News you may have missed #0053

August 3, 2009 by Leave a comment

  • [UNCONFIRMED] Saudi opposition group claims Prince Bandar under house arrest. Saad al-Faqih, head of the Saudi opposition group Islamic Reform Movement, claims that Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom’s former ambassador to the United States, and a close ally of the Bush family and former CIA leadership, is under house arrest after reportedly trying to “provoke 200 agents working for the Saudi security service to stage a coup against King Abdullah”.
  • Ukrainian diplomat expelled from Russia named. An Ukrainian source has named one of the two Ukrainian diplomats to be expelled by Russia as part of the tit-for-tat row as Igor Berezkin. The expulsions follow a similar move by Ukrainian authorities who requested that Russia’s consul general in Odessa, Alexander Grachev and a senior counselor at the Russian embassy, Vladimir Lysenko, leave Ukraine over accusations that they had been involved in work in violation of their diplomatic status (i.e. espionage).
  • Book claims Secret Service took psychic’s advice. Ronald Kessler claims in a new book that the US Secret Service changed a motorcade route for the first President George Bush based on a psychic’s vision that he would be assassinated.

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Bolivia expels second US diplomat for having CIA links

March 11, 2009 by 2 Comments

Evo Morales

Evo Morales

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Two weeks ago, Bolivian President Evo Morales said the CIA was actively conspiring to subvert his government’s energy policy. On Monday, the President announced the expulsion of a US diplomat, whom he accused of working for the CIA. The diplomat, Francisco Martinez, Second Secretary at the US Embassy in Bolivian capital La Paz, has been given 72 hours to leave the country. The Bolivian government says Martinez “was in permanent contact with opposition groups” in the country, and helped facilitate the separatist protests of September 2008. Martinez’s alleged actions were reportedly exposed by a Bolivian police officer who was recently arrested for participating in an alleged CIA-led effort to infiltrate Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), Bolivia’s nationalized oil company. The scandal led to several layoffs at YPFB and to the subsequent arrest of the company’s former Director, Santos Ramirez, on corruption charges. Read more of this post

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Romania-Ukraine spy scandal turning into full diplomatic row

March 6, 2009 by 2 Comments

Achim & Zikolov

Achim & Zikolov

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The spy scandal that erupted between Romania and Ukraine earlier this week is gradually turning into a full-scale diplomatic war, fuelled by longstanding tensions between the two countries. On March 5, Romania responded to the discovery of a Ukrainian-handled spy ring in the country by expelling Ukraine’s Military Attaché from Bucharest. On May 6, Ukraine reciprocated by expelling two Romanian diplomats, a Military Attaché stationed in Kiev and a Consular Vice-Secretary stationed in Cernauti. The two officials were accused by Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of spreading “separatist feelings in the Romanian community in Ukraine” and “secretly funding organizations that spread anti-Ukrainian ideas”. The alleged secret activities appear to relate to the 250,000-strong Romanian-speaking minority living in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine. Read more of this post

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