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News you may have missed #0114

September 23, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

US Senate Democrats seek stronger wiretap law. Led by Russ Feingold (WI) and Dick Durbin (IL), the Senate group proposes stronger safeguards and higher standards of judicial oversight for surveillance activity, including withdrawing immunity to telecom companies that participated in warrantless communications surveillance during the Bush Administration.
South Korean spy agency in trouble over expenses. The scandal-prone National Intelligence Service of South Korea is being scrutinized again for spending billions of wons in unaccounted “special activities”.
Movie script tells story of British police detective turned KGB spy. Daniel Craig and Jude Law are said to be in the running to play the lead role in a new film about the story of John Symonds, a British former police detective who worked for the KGB from 1972 until 1980. In 1981, when he approached MI5 and MI6 and offered to turn into a triple agent for the UK spy services, he was dismissed as a fantasist.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Bush Administration, Cold War, communications interception, corruption, Dick Durbin, double agents, espionage, honey traps, intelligence budget, John Symonds, KGB, MI5, MI6, National Intelligence Service (South Korea), News, news you may have missed, operation STELLAR WIND, Russ Feingold, South Korea, telecommunication service providers, Terrorist Surveillance Program (STELLAR WIND), UK, United States, USSR, warrantless communications interception

Total US intelligence budget revealed for the first time

September 18, 2009 by intelNews 3 Comments

Dennis Blair

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The US Director of National Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, has revealed the total amount of America’s military and civilian intelligence budget for the first time in history. Blair, who oversees all 16 American intelligence agencies, said the country’s intelligence program costs $75 billion annually. This number includes funds for military intelligence agencies, which have previously been classified. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Blair argued that the “old distinction between military and non-military intelligence is no longer relevant”. The DNI was referring to the traditional budgetary distinction between the Military Intelligence Program (MIP) and the National (civilian) Intelligence Program (NIP), which make up the US intelligence budget. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, News, United States, US Military Intelligence Program, US National Intelligence Program

US spy services hiding true employee numbers, says Senate panel

July 27, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Dennis Blair

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has voiced disapproval of the high numbers of contractors employed by America’s intelligence organizations, and has censured US intelligence agencies for hiding their actual personnel numbers. The criticism follows a Congressional testimony last week by Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair, who claimed that the intelligence community has come up with its own definition of inherently governmental. The term refers to government jobs that are too sensitive to be outsourced. In his presentation, Blair revealed that private contractors now constitute 25% of the entire US intelligence force in all 16 agencies of the US intelligence community, but he said this share shrunk by 3 % last year, as the intelligence agencies revised their definition of jobs that cannot be outsourced. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Dennis Cutler Blair, DNI, inherently governmental jobs, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, intelligence outsourcing, intelligence oversight, News, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

News you may have missed #0042

July 26, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Postcards containing Cold War spy messages unearthed. The postcards, containing chess moves, were posted in 1950 by an unidentified man in Frankfurt, thought to have been an undercover agent, to Graham Mitchell, who was then deputy director general of MI5. The problem is, researchers are not quite sure whether the cryptic text on the postcards is based on British or Soviet codes, because Mitchell was suspected of being a secret Soviet agent at the time.
Is NSA actively mapping social networks? There are rumors out there that NSA is monitoring social networking tools, such as Tweeter, Facebook and MySpace, in order to make links between individuals and construct elaborate data-mining-based maps of who associates with whom.
US Senate bill would disclose intelligence budget. The US Senate version of the FY2010 intelligence authorization bill would require the President to disclose the aggregate amount requested for intelligence each year. Disclosure of the budget request would enable Congress to appropriate a stand-alone intelligence budget that would no longer need to be concealed misleadingly in other non-intelligence budget accounts.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with cloud computing, Cold War, cryptology, data mining, double agents, espionage, Facebook, Frankfurt (Germany), government secrecy, Graham Mitchell, intelligence budget, intelligence funding, MI5, MySpace, News, news you may have missed, NSA, social networking, Twitter, UK, United States, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, USSR

News you may have missed #0028

July 15, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Iran could have the bomb in six months, says German intelligence. Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) alleges that if the Iranians “wanted to they could test a nuclear bomb within half a year.”
Australian PM threatens China over Rio Tinto spy case. Kevin Rudd warned China it has “economic interests at stake”, less than a week after Beijing arrested the Australian chief of the Anglo-Australian mine company’s iron ore operations in China.
12 Mexico intelligence officers mutilated and killed. The mutilated bodies of the one female and 11 male federal intelligence officer were left in a heap beside a road in rural Michoacan state. Drug gangsters launched a brutal offensive against the Mexican government last Saturday, after the capture of their senior leader, Arnaldo “La Minsa” Rueda. “We’re waiting for you,” read a taunting sign left with the bodies.
NRO releases unclassified portions of 2009 budget. The super-secretive US National Reconnaissance Office, which is in charge of US satellite spying, has released fragments of its FY2009 Congressional Budget Justification Book. Incidentally, a couple of weeks ago there were rumors circulating in Washington that NRO may be broken up into several smaller agencies.