Soviets used civilian airliners to gather intelligence, documents show
December 31, 2012 5 Comments
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Soviet spy agencies routinely used civilian airplanes to collect aerial intelligence over Western military installations, according to newly declassified documents. The revelation is contained in British government files from 1982 that were declassified on Friday, following the expiration of the United Kingdom’s 30-year classification rule. According to Bloomberg’s Robet Hutton and Thomas Penny, who accessed the files, they include a detailed memorandum addressed to Conservative Party politician Margaret Thatcher, who was serving as Britain’s Prime Minister at the time. The memorandum, which was authored by then Secretary of State for Defence, John Nott, informed Mrs. Thatcher that the airborne behavior of airliners belonging to Aeroflot, the Soviet Union’s state-owned civilian air carrier, appeared suspicious. Secretary Nott wrote in the memo that Britain’s Royal Air Force had “established that some [Soviet] aircraft deviated from their flight-plan routes” when flying over Western military bases. He goes on to describe an “incident of particular interest”, in which an Aeroflot Ilyushin IL62 airplane descended without authorization from 35,000 feet to 10,000 feet right above the village of Boulmer. Located in Northumberland, England, Boulmer is adjacent to a Royal Air Force base, which at the time featured a newly modernized radar system. The same Aeroflot airplane behaved in similar fashion while flying over a United States Navy base in Groton, Connecticut, which at the time hosted the first US submarine equipped with Trident Ballistic Missiles. The memorandum states that the circumstances surrounding the flight patterns of Aeroflot airliners had led the Royal Air Force to assume that the Soviet airplanes “were gathering intelligence” on Western military targets. Read more of this post
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White House orders spy agencies to prioritize intelligence collection on Greenland
May 12, 2025 by Joseph Fitsanakis 8 Comments
Citing “two people familiar with the effort”, the paper said that the classified message was communicated to the leadership of the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, among other members of the intelligence community. The recipients of the order were instructed to prioritize the collection of intelligence about the politics of Greenland and Denmark to which Greenland belongs. They were also instructed to collect information about the island’s economic and social dynamics, including its inhabitants’ views on the United States.
The United States government uses collection emphasis directives as a means of aligning the use of intelligence resources with the White House’s policy priorities. According to The Wall Street Journal, the directive appears to be among the first concrete steps taken by the White House to utilize the government’s national security apparatus in support of President Trump’s often-stated desire to acquire Greenland on behalf of the United States. The island’s 57,000 residents are citizens of Denmark, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a longtime American military and political ally.
When asked to comment on this report by The Wall Street Journal, DNI Gabbard accused the newspaper of “breaking the law and undermining our nation’s security and democracy [by] leaking classified information”. She added that the newspaper “should be ashamed of aiding deep state actors who seek to undermine the President by politicizing and leaking classified information”.
Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency reported last week that White House officials have begun outlining a plan to pursue a so-called Compact of Free Association (COFA) between the United States and Greenland. The United States maintains COFA agreements with several Pacific Island nations, including Micronesia and Palau. These agreements permit the American military to operate on the soil and maritime jurisdiction of these nations. In return, the United States provides these nations with essential services, as well as security and military protection.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 12 May 2025 | Permalink
Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with collection emphasis directive, Denmark, Greenland, intelligence collection, News, Tulsi Gabbard, United States