operatives and analysts to Afghanistan, according to US officials with access to classified documents, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Los Angeles Times. Some said that once the intelligence surge is over the CIA’s station at the US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, which coordinates CIA activity in the country, will be “among the largest in the agency’s history”, rivaling and perhaps even surpassing those in Iraq, and even in Vietnam in the late 1960s. By the end of 2001, the Agency’s presence in Afghanistan was limited to about 150 agents. This number had doubled by 2005, and current estimates place the CIA’s force in the country to about 700, a number which may double again, once the intelligence surge has reached its peak. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Afghanistan, CIA, CIA Crisis Operation Liaison Teams, CIA Kabul Station, DIA, Kabul (Afghanistan), News, NSA, United States

Analysis: Bush focus on Daily Brief skewed policy decisions

September 19, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Lieberthal

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A study by a Brookings Institution analyst says the “unprecedented” level of importance given to the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) by George W. Bush skewed his administration’s policy decisions after 9/11 and had negative consequences for the US intelligence community. The PDB arrives at the US President’s desk every morning with highly classified summaries of the latest findings from America’s intelligence community. The importance given to the PDB, whose contents are often highly speculative or unprocessed, varies with Presidents. But Kenneth Lieberthal, former National Security Council staffer in the Bill Clinton administration and senior fellow at Brookings, says the Bush cabinet overwhelmingly relied on the PDB to make policy decisions, which were often based on information that lacked substantial analysis. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Analysis, Bill Clinton, Brookings Institution, CIA, DIA, intelligence sharing, Kenneth Lieberthal, National Security Council, President's Daily Brief

News you may have missed #0077

August 23, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Army documents reveal Mexican military’s role in massacre. Newly declassified documents from the US Defense Intelligence Agency describe the Mexican Army’s role in backing paramilitary groups in Chiapas at the time of the Acteal massacre. The massacre involved the killing of 45 people attending a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic indigenous townspeople, including a number of children and pregnant women, who were members of the pacifist group Las Abejas (“The Bees”).
Tamils in the UK continue fundraising despite spy fears. Members of the Tamil community in Oxford, England, have vowed to continue fundraising despite fears that the Sri Lankan government is spying on them.
Major purge at Bulgarian intelligence agency. More key officials of Bulgaria’s State National Security Agency (DANS) have submitted their resignations after its director, Petko Sertov, was recently replaced. Sertov was allegedly axed because Bulgaria’s “American partners were said to have lost faith” in him.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with 1997 Acteal Massacre, Bulgaria, Chiapas state (Mexico), DANS (Bulgaria), DIA, espionage, Las Abejas, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Mexican Army, Mexico, News, news you may have missed, Petko Sertov, Sri Lanka, UK, United States

Document reveals US spies saw Iran behind Lockerbie bombing

August 17, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Al-Megrahi

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
A US intelligence report available to the lawyers of a Libyan former intelligence agent convicted for his role in the Lockerbie air disaster blames Iran, not Libya, for the attack. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who intelNews hears will be released from jail on compassionate grounds, had instructed his legal team to present the document in court if his release appeal failed. Al-Megrahi is one of two Libyans jailed for their alleged role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which killed 270 people. But the report, produced by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), says that the attack was “conceived, authorized and financed” by Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi-Pur (alternative spelling: Ali-Akbar Mohtashamipur), who served as the Iran’s Minister of Interior during the first years of the Islamic Revolution. Read more of this post