EU official confirms Brussels espionage warnings

March 16, 2009 by Leave a comment

Dale Kidd

Dale Kidd

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
Last February, intelNews reported on a leaked internal European Union (EU) memorandum warning EU officials that “the threat of espionage is increasing day by day” and that  an increasing number of “countries […] lobbyists, journalists [and] private agencies […] are continuing to seek sensitive and classified information” in Brussels. The memo appeared to echo concerns by Alain Winants, Director of Belgium’s State Security Service (SV/SE), who in late January 2009 requested expanded investigative powers to combat the increasing presence of foreign spies in the country, including “dozens” of spies who operate in Brussels under journalistic cover. After pressure, EU officials hesitantly confirmed the existence of the internal memorandum. Now a new article in Wave magazine adds yet another confirmation from an EU insider. It quotes European Commission press officer Dale Kidd, who says that the European Commission has in fact “sent [out a] note in which it warns […] of increased risk of espionage”. Read more of this post

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Journalist reveals names of 300 Iranian spies in Bosnia

March 8, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A Croatian journalist has revealed a secret document containing the names of 300 Iranian intelligence operatives who operated in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2004 until 2007. Domagoj Margetić, one of Croatia’s most uncompromising investigative reporters, has published on his website a .pdf document thath lists the names of several hundred Iranian agents who received official authorization from the embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tehran to enter the Balkan country. According to Margetić, numerous Iranian academics, as well as random Iranian government employees, are included in the intelligence operatives’ list, which implies they carried out intelligence missions in Bosnia while traveling under academic or diplomatic cover. Insiders have noted that the long list is indicative of the intensification of Iran’s intelligence activities in the Balkans and southern Europe in recent years, which they attribute to the “reorganization of Iranian intelligence infrastructure in the Balkans”. The disclosed document of Iranian intelligence operatives is available in .pdf format here, with a mirrored link here.

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Taiwan charges two senior aides with spying for China

March 7, 2009 by 2 Comments

Chen Shui-bian

Chen Shui-bian

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Two senior Taiwanese government aides arrested last January have been formally charged with violating Taiwan’s national security law by providing Chinese officials with classified information. Wang Ren-bing, a former senior advisor at the Office of the President, and Chen Pin-jen, a legislative aide at the Taiwanese Parliament, were arrested two months ago, when Taiwanese counterintelligence officials conducted early-morning raids at the two aides’ homes and offices. The authorities, who found over one hundred copies of restricted and classified government documents in Wang’s office, allege that Wang routinely gave documents to Chen, who then handed them over to a Chinese government agent, identified as Tan Gang, during frequent trips to China, or via encrypted facsimile dispatches. 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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Update: Bulgarian spy reportedly a double agent

March 5, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The latest news from Bulgaria is that a Bulgarian former military attaché arrested in the recent Romanian spy scandal was in fact a double agent who was covertly working for the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI). On February 28, Romanian counterintelligence agents arrested Petar Marinov Zikolov (or Zikulov) along with Romanian noncommissioned officer Floricel Achim, on charges of supplying classified military information to Ukrainian embassy officials. Zikolov, who was Bulgaria’s military attaché in Romania from 1998 to 2000, is said to have acted as an intermediary between Achim and the Ukrainians. But fresh reports from Bucharest suggest that the Bulgarian former diplomat was apprehended by Romanian counterintelligence agents in 2008 and agreed to surrender information about “everything he had been doing in Romania” as well as detailed lists with names of “collaborators from foreign states”. Read more of this post

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Romania uncovers spy ring involving Bulgaria, Ukraine

March 5, 2009 by Leave a comment

Achim & Zikolov

Achim & Zikolov

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Last week, Romania’s President, Traian Băsescunt, surprised observers by abruptly and without explanation cancelling a scheduled high-level visit to Ukraine. The reason for the cancellation has now become apparent, with the announcement by the Romanian authorities of a Ukrainian-handled spy ring in Romania’s capital Bucharest. Specifically, on February 28, agents of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) arrested Floricel (or Florichel) Achim and Petar Marinov Zikolov (or Zikulov) for allegedly handing classified information to Ukrainian embassy officials. Achim is a noncommissioned officer in the Romanian military, whereas Zikolov is Bulgaria’s former military attaché to Romania. Romanian prosecutors, who have charged the arrestees with espionage and treason, claim that the two were handled by Ukrainian intelligence agents from 2002 to 2007. Read more of this post

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NATO spy convicted by Estonian court

February 27, 2009 by 1 Comment

Herman Simm

Herman Simm

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Herman Simm, the Estonian spy who handed classified NATO material to Russia, has been convicted to 12.5 years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $1.6 million for damages he caused while spying for the Russians. Simm, a high-level official at the Estonian defense ministry, who once headed the country’s National Security Authority, was arrested last November along with his wife and charged with spying for Russia for over 10 years. At the time of his arrest, Simm’s spying activities were described by Western counterintelligence officials as perhaps “the most serious case of espionage against NATO since the end of the Cold War”. Read more of this post

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Vienna is world’s largest espionage hub, say experts

February 27, 2009 by Leave a comment

Vienna

Vienna

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
A few months ago, a federal office under Austria’s Interior Ministry published a report on foreign intelligence activity in the country, in which it predicted that “Austria will remain an operational area for foreign intelligence agencies […], which will account for a consistently high number of intelligence agents”. An article in German newspaper Die Welt explains that not only does post-Cold-War Vienna continue to be “a spy hub between East and West”, but the Austrian capital now has “the highest density of [foreign intelligence] agents in the world”. Read more of this post

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Lebanese-Israeli spy war is intensifying

February 26, 2009 by Leave a comment

Mughniyah

Mughniyah

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
On February 19, intelNews reported on the arrest in Nabatiyeh of Kamal Faqih, a Lebanese citizen who was allegedly recruited by Israeli intelligence while living in France in the mid-1990s. Faqih, who was initially arrested by Hezbollah, the Shia Islamic political and paramilitary organization that controls large parts of Lebanon, was subsequently surrendered to the Lebanese authorities. However, late last week, Lebanese newspapers revealed that, several days before Faqih’s arrest, another Lebanese man suspected of espionage was detained in Beirut. That was Yussef Sader, a Middle East Airlines employee, who witnesses say was kidnapped in the morning of February 14, while on his way to Beirut’s Rafiq Hariri International Airport. Read more of this post

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Tajikistan charges Kyrgyz army officer with espionage

February 21, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
An officer of Kyrgyzstan’s Special Forces who was arrested in neighboring Tajikistan last August has appeared in court in Tajik capital Dushanbe, charged with espionage. The Kyrgyz officer, Muhammadin Salimzoda, who is an ethnic Tajik, was allegedly in Tajikistan to attend his daughter’s wedding, when he was arrested by Committee of National Security (CNS) agents. He then essentially disappeared until last January, when the Tajik authorities finally confirmed his arrest and imprisonment. Salimzoda has now appeared in court, charged with spying for Kyrgyzstan and attempting to incite insurrection against the government of Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan’s premier intelligence service, which is also called Committee for National Security (CNS), has rejected Tajikistan’s espionage allegations and claims that Salimzoda is not an officer in the Kyrgyz Special Forces. The Tajik government has refused to comment on the case. Kyrgyz-Tajik relations have been especially tense ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the two countries’ intelligence agencies have frequently been at loggerheads with each other since then.

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Lebanese officials claim arrest of Israeli spy

February 19, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN| intelNews.org |
Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star quotes unnamed official sources who report the arrest of an alleged Israeli spy in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh. The arrestee has been identified as Kamal Faqih, a Lebaneze citizen who lived for several years in France before returning to Lebanon to work in the oil retail industry. Lebanese security sources claim Faqih was recruited either by Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, or by Mossad, fifteen years ago while living in France. It is thought that Hezbollah, the Shia Islamic political and paramilitary organization that controls large parts of Lebanon, was initially alerted to Faqih’s “suspicious behavior” during the July 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. Read more of this post

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EU officials warned of increasing espionage

February 12, 2009 by Leave a comment

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
British newspaper The Daily Telegraph has leaked an internal European Union (EU) memorandum, warning EU officials that “the threat of espionage is increasing day by day”. The memorandum, authored last December by the European Commission’s Director of Security, Stephen Hutchins, notes that an increasing number of “countries […] lobbyists, journalists [and] private agencies […] are continuing to seek sensitive and classified information” in Brussels. Commenting on the confidential memorandum, a European Commission spokesperson hinted that many of these entities use presentable female interns as agents, who often employ sexual attraction as a means of extracting classified information from EU officials. Several hundred interns descend on the Berlaymont –EU’s headquarters in Brussels– every year, most of whom are under the age of 25. Read more of this post

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Belgian intelligence concerned about increasing spy presence

February 3, 2009 by Leave a comment

Alain Winants

Alain Winants

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
Despite Belgium’s strategic location and central role in the Cold War, the Belgian secret services have historically had a very limited presence in the country. Their postwar function has been primarily one of information analysis, and it was not until 2006 that they were given powers to intercept communications, conduct authorized breaking-and-entry operations, or detain and question suspects. This situation is changing, however, as the Belgian Federal Parliament prepares to consider a bill on “special intelligence methods” that will further expand the powers of Belgian intelligence services. Last week, Alain Winants, Director of Belgium’s State Security Service (SV/SE) said his agents required expanded investigative powers to combat the increasing presence of foreign spies in the country. Read more of this post

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Analysis: Behind the Recent CIA Espionage Indictments

January 31, 2009 by Leave a comment

Harold Nicholson

H.J. Nicholson

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In 1997, when Harold James Nicholson was convicted for working for Russian intelligence, he became the highest-ranking CIA officer to be convicted of spying on behalf of a foreign agency. Last Thursday, it emerged that 24-year-old Nathaniel James Nicholson, Harold Nicholson’s youngest son, was arrested by FBI counterintelligence officers and charged with repeatedly contacting Russian officials on behalf of his imprisoned father. According to the court documents (.pdf) released Thursday, the purpose of Nathaniel Nicholson’s contact with the Russians was “to collect moneys from the Russian Federation for his [father’s] past espionage activities”. In reporting on the Nicholsons’ case, The New York Times quoted an anonymous “intelligence official” who played down Harold Nicholson’s importance for the Russians and suggested that “[t]his just shows that the Russians are either sentimental or stupid”. In fact, the Russians are neither, and The New York Times‘ sources should know better than to downplay Nicholson’s continued contact with his Russian handlers. Read article→

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Analysis: Why Did Bush Not Pardon Israeli Spy?

January 26, 2009 by Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In his latest article for The Santa Barbara News Press, Robert Eringer, the former FBI counterintelligence agent who now works for Prince Albert II of Monaco, reminds intelligence observers of the case of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard. Pollard, who has so far served 24 years of a life sentence, was found guilty in 1987 of spying on the US on behalf of Israel, while working as a US Navy intelligence analyst. Since his arrest and conviction, Pollard has been considered something of a national hero in Israel, and an enormous effort has been launched to secure his release. Israeli newspapers, whose articles routinely liken Pollard to Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006,  disclosed earlier this month that a “massive campaign was conducted behind the scenes in Washington to persuade US president George W. Bush to commute Pollard’s sentence”. The effort, which included “tens of thousands of phone calls” that “flooded the White House”, was so enormous that several Israeli insiders considered Pollard’s release almost certain. Pollard remained imprisoned after all, and the question is, why did George W. Bush not succumb to these lobbying pressures? Read article →

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